Islam at a Crossroads: Series to examine the future of the religion
The Hajj (the annual pilgrimmage to Mecca) is one of the five pillars of Islam as well as one of the largest human gatherings on the planet. | photo courtesy of largestmosques.blogspot.com
In Islam however, only one large split is universally recognized, and it occurred in startling proximity to the birth of the religion: the Sunni/Shia split only about a century after the founding. As the youngest of the world’s major monotheistic religions and arguably the one under the most amount of scrutiny today, is it due for another ideological split?
This is the first of a series of posts discussing the present components of Islam which may or may not hint at a future divide in the worldwide faith. These components include differences in geography, theological focus, rituals and practices, among others.
The initial reaction to even the theory of a future split may cause many minds to wander to the idea of radical extremists becoming a legitimate third branch of Islam by splitting off the Sunni side. This reaction is not only out of scope but a dangerous one as well, as it can cause an irrational fear of the faith as a whole.
While the ideology of Muslim extremists conforms to the template of a theological split (they don’t believe “non-extremists“ to be “true“ Muslims and vice versa), the reason it is an irrational assumption is because the percentage of Islamic extremists remains astronomically low, far too small at this point to be considered a future branch recognized by Muslims and the rest of the world.
With that disclaimer in place, an interesting discourse can begin about what the future of Islam holds and how it will affect the world religiously, culturally and politically. In future pieces to come, the subjects explored will include conservative vs. liberal Sunnis, the definition of blasphemy, the faith as it is practiced in America, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, as well as some other issues.
Ahmed Chaudhry was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and moved to the Michigan in 1994. As a recent graduate of Albion College, where he received a degree in biology and religious studies, he plans to pursue a career in public health. Email him at anc1659@gmail.com.
Comments
bedrog
Sun, Jan 30, 2011 : 11 p.m.
Since this article was written events in Egypt have made some of the questions/responses here even more critical to world stability. We should all devoutly hope the Egyptians are bright enough ( and non suicidal enough) to avoid taking the wrong turning /road in days to come , 'wrong' being a theocratic, Muslim Brotherhood -- or worse--dominated polity... .for obvious reasons.
John Kotre
Fri, Jan 28, 2011 : 1:30 a.m.
Am looking forward to this series, as I understand the Muslim presence in the United States is the most diverse in the wold.
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Jan 25, 2011 : 4:44 p.m.
Bob's most apt comparison was the Ku Klux Klan, which held a lot of power in the South until relatively recently. In the name of their perverted brand of Christianity they were often violent and cruel, and used intimidation as a weapon. Fortunately, the government and the people finally stood up to the KKK and this type of organized hate group is largely absent in our country today. I think we all look at the white hood and robe with disgust today and Christianity is probably stronger because of that. Hutaree? Wake me up when they actually do something. Koresh? Rather dangerous to his followers, but I never felt intimidated by his rants - never even heard of him until he started killing his own followers. The two most notable acts of religious intimidation and violence in recent history were perpetrated by Muslims. News events that dominated the headlines for a long time. The 9/11 attack and the DC Sniper. The determination to kill random strangers. Obviously, that doesn't reflect the thoughts of American Muslims. But if you're going to make global claims, America is the exception rather than the rule. Violence and intimidation and extremism is the norm in most Muslim countries. And in those countries, Christians are lucky to live in peace, forget about living free of intimidation and violence. For that matter, examine the conflict between Sunnis and Shias. Could you imagine Protestants and Catholics doing battle in that manner in America?
Dog Guy
Tue, Jan 25, 2011 : 4:13 p.m.
What is the worth of crossroads to a group named submission? Any choice is fatal either here or hereafter.
bedrog
Tue, Jan 25, 2011 : 11:37 a.m.
The comment to macabre sunsets by 'basic bob' is not apt and ignores some critical "basic' facts: to compare islamic extremists like the taliban, alqaeda, etc ( as well as those who actually run whole governments like hamas, hizbollah and the Iranian regime) to fringe militia groups in the u.s. is wrong on so many levels. In the first place in the u.s. /west such groups are reined in and fairly effectively criminalized by the wider society ,who are largely their coreligionists. In the Islamic world , emphatically not! ( at least as far as effective reining in goes...and the intentions to do so are often highly questionable in a large number of cases ). plus a 'small percent' of a multi-million population ( of ,say, pashtun in pakistan and afghanistan where that tribal group numbers about 60 million) still translates into alot of active crazies...hardly comparable to the Hutarees. Quite incredible to suggest otherwise. I hope mr chaudhry has a more substantive and sophisticated approach than 'bob.'....as there are clearly many who will call him on it if not.
