religion reforms (7.2.06, update 29.12.07)

As protests continue across the world, can the cartoon dispute be resolved or is the row a symptom of an increasing gulf between two cultures?

At least 10 people have been killed and several injured in Libya in clashes during a protest over a T-shirt worn by an Italian minister displaying the cartoons.

On Friday, Denmark temporarily shut its embassy in Islamabad after days of violent protests in Pakistan.

Has the lack of understanding between the Muslim and non-Muslim world fuelled the protests? Or are there reasons speciic to local demonstrations? Are you going to a demonstration?

Inconsistency
    And here came the first inconsistency on one side. More than two years previously, in April 2003, a Danish cartoonist Christoffer Zieler offered some cartoons of Jesus Christ to Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest daily paper and generally seen as right-wing. One of the paper's editors told Zieler: "I don't think Jyllands-Posten's readers will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think that they will provoke an outcry. Therefore, I will not use them."
    (Update: a reader has pointed out that in 2000 the paper did publish a cartoon in which Joseph, quoting Bill Clinton at the time of Monica Lewinsky, says about Mary: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." The reader queries therefore why J-P should be criticised over the Zieler offerings. I would reply that the inconsistency remains because of the reasons stated for the refusal, that they would offend.)
    No such concern prevailed when Jyllands-Posten decided to solicit drawings of Muhammad after a children's author, Kare Bluitgen, had been unable to find illustrators for his book about the Prophet (written with the intention of widening understanding, though one reader has asked why, if this was so, he had even sought to use such illustrations). The illustrators refused either because they knew that portraits of the Prophet were against Islamic tradition, or were afraid of reprisals.

Internationalisation
    Publication led to immediate protests by Muslim leaders in Denmark - and an immediate effort by them to internationalise the issue. Imam Raed Hlayhel gave an interview to the news website of the Arabic channel Al Jazeera and said: "This type of democracy is worthless for Muslims. Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation." The paper's editor-in-chief Carsten Juste replied: "We live in a democracy. Satire is accepted in this country, and you can make caricatures. Religion shouldn't set any barriers on that sort of expression."
    At this stage the row was largely confined to Denmark. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused to get involved and declined a meeting with eleven Arab ambassadors mobilised by the Danish imams.
    On 17 October, a curious thing happened. Six of the cartoons were prominently reprinted in an Egyptian newspaper, al-Fagr. The paper said they were racist and would insult Muslims everywhere and predicted an outcry. However, at this stage, nothing happened on the streets. There was no public outcry. It took concerted action by the Danish Muslim leaders to effect a change.

Wider audience
They decided to take their complaints both about the cartoons and about the position of Muslims in Denmark to other audiences. In December, encouraged by an imam well known in Denmark, Abu Laban, a delegation went to the Middle East where they saw leading Islamic scholars and political leaders. They took along the cartoons as evidence but they also included in a 43-page dossier three other drawings which were even more insulting and which had not been published in Jyllands-Posten.
The dossier revealed inconsistencies of it own. It contained some placatory statements to the effect that the delegation simply wanted "stable relations, and a flourishing Denmark for all that live here." But it also contained some rude remarks about Denmark including the sentence "If you say that they are all infidels, then you are not wrong".

The 'non-cartoons'
The three extra drawings were said to have been sent to Muslims in Denmark as insults. However one of them, apparently showing the prophet with the face of a pig, has been traced to a photo of the winner of a pig-squealing contest in the French Pyrenees last summer. It remains unclear as to how this last picture, a grey photocopy, came to such prominence but it does seem to have played a role in the raising of the temperature.

The crisis has exposed the fragility of relations between the West and Muslim countries
The delegation spokesman, Ahmed Akkari, said they pointed out the status of the different pictures on their travels but the "pigface" photocopy was later filmed in Gaza at the end of January when gunmen took over EU offices, and so somehow it had been lifted out and given importance.

Mecca meeting
    A key moment came in December at a meeting of the Organisation of The Islamic Conference (OIC) in Mecca, itself such an important and relevant venue for a discussion of Muhammad. This transformed the issue. The OIC expressed its concern at "rising hatred against Islam and Muslims" and condemned "the recent incident of desecration of the image of the Holy Prophet Muhammad". Its statement attacked the "use of freedom of expression as a pretext for defaming religions".
    The row had moved from an argument in Denmark through Islamic circles in the Middle East to become political as well. Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark on 26 January. Demonstrations followed across the Middle East. Western governments strove for calm, with statements to the effect that there was a right to publish but a responsibility not to publish.
    In turn this prompted a counter-move by defenders of free speech and the cartoons appeared in some, though relatively few, Western publications. On 31 January, Jyllands-Posten issued the apology it had refused to give earlier.

