A rchive Date
[ 22-10-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Muslims ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Salim_Mansur/2004/10/22/679805.html
Ramadan is time for Muslims to face facts
By SALIM MANSUR - For the Toronto Sun
Fri, October 22, 2004
Today marks the end of the first week of Ramadan, the sacred month in the Islamic calendar devoted to fasting, prayers, reflection and repentance.
As a Muslim, I believe there is nothing more urgent at this time than for us to reflect on our appalling situation.
It is by deeds - terrorism - irrespective of what is in their hearts, that some Muslims have desecrated Islam, bringing ignominy and ruin upon themselves.
For Muslim apologists, only a small fraction of over a billion people are engaged in global terrorism, amounting to a war against civilization.
But God knows what is in the heart of every living soul. Muslim silence in the face of atrocities can only mean, apologists aside, complicity with or support for terrorists.
There is a deafening silence of Muslim religious and political leaders when it comes to categorically condemning terrorism or openly fighting to defeat those who defame Islam.
On the contrary, religious leaders such as Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric based in Qatar, regularly preach politics of violence against America and Israel.
Muslims generally tend to be selective in reading the Koran. Hence, many fail to understand how their situation is proportional to their misconduct.
The Koran unequivocally declares, "God will not change the condition of a people until they change themselves, (13:11)."
Muslims need to reflect on how greatly they have wronged Jews and, in my view, thereby transgressed the Koran.
Muslims rarely consider that the Koran is a text rehearsing for them the story of Jews. Muhammad, for Muslims the last of God's messengers, saw himself in the tradition of the great Jewish prophets. Muhammad's line of descent is traced from Abraham - the common patriarch of Jews and Arabs - and his son Ishmael, born of Hagar, who was Sarah's maid.
Muslims tend to to consider their politics as inseparably bound and shaped by religion. They need, then, to reflect on religious grounds why so many of them wage war on Jews, when the sacred words are indisputable.
The Koran recites the story of God directing Moses and the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt. It states how Moses was commanded, "Go into the holy land which God has ordained for you" (5:21).
Since Muslims believe the Koran is God's revelation to Muhammad, how can they reconcile the atrocities committed by their coreligionists in the Holy Land with their scripture's authoritative words?
Jewish and Muslim calendars are lunar. This is the Islamic year 1425 and the Jewish year 5765. Many Muslims need to be reminded of over four millennia of Jewish history, and of how Islam's noontide also marked the golden age of Judaism in Muslim lands.
The miracle of the Jews as a people in history is survival, of keeping faith with God as encountered by Abraham. Through the rise and fall of civilizations, captivity, exile and holocaust, Jewish survival constitutes a narrative of a people who were the first witness of God's glory.
It is in the virtue of this history, of remaining bound by the covenant God makes with Abraham, that Jews occupy a special place of historic responsibility.
Max Dimont, a Jewish historian, has noted astutely that Muhammad was "an Arab, imbued with the fervour of Judaism." The Koran is heavenly words revealed for a people who were outside history and ignorant of God, as well as a people - the Jews - who entered history by witnessing His glory.
As Muslims, we need to reflect on our scripture, seek understanding and make repentance if our hearts desire Islam, meaning peace, from the source of all creation.
Then we might hope to be guided on the path of right conduct, the path of those whom God favours and not of those who went astray.
Salim Mansur is a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. His column appears alternate Thursdays.
He can be reached at: smansurca@yahoo.ca
Letters to the editor should be sent to: editor@tor.sunpub.com Home Page
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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