April 2006
It must be that time again to berate you with more observations from across the Atlantic puddle. Instead of completing some unfinished projects and proposals that call to me right now from my desktop, why not distribute an open letter on Islam? It is a dicey subject these days. As you all know, in February, the Islamic world erupted in seething anger as belligerent protesters pushed their brethren, already teetering near the edge, towards a global conflagration of religious violence and jihad.
Or did it?
Here, on the western tip of the Arab world, I became far more agitated and nervous checking the news online or watching the BBC than I ever did walking by mosques, through city squares, down dark alleyways in the ancient neighborhoods of imperial cities, or past gaggles of idle and testosterone-inflamed twenty-something guys. The reports remind me of the massive World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, where several days of open political discourse and peaceful demonstration were sidestepped to cover the real news – a few rabid packs of nihilist punks going on a rampage in the city center.
So, how many people did gather in small towns and cities for civil displays of discontent, without burning down an embassy or two? Why were they offended so? And what are these beliefs which they proclaimed, ad nauseam, Westerners fail to understand? I am certainly not a theology scholar nor do I aspire to be one. But in the past year a half, I’ve enjoyed travels and living in Egypt and Morocco, read several books and countless articles on the subject – written by both Muslims and non-Muslims – talked to numerous friends and colleagues about it, and witnessed its daily manifestations. Granted, I have never stepped foot into the real heart of the Muslim world – the Arabian Peninsula and many of the places that I have whisked through may be correctly referred to as Islam-lite. Moreover, the area where I live and have the most contact with people has an overwhelmingly Berber population. Many of my young, educated peers explain to me that traditional beliefs, like land and language, were stolen from the Berbers, replaced by Islam and Arab culture. Due to their inaccessibility and contempt for Arab society, mountainous regions tend to be even less religious than low-land communities. With that disclaimer, I will try to be clear below on what I have learned from labyrinthine alleyways of Fes and what I learned from my armchair. In any case, here are some thoughts.
Islam is followed or identified with by 1.3 billion people. It is the world’s second largest religion and its fastest growing faith. Despite its common association with the Arab world, only one fifth of its followers actually live there. There are also generous populations in central Asia (Iran and most of the countries that rhyme with it), southern and southeastern Asia, and western and central Africa. Islam (and all proper religious terms for that matter) comes from the classical Arabic language; it can be approximated by the word “submission”, which sets the stage quite properly.
In some of its manifestations it can be an austere and demanding practice, but despite the rules concerning daily conduct, I am often struck by the relationship between the Muslim and God. The Qu’ran is riddled with references to the apocalypse and hell fires that await the non-believers. Devout Muslims pray at least five times a day, but it is a submissive practice, indeed. There is no conversation with God, simply a well-memorized recitation and prostrating oneself, facing the city of Mecca. Moreover, to be a true Muslim is to put complete faith and trust in God to make anything happen. Hence the well-worn expression Insha’ Allah, which means “If God wills it”. One can hardly even exchange pleasantries in the street without it being uttered and submitting your fate to the will of God:
Said: “Hey, Mohamed, where are you going?”
Mohamed: “If God wills it, I am going to the café across the street and ordering tea.”
Said: “If God wills it! Go in peace!”
The expression is so ingrained that many Muslims, speaking any number of languages, will still say it in the original Arabic. Of course, much of it is force of habit, but you get the point. To be a follower in the Muslim world is to submit to God’s desire. Despite the fatalism, it has managed to produce some very orderly and powerful societies in the past 1300 years, advancing its people well beyond their meager origins.
It arose in seventh-century A.D. Arabia, a lawless and pagan land surrounded by a bloody political and social change elsewhere, not the least of which are the conquests of the Persians in Syria, Jerusalem, and Egypt, and Europe’s decline into the Medieval Period. It was in the year 610 that Mohamed Hashem (his lineage, the Hashemites, include the Jordanian and Moroccan royal family), a 40-year old illiterate but savvy businessman from Mecca, was confronted by the angel Gabriel and told to “Recite in the name of your Lord!” And recite he did. The entire Qu’ran (Arabic for “recitation”) is a posthumous collection of the speeches that he made during his 20-year career, collected by his followers.
