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ZIAUDDIN SARDARWednesday 21 January 2015

Islamic history is full of free thinkers - but recentattempts to suppress critical thought are verging onthe absurd

The West's best hope of dealing with the rise of Islamic extremism is to challenge the doctrinesmanufactured by religious scholars past and present, argues Ziauddin Sardar

SHARE "This has nothing to do with Islam," say the imams. "These callousand fanatic murders have nothing to do with us," say the mullahs."Islam means peace," say the worshippers. These disclaimers, andvariations on them, have been repeated countless times by Muslimcommentators since the Charlie Hebdo killings. They are designedto distance people from guilt by association with those who kill andmaim in the name of Islam.But what about the sentence recently handed down to the (mildly)liberal blogger Raif Badawi in the Islamic state of Saudi Arabia? Tenyears in jail, a massive fine, 1,000 lashes over 20 weeks (currentlysuspended because the first 50 lashes have rendered him"medically unfit")? Does this have "nothing to do with Islam"? Doesthe hashtag "Je suis un couteau" referring to this week's stabbingof 11 Israelis on a bus have "nothing to do with Islam"? Not tomention the 10 Christians killed during Charlie protests in Niger lastweek, or the ongoing depredations of al-Qaeda, Isis, Boko Haram,the Taliban and the Laskar Jihad of Indonesia?

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The psychotic followers of these organisations all think that they areMuslims, and their Islam is based on beliefs that millions whosubscribe to Wahhabism, the Saudi version of the religion and itskin, Salafism accept as essential ingredients of their faith. Forexample, that sharia, or Islamic law, is divinely ordained andimmutable; that apostates and blasphemers should be killed; thatwomen should be shrouded and confined to four walls and that menare their guardians.

This is a widespread version of Islam, made more so by moderncommunications; increasingly gaining followers in Europe, it can be,and is, used to justify all manner of atrocities. Yet this is an Islam ofmanufactured dogma which relies on neither the Koran nor theexample of the Prophet Mohamed.

So where do these beliefs come from? From today's extremistleaders, of course. But also, historically, from caliphs and clerics whorealised that religion could perform a very useful function: it couldkeep the masses in their place and ensure that power remained inthe hands of a select few.

The prime example of this thought-control is the notion is that sharialaw is divinely ordained and must be accepted in its totality withoutquestion. In fact, its ordinances were invented in the 9th century CE about two centuries after the Prophet Mohamed's death duringthe Abbasid rule of the Muslim Empire. The law of apostasy, forexample, was formulated to discourage revolt against the imperialstate.

As for state-sanctioned blasphemy laws now regarded assacrosanct in Pakistan, Egypt and other Muslim counties theywere actually first introduced by the colonial powers in the 19thcentury, to keep the peace between the different religiouscommunities that they ruled. In Pakistan, for example, blasphemybecame a crime in 1860, when the territory was still part of a greaterIndia. Inherited after partition in 1947, in 1982 the statutes wereexpanded and their penalties made harsher by the military dictatorMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq to bolster support from ultra-conservativereligious parties. Now they are seen as divine revelation!

But tightening the screws has long been the way in the Muslimheartlands. For example, in a highly influential decree from the 10thcentury CE, the Abbasid caliph Abdul Qadir, denounced criticalthought as "counter to Islam" and ordered his subjects to dissociatefrom philosophers and freethinkers, who were required "to repent",despite the fact that numerous verses in the Koran exhort believersto think, reflect and raise questions.

Four hundred years later, when power had shifted from AbbasidBaghdad to Mamaluk Cairo, religious scholars banned independentreasoning on issues of faith or as the formula has it, "closed thegates of ijtihad". In doing so, they laid claim to have solved all theproblems of humanity. In fact, they shut the door on theEnlightenment, which already-established Arab scholarship would doso much to kick-start.

And still it goes on, with recent attempts to suppress critical thoughtverging on the absurd. In September 2011, a Saudi cleric called forastronomy to be banned, and astronomers punished, because itencouraged scepticism about sharia. (This despite the fact thatastronomy, regarded as an "original Muslim science", has adistinguished history in Islamic civilisation.) This month, a Saudi

Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world


Jafar Umar Thalib, commander of the Java-based militant group Laskar Jihad,preaches at a mosque in Aceh, Indonesia, in 2002 (Getty)

cleric issued a fatwa forbidding the building of snowmen becausethey represented human beings and are therefore forbidden bysharia law.

The essential message of these historic and contemporary decrees isclear: the self-appointed guardians of Islam must be revered notcross-examined. The rules handed down and conjured up todaymust be accepted, not interrogated. The pronouncements of imamsand sheikhs, mullahs and ayatollahs whether educated or semi-literate are both the word and will of God.

But despite what these religious despots would have their followersthink, in fact Islamic history is full of free thinkers who have stood upto such authoritarianism. During the 8th century CE, when sharialaw was being shaped, the Persian writer and thinker Ibn al-Muqaffadeclared that it had the potential of becoming a political tool in thehands of kings and clerics manipulating the rough and credulous. Andduring the 9th and 10th centuries, a host of writers, satirist and freethinkers joined him in denouncing dogmatism.READ MORE: WE CAN WIN THE FIGHT TO SAVE RAIF BADAWI CHECHNYA DECLARES HOLIDAY FOR RALLY AGAINST CHARLIE HEBDO NEARLY HALF OF FRENCH PEOPLE OPPOSE MOHAMMED CARTOONS SAUDI MUSLIM LEADER ORGANISING 'LEGAL ACTION AGAINST CHARLIE HEBDO

The accomplished theologian Ibn al-Rawandi mocked religiousscholars and the nonsense they peddled about a Paradise full ofvirgins. (Could it be pleasing to anyone but a rustic, he wondered.)His contemporary, the polymath and natural scientist Abu Bakr al-Razi, insisted that Islam without reason had no value. The renownedblind poet Abul "Ala" al-Ma'arri sought to correct "what establishedreligion took for God's criteria".

