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.