A Lack of Religious Education for Muslims Continues to Spawn Acts of Terror

A Lack of Religious Education for Muslims Continues to Spawn Acts of Terror

Acts of terrorism at the hands of religious extremists continue to maintain prominence in the headlines of international news.  Whether the headline articulates a new surge of attacks in Nigeria, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Yemen, or even Iraq, puritanical extremists such as the Taliban, Boko Haram, ISIS, and al-Qaida disseminate their pervasive messages to convince traditional Muslims to heed their call to arms.  These terrorist groups interpret Islamic law to propagate their religious decrees (fatwa), accompanied by verses of the Qur’an, to orchestrate a cacophony of violence and terror amongst their own people and within their own religious culture to garner power in the Middle East.  However, these acts of violence do not necessarily emanate from the establishment and practice of Islamic Law; but rather, many of these issues are a direct result of Muslims losing a sense of their own religion.  In other words, Muslims follow these fundamentalist leaders because their foundation in Islamic doctrine and theology has waned beyond the point of knowing their own traditions and the laws of their religion.

Historically, during the early years of the 19^th century, political leaders of the Ottoman Empire decided to reform education and emphasize western sciences and languages in lieu of the traditional religious schools that taught doctrine, faith, and theology.  As a result, students slowly began to stop prescribing to the classical Islamic schools of law (Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali, and Hanafi) and theology (Hanbali, Asharite, Maturidis, and Mutazilites), which diminished the students’ cultural and religious awareness.  Furthermore, Muslims relied more on their local religious leaders, rather than cultivating religious study amongst themselves.  Many of the traditional religious sciences such as kalam (theology), Sufism, and philosophy were displaced and even considered as heretical.

The lack of the religious education among Muslims has deteriorated the understanding of their own religion.  Consequently, fundamentalist leaders are using ignorance to gain support and momentum for their militancy.  These leaders, such as the former al-Qaida leader, Osama Bin Laden, interpret the Qur’an, hadith, and Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) to instill terror in society, and ultimately, manipulate devoted believers by the promise of deliverance justice. 

In preceding times, the leaders of the Muslim communities needed to spend countless hours in study before they were able to decree on any type of religious ruling.  These leaders, known as judges (qadi), religious scholars (ulama) and law officials (mufti), looked at Islamic sources and derived adaptations, interpretations, or contemporaneous rulings by means of contextual analysis and the essential merit.  In contrast, today, fundamentalist leaders issue edicts without manifesting the necessary qualifications to maintain legal validity.  However, because the religious education of Muslims has decreased as previously discussed, fundamentalist leaders gain followers with their religious interpretations without the proper validation.

Fundamentalist groups continually amass followers by means of trepidation and unqualified manipulation of religious dogma.  Accordingly, many Muslim societies are becoming more endocentric, which is only causing further dependency upon these fundamentalist leaders.  Therefore, the lack of a religious education has ultimately caused a disparity in the religious understanding of Muslims, leaving room for puritanical literalists to manipulate and warp the comprehension of Islamic principles and doctrines.

I thought Ehrman’s, (The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writers), comparative approach to Luke was very interesting, especially in regards to Luke’s idea of eschatology.  Today, within many Christian denominations, eschatology seems to retain a significant emphasis on liturgy and doctrine.  This fascination manifests different reactions according to each denomination’s interpretation.  Many denominations turn fundamentally inwardly to maintain the purity of their dogma; while others extend an outward hand to assist others soteriologically.   Yet even some seem to exist without any particular qualms for society in general.  Moreover in a comparative analysis, perhaps the interpretation of eschatology today is similar to that which was transpiring during New Testament times.  As Ehrman writes, this may be why Luke modified the pervasive belief of an imminent “End Times” spread by the gospels of Mark and Matthew. 

 

In a sense, I appreciate how Luke used his own attempts at redaction criticism to modify the elements in which he specifically felt were erroneous.  Ehrman specifies this point adamantly with Luke’s constant redaction of Mark.  Since most New Testament historians believe Mark to be a major source for both Matthew and Luke, it is interesting to see the comparison and differences Ehrman articulates between the primary and secondary sources.  For instance, Mark speaks of an imminent “End of Days” in 9:1; “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God as come with power.”  For Mark, this meant that Jesus’ return with power would be imminent.  As we have already discussed in class, Mark’s political milieu constantly parried destruction, being in the midst of a significant war between Rome and the Jews, so a prescribed redemption of mankind or “Second Coming” may have justified the social ethos of the time.

 

Notwithstanding, Luke disagrees in the fact that the “End Times” were imminent.  Ehrman writes that this antithesis may be because Luke believed that the “Good News” needed to spread to the entirety of the Gentiles, before a cataclysmic event would occur.  Thus for Luke, a significant amount of time would need to pass to spread the entirety of the news, so the nascent community should maintain focus on the “ills of society” and prevent the outward abandonment (137-139).

 

This idea, in a socio-historical context, may have been extremely prevalent among the communities of believers, and in being so, may contribute to Luke’s redaction of Mark.  Perhaps, these fledgling communities were focusing too intently on their inward perfection of the spirit and withdrawing from the external ills of society.  But if this is the case, why did Matthew not see this as also prevalent; especially since Matthew emphatically bolstered righteousness and obedience to “the Law.”  Perhaps with this in mind, Helmut Koester’s argument that Luke was written a little later in the early 2^nd c. CE, rationally makes a great deal of sense.  Therefore if Luke was written a little later in time, perhaps many of the emphases within the community had changed or evolved, so a truer revised message was needed.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini (Book #8)

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

This novel gives a great historical perspective (i.e. history from below) into the life and culture of modern Afghanistan.  In particular, this book illustrates an intensely tragic picture concerning the evolutionary role of Muslim women within the different types of dominating regimes and polities that ruled the last several decades of Afghani history.  Without too much of a spoiler, it is absolutely moving to read of the intrinsic hope and indelible fortitude within Afghani women despite the unthinkable sacrifice they manifest within their role vis-à-vis society.  This book has my highest recommendation--and quite frankly, Khaled Hosseini, in general, is an absolutely brilliant storyteller.