Revelations of God’s words are said to have been written in 104 books, 100 of which have been lost. The remaining four, the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospels and Qu’ran, reveal the words of Moses, David, Jesus and Mohamed, respectively. Much of the Qu’ran incorporates and builds upon Judaic and Christian stories and the moral code detailed by the Qu’ran closely resembles that of Judaism. Mohamed’s illiteracy actually makes part of his claim to authenticity as God’s final Prophet: How else could an illiterate Arab be cognizant of passages from Hebrew holy books? Certain aspects are unique to Islam, however. The most important of these are the Five Pillars of Islam: profession of faith, praying five times a day, giving alms to the poor, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and making the pilgrimage to Mecca.
As Mohamed became more powerful and influential, the relationship with Judaism soured considerably. Recruited by a group of Arabs and Jews to unite the people and resolve disputes in the city of Medina, he soon demanded recognition as both religious and secular authority by Jews and Gentiles alike. Rejection spawned mockery, which spawned bitterness and power struggle and the honeymoon ended very quickly. Consequently, Mohamed changed the day of prayer from the Jewish Shabbas (Saturday) to Friday, he began instructing followers to pray towards Mecca rather than Jerusalem (though it still remains the third most important city in Islam), and incendiary language towards the Jews starts to show up in the Qu’ran. One finds passages such as, “Those to whom the burden of the Torah was entrusted and yet refused to bear it are like a donkey laden with books.” Implicit in this statement is his reverence for the Torah and his contempt for the non-believing Jews. But to an anti-Israeli imam conducting his Friday sermon, you can imagine the power of such statements taken out of context. I mention this as some historical perspective on the tremendous emphasis on Jewish-Muslim relations, both past and present. I am in absolutely no position to dissect the source or solution to their inter-religious conflict. Nonetheless, I find it interesting to see that the animosity is not solely the byproduct of twentieth-century politics and Zionism.
By the time Mohamed died, he led several armed battles against the Quraish tribe who controlled Mecca, had 10 wives (most of them were the widows of fallen soldiers), and was the spiritual and temporal leader of several Arabian cities. In his death, however, he left a power vacuum that divides the Muslim community to this day. The only child that outlived him was his daughter, Fatima. Though she plays a strong role in Muslim custom and identity, (somewhat analogous to the Virgin Mary) there was no chance that a female in Arab society would become the heir to his struggle. Naturally, his followers vied for the role of successor, or Caliph.
Open any newspaper in the world that covers international events and you will find the words, Sunni and Shiite. This division is just about as old as the religion itself. It started in 661, when Ali, Mohamed’s cousin and Fatima’s husband, was assassinated after serving as Caliph for only six years. His second son, Hussein, martyred himself in a stymied attempt at reclaiming the Caliphate at the Karbala in Iraq 19 years later. Hussein’s passionate fight, though, won him thousands of followers, giving rise to the schism between mainstream Muslims and followers of Shiat Ali, or partisans of Ali. Though Sunnis comprise almost 90% of the global Muslim population, Shiism is the official religion of Iran, and makes up approximately one-half of the Iraqi population. No big mystery why the American government is wary of a Shiite (read: Iran-leaning) takeover of the Iraqi political establishment.
As I implied above, Islam is a religion inextricably connected with the Arabic language. The majority of Muslims, despite their native tongue, will learn the fundamentals of Arabic to conduct their quotidian prayers in the original sacrosanct words. Unlike the Bible, which was composed over the ages in various languages, the Qu’ran is an exclusively Arabic text. The focus on the Arabic language (and its speakers too: e.g. the full name of the country of Egypt is The Arab Republic of Egypt – you can only imagine the international outcry if we changed our name to the United States of White America) is arguably overemphasized, certainly in the past and still to an extent in the modern day. The revelations to Mohamed by the angel Gabriel were made, needless to say, in his native tongue and it is written that “We have revealed the Qu’ran in the Arabic tongue that you may grasp its meaning”. Muslim purists will contend that recitations of prayers in any other language are sacrilegious and strongly resist translation into any other tongues. But Mohamed certainly could never have dreamed that his speeches would be disseminated to the far corners of the Earth, such that the two countries with the largest Muslim populations, Indonesia and India, are not Arab peoples. In its fastidious observance of the Arabic language, Islam encounters a few pitfalls of misinterpretation in a globalized world. It vexes many Muslims that western media (and some of my English-speaking Moroccan friends) insist on referring to the Islamic Allah, as if they worshipped a separate deity altogether. This term is simply an Arabic term for God and deviates no further from Western monotheism than Spaniards who go to the cathedral and pray to Dios. The word, nonetheless, carries considerable weight and is incorporated in hundreds of expressions in daily conversation. The other day I walked by a funeral and heard a droning song emanating from every door and window. The lyrics from what I could tell were, “Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah…” sung again and again and again till the cows come home. If there is any equivalent in other religions, I would like to hear about it.