Basic Bob
Tue, Jan 25, 2011 : 3:10 p.m.
Christian extremists in the US are clearly not reined in and criminalized. In fact they have gone mainstream. George Bush, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Sarah Palin, and the Westboro Baptist Church are but a few examples. In fact they have taken their Christian Jihad on the road to the Islamic world with wide support from the American people. I think it is quite incredible that you consider Hamas and the Republican party so different. Sadly, if you look outside the bubble of Ann Arbor liberalism, you will see many people who think that the birthers and these American militia groups are right, that Obama is a Muslim, that 9-11 was a government plot, that Waco and Ruby Ridge were attacks on innocent citizens.
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Jan 25, 2011 : 4:24 a.m.
How in the world can you examine recent events in Pakistan and conclude that the violent side of Islam is an insignificant minority? Those who even speak out against violence are being murdered, and the religious leaders in power are praising the killings. I appreciate your attempts to focus on this Shia/Sunni split, which led to enormous violence between Iraq and Iran before our addle-headed former president stuck his nose where it wasn't necessary. But America may be the one place on Earth where Muslim violence isn't the norm for the religion. And even then, we're getting our fair share of incidents.
Basic Bob
Tue, Jan 25, 2011 : 11:12 a.m.
These are as (in)significant to Islam as are the violent Christian groups such as David Koresh, Hutaree, Ku Klux Klan. These groups have not grown in stature, although they had their following and notoriety.
bedrog
Mon, Jan 24, 2011 : 11:46 p.m.
dfossil...I omitted saudi wahabbism from the extremists i listed because the current saudi regime is relatively "moderate' in comparison to the true sunni crazies ( al qaeda, the taliban, al shabaab, lashkar i taiba etc,) and the ahmaedineajad shiites who fund both hizbollah and the sunni hamas .... ..All of these would love to see the saudi royals beheaded). But you are ultimately correct , in that saudi money, directed to fundamentalist madrassahs in arabia and elsewhere, was largely responsible for opening the pandoras box to the sunni demons they themselves now must face, (although the shiites look to iran as their mothership/ sugar daddy). I trust mr. chaudhry will address all of these unignorable issues in his future contributions as there is clearly a local readership conversant with the topics and regions at issue ( although some of the loudest in the community and on this site are not among them).
dfossil
Mon, Jan 24, 2011 : 6:52 p.m.
I always enjoy Mr. Chaudry's commentary & efforts to clarify Islam, however, that will only work and be useful if he relates the facts! To say;"the percentage of Islamic extremists remains astronomically low, far too small at this point to be considered a future branch recognized by Muslims" denies the rather large group including Saudi Arabia, the Taliban, and other followers of Wahhabism, who consider themselves the only true believers of Islam and practice a very fundamentalist religion which includes extremist behaviors. This is already a branch of Islam of substantial size and considerable power.
bedrog
Mon, Jan 24, 2011 : 6:12 p.m.
A thoughtful piece on the whole...but whether or not 'extremists' are a tiny minority, a large minority or even a majority ( as they seem to be from polls taken in , say, n.nigeria) they nonetheless seem to be setting agendas for other muslims ( and the world!!) and running some governments ( in ,say, gaza, Iran, de facto in tribal areas of Pakistan...and possibly soon in lebanon, per hizbollah's recent role in that governments problems). Sadly ,genuinely more moderate muslims are doing a rather poor job of reigning them in abroad..especially in your own country of Pakistan where outspoken moderates like benazir bhutto and the recently assassinated governor of Punjab get killed when they speak out. And today there were events in moscow that likely bear on this too .. I hope you will touch in your future articles on topics like 'taqiyya' which bears on questions of rhetoric vs. reality , and 'believability' in islamic societies ;'fitna' or the boundaries of religious unacceptability ; and 'izzat' ,or what constitutes honorableness and how such may or may not overlap /differ from western such notions. All are key in the grand issues you commendably seem to be concerned about.