Islamic Skepticism:
Hey everyone! This is my first blog for BASS and I am the first contributor who actually has a religion…So, here we go with something a little different:
We’ve all heard about Osama bin Ladan and his Islamic society dream (nightmare?). And there are many Muslims in California who would love to live in an Islamic society. But what kind of world are we talking about when we say Islamic society? Saudi Arabia? Iran? Did Muhammad really have in mind the Saudi royal family when he started a revolution? Iran is an “Islamic Republic” but where in the Quran or ahadith (sayings of the prophet) is there any mention of an “Islamic Republic?”
First off, we have to talk sunna (traditions). Long, long ago, 7th century Arabia was divided into tribes. The tribes had hakams (judges/mediators) who arbitrated on certain issues (if a member of the tribe kills another member’s pregnant camel, does he owe that other member one or two camels?). The ruling of the hakam would become sunna, and future generations would follow this example.
For Muslims, they follow the sunna of Muhammad. Here is a look at what I am calling his Top Ten accomplishments and why he was so loved:
1. Destruction of the idols in the Kaba and the end of Qurayshi control of it as a business (aka: you can no longer charge people to worship just because your tribe happens to be in possession of a holy site)
2. Rejection of materialism (see number one: rejection of worshiping statues and paying some tribe money to worship them)
3. Decision to worship immaterial things like compassion and mercy (”In the name of God. The compassionate, the Merciful…” (Quran))”
4. No more killing babies because they are female :-/
5. Young orphans and women have the right to inherit (Men, you can’t have it all just because you think kids and women are too simpleminded).
In response to men complaining about the new inheritance law: “Those who disobey God and His messenger, and who try to overstep the boundaries of this [inheritance] law will be thrown in Hell, where they will dwell forever, suffering the most shameful punishment (Quran, 4:14).”
6. You can no longer charge interest and keep people in debt slavery (invention of a tax free market with no-interest loans)
7. Criticism of the Byzantine Empire for its rigid stance on the trinity and it’s persecution of different Christians–even though most Christians in the Middle East were not Trinitarians.
8. Established social equality…It is reported in a hadith: The Muslim Jabalah ibn al-Ayham, an aristocrat of a wealthy tribe, was struck by another Muslim man, one less prominent and from the modest tribe of Mayzunah. Jabalah expected a harsh punishment to be inflicted on his inferior attacker. However, he was informed that in Muhammad’s Islamic society he only had the right to strike the man back with the same amount of force. Jabalah immediately quit Islam and became a Christian.
9. Challenged the local Arabian peninsula Law of Retribution, which endorsed vengeance:
“The retribution for an injury is an equal injury, but those who forgive the injury and make reconciliation will be rewarded by God (Quran, 42:40).”
From the Constitution of Medina under Muhammad: “The community may be solidly against [the criminal], and may do nothing except oppose him.”
10. Established zakat (obligatory charity). That’s right. You have to be charitable. This is not an option.
When you meet Muslims who want to live in an Islamic society, and yet want to curtail the rights of their fellow human beings, be skeptical of that. Ask those people, “Is that really the world you want to live in? You follow the sunna of one of the most progressive, liberal people of his time. He challenged the social structure, laws, and ingrained beliefs of the most powerful and dangerous people of his time in order to uplift those who were less fortunate. How can you want to live in an Islamic society and not live in the spirit of Muhammad?”
The original Muslim society founded by Muhammad was revolutionary, and Muhammad was loved and incredibly popular because of his policies. He lifted up people who needed to be lifted up the most (the poor, women, and orphans) by giving them respect, more opportunities, and more rights than they ever had before.
So what happened to the dream of the liberal and progressive Islamic society?
Citations? Citing where in the Koran Muhammad did what would be nice.
“…Muhammad was loved and incredibly popular because of his policies.”
Was he loved because he was a pedophile too? Her name was Aisha and she was 9.
Hahaha, I remember Bartchy mentioning the outlawing of infanticide. You also forgot to mention that Islam allowed divorce, which wasn’t even allowed in Christianity until much later.
This, I feel, is representative of the sort of progress made by Islam. It was a leap forward for its time, but for whatever reason, a lot of Muslims decided that further progress was unnecessary. As a result, rather than being at the front of social progress, they’re dragging at the back.
“…Muhammad was loved and incredibly popular because of his policies.”
I doubt the Jews he massacred loved him.
Dead on with both counts. Muhammad was both a huge progressive for his time, and modern muslims fail to understand that, taking the word of his teachings and the spirit of the time. The salafi movement has forgotten these progressive roots. Indeed, it wasn’t until, what, the 19th century that Islam started falling behind in its treatment of women, compared to that of the Western World? Point in fact, I seem to recall restrictive British laws cutting off women’s rights to property early on in their domination.
I would make one note… iconoclasm (the destruction of idols) is a holdover from Christianity and Judaism, largely a quirk of the Abrahamic tradition, and does not necessarily have anything at all to do with protecting people from depredation. I would note that numerous idol-bearing religions have no such villainy.
To cod: While decidedly disgusting by our modern standards, and possibly suspect by then, having a wife that young was hardly unique or even uncommon (hell, it’s still common in parts of the world.) If you want, you can go call virtually every major figure of Greek or Roman history a pedophile, too, and with young boys, no less. I can’t really give Muhammad any positives on it (and, as a non-Muslim, it’s not like I’m willing to overlook his faults ;D)
To Melissa: Same kinda thing here. Really, as far as his treatment of the Jews went? Fairly impressive for the time. The primary exception was the massacre of the Jews at Medina. Regardless of whether or not they betrayed him, they did not deserve that fate. However, this fact does not may his progressive reforms any less true, it teaches us that he was not perfect, regardless of what some Muslims say.
Actually, I didn’t get much of this from the Quran. I got it from History books from like History 105 and other classes about the Mid East. The Quran doesn’t cover much of his policies or laws in great detail, because it’s not that kind of book. There’s kind of a lot of documentation about Mohammad’s social policies, because he created a successful political system in the Arabian peninsula. And that’s prbably more documentable than Jesus was.
yeah…the whole Ayesha thing, her being nine and all, was more a cultural thing. I read that the average girl in that part of the world, for whatever reason, hit puberty at ten or eleven (rather than twelve or thirteen). And the start of menses made a girl eligible for marriage…Kind of a crude system, but that was how everyone roled in the Arabian peninsula (and i do mean everyone). Like it wasn’t just that one Muslim guy Mohammad. It was Jews, and Christians, and polytheists, etc.