One important difference between the major faiths is the religion’s stance on protecting the faithful. Whereas Jesus instructed his followers to turn the other cheek to their enemies and the Buddha advocated pacifism, Islam condones defending oneself and the faith. Mohamed himself lead an army of 10,000 men in the name of God. When living in Medina, he would make rallying calls such as, “The believers who stay at home – apart from those that suffer from a grave impediment – are not equal to those who fight for the cause of God with their goods and their persons.” The Qu’ran, however, is clear that retribution is to be taken out only upon the guilty and that, “To kill an innocent man is to kill the world.” This position, of course, is a very slippery slope to walk on and this religion is no less immune to literalists – or more fittingly, out-of-context-ists – than any other. As some Christian preachers will gladly skim over sections of the Gospel that advocate relinquishing worldly possessions to dwell on the story of God unleashing his fury on the indecent inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, plenty of imams and radicals will be selective in their diatribes. Consequently, whatever people are truly fighting for – resources, territory, a reckoning of long-held grievances, or political power – there are plenty of Scriptures that may be exploited to shore up support.
Muslim identity is often the only thing that bonds such an immense and disparate population of believers. Skin color, language, diet, political structure, gender roles, history, traditional beliefs, and history have drastically different in each new corner of the world it has reached. In each region, Islam has changed them and Islam has been changed by them. Far more often is it the former case. But in the rural byways where proselytizers do not focus their efforts, a colorful mélange of practices take form. On the small Indonesian island of Lombok, a historically Hindu and Buddhist stronghold, the local mosque is not oriented to Mecca (and is too small to actually pray in), worshippers pay devotions to sacred rocks from a nearby volcano, and hold drunken festivals to celebrate the Prophet Mohamed’s birthday (April 11 and 12 this year). Their urban and conservative counterparts view these deviations as tantamount to heresy. But religion is a garment, which despite its bold colors and distinctive patterns, invariably takes the form of the body it covers. Much of this has been analyzed in the context of women’s rights, and several Muslim feminists have written treatises positing that Islam, as written, is relatively egalitarian and that the faith absorbed misogynist tendencies as it spread.
In my experience, the standard by which people identify a Muslim is the second pillar of Islam – that of praying five times daily. Among a list of small talk questions that you may be asked when meeting people is, “Do you pray?” Though it is against the law to proselytize in Morocco and several other Muslim nations, citizens are duly encouraged to convert foreigners. For those without a good sense of humor and firm beliefs, this can be a very tiring and ultimately maddening experience. In my experience, I seem to attract the unfaithful for some reason, so when people approach me with that same question it is often followed by, “Neither do I.”
Speaking of bad Muslims, if I remember correctly, Canadian courts were recently settling a dispute about whether or not to allow Muslim defendants to be judged based upon Sharia law. Ultimately, the notion was rejected. Had it been accepted, however, it certainly would have sent shockwaves through liberal (liberal, at least, until Steven Harper took office) Canadian society. Sharia, which translates to “the path leading the water (water meaning the source of life, quite literally, in a desert society)” is the legal code based upon the Qu’ran and a set of six books called the hadith. The former details some rather explicit guidelines for a virtuous life, the majority of which are adopted from Mohamed’s didactic speeches in the second half of his career. The latter, however, is a more debatable and indirect source, in which thousands of Mohamed’s sayings and actions were inscribed as dictum for the righteous. It must be remembered that Mohamed is viewed as the paragon of human behavior, which explains the deep-seated rage over the Danish cartoons. As an open-minded but devout Muslim school teacher told me, “You cannot touch my Prophet!” Devout Muslims seek to emulate the way or sunna (source of the word Sunni) of the Prophet and so to insult him is to insult every last belief that Muslims hold.
