Islam is about tolerance - 'not rigid views' - Straits Times, Singapore
by Zakir Hussain

The rigid way some Muslims around the world interpret Islam worries American Msulim scholar Sherman Jackson. Such an approach gives no room for differences of opinion and belief.

This is a threat to the tolerance that is inherent in Islam, said Professor Jackson, a leading scholar of Islam at the University of Michigan.

Such intolerance also goes against classical Islamic traditions, he added.

But this blinkered view is a temporary hiccup, as Muslims around the world increasingly seek to reconcile Islamic traditions with the realities of the modern world.

They are not without any references.

Prof Jackson seeks the practices of early Muslim theologians as a model.

These scholars had borrowed from Greek and Persian authors. Also, Muslim legal systems had in the past allowed Jews and Christians to practice their own religious laws.

"Classical Islamic tradition offers a model of tolerance and can contribute to pluralism and religious co-existence in the modern world," he told reporters ahead of a public lecture on diversity and tolerance in Islam at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts last night.

Prof Jackson, a Muslim, is on a 4-day visit here. [here = in Singapore: me]

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) and the Muslim Converts Association of Singapore had invited him as a speaker for their series on contemporary Muslim community with new trends and critical views in Islamic thinking.

National University of Singapore sociologist Syed Faris Alatas agreed with Prof Jackson's call that Muslims should revisit their history for models of tolerance and progress.

Intellectual and academic freedoms in many Muslim countries today are a far cry from those in the past, he said, thereby hindering their development because good ideas are controlled.

Prof Jackson also noted that historically, Muslim communities were able to differentiate between the moral and political spheres.

When the state morally disagreed with a group of people, it did not bar them from expressing their views, he said. "Now, if people think something is morally wrong, they believe they have a right to deny others that practice."

Such intolerance, he said, draws on a modern desire to homogenize society in contrast to the history of pluralism in Islam.

Worse, such views have fanned fears about Islam among non-Muslims, he added.

These fears have grown since the Sept 11 terror attacks in the United States in 2001.

However, Prof Jackson is confident such fears will pass, just as resentment against African-Americans getting equal rights in the 1960s was overcome.

"I am confident that ultimately, fair-mindedness will prevail," he said.


Editorial comments: Having read a couple of other books by liberal Muslims, many of them educated in the West, I believe that Professor Jackson is right to argue that Islam has the memes for pluralism and tolerance.

Non-Muslims should take heed of my other post today (Israel, tear down this wall: ++Rowan). We should get Israel to withdraw to the Green Line and remove all settlements. We should withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as reasonably possible. We should stop supporting dictators in Muslim countries. If we cease to threaten the freedom of Muslims, the tolerance memes in Islam will reassert themselves.

I am in no way asserting that Islam is some sort of ideal religion. At present, for example, it is illegal in many Muslim countries to convert away from Islam on pain of death. Christian converts and missionaries are persecuted. I am not trying to absolve the persecuters of their culpability, either. Indeed, their actions easily qualify them for the "fire and judgment" that this blog promises to those who violate human rights. However, I am saying that if we want to stop them, and if we want to stop planes from being flown into buildings, we have our own parts to play.