Peace and coexistence are almost always inevitable. The only barriers to their eventualities are the prevalence of groups who preach and embrace the lie of irreconcilable differences.
This is an opinion article by the editor. As a crowdsourced platform, we value respectful debate and the free market of ideas and will consider all article submissions.
One of the great and ugly constants in history has been the horrendous bloodshed resulting from seemingly incompatible religious, ethnic, and political differences. The cumulative effects of death and destruction throughout human history could lead anyone to resign themselves to the hopelessly destructive nature of humanity.
However, there is an equally consistent reality that no force can stop. History has demonstrated a steady progression of interaction and understanding. This eventually leads disparate groups to recognize their basic human similarities, which are more prevalent than their differences.Â
Peace and coexistence are almost always inevitable. The only barriers to their eventualities are the prevalence of groups who preach and embrace the lie of irreconcilable differences.
With these realities in mind, we can recognize a falsehood far too many embrace: that the war on terror results from irreconcilable religious differences. Worse, some have concluded it’s a conflict that can only be won if we embrace it as singularly religious with eventual collective winners and losers. A surprising number of people have adopted this false premise. They think they are embracing the realities of the conflict, on that will lead to a swift victory. But in actuality, it only helps the conflict endure and increases the cost in human lives before its eventual conclusion.
There is only one way to lessen the sheer human cost of the conflict. We must learn to accurately identify ideologies on all sides of the conflict that tend to promote ideas anathema to eventual peace. Namely, we must recognize and oppose the ideologies that cultivate the concepts of collective guilt and prejudicial bigotry; the belief that differences cannot be overcome.
On our side of the coin, here in the West, we must educate ourselves on the differences in various schools of Islamic thought. We must recognize the reality of the conflict within Islam and the Middle East. We must come to realize that not all Muslims are Islamists, and not all Islamists are militants.
Islam, at its foundation, is simply a path towards submission to the will of God. A Muslim is someone who has embarked on this path. They follow the sayings of holy men throughout history who have revealed and taught this path. Muslims believe Muhammad was the final and greatest prophet of God. But they also embrace Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as prophets and holy men who lived and preached Islam.
Outside of this basic definition of Islam, Islamic culture, Islamic civilization, Islamic government, and Islamic religion are not always necessarily the same thing. The history of political Islam (the Umayyad Dynasty, the Abbasid Dynasty, the Mughal Dynasty, the Safavid Dynasty, the Ottoman Empire, etc.) presents different realities and understandings than the history of Islamic religion (Sunni, Shia, Salafi, Sufi, etc.).
The reality of modern Islam is that Muslim intellectuals and moderate Muslims have been attempting to separate perennial Islamic beliefs from archaic cultural traditions. They face resistance from Islamist fundamentalists. These fundamentalists wish to impose the legal and political structure of strict Sharia upon all governments where Muslims reside. Each of these schools of thought is further divided into ideas reflecting the different sects of Islam.
Contrary to what some in the West are coming to believe, this problem is not so different from questions posited and answered in Christian history. Christianity, as practiced during the political dominance of the Roman Catholic Church over Europe, embraced monarchy and despotism. It did so as a means to control the common people. This Medieval Christian despotism was responsible for bloody campaigns of submission against those who would question the political and religious dominance of the Church, and the Royalty and Nobility it endowed.Â
Without the revolution of ideas resulting from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Age of Enlightenment, it is questionable whether Judeo-Christian values could have been separated from the archaic cultural and political traditions of Europe. Only because of this flowering of intellectual progression could representative government become embraced as the standard of Western society.
Given the context of history, Islam is in the midst of a civil war between liberalism and illiberalism. On the one hand are intellectuals and moderates who recognize and believe that aspects of Sharia law are cultural and political traditions not necessary to the faithful practice of Islamic faith. They seek to kindle Islam’s own Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment to move past these archaic traditions and embrace representative government.Â
On the other hand, are Islamists and fundamentalists who believe that absolute political Islam is necessary for the true practice of the faith. They believe that rigid and complete application of Sharia law to all aspects of society is required for the purity of the faith. They have resolved to resist Christian and Western culture to protect their view of pure Islamic culture.
The extreme element of these Islamists and fundamentalists embrace militancy to accomplish their goals. They have embraced terrorism as a strategy of fear to incite Western nations towards actions that justify their claims. This is often a reality many in the West ignore. Islamist terrorism has the ultimate goal of defeating the West. But it’s more pressing and short-term goal is to create ideal conditions where its propaganda can have maximum effect in winning over mainstream Islam to its radical ideology.
The fact of this great struggle within Islam is manifest in three undeniable realities. First, most victims of terror are Muslims. Second, most terrorist attacks happen in Muslim countries. And third, the most effective forces against terrorism have been Muslims willing to resist it.
Many believe that intellectual and moderate Islam will eventually overcome the Islamists and fundamentalists. As radicals embrace violent jihad, they often abandon basic tenets of Islamic religion in their justifications for the atrocities they enact. These violent jihadists will eventually be seen for the hypocrites they are. Their violent ideologies will fade into a footnote of history, just as the Jacobites and other reactionary movements have similarly faded in European history.
This is another reality many in the West miss. They do not understand enough of the traditions of Islam to recognize that Islamist terrorism and Fundamentalist militancy do not embody the realities of Islamic faith. The terrorists are, in fact, betraying and twisting many of Islam’s tenets of faith.
Ultimately, if costly bloodshed is to be averted, we as humanity, both Christians and Muslims, must come to a necessary conclusion: peace will remain elusive until we reject the lies of collective guilt and prejudicial bigotry.Â
Faith and religion are puzzles to be worked out between each individual and their understanding of God. To condemn any collective of people as unworthy of fundamental human rights is the great evil we actually face. This is an evil that fundamentalists and radicals in both religious traditions have put forward.Â
The crux of the issue is the reality that most Christians and most Muslims are not all that different from each other. They’re motivated by basic human emotions and desires. Christians and Muslims alike want to live happily, provide better lives for their children, and ultimately find and preserve joy and peace.Â
If any of us honestly wish to win this great fight, we must reject and resist both the violent jihadists, who seek to radicalize and mobilize a religion in hatred and violence, as well as intolerant and resentful Christians who would judge and condemn an entire religion as collectively responsible for the crimes of others and unworthy or incapable of fundamental human freedoms.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Do you agree with this article? Do you disagree? Give us your perspective on this topic, or any other topic, by submitting your own article or offering a comment below.
- The Liberty Hawk is Now on Medium - December 9, 2020
- Betraying Allies Is Not the Way to Avoid Being the World’s Police - August 14, 2020
- The Last Full Measure of Devotion - August 13, 2020