{"id":425,"date":"2002-11-01T16:04:27","date_gmt":"2002-11-02T00:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doctorsoroush.com\/english\/?p=425"},"modified":"2012-09-28T16:09:29","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T23:09:29","slug":"islam-a-mosaic-not-a-monolith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/islam-a-mosaic-not-a-monolith\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith"},"content":{"rendered":"

President’s Essay \u2014 From the 2001 Annual Report\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

By Vartan Gregorian<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although more than a year has passed since the attacks of September 11, 2001, most Americans still have such a sketchy knowledge of Islam that we probably need to keep ourselves focused on President George W. Bush\u2019s repeated reminders that terrorists, not Muslims or Arabs, are the enemy. That reasoned message, however, is often drowned out by noisy ones from some Muslim clerics who call America the \u201cGreat Satan\u201d and some political theorists who interpret the war cries of some militant Islamists as the start of a \u201cclash of civilizations.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a> Provocative messages always gain a disproportionate amount of public attention, but they must be carefully considered and put in context, especially in the aftermath of September 11.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will surprise many Americans that Islam is the world\u2019s and America\u2019s fastest-growing religion. It continues to grow at a rate faster than that of the world\u2019s population. If current trends continue, according to some estimates, it will have more adherents by the year 2023 than any other.<\/p>\n

Most Americans tend to think of Islam as exclusively a religion of Arabs. But Muslims are as diverse as humanity itself, representing one in five people in the world. Only 15 percent of the world\u2019s 1.2 billion Muslims are Arabs, while nearly one in three Muslims lives on the Indian subcontinent. The largest Muslim nation is Indonesia, with 160 million Muslims among its 200 million people. Muslims represent the majority population in more than 50 nations, and they also constitute important minorities in many other countries. Muslims comprise at least 10 percent of the Russian Federation\u2019s population, 3 percent of China\u2019s population and 3 to 4 percent of Europe\u2019s population. Islam is the second largest religion in France and the third largest in both Germany and Great Britain. Although estimates vary widely, Muslims represent 1 or 2 percent of the United States population, and some say there are more Muslims than Jews or Episcopalians in America. Religious, cultural and population centers for Muslims, then, are no longer limited to such places as Mecca, Cairo, Baghdad, Teheran, Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Fez and Damascus\u2014they also include Paris, Berlin, London and now New York, Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Many Americans do not know that there are Christian Arabs as well as Muslim Arabs. Indeed, some of the oldest Christian churches\u2014including the Coptic Orthodox, Jacobite and Maronite churches\u2014rose, functioned, and still do, in Arab countries.<\/p>\n

Given America\u2019s role as a magnet for immigrants, it is not surprising that the United States is one of the best reflections of Muslim diversity. \u201cIt is of the greatest interest and significance that the Muslim umma<\/em>, or community, of North America is as nearly a microcosm of the global umma as has ever occurred since Islam became a major religion,\u201d writes Lawrence H. Mamiya.3<\/sup> American Muslims bring a rich ethnic heritage from South Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan; Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines; all Arab nations, Iran and Turkey. American Muslims also add their African, Caribbean and European heritage to the nation\u2019s mix.4<\/sup><\/p>\n

With the United States currently being the world\u2019s sole military and economic superpower, I believe that we as a society have a responsibility\u2014for our own sake as well as for others\u2019\u2014to know the complex nature of the world, its incredibly rich variety of races, nations, tribes, languages, economies, cultures and religions. Today, of course, Islam has become one of the major topics of discussion and controversy in the United States and elsewhere. Yet there is a disconnection between our passions about Islam and our knowledge of it.<\/p>\n

It has become essential for us to understand Islam as a religion, its unity, diversity and culture\u2014and to appreciate the legacy of Islamic civilizations, their role in the development of modern civilizations, the roles of Muslim nations and the challenges they face, and their future place and role in the world. Of course, this is much easier said than done, especially because in America today there is unfortunately no deep national commitment to history and heritage\u2014not our own, and certainly not that of the world at large.<\/p>\n