Conclusions
    By now, the crisis had exposed the fragility of relations between the West and Muslim countries. The publication might have passed without major international trouble if these relations had been calm. At the moment, they are not and in such fertile soil, the seed of conflict grew rapidly.
    One side felt the insults deeply. The other saw the violence as overreaction. And in process, the battle was joined within Islam. In Britain, this process was seen very clearly. The extremist elements made their voices heard first, with small, but fervent protests and placards ("Behead those who insult Islam" etc) that led to calls for police action.
    But they also led moderate elements within the Muslim community to rally their forces and this they did with a demonstration in Trafalgar Square. This struggle for the hearts and minds of Islam may yet prove to be the most significant battle of all, even more important than a confrontation between Western secularism and Islamic belief.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Levy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

MORE college students seem to be practicing traditional forms of religion today than at any time in my 30 years of teaching. At first glance, the flourishing of religion on campuses seems to reverse trends long criticized by conservatives under the rubric of “political correctness.” But, in truth, something else is occurring. Once again, right and left have become mirror images of each other; religious correctness is simply the latest version of political correctness. Indeed, it seems the more religious students become, the less willing they are to engage in critical reflection about faith.

The chilling effect of these attitudes was brought home to me two years ago when an administrator at a university where I was then teaching called me into his office. A student had claimed that I had attacked his faith because I had urged him to consider whether Nietzsche’s analysis of religion undermines belief in absolutes. The administrator insisted that I apologize to the student. (I refused.)

My experience was not unique. Today, professors invite harassment or worse by including “unacceptable” books on their syllabuses or by studying religious ideas and practices in ways deemed improper by religiously correct students.

Distinguished scholars at several major universities in the United States have been condemned, even subjected to death threats, for proposing psychological, sociological or anthropological interpretations of religious texts in their classes and published writings. In the most egregious cases, defenders of the faith insist that only true believers are qualified to teach their religious tradition.

At a time when colleges and universities engage in huge capital campaigns and are obsessed with public relations, faculty members can no longer be confident they will remain free to pose the questions that urgently need to be asked.

For years, I have begun my classes by telling students that if they are not more confused and uncertain at the end of the course than they were at the beginning, I will have failed. A growing number of religiously correct students consider this challenge a direct assault on their faith. Yet the task of thinking and teaching, especially in an age of emergent fundamentalisms, is to cultivate a faith in doubt that calls into question every certainty.

Any responsible curriculum for the study of religion in the 21st century must be guided by two basic principles: first, a clear distinction between the study and the practice of religion, and second, an expansive understanding of what religion is and of the manifold roles it plays in life. The aim of critical analysis is not to pass judgment on religious beliefs and practices — though some secular dogmatists wrongly cross that line — but to examine the conditions necessary for their formation and to consider the many functions they serve.

It is also important to explore the similarities and differences between and among various religions. Religious traditions are not fixed and monolithic; they are networks of symbols, myths and rituals, which evolve over time by adapting to changing circumstances. If we fail to appreciate the complexity and diversity within, and among, religious traditions, we will overlook the fact that people from different traditions often share more with one another than they do with many members of their own tradition.

If chauvinistic believers develop deeper analyses of religion, they might begin to see in themselves what they criticize in others. In an era that thrives on both religious and political polarization, this is an important lesson to learn — one that extends well beyond the academy.

Since religion is often most influential where it is least obvious, it is imperative to examine both its manifest and latent dimensions. As defenders of a faith become more reflective about their own beliefs, they begin to understand that religion can serve not only to provide answers that render life more secure but also to prepare them for life’s unavoidable complexities and uncertainties.

Until recently, many influential analysts argued that religion, a vestige of an earlier stage of human development, would wither away as people became more sophisticated and rational. Obviously, things have not turned out that way. Indeed, the 21st century will be dominated by religion in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago. Religious conflict will be less a matter of struggles between belief and unbelief than of clashes between believers who make room for doubt and those who do not.

The warning signs are clear: unless we establish a genuine dialogue within and among all kinds of belief, ranging from religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism, the conflicts of the future will probably be even more deadly.

