Is Political Islam Always Violent? No-But…

The answer to this question must be an emphatic NO! There are plenty of situations where Islamists do not resort to violence. But at the same time they face a real dilemma. They want their society to be more consistently Islamic; but how are they to achieve this goal? Are they to work for a gradual and peaceful Islamisation of the country, or are they justified in using force to win power? And what happens when violence is done to them? These dilemmas can be illustrated from the history of one particular Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.

False Messiah Beheaded in Mecca 37 Years Ago

It happened during the annual pilgrimage, as tens of thousands milled around the black-robed Ka’aba.  Arms had been secretly smuggled underneath the Ka’aba, mostly in coffins (relatives believe in this way deceased loved ones receive a special blessing before burial).  It took two weeks to bring things under control.  In the blood bath, hundreds were killed, scores wounded and the insurgents (including the fake Mehdi) quickly beheaded. Communications with the outside world had been cut, but somehow the millenarian leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, announced (via radio) that it was the work of Americans and Jews.  Muslims believed him…

ISIS: Un-Islamic or True Islam?

There are typically two responses to ISIS. ‘ISIS has nothing to do with Islam’ or ‘ISIS are the real Muslims’. It’s easy to understand why so many Muslims—especially in western contexts—dissociate themselves from ISIS. They are thoroughly embarrassed to think that non-Muslims around them might assume that because they are Muslims, they must have some sympathy with ISIS and all that it is doing. They therefore argue that many of the practices of ISIS are completely un-Islamic, even anti-Islamic and cannot be justified by the legal traditions that have been developed over many centuries.

At the other extreme there are many Christians—and, dare I say, especially evangelical Christians—who believe that ISIS is much nearer to the spirit and practice of early Islam than moderate Muslims of today. They point to particular verses in the Qur’an (e.g. about beheading, crucifixion and slavery) and passages in Hadith literature, the biographies of Muhammad and legal texts to show the connections between the brutalities of ISIS and early Islamic texts.

Both of these approaches are thoroughly unhelpful and need to be challenged.

An Analysis of Trump’s So Called “Deal of the Century”

In June of 2019, Arab Baptist Theological Seminary Professor of Islamic Studies Dr. Martin Accad wrote an article titled “The Long-Awaited US Peace Plan, the So-Called “Deal of the Century,” Would Need a Whole Greater Deal of Justice to Succeed.” Given the Trump administration’s release of the deal earlier this week, Dr. Accad’s June analysis provides important insight for consideration…