Their contemporary, the scientist Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, who isregarded by some as a free thinker not only of his age but across allages, insisted that it was essential to question everything fromreligion to philosophy and to respect criticism, including of one'sreligion, in order to benefit from its arguments. And the 12th-century philosopher Ibn Rushd, who later had huge influence onEuropean thought, argued that matters of belief should be decidedonly on the basis of reason and evidence a position deemed sodangerous that his numerous books were banned, and Ibn Rushdhimself was briefly banished.


Jailed blogger Raif Badawi, pictured with his childrenFrom their different perspectives, these and numerous other freethinkers of Islamic history arrived at a common conclusion: state-sponsored Islam is full of edicts and rituals that are absurd andinsulting to reason. Free thought was the only way to cut throughthis nonsense and take us closer to God.

So why don't we hear more about these great thinkers andquestioners today? Because concentrated attempts have been made,and continue to be made, to stifle free thinking and wipe its recordfrom Islam's history. The traditional curriculum, unchanged forcenturies, in most madrassas, seminaries and "Islamic universities"is devoted solely to the works of "approved" imams and scholars,and even the minutest critical thought is ruthlessly expunged. (InSaudi Arabia and most Gulf states, for example, it is forbidden toteach the ideas and works of Ibn al-Rawandi, Ibn Rushd, and al-Biruni.) In recent years, Saudi Arabia's rulers have spent 70bn inattempts to suppress critical thought funding mosques, madrassas,universities and tele-evangelicals with the result that generationsof Muslims around the world, including Britain, now imbibe theWahhabi ideology.

Luckily, though, not all. There are still some contemporary thinkersfollowing in the footsteps of the classical intellectuals. The late NasrHamid Abu Zayd, an Egyptian who died in July 2010, declared thatsharia was "man-made" and that the Koran was deliberatelymanipulated by religious scholars to justify their unquestionableauthority. For wanting a more humanistic and contemporaryinterpretation of the Koran, he was labelled an apostate, required todivorce his wife and hounded out of his country. Similarly, the 69-year-old Abdolkarim Soroush who has argued that Islam cannotrely on the dogmatic certainties of the past and urgently requiresrethinking has been forced into exile from Iran.


The critical Syrian poet Adonis (Getty)

Again, the great Syrian poet Adonis, 85, has been declared a hereticand imprisoned for his beliefs, simply because he wants to re-framethe whole notion of God in Islam. The orthodox, God, he says, isrepresented as the vengeful patriarch of an Arab tribe. He questionsthis characterisation of Allah as remote, perpetually angry andwithout mercy, ever ready to punish even the tiniest deviation from"correct belief" and unable to be depicted lest the gullible massesmistake the portrayal for the real thing. And in his works he seeks ahuman connection with a God who is always near and merciful.

Today, as in history, all attempts to rethink our understanding andrelationship with God, to interrogate orthodox belief, to bring reasonback to Islam, are shunned not just by the fanatics but by the vastmajority of Muslims. The manufactured articles of faith seem to havean unassailable hold on Muslim minds. And so the moderate freethinkers' legacy, so vital at this time of sectarian warfare withinIslam, is swept collectively under the carpet of accepted, if artificial,doctrine.

This phenomenon is the central problem in all varieties of Islam. Inthe absence of reason and criticism, the heritage has become toxic.At best, it promotes intolerance and bigotry; at worse, it manifestsitself as fanaticism and violent jihadism. And until more Muslimsquestion it, they cannot claim that its manifestations have "nothingto do with Islam".

Our best hope of dealing with extremism is to challenge the doctrinesmanufactured by religious scholars, from the past and present. Thedistinguished history of critical thought in Islam must be broughtback from the periphery to the centre. And if its spread is hinderedin the Muslim heartlands, then it must be exported back from theWest.

In Britain, for example, it should be an essential part of thecurriculum whenever and wherever Islam is taught including faithschools and seminaries such as the Darul Ulum in Birmingham aswell as in any comparative religion classes. There should be a propersystem of certifying imams, who clearly need much more than atraditional education that simply perpetuates uncritical acceptance.

What's more, British Muslims need to create and defend the freedomto question and, if necessary, reject religious authorities of the pastand present. And why can't we see this theme explored on television,instead of the usual programmes about terrorism and the hajj? Ifnothing else, a TV series on free thought in Islam would supply somematerial to Westerners, so that they could engage with Muslims in adiscourse based on mutual respect.

Finally, let us be heard. No doubt many Muslims want to protestagainst jihad. But, at the very least, we should also be rallying against


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the Saudi hijacking of Islam. You may "be" Charlie, and much goodmay it do you. But we'll know progress has been made when outside the mosque instead of "Je suis un couteau", we see signssaying: "Je suis Raif."

Ziauddin Sardar is editor of the quarterly journal 'Critical Muslim'.His book, 'Mecca: The Sacred City', is published by Bloomsbury

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