In the most conservative Muslim societies, such as Saudi Arabia, Sharia is the source of law – civil, commercial, criminal, political, etc. – and the concept of separation of church of state is abject profanity. The more moderate nations, including Morocco, are somewhat more flexible with their adaptations. In Sharia, all human acts fall into five categories: required, encouraged, permissible, discouraged, and prohibited. Examples of some behaviors and their designations would be prayer as a required act, forgiveness of debt is encouraged, polygamy is discouraged, and usury is prohibited. Those actions which fall into the “permissible” category are left to a governing body to decide whether it shall be allowed or restricted.
One topic that is often tossed around is that of smoking cigarettes. Like declaring oil/mineral rights and parking violations, there are certain behaviors that simply did not exist in the Prophet’s time and thus are left to interpretation. In practice, your average Arab male smokes like a chimney (it’s no coincidence that Camel is one of the bestselling cigarettes around) and many of my Moroccan friends seem to have justified smoking hashish to themselves and their community. It required a change of perspective when I would offer a glass of wine to an ardent pothead and have him reply, “Sorry, it is against my religion.” In any case, many Muslim scholars in several countries have expounded the need to outlaw any and all inhaled volatile chemicals, but usually to no avail. Personally, I think the response would be similar to Prohibition-era America: a fabulous disaster. And with all of the proscriptions on stimulants and depressants, it would make being Muslim about as fun as being Mormon – but without the HBO series.
One rule that still rests on the Moroccan books is the law actually requiring all Moroccans to be Muslim – hence the government estimates that 99.9% of the population is Sunni Muslim. Only a fool could truly believe that only every 1000th person he meets is the one who neither prays five times a day nor fasts during Ramadan. But, many of my fellow volunteers have met such apparent fools. It is more likely, however, that they seek to portray their land as the land of peace and piety – a veritable myth. It may be easier to do as such than to admit to the moral depravity that one sees in any country. The two Muslim countries I have spent time in, Morocco and Egypt, are fairly moderate cultures that rely heavily on tourism. As a result, there is a de jure and de facto set of double standards for nationals and foreign visitors – even long-term ex-pats. While co-ed hotel rooms, public displays of affection and transportation of alcohol bring hefty fines and/or jail sentences for Moroccans, we foreigners can commit them and get off scot-free (although the second transgression could cause considerable discomfort and ire among any witnesses)!
Not being a Muslim in a Muslim country, however, can carry grave repercussions. Take, for instance, the Afghani Abdul Rahman. He converted to Christianity 15 years and was condemned to death by a tribal council (eventually thwarted by western diplomatic pressure). Such rulings would be appalling in Western society, who adopted the concept of individual rights and liberties during the Renaissance. But that is not how many of these societies operate. In collective cultures, if one hand becomes gangrenous, it is better to cut it off than allow it to infect the rest of the body.
In practice many Muslim communities, especially small villages like my own, hardly even require a penal code. One of the supposedly proscribed behaviors, gossiping, is in such virulent practice that it helps to punish those who commit graver crimes. Even in some of the most isolated and conservative locales, there are people who drink and smoke, commit adultery and steal. But they do so with the penalty of the attendant stigma and potential ostracism. One could argue that the public jury construes a more formidable threat than God’s wrath in such insular locales.
By far, the dominant resource for much of the above information is Thomas W. Lippman’s Understanding Islam: An Introduction to the Muslim World. I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants a relatively unbiased, factual and comprehensive overview of the religion. His tone, if anything, is somewhat flattering, yet he takes a very historical interesting perspective on the life of Mohamed the person. Published in 1995, he hardly even touches terrorism, but it is possible that a later version might have. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of rhetoric on that topic at your local bookstore on that subject if you so desire. But I have generally avoided this subject in what I write to people as it has almost nothing to do with the everyday lives of Muslims. The majority condemn such acts, resenting the image that it portrays to the outside world and fearing the retribution from the ideologues that control many Western governments. Many of them, quite justifiably, fear it may be the ideologues next door that will make the next attack and that it will be their children who get caught in the cross-fire. We can argue our tongues limp about the best course to take in Palestine, Iran, Indonesia, Iraq, etc. but the relatively recent integration of the Western and Muslim world is not going to be without considerable struggle, but understanding each other is one of the necessary steps in getting there.
