Scholarly Contributions | Islam

ISLAM AND POLITICS

Concerned with what he saw as a continued, growing rift between the West and the Islamic world, Professor Abdul Aziz Said contributed through his scholarship and practice a different perspective for understanding Islam and politics. Said was highly critical of the cultural triumphalism that dominated within Western perspectives, and which portrayed Muslim societies and groups as underdeveloped and dangerous. As Islamic revivalist movements continued to grow across the Muslim world, he brought much needed understanding about their historic roots and their diversity, distinguishing the nonviolent majority from the minority of militant fundamentalists. Said also challenged the notion that democracy and Islam are incompatible, while actively seeking improved Islamic-Western relations by providing both concrete suggestions and a vision of a new shared story of coexistence, mutual respect, and shared contributions.

Said witnessed dramatically increased interest in understanding and interpreting Islam, especially after events such as 9/11, which had created a “virtual cottage industry” on the topic.¹ Yet as his 1988 article titled “Western Arrogance, Islamic Fanaticism, and Terrorism” suggests, he was critical of the Western preoccupation with the symptoms of Islamic fundamentalism and of the focus within US policy on suppression, rather than seeking to understand its causes and historical contexts² (see US Policy Approaches in the Middle East and Africa). Said instead demonstrated through his scholarship that to understand what was happening in the Muslim world, a more comprehensive perspective is necessary. In a 2006 edited volume with Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer and Dr. Meena Sharify-Funk titled Contemporary Islam: Dynamic, not Static, Said writes that “Islam’s journey over the centuries reveals that it is not so much static doctrine as a historical dynamic that finds expression in the experiences and circumstances of people.”³ Thus, he asserts that like all religious systems, Islam is inherently pluralistic. Further, its interpretations are constantly evolving: “the history of Islam is one of tension between the ideals of the Qur’an and the ability of Muslims to realize them.”⁴ Said explains that “accepting Islam’s internal diversity is the absolutely vital point of departure for approaching critical questions about how Muslims can cope with worldly challenges constructively.”⁵

Said was especially keen to move the conversation beyond the “simplistic ‘good Muslim/bad Muslim’”⁶ depiction used among some Western scholars. One way he achieved this is by differentiating between the broader, ongoing trend of Islamic revivalism and the less popular but destructive militant fundamentalism. He explains that while Islamic revivalism is a social and political reformist movement directed toward revitalizing the community from within, militant fundamentalism is a reaction to foreign incursions and perceived external threats to identity.⁷ Yet despite these important distinctions between them, Said recognized that both are in part responding to deep feelings of powerlessness as well as a desire to rediscover and prioritize their own culture and values. According to Said, beginning in the 18th century Muslims took on a more passive role in international politics and “their destinies were determined by the West.”⁸ Even with the establishment of independent majority Muslim nation-states, traditional Islamic institutions had become less effective in promoting social justice and political participation⁹ (see Democracy and Development). At best, Said explains, what is offered is “a medley of technological fixes implemented through capitalist economic and nation-state political structures conceived in the West.”¹⁰ During the second half of the 20th century, however, among Muslims there was “a rediscovery of the vitality of the Islamic experience with a determination not to submit any longer to the cultural humiliation of judging oneself by Western standards.”¹¹ Indeed, Said says, “contemporary Islamic activism is not a backward looking rejection of the modern world, but rather a deeply felt expression of cultural identity and a critique of domestic as well as international political orders.”¹²

Islamic revivalism follows a long history of Muslim responses to encountered challenges. Said points to two channels of response that Islam provides – tajdid (renewal) and islah (reform) – that informed the efforts of Islamic reformers for centuries.¹³ This resulted in a great diversity within and among various Islamic groups, and today continues to lead to new thinking. Despite vast disparities in their methods and attitudes, according to Said they hold a common set of ideological beliefs, including that Islam is a total way of life for both personal conduct and for the state; Westernization is “the primary cause of political, economic, and social ills of Muslim societies,” and following the path of sharia (religious law) will help to produce a more just, self-reliant, and moral society.¹⁴ He notes that Islamic ideology and movements, or Islamism, “are found among the Western-educated as well as among the untraveled, among literates and illiterates, transcending all classes, professions, and gender and age groups.”¹⁵ Across and beyond the Islamic world, Said explains, a new class of modern and educated Muslim elites has emerged.

Islamic fundamentalism, on the other hand, represents just a small minority of groups and “involves a militantly political reappropriation of religious precepts.”¹⁶ As a defensive movement reacting to perceived external threats, Said argues, it is similar to other forms of religious or even secular fundamentalism.¹⁷ He clarifies that extremist groups such as Hamas, al-Jihad, and Hezbollah go beyond any principles they share with nonviolent Islamists through their view that Islam and the West are in a historic power struggle in which the West is to blame, and in their consideration that violent struggle is a justifiable strategy of liberation.¹⁸ As he stresses through his work on Islam and peacemaking, however, core Islamic teachings prioritize nonviolent methods. In a 2001 op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer titled “How Islamic are the Taliban?” Said asserts that the Taliban’s misrepresentation of Islam is a “profound disservice to the message of Islam and ultimately imped[es] Muslims and followers of other faith traditions from coming to know one another in truth. The Taliban campaign obscures Islam’s essential message, which includes a universal understanding of divine mercy.”¹⁹

