Commentary; Posted: 7/3/07
A course of hatred or love?
Rev. John C. Blackford,
Religion Columnist
Last month this column addressed some of the problems that have arisen in the Twin Cities because of the demands of Islamic cab drivers and other segments of the growing number of followers of that faith.
This article will review the larger aspects of the impact of Islamic culture in the world, with a focus on the influence of religion.
While western Europe and many parts of the rest of the world were engulfed in the years of the Dark Ages, which did not end until after 1000 A.D., Arab culture was in full bloom.
Artists, poets, philosophers and scientists were making great contributions at a time when the west was steeped in barbarism.
They introduced the Arabic numeral system, a great forward step in mathematics. (Think of multiplying large sums in Roman numerals).
With such a high level of civilization, why did Arab culture dwindle, and why did that relatively tranquil way of living go into decline?
A TIME magazine article (March 5, 2007) entitled “Why They Hate Each Other,” traces the present struggle between Iraq’s leading political parties, the Shi’ites and the Sunnis, to the days following the death of the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad in 632 A.D., who died without naming a successor as the leader of the new Muslim flock.
Some of his followers believed the role of Caliph, or viceroy of God, should be passed down Muhammad’s bloodline, starting with his cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib.
However, the majority backed the Prophet’s friend, Abu Bakr, and he became Caliph.
He was murdered by a dissenter, and the succession was again disputed.
The majority backed the claim of the governor of Syria and his son. The deceased Ali’s adherents supported his son, Hussein.
A battle followed in which Hussein was killed and decapitated. Instead of ending the movement, called Shi’at Ali, or partisans of Ali, his violent death was considered martyrdom.
It took the name Shi’ite, and today Hussein’s death is observed annually with people marching in the streets, beating their chests and crying in sorrow. The very devout beat themselves with swords and whips.
Those loyal to the governor of Syria and his successors as Caliph were eventually known as Sunnis, or followers of the Sunnah, or Way, of the Prophet.
Since the Caliph was often the political head of the Islamic empire as well as its religious leader, the Sunni sect became dominant.
Today, about 90 percent of Muslims worldwide are Sunnis.
Shi’ites settled in areas that became Iraq and Iran, where they are the majority, but there are significant Shi’ite minorities in other Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Crucially Shi’ites outnumber Sunnis in the Middle East’s major oil-producing regions. Outside of Iran, though, Sunnis have wielded the political power, and treated Shi’ites as an underclass, limited to manual labor and denied many state benefits.
Using religious arguments to justify oppression, Sunni rulers declared that Shi’ites are not genuine Muslims, but heretics.
In what became institutionalized prejudice, Shi’ites were viewed as idolaters because of their reverence for the Prophet’s bloodline and their fondness for portraits of some of the imams, or preachers.
Sectarian relations deteriorated over the centuries. In our time, Saddam Hussein, who assumed power in Baghdad in 1979 and a Sunni, although defeated in the war with Iran (1980-1988), attacked revolting Shi’ites, killing an estimated 300,000 and burying them in mass graves.
Thirteen hundred years of animosity between these two religious/political factions make the task of unifying Iraq next to impossible.
Sunnis and Shi’ites may now be viewing a future they can never share. Today’s hatreds are the heritage of future generations.
When our nation proposed its latest plan to stop sectarian violence in Baghdad earlier this year, one Arab political analyst commented, “There are more ways in which this could go wrong than go right. We have seen too many plans fail to have faith in this one.”
Why did western civilization emerge from the darkness into the light of freedom and democracy at the time the Arab world sank into the chaos in which it finds itself today?
Is religion, specifically Christianity, behind our upward climb?
Christians know there have been times of darkness and regression during this ascent, but the spirit of love, the hallmark of our faith, has kept us on the upward journey.
The Christian world is still short of the New Testament standards of Christ and his followers, but it is a far better place than it would have been without the church and its ministry.
There are many moderate Muslims, especially in the United States, who deplore the violence among the followers of Islam.
They have become assimilated to our ways and standards, and see the importance of accepting peaceful methods of dealing with differences.
We should not knowingly offend or persecute them, and avoid inspiring hate toward them.
Yet we must do our best to uphold the values that have made our culture, though flawed, the best in the world.
This will be one of the great challenges of the century.
By the grace of God we shall meet it in the spirit of faith, hope and love.
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