The Conflict Within

An excerpt from my book, “The Conflict Within: Expressing Religion Through Politics”; Chapter “Muslims in Conflict”, pub. iUniverse, Inc., Bloomington, IN; 2011.   

 Despite the tragedy of September 11, and the subsequent terrorist acts against Western targets throughout the world, despite the clash-of-civilizations mentality that has seized the globe, despite the blatant religious rhetoric resonating throughout the halls of governments, there is one thing that cannot be overemphasized.  What is taking place now in the Muslim world is an internal conflict among Muslims, not an external battle between Islam and the West.  The West is merely a bystander—an unwary yet complicit casualty of a rivalry that is raging in Islam over who will write the next chapter in its story. This internal struggle is taking place not in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, but in the developing capitals of the Muslim world—Tehran, Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Islamabad and Jakarta—and in the cosmopolitan capitals of Europe and the united States—New York, London, Paris, and Berlin—where that message is being redefined by scores of first-and-second generation Muslim immigrants. By merging the Islamic values of their ancestors with the democratic ideals of their new homes, these Muslims have formed what Tariq Ramadan (the Swiss-born intellectual and grandson of Hasan al-Banna) has termed the “mobilizing force” for the Islamic Reformation.

      All great religions have grappled with these issues.  One need only recall the Europe’s massively destructive Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) between the forces of the Protestant Union and those of the Catholic League to recognize the ferocity with which interreligious conflicts have been fought in Christian history. The awful war during which nearly a third of the population of Germany perished was a gradual progression in Christian theology from the doctrinal absolutism to the doctrinal pluralism of the early modern period, and ultimately, to the doctrinal relativism of the Enlightenment.  This remarkable evolution in Christianity from its inception to its Reformation took fifteen bloody centuries.

      Some fourteen hundred years of rabid debate over what it means to be a Muslim; of passionate arguments over the interpretation of the Quran and the application of Islamic law; of trying to reconcile a fractured community through appeals to Divine Unity; of tribal feuds, crusades, and world wars—Islam has finally begun its fifteenth century.