Akbar Ahmed - Islam in the 21st Century

Last night I heard Akbar S Ahmed speak about Islam in the 21st century at LSE. He was launching his latest book "Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization". It describes a journey he took with some of his students from a range of different backgrounds (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, possibly others too) around the 'Muslim world'. He made some interesting statements which I'd like to share with you.

There are three broad models of Islam, each transcending the Shia/Sunni and other divisions: Sufi or mystic Islam, the 'Alighar' model of modernist Islam, and orthodox or Deobandi Islam. His survey of Muslims throughout the world found that most Muslims follow the Deobandi tradition. Most Muslims interviewed felt that Islam is under attack and that the biggest problems in the world are Palestine and Iraq. There were high levels of Anti-Americanism and Anti-Semitism. The most popular historical role model for Muslims is the Prophet. Osama bin-Laden is an extremely popular figure in Indonesia.

His advice to Muslim leaders is to rediscover "the essential features of Islam." Ahmed called on Western countries to resolve the conflicts involving Muslims in places like Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya. Assistance to Muslim countries needs to shift from military aid to humanitarian. The West needs to express an actual interest in human rights issues in Muslim countries.

Overall I was underwhelmed by the presentation. I respect Ahmed a great deal and I am glad that Muslims can count his eloquent voice amongst our numbers. His message of dialogue among people of different faiths and viewpoints is an important one. But there were no real revelations in his statements. I also could not help thinking that Ahmed fell into the very trap Islam's detractors have. Namely, of typecasting everything within the language of religion, civilisation, and, ultimately, the division of humanity along sectarian lines. The presumption underlying his study was that Islam is a defining feature for people. But what if it isn't? What if a person's faith is personal, and local and they do not link themselves to broader movements or universalist projects? Does a Nigerian Muslim identify more with an Indonesia Muslim than a fellow, Christian, Nigerian? Of course not. Do Nigerians identify with fellow Nigerians or people from their own tribe or locality? Do most people really think about these divisions unless they feel threatened by 'the other'? I think there are obvious answers to these questions.

Further, I felt there was something patronising about his solutions, particularly those that Muslims need to implement. For example, he proscriptions assumed that a Muslim can only be 'reached' through the language of Islam as though our ears cannot countenance the plain old facts. That a Muslim will not act to change his lot unless he or she is persuaded by an argument premised on Islam. But is that true? Do people vote for Hamas or wear the Hijab because they want more Islam in their sociopolitical diet? Or does it say more about their sense of security, or lack of it? And what about economic ideology? Are people fundamentally more concerned with religion than with a secure source of food, shelter and livelihood?

For years now I have sought comfort in the knowledge that most everyone I know is quite different to me. If I were stuck alone with most people I know for long enough I'd discover something about them which was most disagreeable (and I suspect the feeling would be mutual). Yet over and above the dissimilarity is a common, shared, HUMAN experience; love, pain, grief, anxiety, fear, lust, even class associations - everything that goes to being human.

Religion is not going anywhere. Whatever it's shape or practice it is the sleeping giant of humanity. Let it sleep. Now is the time not to translate everything into what we have already known Islam or modernity or whatever to be. Now is the time to create our own identities, as we see them to be, free from the baggage and expectations of past dreams and failures.

PROLOGUE: There's a revealing review of Akbar's book here. Revealing because it suggests it fits within the dominant, Western discourse on Islam. Namely, the discourse which treats Islam like a diseased bit of tissue that needs to be quarantined and treated.