Mark C. Taylor, a religion and humanities professor at Williams College, is the author of “Mystic Bones.”

DEARBORN, Mich. Twice recently, vandals have shattered windows at three mosques and a dozen businesses popular among Shiite Muslims along Warren Avenue, the spine of the Arab community here. Although the police have arrested no one, most in Dearborn's Iraqi Shiite community blame the Sunni Muslims.

"The Shiites were very happy that they killed Saddam, but the Sunnis were in tears," Aqeel Al-Tamimi, 34, an immigrant Iraqi truck driver and a Shiite, said as he ate roasted chicken and flatbread at Al-Akashi restaurant, one of the establishments damaged over the city line in Detroit. "These people look at us like we sold our country to America."

Escalating tensions between Sunnis and Shiites across the Middle East are rippling through some American Muslim communities, and have been blamed for events including vandalism and student confrontations. Political splits between those for and against the American invasion of Iraq fuel some of the animosity, but it is also a fight among Muslims about who represents Islam.

Long before the vandalism in Dearborn and Detroit, feuds had been simmering on some college campuses. Some Shiite students said they had faced repeated discrimination, like being formally barred by the Sunni-dominated Muslim Student Association from leading prayers. At numerous universities, Shiite students have broken away from the association, which has dozens of chapters nationwide, to form their own groups.

"A microcosm of what is happening in Iraq happened in New Jersey because people couldn't put aside their differences," said Sami Elmansoury, a Sunni Muslim and former vice president of the Islamic Society at Rutgers University, where there has been a sharp dispute.

Though the war in Iraq is one crucial cause, some students and experts on sectarianism also attribute the fissure to the significant growth in the Muslim American population over the past few decades.

Before, most major cities had only one mosque and everyone was forced to get along. Now, some Muslim communities are so large that the majority Sunnis and minority Shiites maintain their own mosques, schools and social clubs. Many Muslim students first meet someone from the other branch of their faith at college. The Shiites constitute some 15 percent of the world's more than 1.3 billion Muslims, and are believed to be proportionally represented among America's estimated six million Muslims.

Sectarian tensions mushroomed during the current Muslim month of Muharram. The first 10 days ended on Tuesday with Ashura, the day when Shiites commemorate the death of Saddam, who was the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad and who was killed during the bloody seventh-century disputes over who would rule the faithful, a schism that gave birth to the Sunni and Shiite factions.

The Shiites and the Sunnis part company over who has the right to rule and interpret scripture. Shiites hold that only descendants of Mohammad can be infallible and hence should rule. Sunnis allow a broader group, as long as there is consensus among religious scholars.

Many Shiites mark Ashura with mourning processions that include self-flagellation or rhythmic chest beating, echoing the suffering of the seventh-century Saddam. As several thousand Shiites marched up Park Avenue in Manhattan on Jan. 28 to mark Ashura, the march's organizers handed out a flier describing his killing as "the first major terrorist act." Sunnis often decry Ashura marches as a barbaric, infidel practice.

Last year, a Sunni student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor sent a screed against Ashura to the Muslim Student Association's e-mail message list. The document had been taken off SunniPath.com, one of many Web sites of Islamic teachings that Shiite students said regularly spread hate disguised as religious scholarship.

Azmat Khan, a 21-year-old senior and political science major, said that she, like other Shiites on campus, was sometimes asked whether she was a real Muslim. "To some extent, the minute you identify yourself as a Shiite, it outs you," Khan said. "You feel marginalized."

Yet some Shiite students said they were reluctant to speak up because they felt that Islam was under assault in the United States, so internal tension would only undermine much-needed unity among Muslims. At the same time, the students said, the ideas used by some Sunnis to label Shiites as heretics need to be confronted because they underlie jihadi radicalism.

At the Ann Arbor campus, Shiite students set up a forum for all Muslims to discuss their differences, but no Sunnis who had endorsed the e-mail message about Ashura showed up, and the group eventually disbanded.

Trying to ease tensions, the Muslim Student Association this year invited a prominent Shiite cleric to speak. "I don't want Shiite students to feel alienated," said Nura Sediqe, the president of the Ann Arbor student group. "But the dominant group never sees as much of a problem as the minority."

At the University of Michigan's campus in Dearborn, the Muslim association pushed through rules that effectively banned Shiites from leading collective prayers.

