Western Muslims and the Future of Islam

Gerry O'Hanlon, SJ

Issue 388, vol.97, Winter 2008

Many Muslims in the West (according to Ramadan) feel either that ‘enlightened Westerners’ are telling them that they should behave in a less ‘backward’ manner – or that they must let Muslim scholars in the East and other Muslims worldwide speak for them. They see themselves as a threatened minority who must fight for rights – a bi-polar stance which can mutate into opposition, outright hostility or even aggression. Ramadan advises them to give themselves ideological space by properly appreciating those fundamental rights which western countries allow them.

While there are in Islam certain clear revelations which are absolute and unchangeable, still there are other areas (he says), particularly the public and social arenas, where new situations demand a re-interpretation of the Qur’an. It is the role of the ‘Islamic sciences’ – particularly Islamic law and jurisprudence – to make the distinctions. In fact, it is only certain verses of the Qur’an (actually a minority) which leave little or no scope for interpretation. For Ramadan, even the corpus of the Sharia (The Way) is a human construction,‘the work of human intellect’ – and so may evolve…a totally different notion from what the term Sharia conjures up in the West, e.g., the threat of repression for women; physical punishments; rejection of secular democracy, etc. (One notes a parallel here with the growing understanding within Christianity that doctrine develops). Equally, there is no reason for Muslims to be hindered by their religion in their approach to science and technology, in following a set of completely autonomous scientific rules and methods.

It is in the sphere of economics (rather than of the rights of women, or of Sharia) that Ramadan instances an issue not allowing of compromise. He declares that all forms of speculation, usury, and credit-with-interest (and not just lending at exorbitant rates) – because outlawed in the Qur’an and Sunna – are an ethical non-negotiable. One wonders how a position like this would fare, if subjected to the full-blooded, multi-level method of theological inquiry now familiar to Christianity.

He notes the vibrancy of Islamic feminism in the West, leading increasingly to women (whether veiled or unveiled) in leadership roles and at the cutting edge of the re-reading of Scriptural sources. He urges Muslims to avoid any ghettoization and to join with fellow-citizens at all levels of civil/political society.

Islam’s deep respect for the transcendent, its belief in the reality and attainability of truth, its emphasis on the distinction but not outright separation between Religion and State, its moral earnestness, its deep commitment to justice, its concern for ecology – all these can be powerful allies for Christians in their struggle against the prevailing climate in the West of secularism, relativism and the ‘privatization’ of religion.

Gerry O’Hanlon, S.J. Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, Dublin