Professor Said was highly critical of the US policy response of suppression instead of addressing the root causes that compel people to support militant actors. He argues that US policies toward the Muslim world have in fact “inadvertently strengthened a small but vocal minority of Muslim radicals.”²⁰ (See Middle East and Africa). In a 2003 article, Said instead urges “a policy that combines a clear and nonpartisan message about terrorism with respect for the existential realities, interests, and future hopes of Muslims.” Such an approach, “might open a new chapter of cooperative relations. But a policy that focuses on symptoms and ignores underlying factors could easily reinforce the widespread despair, resentment, and powerlessness that has enabled bin Laden to attract a following.”²¹ Indeed, Islamic revivalism as a whole need not be viewed as an enemy of the West, but rather “points to issues facing humanity.”²²

Said also strongly challenged the notion that Western forms of democracy are universal or superior and that Islam is incompatible with democracy, calling for new thinking on the topic. In Islamic conceptions of democracy, Said explains, “the accent is on the community, whereas Western democratic theory privileges the individual … there is nothing in Islam that precludes common goals, community participation, and protective safeguards.”²³ Still, Said acknowledges that, in practice, “democratic traditions in Islam have been more commonly abused than used.”²⁴ He asserts that “what is required is a Muslim alternative that is neither a superficial compromise nor a schizophrenic reaction, but a response based on Islamic values, one that reflects the historical development of Islam and responds to the challenges of contemporary life”²⁵ (see Democracy and Development and Human Rights and Democracy).

Overall, Said explains, the primary purpose of the state is to enforce the principles of sharia. While there are many debates on its proper interpretation and application, he argues that sharia’s primary concern is “the maintenance of proper, harmonious relationships on and across all levels-between the individual and God, within the individual, within the family and community, among Muslims, between religions, and ultimately with all of humanity and creation.”²⁶ In other words, the state’s duty from an Islamic perspective is to create an environment that enhances human dignity and meets people’s socioreligious needs (see also Islam and Human Rights).²⁷ He again acknowledges that this is not necessarily reflected in the actions of contemporary Muslim states. Yet Islam can also serve “a practical role in politics by offering recourse to a transcendental order to which rulers can be held accountable. The oppressed can defend their rights by appealing to religious standards. Islam offers a vocabulary of resistance to corruption and repression, and a vocabulary of hope for the cultural future.”²⁸

Dr. Said was particularly concerned about relations between the West and the Muslim world, and throughout his scholarship urged a new story of complementarity instead of confrontation. “The West and Islam are caught in a twin cycle of arrogance,” he asserts, “which breeds contempt and fanaticism, with no shortage of paranoia.”²⁹ He identifies several possible narratives to define the relationship between Islamic and Western civilizations. The first story emphasizes incompatibility and “portrays dialogue between the West and Islam as an exercise in futility.”³⁰ In this story, experiences of Western imperialism remain a prominent memory and continued concern for many Muslims, while Western media continues to focus primarily on extremism and portrays a good/bad Muslim dichotomy.³¹ The second story is of compatibility and “provides a hint of what might be gained by moving beyond facile, stereotypical language and judgements.”³² Moving past simplistic labels of each other, the civilizations can recognize their heterogeneity as well as their shared values, including of the Abrahamic monotheistic traditions and the influence of Greek cultural heritage.³³ Yet Said goes a step further by identifying a third story of reconciliation, which has yet to be written. This story “points to the prospect of a cooperative, non-adversarial relationship between Islamic and Western civilizations. “Such a relationship would be premised not on ideas of cultural superiority, but on mutual respect and openness to cultural eclecticism. Muslims and Westerners can learn from each other and cooperate in the pursuit of humane values.”³⁴ Said recognized dialogue as critical to forging this new relationship and to “moving away from images, symbols, and postures”³⁵ (see Theory and Practice). He understood that the West and Islam each hold “many of the solutions to questions the other has long been asking.”³⁶ In particular, he argues, “the West offers much to the Islamic world in terms of institutionalizing democracy while Islam can offer the West its own considerable achievements and insights into community, spirituality, and diversity.”³⁷

In his book titled Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East, Said provides a series of recommendations to “prompt fresh thinking about how Western policies and initiatives might overcome a troubled historical legacy and begin to foster international and regional dynamics that favor peaceful conflict resolution.”³⁸ Among the recommendations, Said discusses how leaders on both sides can adopt more constructive forms of public discourse, strategize for conflict transformation instead of escalation, strengthen diplomacy, adopt a multilateral approach to human security, pursue negotiated solutions toward conflicts in the Middle East, foster greater inclusion of Muslims in North American and European public life, support “change from within” in the Islamic world, use public diplomacy “to listen as well as to speak,” foster intercultural and interreligious dialogue, support religious peacemaking, identify and implement intercultural confidence-building measures, and harness the potential of universities and civil society organizations.³⁹ These recommendations work toward creating the possibility of fostering a “new story” between Islam and the West. As Said notes, this story “can begin with the simplest of acknowledgements: Islam and the West are ‘stuck’ with each other, and have no choice but to learn to coexist … If we leave aside tired generalizations and seek to know one another, we can become the architects of a truly new order of cooperation.”⁴⁰ Said’s nuanced approach to Islam and politics provides critical perspective to the dynamics within the Islamic world today, as well as opportunities for a more stable and peaceful future.

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