Pope and Islam - by Juan Cole

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Friday, September 15, 2006

Pope Gets it Wrong on Islam

Pope Benedict's speech at Regensburg University, which mentioned Islam and jihad, has provoked a firestorm of controversy.

The address is more complex and subtle than the press on it represents. But let me just signal that what is most troubling of all is that the Pope gets several things about Islam wrong, just as a matter of fact.

He notes that the text he discusses, a polemic against Islam by a Byzantine emperor, cites Qur'an 2:256: "There is no compulsion in religion." Benedict maintains that this is an early verse, when Muhammad was without power.

His allegation is incorrect. Surah 2 is a Medinan surah revealed when Muhammad was already established as the leader of the city of Yathrib (later known as Medina or "the city" of the Prophet). The pope imagines that a young Muhammad in Mecca before 622 (lacking power) permitted freedom of conscience, but later in life ordered that his religion be spread by the sword. But since Surah 2 is in fact from the Medina period when Muhammad was in power, that theory does not hold water.

In fact, the Qur'an at no point urges that religious faith be imposed on anyone by force. This is what it says about the religions:


' [2:62] Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians-- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. '



See my comments On the Quran and peace.

The idea of holy war or jihad (which is about defending the community or at most about establishing rule by Muslims, not about imposing the faith on individuals by force) is also not a Quranic doctrine. The doctrine was elaborated much later, on the Umayyad-Byzantine frontier, long after the Prophet's death. In fact, in early Islam it was hard to join, and Christians who asked to become Muslim were routinely turned away. The tyrannical governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj, was notorious for this rejection of applicants, because he got higher taxes on non-Muslims. Arab Muslims had conquered Iraq, which was then largely pagan, Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish. But they weren't seeking converts and certainly weren't imposing their religion.

The pope was trying to make the point that coercion of conscience is incompatible with genuine, reasoned faith. He used Islam as a symbol of the coercive demand for unreasoned faith.

But he has been misled by the medieval polemic on which he depended.

In fact, the Quran also urges reasoned faith and also forbids coercion in religion. The only violence urged in the Quran is in self-defense of the Muslim community against the attempts of the pagan Meccans to wipe it out.

The pope says that in Islam, God is so transcendant that he is beyond reason and therefore cannot be expected to act reasonably. He contrasts this conception of God with that of the Gospel of John, where God is the Logos, the Reason inherent in the universe.

But there have been many schools of Islamic theology and philosophy. The Mu'tazilite school maintained exactly what the Pope is saying, that God must act in accordance with reason and the good as humans know them. The Mu'tazilite approach is still popular in Zaidism and in Twelver Shiism of the Iraqi and Iranian sort. The Ash'ari school, in contrast, insisted that God was beyond human reason and therefore could not be judged rationally. (I think the Pope would find that Tertullian and perhaps also John Calvin would be more sympathetic to this view within Christianity than he is).

As for the Quran, it constantly appeals to reason in knowing God, and in refuting idolatry and paganism, and asks, "do you not reason?" "do you not understand?" (a fala ta`qilun?)

Of course, Christianity itself has a long history of imposing coerced faith on people, including on pagans in the late Roman Empire, who were forcibly converted. And then there were the episodes of the Crusades.

Another irony is that reasoned, scholastic Christianity has an important heritage drom Islam itself. In the 10th century, there was little scholasticism in Christian theology. The influence of Muslim thinkers such as Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and Avicenna (Ibn Sina) reemphasized the use of Aristotle and Plato in Christian theology. Indeed, there was a point where Christian theologians in Paris had divided into partisans of Averroes or of Avicenna, and they conducted vigorous polemics with one another.

Finally, that Byzantine emperor that the Pope quoted, Manuel II? The Byzantines had been weakened by Latin predations during the fourth Crusade, so it was in a way Rome that had sought coercion first. And, he ended his days as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

The Pope was wrong on the facts. He should apologize to the Muslims and get better advisers on Christian-Muslim relations.

Traders in Dubai

I came back from dubai today, and the only thing worth talking about is the Hotel. Located within 15 minutes of Dubai International Airport and close to the traditional Deira business centre, Traders Hotel, Dubai is the 4-star brand of Shangri-La offering a quality deluxe hotel that has the efficiencies, warmth, comfort and consistent personalised service of a Shangri-La hotel. The building is low rise and portrays an Arabic feel in its exterior. The interior of the hotel reflects a modern, clean, contemporary look throughout all guest rooms and public areas.

Additionally, they serve excellent food, truely the facinating Shangri-La style. It is a fairly small hotel and reasonably priced. When i say reasonably priced, it is only 200 USD/night. This price tag is really reasonable when compared to the staggaring accomodation cost prevailing now a days in dubai. 3 weeks back i was in Abu-dhabi Sheraton (5 starts), but honestly speaking, i think that Traders is a better hotel, 2 week before that, i stayed at Dubai Crown Plaza (another 5 starts) and you know what, does not stand a chance. These 5 start have big conference facilities and ball rooms, other than that, i favour Traders

what is always annoying with visiting dubai is that if you have to return to Amman - Jordan via Royal Jordanian, you have to go to the airport at 5:30 AM, which, does not only get me bugged for lack of sleep, but also having to pay the $200 for no value

Ammar Sajdi
www.e-ammar.com

IBM Redbooks

Dimensional Modeling in Business intelligence Environment, an IBM RedBook.
(http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg247138.html?Open)
I came across this book some 3 months back, IBM RedBook series never cease to amaze me for the quality and clarity of their publications. In fact, back in 1999-2000, REALSOFT (where i am a co-founder), was awarded our first Data warehouse solution for the ministry of national economy in Oman social and economics indicators database. Guess what, IBM RedBook came to our rescue with their excellent data modeling techniques for data warehouse (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg242238.html?Open) , it was THEE book that laid down the ground for our understanding of data warehousing concepts and design.

www.e-ammar.com
Ammar Sajdi
Realsoft Advanced Application

Knowledge

Knowledge

IBM RedBook

Dimensional Modeling in Business intelligence Environment, an IBM RedBook.
(http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg247138.html?Open)
I came across this book some 3 months back, IBM RedBook series never cease to amaze me for the quality and clarity of their publications. In fact, back in 1999-2000, REALSOFT (where i am a co-founder), was awarded our first Data warehouse solution for the ministry of national economy in Oman social and economics indicators database. Guess what, IBM RedBook came to our rescue with their excellent data modeling techniques for data warehouse (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg242238.html?Open) , it was THEE book that laid down the ground for our understanding of data warehousing concepts and design.