Radical Thinking About Islam

Without Islam, the world would be the same. Without Islam, the world would be radically different. Graham Fuller ("A World Without Islam," January/February 2008) cannot seem to make up his mind. At first, he argues, "[R]emove Islam from the path of history, and the world ends up exactly where it is today." In fact, what Fuller is arguing is a more general proposition: Remove any religion from the path of history, and the world remains the same. Religion, in this view, is simply an epiphenomenon, a veil to cover the deeper cultural and economic realities that constitute the real forces of history. All religions, Fuller argues, including Christianity, are equally irrelevant. History would have turned out the same with or without them.

Yet in the middle of his essay, Fuller undergoes a significant change of heart. He writes, "In a world without Islam, Western imperialism would have found the task of dividing, conquering, and dominating the Middle East and Asia much easier." But if Islam — as a religion — has kept the West from achieving its manifest destiny of global hegemony, then Islam has obviously played a decisive and irreplaceable role in history. The obstacle to the global ambitions of Western imperialism, as Fuller sees it, is the uniquely religious bond by which Islam gathers together the different ethnic groups of the Middle East and Asia in a united front. Because of this bond, the West is faced with an entire civilization that ferociously resists its claims to domination. It is Islam — as a religion — that has kept the West from consummating its long-desired goal of the End of History. It is Islam that is responsible for the clash of civilizations. In short, Fuller ends up offering a powerful argument for the very thesis he sets out to refute. Religions do matter. They are not merely veils, or rallying cries, or potent symbols. They shape and mold history, often more decisively than those allegedly deeper social and economic causes that have inordinately engrossed the attention of modern historians.

–Lee Harris
Author
The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam’s Threat to the West
Stone Mountain, Ga.

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Fuller offers a much-needed reminder to those who continue to view the world uncritically and reduce global politics and terrorism to Islam, that political and economic ambitions and grievances — not religion — are the primary drivers of conflict and terrorism. Absent Islam, the Middle East still would have experienced forms of Western (Christian) imperialism and conflicts stemming from issues related to ethnicity, nationalism, access to resources and markets — and religion.

The absence of Islam would not have precluded religious wars, only changed their nature. As Fuller notes, Western Christian expansionism and colonialism, from the Crusades and conquistadors to European colonialism, reflect what would have been the tip of the iceberg if Christianity had free reign. Absent Islam, Western Christianity would not have developed as the dominant form of Christianity; it would have been subordinate to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Thus, the dominant form of Christianity would have been one with a long historical record and memory of Western imperialism and one that was therefore sharply suspicious and critical of the West. The religious conflicts between Rome and the Reformation would have been but an episode in a much broader historic warfare between the Catholic Church in Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy.

What is the relevance of Fuller’s reflections for the modern Middle East and global politics? As Fuller argues, and the Gallup World Polls of 2005 and 2006 confirm, the bottom line is that issues of democratization, violence, terrorism, and gender are driven by political, economic, and social forces — as well as by religion. Absent Islam, the Holocaust, with its strong Western Christian roots, the desire and need for a Jewish state, and ultimately the creation of Israel, would still have occurred. The victims of Israeli occupation and its opponents would not have been Palestinian Muslims and Christians but simply Palestinian Christians. We tend to forget that, from the early centuries of Islamic history, Eastern Orthodox Christians have been among the victims of Western Christian imperialism, and among the fiercest opponents of Israeli occupation.

–John Esposito
University Professor
Professor of Religion and International Affairs
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.

Fuller postulates that removing Islam from the course of history would still have the world end up exactly where it is today. However, according to Islamic history books, the people of Arabia prior to the existence of Islam enjoyed more religious tolerance than they did after the religion was introduced.

Fuller opines that violence in the Muslim world is partially a result of anger toward U.S. foreign policies and toward Israel, yet he fails to prove how these policies have caused brutal and massive killings among Muslims themselves, such as in Algeria and Iraq. If Islam, specifically the militant and political ideology of Salafism, did not exist, we would not have seen the Sunni insurgency in Iraq or Hamas-led terrorism in Gaza. If militant Islam did not exist, both places would probably have enjoyed the fruits of democracy that have been offered to them.

In addition, Fuller fails to note that many of the separatist groups that have conducted acts of terrorism in Europe were also Muslims. And he cannot explain why Arab Christians today commit vastly less terrorism than Arab Muslims, even though they live under the same socioeconomic and political circumstances.

If Islam did not exist, we likely still would have had a violent world in the past. But it is because Islam exists that we have seen the beheading of innocents in the name of God, barbaric suicide bombings conducted on a nearly daily basis in the name of religion, and the stoning of women in modern times. Most of the world today clearly rejects these brutal practices — with the exception of Islamic countries. The fact of the matter is that Islam does indeed exist, and we must face the consequences. Engaging in a hypothetical examination of a world without Islam is an apparent attempt to exempt it from the atrocities that continue to occur in its name, and it is an exercise in intellectual and analytical dishonesty.

–Tawfik Hamid
Author
Inside Jihad
Washington, D.C.

Graham Fuller replies:

Lee Harris is quick to perceive the element of self-contradiction within my article on whether Islam had historical impact or not. I plead guilty to the charge, and I noted in the essay that it would be absurd to deny Islam any role in shaping history. But any hypothetical exercise runs that risk.

My goal was to undermine the reigning argument that all that is wrong in East-West relations is the fault of "Islam" by explaining the impact of other profound forces. Religion is obviously more than a Marxist phenomenon; it is a reflection of diverse human quests for meaning. I don’t agree, however, that "[i]t is Islam that is responsible for the clash of civilizations," as Harris suggests, any more than Christianity is. It is civilizations that are responsible for the clash of civilizations.

John Esposito introduces an important argument that my own article actually neglects to explore: Without Islam, the Western Catholic Church would have been much more seriously rivaled by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the chances of long-term religious conflict between the two would have been much higher.

Tawfik Hamid is quite right that there are brutal murders today within the Algerian and Iraqi communities, but I question whether these murders can be attributed to religion in most cases. In Algeria, there is a complex struggle between an old Francophone ruling elite and an Arabic-speaking underclass that is contesting control of the state. Islam is one of the main vehicles today for the latter group, and it is exploited by its murderous elements. In Iraq, there are clearly sectarian murders, but the groups are not fighting over theology; the communities have been deeply entrenched for more than a thousand years and are rivals for control of the state.

I do not seek to exempt radical jihadis from the violence and intolerance that they practice in the name of religion. But such violence has been practiced throughout history by endless groups in the name of religion, race, secular ideology, and class struggle. As I wrote, I do not believe that any of this would go away if religion or race or class were eliminated. Human beings have always excelled at creating differences between themselves and the "other" — and using them to justify terrible acts against other people.