Just Islam...?

Note: This site received this email today.



dear mike,
islam is just islam - not the australian islam and not the jihadist islam. perhaps you should've known by this now.the key to peace in the world is justice.no justice- no peace. if colonialism goes on struggle goes on.



Comment:The truth in this email is the statement that 'the key to peace in the world is justice'.The un-named sender is talking the simple minded position that all jihadist muslims must take (they have no other option)...Islam is equal to justice and therefore resistance to it is unjust. Islam is resisted because it is seen as backward and unjust. The Western resisters against Islam can and do make a strong case for their views...backwardness and injustice are not hard to find in the muslim world.Of course,all societies can be branded with this 'hot iron', but the backwardness and injustice in Islam is being kept alive by 'just Islam' interpretations of the Koran and other major documents.

Parallel to this idea is a completely unintelligent understanding of religion. The Koran did not come down to Earth by the magical intervention of any angel. Studies of early Korans show clearly the lines of early development. All Scriptures are written by adherents following the life of some charismatic Teacher. The Koran is no exception.

The un-named sender appears to not apply normal human intelligence to any aspect of Islam. It is all magic to him/her. He/she seems to deny that there is or has been any development in Islam. This is obviously false. Development is the norm wherever people are gathered. This development of Islam is still ongoing. Difficulties in Islam are caused by reactionary believers in magic like the un-named sender.

Muslims in Australia will need to develop an Islam which is consistent with current Australian norms. The present crisis with imam Hilali, and now the 3 Australian converts to Islam being held by police in Yemen, clearly show sensible people that the 'just Islam' school of Islam is not able to function in Australia.

'Just Islam' leads to Hilali and converts helping the security police with their investigations. The resulting low standing of Islam must be a cause of concern for sensible muslims in Australia.

The un-named sender should realise that Islam and its documents will be subjected in the coming years to the same intellectual analysis and historical investigations of language, form and ideas that have been given to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures over the past 200 years. Appeals to 'just Islam' will be dismissed with contempt by the world scholars of Islam.

Of course, if the 'just Islam' school of Islam cannot deal with the onrush of world scholarship, they will be swept away in the coming generations. The young in every faith community do not want their community to be backward and an object of laughing contempt and scorn. The 'just Islam' school is leading the local muslims down that track. It is hard enough being a muslim in Australia today without the added burden of projecting Islam as some form of magic which is unchanged in any way since 632AD and 11AH. Nobody outside the 'magic circle' of the 'just Islam' crew believes that there has not been any developments in Islam. No independent scholar believes that the Koran was dictated to an illiterate Muhammad by any angel. The Koran was slowly written and compiled in the century after the death of Muhammad. It was put together by the 'Ummah for it own benefit in the first muslim century, it can be re-interpreted by the current 'Ummah in the current day for the interest of current muslims.

Modernity is a hard taskmaster. If the local muslims do not develop an Australian (modern)version of Islam, the local muslim community will, religiously, die slowly under the impact of modern life. Increasing numbers of local muslims will abandon Islam rather be trapped in some backward 'magic show' which is laughed at by the broader Australian and Western community. The un-named sender should not imagine that all muslims in Australia are of the jihadist/Wahhabi/Salafist persuasion as he/she is. The great majority of Australian muslims want to live in Australia in 2006AD, not in Mecca in 632AD.