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A Strategy to Deter Terrorism continues....
Islam had been an expanding power until at least the 18th century, with a long history of conflict with Christianity, religion of the majority in the West. Islam and Christianity had converted the people of nations that they conquered into nearly 100 per cent Muslims or Christians. India was the exception which despite eight hundred years of Islamic and two hundred of Christian conquests has remained overwhelmingly Hindu. This fact has been a living regret for Islamic orthodoxy, while Christian foreign missionaries in India articulate the same regret more subtly. In today’s jihad contexts, without understanding the nature of Islamic tenets and this history we can never formulate an effective anti-terrorist answer. Correct answers require posing correct questions. The correct question is “What is political Islam and its theological fundamentals?”
Islamic scriptures are divided into “spiritual Islam” and “Political Islam.” Islamic trilogy—consisting of the Koran, Hadith and Sira— is the religion. Of this, political Islam is outlined in Hadith and Sira. Spiritual Islam is what Koran preaches. Political Islam, as presented in Hadith and Sira commands Muslims to conquer the world for Islam. It governs the kind of life and political system to which Muslims should adhere strictly, based on its legal code called sharia, an unchanged document that was written over a thousand years ago.
The economic and social aspirations of Muslims and rising expectations of globalization fueled by television and movies from the West conflict with the tenets of the sharia. Hence, the religious orthodoxy focusses in their preachings on the Muslim conquest of “unbelievers,” or non-Muslims to retain the purity of Islamic culture. There is no room for reform since the sharia cannot be questioned. This code does not embody a spiritual philosophy, and hence there is no room for debate.
Thus, wherever Muslims felt that they had materially fallen behind, the orthodoxy was called for Muslims to embrace even more retrogressive practices of political Islam.
to be continued.....
( This account is maintained by Har Anand Publication)