Islamism - 5

[acharya]

Monday, June 05, 2006

Islam’s message is universalist: Akbar Ahmed

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Pakistani academic Dr Akbar Ahmed told a VOA discussion programme on whether Saudi Arabian school textbooks teach hatred for other religions that what is important to remember is that the Quran is a universalist book with a universalist message, teaching high respect for Jews and Christians as people of the book.

The programme was held in the wake of a Freedom House report which said that textbooks used in Saudi Arabia’s schools promote religious intolerance. Religions other than the Salafi branch of Islam are demonised, beginning in the first grade. <span style='color:red'>“Every religion other than Islam is false.”</span> By eighth grade, Saudi students are taught: “The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus.” By the twelfth grade, Saudi students are reading that “Jihad is the path of God - which consists of battling against unbelief, oppression, injustice, and those who perpetrate it - is the summit of Islam.” Saudi Arabia’s ambassador Prince Turki Al-Faisal responded to the Freedom House report in a written statement, saying, “The Saudi government has worked diligently during the last five years to overhaul its education system,” the objective being to “fight intolerance.”

Also taking part in the VOA programme was Nina Shea, director, Centre for Religious Freedom at Freedom House and one of the Saudi report’s authors. She said Saudi Arabia was positioning itself as the “Vatican of Islam,” an observation Dr Ahmed contradicted, pointing out that Mecca and Medina, the holiest cities of Islam, happen to be in Saudi Arabia. Muslims throughout the world look up to Saudi Arabia, which is a “terrible burden” on the Saudis because not all Muslims have the same views on even essential religious issues and concepts.

Asked if Saudi Arabia was funding the spread of an austere version of Islam around the world, Dr Ahmed said the world of Islam was only 18 percent Arab. The rest of the community of Muslims does not speak Arabic, which means that for a lot of Muslims, what comes from the Arab world becomes literally the truth, which is doubly dangerous. If a Pakistani or Afghan child is given a Saudi textbook to read, he is likely to think that what it says is Islam. What is important is to teach children what true Islam is.

Shea stressed the dangers of advocating the view, basing it on religion, that to wage jihad and battle the infidels is an Islamic obligation. Dr Ahmed clarified that the term used in textbooks for waging a just war was not jihad but “qital”. It was not necessary that this just war should be waged physically. Jihad simply means striving to improve and elevate oneself. He said every major world civilisation today is experiencing some kind of polarisation. One must not, however, demonise any particular system. “Every world civilisation is in intense debate in the context of the age of globalisation,” he added. He pointed out that it was the Arabs who gave the world civilisation for the first thousand years of their history which was at the cutting edge of art, architecture, intellectual endeavour, thought, and tolerance. Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together for centuries. As such, there was need to be careful about not making the Muslim world feel that the entire religion of Islam is being demonised.

Shea said the Saudi embassy in Washington had been asked to be represented in the VOA programme but had declined the invitation. Instead, the Saudi ambassador had said in a statement, “Freedom House continues to exhibit a disregard for presenting an accurate picture of the reality that exits in Saudi Arabia,” and also that “overhauling an educational system is a massive undertaking.” She said the problem arose when a government endorses and advocates jihad.

She said the Saudi government and its representatives keep saying that are undertaking the necessary textbook reform but it does not appear to be happening. Dr Ahmed disagreed, saying there is a process of change taking place in Saudi Arabia. “There’s a soul-searching. The intellectuals are active. Not a very large group, but they are active. The government is active,” he stressed, adding that the Muslim world is not one country. Saudi Arabia is a very important country, but it is small in terms of population. One should remember that there are 57 Muslim countries in the world, Saudi Arabia, though very important, is one of them.