A Survey of Islam<\/strong><\/p>\n

To understand Islam, one has to appreciate the central role of Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdallah (570\u2013632) in the formation and propagation of Islam as a religion. Muhammad was an Arab merchant, respected and wealthy, who belonged to the Qureish tribe in Mecca, then a great trading and religious center of pagan Arabia. His father had died before his birth, and his mother died in his early childhood. He was brought up by his grandfather and, after his death, by his uncle, Abu Talib, whose son Ali ibn Abi Talib became the Prophet\u2019s first disciple and later his son-in-law.<\/p>\n

Muslims believe that Muhammad, following God\u2019s instructions through the Archangel Gabriel, called humanity to a faith acknowledging Allah<\/em>. Contrary to what many believe, Allah was not a new god, but simply the Arabic word for God\u2014the God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad brought a message of continuity with Judaism and Christianity to the polytheistic tribes of Arabia. His message was an uncompromising, non-idolatrous monotheism. The faith was Islam, the Arabic verb meaning \u201csurrender\u201d or \u201csubmission,\u201d as in surrendering to God\u2019s will. (Qur\u2019an: \u201cWith God, the religion is Islam\u201d and \u201cIt is a cult of your father, Abraham. He was the one who named you Muslims.\u201d)5<\/sup> Muslim<\/em> is the active participle of the verb islam, meaning \u201cI surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 622, having challenged the polytheist practices in Mecca, Muhammad fled for safety to Yatrib, subsequently named Medina, the City of the Prophet. This event, called the Hijra<\/em>, marks the start of the Islamic era and of the Islamic calendar\u20142002 a.d. is 1423 a.h. or Anno Hegirae, the Year of the Hijra.I<\/sup><\/p>\n

Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, is a prophetic religion. It, too, emphasizes God\u2019s relationship to humanity and reveals God\u2019s will through the medium of prophets\u2014with warnings of punishment that will befall those who reject the divine message or are guilty of the cardinal sin of idolatry. (The Qur\u2019an: \u201cSay ye: we believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and all the tribes. And, to that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to [all] prophets from their Lord. We make no difference between one and another of them.\u201d)6<\/sup><\/p>\n

Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad received divine revelations from 610, starting in the ninth lunar month, Ramadan<\/em>, until his death in 632 and that these oracles were transcribed during his lifetime and, within subsequent decades, were officially collected in the Qur\u2019an<\/em>, from the Arabic verb qara\u2019a<\/em>, meaning to recite, read or transmit. The Qur\u2019an, which Muslims consider to be a supernatural text, has 114 chapters, suras<\/em>, of varying lengths, from 3 to 286 lines, and they are arranged not in chronological or narrative order, but rather by their length, with the longest chapter near the beginning and the shortest chapter last.7<\/sup> Many non-Muslims will be surprised, on reading the Qur\u2019an, to see the numerous references to biblical stories and figures. Writing about the universality of the Qur\u2019an, the scholar Mohamed Talbi refers to a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad that the Qur\u2019an is \u201cGod\u2019s Banquet,\u201d to which everyone is invited, but not obligated to attend\u2014people should come to him out of love, not compulsion.II Muslims consider the Qur\u2019an to be the revealed and eternal Word of God and believe that the Qur\u2019an \u201ccompletes and perfects\u201d the revelations given to earlier prophets, including Moses and Jesus. Muslims maintain that Muhammad was the greatest prophet and that he was the last one.<\/p>\n

Muslims also believe that since God spoke to Muhammad through the Archangel Gabriel in Arabic, translations of the Qur\u2019an are hence considered to be mere \u201cinterpretations.\u201d Even though the vast majority of Muslims do not understand Arabic, only the original Arabic is used in Muslim prayers in the belief that the faithful can experience the presence of God by reading the Qur\u2019an aloud. Some of the oldest surviving copies of the Qur\u2019an apparently date from the start of the eighth century, but more than a thousand years passed before questions of spelling, structure of the text and rules for reading were finally formalized with its publication in Cairo between 1919 and 1928.8<\/sup><\/p>\n

The fundamental principles of Islam are Towhid<\/em>, unity of God; Nowbowat<\/em>, belief in the prophetic mission of Muhammad; and Ma\u2019ad<\/em>, belief in the day of judgment and resurrection. In addition, Islam has five cardinal tenets, called the Pillars of Faith<\/em>, which all Muslims must observe. They must:<\/p>\n