Apart from a greater veneration among Shiites for the Prophet's descendants, there are slight variations in practice. Shiites, for example, pray with their hands at their sides, while Sunnis cross them over their chests. "Most Sunni Muslims can't pray behind a Shiite because if you are praying differently from the way the leader is, then it doesn't work, it's not valid," said Ramy Shabana, the president of the association on the Dearborn campus.

Shiite students at various universities said they faced constant prejudice. Some Sunni students have refused to greet Shiites with "Salamu aleikum," or "Peace be upon you," to slight them.

At Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Salmah Rizvi, a junior who stocked a reading room with Islamic texts, said the Muslim Student Association there told her to remove them because too many were by Shiite authors.

Students have also taken note of attacks on their faith from the broader world through the Internet. One YouTube video showed Catholics bleeding by crucifying themselves and then showed Shiites bleeding through self-flagellation, as the Arabic voiceover suggested that Shiites were more Catholic than Muslim.

Not all campuses have been affected. Some, like Georgetown University and Cornell University, were considered oases of tolerance. At Rutgers University, the tension started last year after 15 to 20 conservative Sunni students began openly mocking Shiites, and considered barring women from leading the student association. "They felt it was time to correct individuals within the organization, cleansing the beliefs of the students," said Elmansoury, who opposed the rift.

Several students involved said the group was heavily influenced by teachings from Saudi Arabia. The puritanical Wahhabi sect there holds that Shiite reverence for the Prophet's family smacks of idolatry.

Shiite advocates believe that that thinking has influenced some mainstream American Muslim organizations like the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on American Islamic Relations, which they said were slow to criticize attacks against Shiites abroad until the violence in Iraq escalated. As a consequence, Shiites founded their own national lobbying organizations.

Both organizations denied that they disregarded Shiite issues. Still, some Muslims said that prejudices had continued. After Saddam Hussein's execution Dec. 30, one Sunni cleric near Dearborn reportedly gave a sermon concluding that the Prophet Mohammad forgave his enemies, so why couldn't certain people in Iraq?

Much of the Middle East tension stems from the sense that Shiite power is growing, led by Iran. The grisly video of Saddam's execution, with his Shiite executioners mocking him, fanned the flames. "As a Shiite, I was taking in this event very differently from the Sunnis," said Shenaaz Janmohamed, a graduate student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. "In a lot of ways Saddam has become this martyr figure who sort of represents Shiite unruliness."

It is not the first time Shiite-Sunni tensions have spilled over into the West. Britain has experienced periodic outbursts for years. Stabbings and other violence between Sunni and Shiite prisoners in New York state jails prompted a long-running lawsuit by Shiite inmates seeking separate prayer facilities.

Some Muslims worry that the friction might erupt in greater violence in the United States. Others, in both camps, think the tension could prove healthy, forcing American Muslims to start a dialogue about Muslim differences.

"Du gleichst dem Geist den Du begreifst"
(you resemble the spirit which you comprehend)
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust
“Traveller, there is no road,
the road is made by the traveller!”
Antonio Machado

Whereas even with the best of intentions, as illustrated by the recurringly violent schisms among the Jewish, Christian and, now again, the Muslim communities, simmering conflicts anywhere can unwittingly and suddenly be brought into the open, spin out of control and jump national borders, without much chance of being contained and eventually resolved on worn-out tracks with only traditional means and methods, thus calling for fresh eyes, open minds and principled reflections on such mostly forgotten but still mutually helpful common roots as can be found notably among the Assyrians, their monotheistic traditions and the Holy Scriptures of the other One God religions; and

Whereas the Holy Quran says of Idris (Isaiah): "surely he was a truthful man, a prophet" (19.65), and the Old Testament mentions his prophecy as follows (19:23-25):
"In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance."; and

Whereas Ayatollah Khomeini embraced Persia's ancient monotheistic and other traditions, with Nawroz, the ancient New Year festivities, taking precedence over more recent traditions; and

Whereas the study of the roots of monotheism, particularly those preceding Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions, has been welcomed by Al Azhar's Imam Tantaoui"for the sake of sincere worship of God, to follow the good moralities, to spread the kind virtues among people and to declare the spirit of Brotherhood, Tolerance, Freedom and Peace among all the members of human society. Besides that, Al Azhar thanks those who assist in building such kind of institute and preparing it for the good aims and purposes mentioned above"; and