Or did it?
Here, on the western tip of the Arab world, I became far more agitated and nervous checking the news online or watching the BBC than I ever did walking by mosques, through city squares, down dark alleyways in the ancient neighborhoods of imperial cities, or past gaggles of idle and testosterone-inflamed twenty-something guys. The reports remind me of the massive World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, where several days of open political discourse and peaceful demonstration were sidestepped to cover the real news – a few rabid packs of nihilist punks going on a rampage in the city center.
So, how many people did gather in small towns and cities for civil displays of discontent, without burning down an embassy or two? Why were they offended so? And what are these beliefs which they proclaimed, ad nauseam, Westerners fail to understand? I am certainly not a theology scholar nor do I aspire to be one. But in the past year a half, I’ve enjoyed travels and living in Egypt and Morocco, read several books and countless articles on the subject – written by both Muslims and non-Muslims – talked to numerous friends and colleagues about it, and witnessed its daily manifestations. Granted, I have never stepped foot into the real heart of the Muslim world – the Arabian Peninsula and many of the places that I have whisked through may be correctly referred to as Islam-lite. Moreover, the area where I live and have the most contact with people has an overwhelmingly Berber population. Many of my young, educated peers explain to me that traditional beliefs, like land and language, were stolen from the Berbers, replaced by Islam and Arab culture. Due to their inaccessibility and contempt for Arab society, mountainous regions tend to be even less religious than low-land communities. With that disclaimer, I will try to be clear below on what I have learned from labyrinthine alleyways of Fes and what I learned from my armchair. In any case, here are some thoughts.
Islam is followed or identified with by 1.3 billion people. It is the world’s second largest religion and its fastest growing faith. Despite its common association with the Arab world, only one fifth of its followers actually live there. There are also generous populations in central Asia (Iran and most of the countries that rhyme with it), southern and southeastern Asia, and western and central Africa. Islam (and all proper religious terms for that matter) comes from the classical Arabic language; it can be approximated by the word “submission”, which sets the stage quite properly.
In some of its manifestations it can be an austere and demanding practice, but despite the rules concerning daily conduct, I am often struck by the relationship between the Muslim and God. The Qu’ran is riddled with references to the apocalypse and hell fires that await the non-believers. Devout Muslims pray at least five times a day, but it is a submissive practice, indeed. There is no conversation with God, simply a well-memorized recitation and prostrating oneself, facing the city of Mecca. Moreover, to be a true Muslim is to put complete faith and trust in God to make anything happen. Hence the well-worn expression Insha’ Allah, which means “If God wills it”. One can hardly even exchange pleasantries in the street without it being uttered and submitting your fate to the will of God:
Said: “Hey, Mohamed, where are you going?”
Mohamed: “If God wills it, I am going to the café across the street and ordering tea.”
Said: “If God wills it! Go in peace!”
The expression is so ingrained that many Muslims, speaking any number of languages, will still say it in the original Arabic. Of course, much of it is force of habit, but you get the point. To be a follower in the Muslim world is to submit to God’s desire. Despite the fatalism, it has managed to produce some very orderly and powerful societies in the past 1300 years, advancing its people well beyond their meager origins.
It arose in seventh-century A.D. Arabia, a lawless and pagan land surrounded by a bloody political and social change elsewhere, not the least of which are the conquests of the Persians in Syria, Jerusalem, and Egypt, and Europe’s decline into the Medieval Period. It was in the year 610 that Mohamed Hashem (his lineage, the Hashemites, include the Jordanian and Moroccan royal family), a 40-year old illiterate but savvy businessman from Mecca, was confronted by the angel Gabriel and told to “Recite in the name of your Lord!” And recite he did. The entire Qu’ran (Arabic for “recitation”) is a posthumous collection of the speeches that he made during his 20-year career, collected by his followers.
