The Clash of Ignorances
The responses of my colleagues provide a good representation of the extraordinarily diverse views of Islam, Muslims, and Muslim politics that exist today. Like it or not, we are stuck with the phrase moderate Muslim. Yet, as I read our comments, I keep thinking that for too many, non-Muslims and Mu...
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International Institute of Islamic Thought
2005
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oai:doaj.org-article:8e278f245d594c4ab8e337751d2989622021-12-02T17:49:42ZThe Clash of Ignorances2690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/8e278f245d594c4ab8e337751d2989622005-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/3013https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 The responses of my colleagues provide a good representation of the extraordinarily diverse views of Islam, Muslims, and Muslim politics that exist today. Like it or not, we are stuck with the phrase moderate Muslim. Yet, as I read our comments, I keep thinking that for too many, non-Muslims and Muslims alike, moderate means someone “like us.” Thus, moderate is equated with progressive or liberal Muslims but excludes conservatives or traditionalists. Ariel Cohen, in his identification of several moderate Muslims, mentions Amina Wadud’s leading of a mixed-gender Friday prayer. This underscores the problem with moderate, especially when the concept is juxtaposed with extremist. If a woman leading an official prayer service were a criterion for moderate, then many Christian and Jewish groups, denominations, and their leaders (e.g., the recently deceased Pope John Paul II) would fail the test and not be moderates. But they certainly would not be extremists either. Should we, then, add such other litmus tests as position on birth control, abortion, and gay rights? If we go down this road, I wonder how Jews and Christians would react to Muslim countries or Muslim experts and political commentators who attempted to set the definition of a moderate Jew or a moderate Catholic, with the implication that all others were extremists. If, as some non- Muslims have done with regard to Islam, Muslims established institutes and think tanks to define, monitor, or implement their notions of moderate Jew or moderate Christian, how long would it be before they would be accused of being anti-Semitic or anti-Catholic? Would we define a moderate Jew vs. an extremist Jew as one who rejects scriptural justification for claims to Israel, rejects the logic and creation of settlements by religiously motivated Jews, possesses an enlightened understanding of the origins of Judaism and of the Hebrew scriptures; rejects all those biblical passages in which God commands acts of violence and warfare; and eschews any mixing of their faith with politics in Israel, with the support of fundamentalist or religious nationalist groups, schools, or settlements? John L. EspositoInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 22, Iss 3 (2005) |
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DOAJ |
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EN |
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Islam BP1-253 |
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Islam BP1-253 John L. Esposito The Clash of Ignorances |
| description |
The responses of my colleagues provide a good representation of the extraordinarily
diverse views of Islam, Muslims, and Muslim politics that exist
today.
Like it or not, we are stuck with the phrase moderate Muslim. Yet, as I
read our comments, I keep thinking that for too many, non-Muslims and
Muslims alike, moderate means someone “like us.” Thus, moderate is
equated with progressive or liberal Muslims but excludes conservatives or
traditionalists. Ariel Cohen, in his identification of several moderate
Muslims, mentions Amina Wadud’s leading of a mixed-gender Friday
prayer. This underscores the problem with moderate, especially when the
concept is juxtaposed with extremist. If a woman leading an official prayer
service were a criterion for moderate, then many Christian and Jewish
groups, denominations, and their leaders (e.g., the recently deceased Pope
John Paul II) would fail the test and not be moderates. But they certainly
would not be extremists either. Should we, then, add such other litmus tests
as position on birth control, abortion, and gay rights?
If we go down this road, I wonder how Jews and Christians would react
to Muslim countries or Muslim experts and political commentators who
attempted to set the definition of a moderate Jew or a moderate Catholic,
with the implication that all others were extremists. If, as some non-
Muslims have done with regard to Islam, Muslims established institutes
and think tanks to define, monitor, or implement their notions of moderate
Jew or moderate Christian, how long would it be before they would be
accused of being anti-Semitic or anti-Catholic? Would we define a moderate
Jew vs. an extremist Jew as one who rejects scriptural justification for
claims to Israel, rejects the logic and creation of settlements by religiously
motivated Jews, possesses an enlightened understanding of the origins of
Judaism and of the Hebrew scriptures; rejects all those biblical passages in
which God commands acts of violence and warfare; and eschews any mixing
of their faith with politics in Israel, with the support of fundamentalist
or religious nationalist groups, schools, or settlements?
|
| format |
article |
| author |
John L. Esposito |
| author_facet |
John L. Esposito |
| author_sort |
John L. Esposito |
| title |
The Clash of Ignorances |
| title_short |
The Clash of Ignorances |
| title_full |
The Clash of Ignorances |
| title_fullStr |
The Clash of Ignorances |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The Clash of Ignorances |
| title_sort |
clash of ignorances |
| publisher |
International Institute of Islamic Thought |
| publishDate |
2005 |
| url |
https://doaj.org/article/8e278f245d594c4ab8e337751d298962 |
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AT johnlesposito theclashofignorances AT johnlesposito clashofignorances |
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