journal
Nonviolence and Spiritual Jihad
November 18, 2010
Imam Johari Abdul Malik, Director of Outreach at Dar al Hijra in Falls Church, Virginia and Rachel Mann, PhD are collaborating on the development of a nonviolence training program for Muslim seminarians in training. On October 22, 2010, they presented their proposal at the International Institute for Islamic Thought in Fairfax, Virginia. A brief article on the presentation can be found at the IIIT web site. We are currently seeking funding for the project. If you would like more information or to donate, contact Rachel Mann.
There is presently a crisis afoot in the Muslim world and in the world as a whole. Escalating violent conflicts and wars in the Middle East, in particular between Palestine and Israel, spurred by religious fundamentalists on both sides, threaten world stability and peace. A combination of colonial and post-colonial pressures in Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa and Asia have led to rising and potentially deadly conflicts between Muslims and their neighbors. In some cases, Muslims are the perpetrators, in others the victims. In many cases, it is no longer easy to say who is at fault.
Since 9/11, in part due to heavy-handed and misguided propaganda, policies and practices on the part of the West, in particular the United States, these conflicts have escalated as some extremist leaders and nations, such as the Taliban and Osama bin Laden have called for a general Muslim violent “jihad” against the West with the ultimate goal of Islamicizing the world. As a result of Islamaphobia dating back centuries in the western world, Westerners and citizens of the U.S., in particular, have developed a limited, skewed and often racist and phobic view of the Muslim faith and its adherents. As Muslim writer, Mauri’ Saalakhan (2004) notes, “September 11 merely legitimized and deepened the Islamaphobia that had already reared its ugly head” (8).
In the transnational Islamic community, there is a widening rift: on one side are Muslims who advocate further violence against Israel and other groups and nations perceived as taking an anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim stance; on the other side are Muslims who understand the Qur’an to be a holy text teaching self-restraint and developing the tools of both inner and outer peace. There are also many Muslims in the middle who are confused and uncertain about exactly how to interpret the Qur’an in the face of the ongoing persecution and violence against Palestinians by the Israelis and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan fueled by post-9/11 hysteria in the U.S.
When armed and unarmed Islamic men and women along with innocent civilians, children and the elderly are being killed in wars and terrorist attacks and when thousands of innocent Muslims and those of suspected Arabic background are racially profiled, arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and often wrongfully convicted or simply held in prolonged captivity under terrible conditions in direct violation of international human rights, it is difficult to believe that anything other than violence will turn the tide. Such has been the human condition on earth for many millennia. Violence has seemed to be the best and only viable solution to ending oppression, murder, poverty, and despair.
Therefore, it is natural that many leaders in the transnational Muslim religious community, either tacitly and quietly or overtly and vocally, support the efforts of extremist Islamic leaders and even encourage young people to join in violent resistance against Israel and the West. In the meantime, the voices of peace activists both in- and outside the Muslim community are decried as “unrealistic”, “weak” and merely existing due to it being “politically incorrect” in some quarters to advocate violence as a tool of social change. Even the concept of “social change” is often seen as being suspect as yet another way for the West to gloss over the glaring human rights violations against Muslims around the world.
Since the monumental accomplishments in the 20th century of M. K. Gandhi in India against the British and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the battle against racial apartheid in the U.S., the concept of peaceful resistance to oppression and violence has become more familiar around the world. However, there remain much ignorance and many misunderstandings about the teachings, practices and accomplishments of both men and their many successors in the cause for peaceful change, including Nobel Peace Laureates, Nelson Mandela and the Bishop Desmond Tutu. On top of this, interpretations of religious texts like the Bible and the Qur’an can often be read to be in favor of or against the use of force. For those who wish to be faithful Muslims, parsing canonical text in the face of the grim reality in the world can be very confusing.
As a result, there is a pressing need to develop a robust program aimed specifically at people of the Muslim faith to engage them in questions of theological interpretation on the application of core principles of their faith and to educate them in the theories and practices of nonviolence. Such a training would be targeted at youth on up, on local and international communities, in mosques and Muslim community centers, in peaceful nations and regions and in conflict-ridden, war-torn and post-war areas of the world. Elements of the training would include:
- A study of the basic principles of Gandhi’s concept of active nonviolence and satyagraha.
- Adaptations into a Muslim faith context methods and tools for nonviolent action and conflict resolution from contemporary sources.
- An analysis and discussion of Muslim jihad and its meaning in contemporary settings.
- Understanding the principles of piety, equality, forgiveness, brotherhood, peace, and community in the Muslim faith.
- An overview of the mechanisms of violence in nation and society and the differences between war in Mohammed’s time and the present.
- A comparison of principles of nonviolence to the message of the Qur’an.