Revelations of God’s words are said to have been written in 104 books, 100 of which have been lost. The remaining four, the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospels and Qu’ran, reveal the words of Moses, David, Jesus and Mohamed, respectively. Much of the Qu’ran incorporates and builds upon Judaic and Christian stories and the moral code detailed by the Qu’ran closely resembles that of Judaism. Mohamed’s illiteracy actually makes part of his claim to authenticity as God’s final Prophet: How else could an illiterate Arab be cognizant of passages from Hebrew holy books? Certain aspects are unique to Islam, however. The most important of these are the Five Pillars of Islam: profession of faith, praying five times a day, giving alms to the poor, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and making the pilgrimage to Mecca.
As Mohamed became more powerful and influential, the relationship with Judaism soured considerably. Recruited by a group of Arabs and Jews to unite the people and resolve disputes in the city of Medina, he soon demanded recognition as both religious and secular authority by Jews and Gentiles alike. Rejection spawned mockery, which spawned bitterness and power struggle and the honeymoon ended very quickly. Consequently, Mohamed changed the day of prayer from the Jewish Shabbas (Saturday) to Friday, he began instructing followers to pray towards Mecca rather than Jerusalem (though it still remains the third most important city in Islam), and incendiary language towards the Jews starts to show up in the Qu’ran. One finds passages such as, “Those to whom the burden of the Torah was entrusted and yet refused to bear it are like a donkey laden with books.” Implicit in this statement is his reverence for the Torah and his contempt for the non-believing Jews. But to an anti-Israeli imam conducting his Friday sermon, you can imagine the power of such statements taken out of context. I mention this as some historical perspective on the tremendous emphasis on Jewish-Muslim relations, both past and present. I am in absolutely no position to dissect the source or solution to their inter-religious conflict. Nonetheless, I find it interesting to see that the animosity is not solely the byproduct of twentieth-century politics and Zionism.
By the time Mohamed died, he led several armed battles against the Quraish tribe who controlled Mecca, had 10 wives (most of them were the widows of fallen soldiers), and was the spiritual and temporal leader of several Arabian cities. In his death, however, he left a power vacuum that divides the Muslim community to this day. The only child that outlived him was his daughter, Fatima. Though she plays a strong role in Muslim custom and identity, (somewhat analogous to the Virgin Mary) there was no chance that a female in Arab society would become the heir to his struggle. Naturally, his followers vied for the role of successor, or Caliph.
Open any newspaper in the world that covers international events and you will find the words, Sunni and Shiite. This division is just about as old as the religion itself. It started in 661, when Ali, Mohamed’s cousin and Fatima’s husband, was assassinated after serving as Caliph for only six years. His second son, Hussein, martyred himself in a stymied attempt at reclaiming the Caliphate at the Karbala in Iraq 19 years later. Hussein’s passionate fight, though, won him thousands of followers, giving rise to the schism between mainstream Muslims and followers of Shiat Ali, or partisans of Ali. Though Sunnis comprise almost 90% of the global Muslim population, Shiism is the official religion of Iran, and makes up approximately one-half of the Iraqi population. No big mystery why the American government is wary of a Shiite (read: Iran-leaning) takeover of the Iraqi political establishment.
As I implied above, Islam is a religion inextricably connected with the Arabic language. The majority of Muslims, despite their native tongue, will learn the fundamentals of Arabic to conduct their quotidian prayers in the original sacrosanct words. Unlike the Bible, which was composed over the ages in various languages, the Qu’ran is an exclusively Arabic text. The focus on the Arabic language (and its speakers too: e.g. the full name of the country of Egypt is The Arab Republic of Egypt – you can only imagine the international outcry if we changed our name to the United States of White America) is arguably overemphasized, certainly in the past and still to an extent in the modern day. The revelations to Mohamed by the angel Gabriel were made, needless to say, in his native tongue and it is written that “We have revealed the Qu’ran in the Arabic tongue that you may grasp its meaning”. Muslim purists will contend that recitations of prayers in any other language are sacrilegious and strongly resist translation into any other tongues. But Mohamed certainly could never have dreamed that his speeches would be disseminated to the far corners of the Earth, such that the two countries with the largest Muslim populations, Indonesia and India, are not Arab peoples. In its fastidious observance of the Arabic language, Islam encounters a few pitfalls of misinterpretation in a globalized world. It vexes many Muslims that western media (and some of my English-speaking Moroccan friends) insist on referring to the Islamic Allah, as if they worshipped a separate deity altogether. This term is simply an Arabic term for God and deviates no further from Western monotheism than Spaniards who go to the cathedral and pray to Dios. The word, nonetheless, carries considerable weight and is incorporated in hundreds of expressions in daily conversation. The other day I walked by a funeral and heard a droning song emanating from every door and window. The lyrics from what I could tell were, “Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah…” sung again and again and again till the cows come home. If there is any equivalent in other religions, I would like to hear about it.
