Loading ...Opinion: Religion can save us from extremists
It’s hard to be a Muslim and have faith. The escalation of violence across the world — often rooted in religious extremism — tests the beliefs of a Muslim woman like myself.
This crisis of faith stems not only from violence in the Muslim world. It emerges also on questions of discrimination, homosexuality, and women’s sexual and reproductive rights. It’s difficult to square devotion to religion with its attacks on principles one holds dear.
For a long time, I thought the problem was just Islam’s — part of its age-old struggle to reconcile traditional teachings with modern times. But it’s now clear that religious divides aren’t limited to my faith. Something wider and more worrisome is at work.
Religion is losing faith in itself. It is becoming unmoored because people of faith and non-believers alike are seeking to marginalize one of humankind’s most powerful forces and failing to embrace its positive nature. By pushing religion out of the public square, its public interpretation has been left to society’s most extreme elements, triggering a vicious cycle in which we blame religion for all the world’s ills.
For decades, the idea has gained traction that religion is a form of oppression that should be confined to the most private corners of life. That’s a polarizing logic that presents people — religious or not — with a false, binary choice that faith is either good or bad. The majority that fall in the middle are forced to choose between two reductionist options.
In his recent visit to the United States, Pope Francis reminded us that “our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion.” But he added, “There is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reduction which sees only good or evil or, if you will, the righteous and the sinners.”
Because activist and former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali offers a three-part typology for Muslims — mecca Muslims, Medina Muslims, and modifying Muslims — let me propose an alternative set: religious traditionalists, revivalists and reductionists.
Traditionalists take a static approach, adopting a more literal interpretation of religious texts, leaving little room for innovation or independent thinking. Revivalists embrace the notion that religion is dynamic and fluid, and consider historical context in their efforts to gain deeper understanding of the divine intent behind sacred laws. The final, most dangerous cohort is religious reductionists.
We must remember that religion is a tremendously powerful motivator. Yes, it can be used for political and corrupt ends, and today we see one of the world’s youngest and most peaceful religions — Islam — being used to justify some of the most barbaric atrocities in our lifetime. Yet we must resist falling into the reductionist trap the pope warned about.
We need to think beyond the antiquated 19th and 20th century secular ideal that pushes religion from public discourse. This has led to mass religious illiteracy, leaving us vulnerable to extremist ideologies hijacking the field. The fact is that religion as an evolving phenomenon will be with us as long as humans exist.
Without question, Islam must have a revival to understand the original intent of the messages revealed in the Quran and Prophetic tradition.
But Islam isn’t alone. A reformation of religious thought is needed, one that restores a deeper, more nuanced understanding of faith and its role in our world. We need a revival that frees us from antiquated views of good versus evil, public versus private, or us versus them, a world where religion isn’t defined by black and white, but instead with bursts of color like Paris on a spring day.
Manal Omar is associate vice president for the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Center for the Middle East and Africa and a member of the board for IREX, a nonprofit global education and development organization
Source: www.newsday.com