Whereas the One God religions of the Egyptian, Persian and Assyrian empires have been built on the eternally and universally valid principle of "good thoughts, good words, and good deeds"; and

Whereas the Assyrian people, now numbering over 3 million persons worldwide, have had an uninterrupted presence in Mesopothamia for over 4000 years; and with some of those deriving their identity, inspirations and aspirations from this obliging history sent their sons into battles on the side of allied troops in the First World War; and who thus also gained recognition and official pledges for autonomy and, in the run-up to the admission, on 3rd October 1932, of the independent Kingdom of Iraq to the League of Nations, if not for statehood then at least for international guarantees on minority and private property protection; and

Whereas notably the Arab, Assyrian, Kurdish, Turkoman, Yezidi and other ethnic, language or religious communities residing in the Mosul Vilayet (Northern Iraq) were formally granted international guarantees with Iraq's constitutive Declaration of 30 Mai 1932; and

Whereas Iraq joined the United Nations in 1945 without any changes to those international guarantees, and without diminishing the "obligations of international concern" which Iraq incurred as a condition of its independence,

Whereas the United Nations General Assembly resolved that it "will itself examine, or will submit to the appropriate organ of the United Nations, any request from the parties that the United Nations should assume the exercise of functions or powers entrusted to the League of Nations by treaties, international conventions, agreements and other instruments having a political character" (Resolution 24 (I), 12 February 1946); and

Whereas the International Court of Justice, in an Advisory Opinion of June 1950 concerning the analoguous Namibia case, expressed the opinion:
"These [international guarantees and minority and private property protection] obligations represent the very essence of the sacred trust of civilization. Their raison d'?tre and original object remain. Since their fulfilment did not depend on the existence of the League of Nations, they could not be brought to an end merely because this supervisory organ [i.e. the Council of the League of Nations] ceased to exist. Nor could the right of the population to have the Territory administered in accordance with these rules depend thereon." ( I.C.J. Reports 1950, p.133); and

Whereas the Representatives of the Mosul Vilayet's constitutive Arab, Assyrian, Kurdish, Turkoman and Yezidi communities, mayors, universities, political parties and main professional associations, by way of their joint Declarations of 1992, reiterated and amplified notably by their Unity Declaration of 31 May 1994 and in line with the above fully valid international guarantees and obligations, called on the powers to "take such measures and give such directions as [they] may deem proper and effective in the circumstances"; and

Whereas the Representatives of the Mosul Vilayet's Assyrian, Kurdish and Turkoman communities in particular have taken the lead to provide both for effective dispute-settlement, reconciliation, power-sharing and land-registry measures as well as for practical and mutually helpful initiatives designed to avoid religious and other conflicts and to provide for individual security, recovery and well-being; and

Whereas the Assyrian communities in Iraq and in the Diaspora in America and elsewhere, for the common good of not only their co-religionists in Iraq but also for that of their brethren in One God here and there, have labored hard, competently and with a commendable clearsightedness, vision and determination; as is evidenced, for example, with their Amsterdam Resolution of 27 April 2003, which has been supported by the representatives of all existing Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac associations worldwide, thus:

Whereas the House Committee on International Relations has received for consideration a resolution"Expressing concern for the status of the Assyrian people in post-war Iraq" (H. RES. 272, June 12, 2003), specifying "Assyrians should be entitled to freely practice their religion and customs, speak their language, and celebrate their culture in Iraq"; and

Whereas the signatories of the Amsterdam Resolution, "noting that for Iraq's Assyrians, too, religion and language are so intertwined that to suppress either one will effectively mean the destruction of the Assyrian identity", also "invite the representatives of the Arab, Kurdish, Turkomen and other constitutive parts of Iraq's multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-language society to jointly explore suitable avenues for contributing to the regional stability as well as to the internal and external security, e.g. by creating a Truth Commission for examining and overcoming the effects of Iraq's recent past"; and

Whereas the Swiss Federal Pact of 1291 laid the foundations for Switzerland's successful culture of genuine respect, cooperation and power-sharing among its constitutive language, religious and political minority and majority communities, for its steadfast rejection of all foreign judges, and for staying out of disputes among foreign powers; all under the heading "In the name of God, the Almighty, amen", and with universally appreciated achievements, such as the watershed meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Chairman Michael Gorbatchev in Geneva which gave rise to the Joint Declaration of the United States Congress of 8 November 1985 to "commend the people and the sovereign confederation of the neutral nation of Switzerland for their contributions to freedom, international peace, and understanding": Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That it is the sense of the Congress:

