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Your letters - posted July 19, 2005

Posted in Q & A on Jul 19, 2005

Posted July 19, 2005

On Tuesday, July 19, British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with his country’s Muslim leaders. He wants them to help him fight the ideology behind the July 7 subway and bus bombings in London. The BBC asked me to deliver a challenge to Muslim leaders just before their meeting with Blair. Here’s what I told them — and the British public:

The 7th of July changed my community forever. Never before have I heard fellow Muslims condemn so sincerely the terror committed in our name. I thank Muslim leaders - and God - that we’re finally awaking from denial.

Except on one front: the possible role of religion itself in these atrocities.

You see, the Muslim Council of Britain insists that Islam had nothing to do with the London bombings. They identify other factors - segregation, alienation - as motives for the suicide bombers. Now, I don’t deny that living on the margins can harm self-esteem. When that happens, decent kids can become vulnerable to radical messages of instant belonging.

But how can mainstream Muslim leaders reject, flat-out, that religion may also play a part in these bombings? What makes them so sure that Islam is an innocent bystander?

What makes them sound so sure is literalism. That’s the trouble with Islam today. Muslims everywhere, including here in West, are routinely raised to believe that because the Quran comes after the Torah and the Bible, it is the final - and therefore perfect - manifesto of God’s will. Which means that even moderate Muslims accept, as an article of faith, that the Quran is the untouched, immutable word of God.

This is a supremacy complex. It’s also dangerous. First because of what it does for the radical fringe, giving them more legitimacy than they deserve. And second because of what it does to the moderates. This supremacy complex inhibits us from asking hard questions about what happens when faith becomes dogma. Mainstream Muslims need to face those questions, just as the moderates in Christianity and Judaism have been doing for the past century.

Instead, our leaders are exploiting Islam. Not as a sword. As a shield. They’re using the sensitivity of religion to protect Muslims from serious introspection. Well, I don’t consider this a favour — to anyone. I say it’s time to lay own the shield and accept the birthright of an open society: that there’s no crime in asking questions. Sometimes pointed questions. Sometimes in public.

So here’s my question for Muslim leaders in Britain: How do you know that religion is a victim and not, even partially, a perpetrator in these crimes? For the sake of honesty and change, let’s get that discussion out of the underground and into the full light of day.