The Fight for the Soul of Islam

1. The Fight for the Soul of Islam

2. Part 1 The War from the East • Session 1.1 Is This War? • Session 1.2 Islam – One of the Great Monotheistic Religions • Session 1.3 The Fight for the Soul of Islam • Session 1.4 Dar al-Islam – The House of War • Session 1.5 The Global Caliphate • Session 1.6 Islam – Religion of Peace? • Session 1.7 The History of the Conflict • Session 1.8 Poverty in Islamic Nations

3. Outline • Introduction • Five Conflicting “Schools” • Before and After Medina • Tensions within the Quran • Islam’s Golden Age • The Battle for Islam

4. Introduction

5. Moderates Secularists Reformers Faith & Reason Enter the future Reconstructionists Enlightened Extremists Jihadists “Islamists” Faith w/out reason Return to the past Restorationists Strident “Titles”

6. A Set of Truisms • Most Muslims are not fundamentalists. • Most fundamentalist Muslims are not terrorists. • Today, most terrorists are Muslims.

7. Five Conflicting “Schools”

8. The Five Elements • The Pragmatists • The Reformers • The Secularists • The Fundamentalists • The Jihadists

9. The Pragmatists • Revelation (without reason?) • The ‘silent’ majority • Just want to live their lives and raise their families • “Go along to get along!” • Faith is for the private life, not the public arena • They have a vague understanding that Islam and Modernity are not in conflict • Like many Evangelical Gnostic Christians

10. The Reformers • Revelation and Reason • See Islam as a progressive, rational and reforming faith • Islam needs to be related to the real world (not necessarily accommodating Modernism) • Followers of Mohammed in Mecca • Perhaps a small minority of Muslims • Natural allies of other reasoning monotheists – Jews and Christians

11. The Reformer • Prof. Akbar Ahmed • Pakistani high commissioner to Britain • Prof: Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge • Chair of Islamic Studies at American University

12. The Secularists • Reason without Revelation • Operating consciously or unconsciously from an atheistic set of assumptions • Muslims by birth, name and historic background only • Reject Islam as a religion • Function from secular materialistic value system • Corresponding to liberal Christians

13. The Secularist • Ayaan Hirsi Ali • Member of Dutch Parliament • Author: The Infidel • Intellectual Refugee • Fellow American Enterprise Institute

14. The Fundamentalists • Revelation (without reason?) • Thoughtfully faithful Muslims • Consider that the problems of Muslims stem from too much modernization • Restorationists – return Islam and the world to the glorious past • Most are not violent • Corresponding to fundamentalist Christians

15. The Jihadists • Revelation without Reason • Restorationists – return Islam and the world to the glorious past • A minority of fundamentalists • Followers of Mohammed in Medina • Faith is to relate to every area of life including social, economic and political institutions

16. The Jihadist • Founder Al-Qaeda • Declared war on the USA • Planned 9/11 • Committed to the restoration of a global Muslim Empire

17. Before and After Medina

18. Mecca to Medina

19. Tensions within the Quran Reflect Mecca and Medina

20. Mecca Christians and Jews are “people of the book” Convert through persuasion Enlightened Roots of the Reformers Pluralism in society Freedom Medina Christians and Jews are “infidels” Conquer or kill them Strident Roots of the Jihadists Uniformity in society Tyranny Tensions in the Quran

21. Ijtihad – Concept of Reasoning • Fundamentalist Muslims: “a narrow, legalistic notion of it as a process of juristic reasoning….” • Reflects Medina • Legal Ijtihad • Reformist Muslims: “freedom of thought, rational thinking and the quest for truth through an epistemology covering science, rationalism, human experience, critical thinking …” • Reflects Mecca • “independent thinking” • Led to the Golden Age of Islam

22. REASON • Jews • Christians • (moderate) Muslims -IJTIHAD • Atheism • Pagan humanism NO REVELATION REVELATION • Muslims (Jihadists)-narrow view ijtihad • Some Christians • Some traditional religions • Pagan Animism • New Age NON-REASON Reason and Revelation

23. Islam’s Golden Age

24. Ijtihad

25. Ijtihad • IJTIHAD: For Freedom of thought and independent thinking among Muslims everywhere • http://www.ijtihad.org/ • Dr. Muqtedar Khan Associate Professor Political Science and International Relations University of Delaware

26. Caliphate of Cordoba Andalusia

27. Impact on Christianity • Ijtihad – “independent thinking” in Andalusia brought Jewish and Christian scholars to “think together” with Muslims. • Much of the dialog dealt with the relationship between faith (being people of the Book) and reason (the contribution of the Greek scholars). • The work done by Arab scholars was translated into Hebrew and Latin to impact Judaism and Christianity.

28. Achievements of the Golden Age • Architecture • The Arts • Literature • Medicine • Philosophy • Mathematics • Science and technology

29. Architecture • Moorish architecture in Spain • The Taj Mahal in India

30. The Arts

31. Literature

32. Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine

33. Mathematics • Arabic numerals • Concept of “zero” • Algebra • Algorithms

34. Science • Contributed to: • Experimental Physics • Optics • Experimental psychology • Astronomy • Chemistry (Jabir ibn Hayyan- “father of chemistry”)

35. Death of the Golden Age • Ibn Taymiya from Syria • 1263-1328 AD • Sunni Islamic scholar • Led movement to return to the fundamentalist understanding • Ended the Golden Age • The father of Islamic Fascism

36. Mecca Christians and Jews are “people of the book” Ijtihad – Freedom of thought Persuade Enlightened Reformers Pluralism in society Freedom Medina Christians and Jews are “infidels” “Ijtihad law” Conquer Strident Jihadists Uniformity in society Tyranny Moderates vs. Jihadists

37. The Battle for Islam