One important difference between the major faiths is the religion’s stance on protecting the faithful. Whereas Jesus instructed his followers to turn the other cheek to their enemies and the Buddha advocated pacifism, Islam condones defending oneself and the faith. Mohamed himself lead an army of 10,000 men in the name of God. When living in Medina, he would make rallying calls such as, “The believers who stay at home – apart from those that suffer from a grave impediment – are not equal to those who fight for the cause of God with their goods and their persons.” The Qu’ran, however, is clear that retribution is to be taken out only upon the guilty and that, “To kill an innocent man is to kill the world.” This position, of course, is a very slippery slope to walk on and this religion is no less immune to literalists – or more fittingly, out-of-context-ists – than any other. As some Christian preachers will gladly skim over sections of the Gospel that advocate relinquishing worldly possessions to dwell on the story of God unleashing his fury on the indecent inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, plenty of imams and radicals will be selective in their diatribes. Consequently, whatever people are truly fighting for – resources, territory, a reckoning of long-held grievances, or political power – there are plenty of Scriptures that may be exploited to shore up support.
Muslim identity is often the only thing that bonds such an immense and disparate population of believers. Skin color, language, diet, political structure, gender roles, history, traditional beliefs, and history have drastically different in each new corner of the world it has reached. In each region, Islam has changed them and Islam has been changed by them. Far more often is it the former case. But in the rural byways where proselytizers do not focus their efforts, a colorful mélange of practices take form. On the small Indonesian island of Lombok, a historically Hindu and Buddhist stronghold, the local mosque is not oriented to Mecca (and is too small to actually pray in), worshippers pay devotions to sacred rocks from a nearby volcano, and hold drunken festivals to celebrate the Prophet Mohamed’s birthday (April 11 and 12 this year). Their urban and conservative counterparts view these deviations as tantamount to heresy. But religion is a garment, which despite its bold colors and distinctive patterns, invariably takes the form of the body it covers. Much of this has been analyzed in the context of women’s rights, and several Muslim feminists have written treatises positing that Islam, as written, is relatively egalitarian and that the faith absorbed misogynist tendencies as it spread.
In my experience, the standard by which people identify a Muslim is the second pillar of Islam – that of praying five times daily. Among a list of small talk questions that you may be asked when meeting people is, “Do you pray?” Though it is against the law to proselytize in Morocco and several other Muslim nations, citizens are duly encouraged to convert foreigners. For those without a good sense of humor and firm beliefs, this can be a very tiring and ultimately maddening experience. In my experience, I seem to attract the unfaithful for some reason, so when people approach me with that same question it is often followed by, “Neither do I.”
Speaking of bad Muslims, if I remember correctly, Canadian courts were recently settling a dispute about whether or not to allow Muslim defendants to be judged based upon Sharia law. Ultimately, the notion was rejected. Had it been accepted, however, it certainly would have sent shockwaves through liberal (liberal, at least, until Steven Harper took office) Canadian society. Sharia, which translates to “the path leading the water (water meaning the source of life, quite literally, in a desert society)” is the legal code based upon the Qu’ran and a set of six books called the hadith. The former details some rather explicit guidelines for a virtuous life, the majority of which are adopted from Mohamed’s didactic speeches in the second half of his career. The latter, however, is a more debatable and indirect source, in which thousands of Mohamed’s sayings and actions were inscribed as dictum for the righteous. It must be remembered that Mohamed is viewed as the paragon of human behavior, which explains the deep-seated rage over the Danish cartoons. As an open-minded but devout Muslim school teacher told me, “You cannot touch my Prophet!” Devout Muslims seek to emulate the way or sunna (source of the word Sunni) of the Prophet and so to insult him is to insult every last belief that Muslims hold.