To commend the Assyrian people and their leaders for raising the awareness of those concerned for the One God and other important roots shared by all Iraqi and their friends at home and abroad, for their willingness to avail their good offices, particularly in the religious domain, for helping to bring about early, effective and lasting reconciliation, recovery and well-being among all Iraqis, and for providing effective leadership towards these universally cherished goals;

To support the establishment, in the Mosul Vilayet as the core of the ancient Assyrian Empire, of such homesteads, centers and services which will be secure, which may enlighten all of us on the roots of Monotheism, particularly prior to Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions, which may help all Christian Assyrians, all Sunny and Shia Arabs, Kurds and Turkomans, all Jews, and all Yezidis to recognize and respect each other, and to regain trust among themselves, not least on the solid basis of their One God brethrenship, and which, by giving meaning to existing treaty rights and obligations, may also firmly set these communities on their own road to genuine successful power-sharing, cooperation and fruit-sharing and, as such, again make them a source of stability and inspiration radiating beyond Iraq's fully preserved borders; and

To call particularly on the governments signatories of the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 (France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, Romania, Serb-Croate-Slovene Kingdom and Turkey), as well as on the governments of the observer countries Germany, Russia, Switzerland and the United States, for appropriate, determined and immaginative initiatives which are incumbant on the powers that be, such as a follow-up to that 1923 conference, and an Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice on the current status of the above international guarantees and obligations; and to invite all governments concerned to desist from any action which be detrimental to the objectives thus pursued.

(url: www.solami.com/ashur.htm ¦ draft 7)

Dem wahren Gesicht des Islam begegnet man nicht auf der deutschen Islamkonferenz. Man begegnet ihm in Ländern wie Pakistan. Dieser Islam richtet sich gegen alle, die nicht nach den Regeln des Koran leben - gegen Demokraten, gegen Atheisten und vor allem gegen Frauen. Und die Welt schaut wie paralysiert zu.

Auch wenn die meisten Muslime es nicht wahrhaben wollen, der Terror kommt aus dem Herzen des Islam, er kommt direkt aus dem Koran. Er richtet sich gegen alle, die nicht nach den Regeln des Koran leben und handeln, also gegen Demokraten, abendländisch inspirierte Denker und Wissenschaftler, gegen Agnostiker und Atheisten. Und er richtet sich vor allem gegen Frauen. Er ist Handwerk des männerbündischen Islam, der mit aller Macht verhindern möchte, dass Frauen gleichberechtigt werden und ihre Jahrhunderte lange Unterjochung ein Ende findet.

Dem wahren Gesicht des Islam begegnet man nicht auf der deutschen Islamkonferenz. Man begegnet ihm in Ländern wie Pakistan. Dieser Islam hat einen Weltkrieg angefangen. Doch die Welt tut so, als wüsste sie immer noch nichts davon. Für viele Zeitgenossen schlagen weit hinten in der Türkei, die Völker aufeinander ein. Es gibt in unserer vernetzten Welt aber kein „weit hinten“ mehr. Sondern nur noch ein „draußen vor der Tür“. Der Totalitarismus der Taliban und der muslimischen Terrorzellen ist wahrscheinlich schlimmer als der Faschismus, denn er ist nicht das Ergebnis eines Zivilisationsprozesses. Er entsteht in einem Raum, in dem nichts mehr an zivilisatorischen Fortschritt erinnert.

Es wäre die Aufgabe jener Muslime, die in ihrer Religion mehr sehen als einen Entwurf für Barbarei. Sie müssen gegen die Barbaren aus den eigenen Reihen entschlossen und mit entschiedener Härte vorgehen. Doch sie tun es, wenn überhaupt, dann nur halbherzig. Der Islam habe mit Terror nichts zu tun, meint der türkische Ministerpräsident Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Andere politische Machthaber überbieten sich nach jedem Terrorakt im Verfassen von Beileidstelegrammen. Geradezu grotesk ist die Situation in Saudi-Arabien. Das Königreich zittert vor den Terroristen, die es selber in die Welt gesetzt hat.

