Salman Shuaib (Toronto, Canada), 13 January 2006

on Islam Needs to Evolve, by Tahir Aslam Gora

Yes Muslim countries do not even behave justly with each other, but Gora very deceivingly tries to connect that with Islam to promote his own personal ideology of a water-down Islam. His stance may appeal to a western audience who do not have inside knowledge, but in fact Pakistan dominating Afghanistan or Syria invading Lebanon has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Islam and everything to do with geopolitics. The fact is that mullahs have never won more than 5% seats in Pakistan's parliament until the American invasion of Afghanistan which caused a backlash, and since the mullahs are the most hawkish in condemning the invasion so people elected them in large numbers.

I have lived in Pakistan for 18 years, I went to the Friday khutba (address) virtually every week and I swear by God that I have never heard any Imam condemn people's of other faith or say that we're supposed to kill or persecute people's of other faith. I never heard it in school, I never heard it from my parents, I never heard it on TV. I read the whole Quran with translation many times and that never occurred to me. I have read Muhammad's biography and the belief was quite the opposite. It was only when I came to Canada that I learnt from western media that we're supposed to kill others of different faith!

The truth, which may surprise many, is that our problem is not that we take Islam too seriously, it is in fact that we don't take Islam seriously enough! Let me explain:

In Pakistan, my home country, for example, I knew of no one in my immediate or extended family, no one amongst my friends or their friends who tried to become an imam or went into formal religious studies. Yes, no one in the middle class or the elite goes for becoming an imam because there's no money or prestige there. Parents want their children to become doctors, engineers and accountants and would frown if their child decided to become an imam. In fact the whole community would regard you as staid or backward if you took a prominent religious role. That role is reserved mainly for people from the villages or other backward/economically disenfranchised classes.

As you know people from such backgrounds are conservative and more into religion. Moreover, a man from the economically disenfranchised classes knows he can't make a high-flying living anyways, so there's nothing keeping him from becoming an imam. Most of them are pious people, but due to their backwards non-scholarly backgrounds they don't exactly interpret the religion very enlightendly! Their opinions are swayed by emotions, a sign of ignorance! Real scholars and imams are extremely few.

By God, I have found more real Muslim scholars in Canada than in Pakistan. That's because the ones here have at least some real education and are from the middle classes, the imam of my mosque IMO (Toronto) for example is doing PhD in some Islam related field! You don't get that almost ANYWHERE in Pakistan and most Muslim countries!

When the interpretation of religion is in the hands of the ignorant and conservatives, can you really blame Islam for it? No, it is us the general Muslim populace that is to blame for having becoming careless with regards to our religion! But Gora comes up and wants us to reject our religion instead of targeting the real issue of apathy! It is because he has complexes just like the people I mentioned who are allergic to religion because the backward conservative domination of it has made it seem "uncool" or averse to anything modern!

It is not Islam that "needs to evolve", it is Muslims who need to evolve and embrace its high principles, which include, some may be surprised: peace, freedom, rule of law, and dispassionate regard for justice! We need the institutions and environment that can churn out real Islamic scholars and imams, rather than amateurs from a select background! It is misleading to argue that Muslims must dilute their religion to progress just like the west, our history and experience with religion is entirely different! We were the torchbearers in every field of human endeavour for 1000 years whilst religion was strong!

The greatest thing in the West is rule of law, and early Islamic history especially has demonstrated that rule of law and equal treatment of others is achievable in spite of, and in fact, due to religion! It was not a coincidence that a Muslim qadi (judge) gave a court ruling against the Caliph Ali and in favour of a Jew about a shield stolen from the caliph!

Concerning the death threats received by Gora, it is again due to lack of rule of law in Muslim countries – a situation common in all third world countries – and of course since we love our religion a lot, there are some ignorant simple-minded people who go to extremes and try to take the law into their own hands, both because the courts themselves are incapable of dealing with any malice justly, and because they cannot catch the ones levelling such threats because of their inefficiency! It doesn't have anything to do with Islam because Islam absolutely prohibits taking the law into one's own hands! Islam requires absolute justice, and if real Islamic scholarship and law could be revived, it would deal absolutely justly and not emotionally with people like Gora!

Mere words can only be countered by mere words unless they have led to bloodshed or other harm, or if that which Gora says is proven to be a patently false accusation then he will face punishment that is proportionate to his crime, just like in the West libel is punished!

On the other hand, if the accuser is wrong then it is possible under Islamic law to punish him too, otherwise everyone would be scared of expressing their opinion! But, if you have no system of justice that people have confidence in then anyone can get up and interpret the law and religion arbitrarily and level death threats! They are absolutely illegal and punishable as far as Islamic law (shariah) is concerned! No one can take the law into their own hands! However, no one can prevent them until there are well-educated and well-respected imams in place in the local mosque to guide the simple-minded people as to right and wrong!

Regards,

Salman Shuaib
Toronto, Canada