Islamic Scholar Warns U.S. of 'Two-Faced' Muslims
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, June 20, 2002
WASHINGTON – A leader of the small worldwide Muslim reform movement is warning
the West against wishful thinking as the U.S. government promotes an intensive
dialogue with Islam.
"The dialogue is not proceeding well because of the two-facedness of most Muslim
interlocutors on the one hand and the gullibility of well-meaning Western
idealists on the other," Bassam Tibi said Tuesday in an interview with United
Press International.
Syrian-born Tibi, who claims to be a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed
and teaches political science at Goettingen University in Germany, appealed for
intellectual honesty in these exchanges.
This Is 'Peace'?
"First, both sides should acknowledge candidly that although they might use
identical terms these mean different things to each of them. The word 'peace,'
for example, implies to a Muslim the extension of the Dar al-Islam – or 'House
of Islam' – to the entire world," explained Tibi, who is also a research scholar
at Harvard University.
"This is completely different from the Enlightenment concept of eternal peace
that dominates Western thought, a concept developed by Immanuel Kant," an
18th-century philosopher.
This Is 'Tolerance'?
"Similarly, when Muslims and the Western heirs of the Enlightenment speak of
tolerance they have different things in mind. In Islamic terminology, this term
implies abiding non-Islamic monotheists, such as Christians, Jews and
Zoroastrians, as second-class believers. They are 'dhimmi,' a protected but
politically immature minority."
According to Tibi, the quest of converting the entire world to Islam is an
immutable fixture of the Muslim worldview. Only if this task is accomplished, if
the world has become a "Dar al-Islam," will it also be a "Dar a-Salam," or a
house of peace.
Tibi appealed to his co-religionists to "revise their understanding of peace and
tolerance by accepting pluralism." Furthermore, he said, Muslim leaders should
give up the notion of Jihad in the sense of conquest, as opposed to Jihad as an
internal struggle of the individual.
Liberal Mush
Tibi's advice comes at a time when the U.S. government is urging American Muslim
leaders to promote understanding for the United States in Islamic regions. To
Tibi, this is more of a diplomatic endeavor than the promotion of a more
profound theological understanding between Islam and the Judeo-Christian
worldview prevalent in the West.
But Muzammil Siddiqi, one senior Islamic scholar the State Department consults
with, told UPI he found that his efforts in furthering contacts between Muslim,
Christian and Jewish theologians were having some success.
Indian-born Siddiqi is the director of the large Islamic Center of Orange County
in California. In consultation with the State Department and in cooperation with
the University of Kentucky, he traveled back and forth between the United States
and the Middle East trying to convince Muslim theologians and jurists to meet
with American church leaders.
"I have found that many, though not all, were ready to welcome visitors from
America and also to come here to explore with Christians and Jews what we have
in common," Siddiqi said.
Though Siddiqi's center is heavily engaged in interfaith activities, he made it
clear that to him, as indeed for conservative Christians, syncretism – the
mixing of religions – was anathema.
Common values should be sought out, he explained, and the equality of all
believers respected, be they Muslims, Christians, Hindus or Buddhists. But the
purity of the faith must not be compromised.
In an article in the prestigious Hamburg weekly Die Zeit, Tibi gave anecdotal
evidence of how daunting a task this dialogue with Islam can be.
Staring in Horror at the Bible
The bishop of Hildesheim in Germany paid an imam a courtesy visit in his mosque.
The imam handed the Catholic prelate a Koran, which he joyfully accepted. But
when the bishop tried to present the imam with a Bible, the Muslim cleric just
stared at him in horror and refused to even touch Christianity's holy book.
"The bishop was irritated because he perceived this behavior as a gross
discourtesy," wrote Tibi, "but the imam had only acted according to his faith.
For if an imam gives a bishop a Koran, he considers this a Da'Wa, or call to
Islam."
This, explained Tibi, must be borne in mind when one engages in a dialogue with
Muslim "scholars," for it corresponds to a verse in the Koran: "And say ... to
those who are unlearned: 'Do ye submit yourselves?'" (Surah 3:20).
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.