In the most conservative Muslim societies, such as Saudi Arabia, Sharia is the source of law – civil, commercial, criminal, political, etc. – and the concept of separation of church of state is abject profanity. The more moderate nations, including Morocco, are somewhat more flexible with their adaptations. In Sharia, all human acts fall into five categories: required, encouraged, permissible, discouraged, and prohibited. Examples of some behaviors and their designations would be prayer as a required act, forgiveness of debt is encouraged, polygamy is discouraged, and usury is prohibited. Those actions which fall into the “permissible” category are left to a governing body to decide whether it shall be allowed or restricted.
One topic that is often tossed around is that of smoking cigarettes. Like declaring oil/mineral rights and parking violations, there are certain behaviors that simply did not exist in the Prophet’s time and thus are left to interpretation. In practice, your average Arab male smokes like a chimney (it’s no coincidence that Camel is one of the bestselling cigarettes around) and many of my Moroccan friends seem to have justified smoking hashish to themselves and their community. It required a change of perspective when I would offer a glass of wine to an ardent pothead and have him reply, “Sorry, it is against my religion.” In any case, many Muslim scholars in several countries have expounded the need to outlaw any and all inhaled volatile chemicals, but usually to no avail. Personally, I think the response would be similar to Prohibition-era America: a fabulous disaster. And with all of the proscriptions on stimulants and depressants, it would make being Muslim about as fun as being Mormon – but without the HBO series.
One rule that still rests on the Moroccan books is the law actually requiring all Moroccans to be Muslim – hence the government estimates that 99.9% of the population is Sunni Muslim. Only a fool could truly believe that only every 1000th person he meets is the one who neither prays five times a day nor fasts during Ramadan. But, many of my fellow volunteers have met such apparent fools. It is more likely, however, that they seek to portray their land as the land of peace and piety – a veritable myth. It may be easier to do as such than to admit to the moral depravity that one sees in any country. The two Muslim countries I have spent time in, Morocco and Egypt, are fairly moderate cultures that rely heavily on tourism. As a result, there is a de jure and de facto set of double standards for nationals and foreign visitors – even long-term ex-pats. While co-ed hotel rooms, public displays of affection and transportation of alcohol bring hefty fines and/or jail sentences for Moroccans, we foreigners can commit them and get off scot-free (although the second transgression could cause considerable discomfort and ire among any witnesses)!
Not being a Muslim in a Muslim country, however, can carry grave repercussions. Take, for instance, the Afghani Abdul Rahman. He converted to Christianity 15 years and was condemned to death by a tribal council (eventually thwarted by western diplomatic pressure). Such rulings would be appalling in Western society, who adopted the concept of individual rights and liberties during the Renaissance. But that is not how many of these societies operate. In collective cultures, if one hand becomes gangrenous, it is better to cut it off than allow it to infect the rest of the body.
In practice many Muslim communities, especially small villages like my own, hardly even require a penal code. One of the supposedly proscribed behaviors, gossiping, is in such virulent practice that it helps to punish those who commit graver crimes. Even in some of the most isolated and conservative locales, there are people who drink and smoke, commit adultery and steal. But they do so with the penalty of the attendant stigma and potential ostracism. One could argue that the public jury construes a more formidable threat than God’s wrath in such insular locales.
By far, the dominant resource for much of the above information is Thomas W. Lippman’s Understanding Islam: An Introduction to the Muslim World. I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants a relatively unbiased, factual and comprehensive overview of the religion. His tone, if anything, is somewhat flattering, yet he takes a very historical interesting perspective on the life of Mohamed the person. Published in 1995, he hardly even touches terrorism, but it is possible that a later version might have. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of rhetoric on that topic at your local bookstore on that subject if you so desire. But I have generally avoided this subject in what I write to people as it has almost nothing to do with the everyday lives of Muslims. The majority condemn such acts, resenting the image that it portrays to the outside world and fearing the retribution from the ideologues that control many Western governments. Many of them, quite justifiably, fear it may be the ideologues next door that will make the next attack and that it will be their children who get caught in the cross-fire. We can argue our tongues limp about the best course to take in Palestine, Iran, Indonesia, Iraq, etc. but the relatively recent integration of the Western and Muslim world is not going to be without considerable struggle, but understanding each other is one of the necessary steps in getting there.
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