Die Muslime auf der ganzen Welt stehen heute auf dem Prüfstand. Sie bezahlen für die Versäumnisse vorangegangener Generationen. Der geistige Verfall und die Unfähigkeit mit der Moderne zu kommunizieren haben zum erbärmlichen Jetztzustand geführt. Die Stunde erfordert ein aufeinander abgestimmtes Handeln aller vernünftigen Kräfte. Der Terror hat sich global vernetzt. Die Gegenkräfte aber sind träge oder blockieren sich gegenseitig. Der gesunde Menschenverstand in der islamischen Welt müsste sich gegen den verblendeten Hass der Fanatiker auflehnen. Doch der Hass greift immer mehr auf die Massen über. Schlimmer noch: mancher illegitime Herrscher verbündet sich mit dem Hass, um seinen Thron zu sichern. Dabei üben sich die meisten Muslime weiterhin nur in Rhetorik. Der entscheidenden Frage, ob aus ihrer Religion eine Zivilisation erwachsen kann, weichen sie aus.

Die freie Welt ist paralysiert
Dieses Verhalten hat sicherlich psychologische Ursachen. Man fühlt sich dem Westen gegenüber unterlegen, gedemütigt und verraten. Doch die politischen Konsequenzen dieser Psychose sind verheerend. Sie spielen jenen Kräften in die Hände, die den Terror anfachen, um das Chaos in der islamischen Welt zu vergrößern. Die Gewaltspirale spielt jenen Kräften in die Hände, die den Terror anfachen und verhindert vor allem eines: die Etablierung demokratischer, rechtstaatlicher Systeme. Armut und Korruption dagegen finden optimale Bedingungen um zu Gedeihen. Ein Teufelskreis. Dieser Teufelskreis müsste gebrochen werden, durch das Engagement der freien Welt und durch militärisches Engagement, weil es anders nicht geht. Wer in Afghanistan die Taliban bekämpft, kann nicht so tun, als ginge ihn Pakistan nichts an. Die Ermordung von Benazir Bhutto hatte sich angekündigt. Der Fall des palästinensischen Gazastreifens in die Hände der Hamasterroristen war ebenfalls vorhersehbar.

Die freie Welt aber schaut wie paralysiert zu. Viel Häme gab und gibt es in Europa, was die amerikanische Irak-Politik anbelangt. Wenn es um Kritik geht, können die Europäer von niemandem übertroffen werden. An eigenen Ideen und Politikkonzepten aber fehlt es. Europäische Politik gegenüber dem muslimischen Terror erschöpft sich in der Demontage jeglichen effektiven Handelns. Verhandeln wollen einige, mit Hamas, mit Taliban. Atomreaktoren an Gaddafi, dem saudischen König wird der rote Teppich ausgerollt. Schließlich geht es um Petrodollars. Der Westen merkt gar nicht, wie sehr er sich selbst auflöst. Die Islamterroristen erringen einen Sieg nach der anderen. Benazir Bhutto war nicht das letzte Opfer einer verfehlten Appeasement -Politik gegenüber dem radikalen Islam. Der Berliner Autor Zafer Senocak, 1961 in der Türkei geboren, lebt seit 1970 in Deutschland. Zuletzt erschien von ihm: „Das Land hinter den Buchstaben. Deutschland und der Islam im Umbruch“, Babel-Verlag, München 2006.

UMFRAGE.
Kommt der Terror wirklich aus dem Herzen des Islam?
Ja, der Autor hat völlig recht
Nein, die These ist Unsinn
Man sollte das differenzierter sehen

abstimmen Ergebnis
85% Ja, der Autor hat völlig recht
8% Nein, die These ist Unsinn
7% Man sollte das differenzierter sehen
Aktuell: 459 Stimmen

Weiterführende links
Auf Selbstmordattentäter warten keine Jungfrauen
"Jeder Mensch muss jederzeit mit dem Tod rechnen"
So lässt die Bundesregierung Terroristen laufen
Die ultimative Smart Bomb der Terroristen
Auf der Suche nach dem wahren Feind
Was treibt Osama bin Laden an?
Wie die Hisbollah Propaganda macht
Warum Abitur nicht vor Terrorismus schützt
Das verlorene Paradies von al-Qaida
Töten im Auftrag der "Partei Gottes"
Wie wird ein Mensch zum Heiligen Krieger?
Wenn Gefängnisse zu Terrorcamps werden
Muslimbrüder zerstören Deutschland von innen
Plötzlicher Zuwachs bei den deutschen Islamisten