The Futility of #Fatwas Against Isis | Nesrine Malik
▻http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/nesrine-malik/isis-islam-fatwas_b_6076310.html
This does indicate that there is a mainstream rejection of ISIS, and this consensus is new and significant. And yet it is #futile. The ideological response to ISIS must be cast from outside the realm of religious authority altogether . You see, Islam in particular, and holy text religions in general, are open to interpretation and selectivity. By responding to ISIS from within its own paradigm, one only validates its basic premise - that there is some authority to be derived from religion, and that there is one valid interpretation that trumps all others. There isn’t. ISIS has used religion as vehicle for a political project, rather than used politics to advance a religious vision.
There is still no honest reckoning about this, and the fact that many Muslims are indeed selective with literal application of the religious text. To admit this would be to concede to the fact that Islam should be a personal matter, not imposed by the state or any political body in any form, and open the doors to secularism.
This is the knot at the heart of the question of Islamic ’reform’. Where is the so-called ’moderate Muslim’, the promised ISIS vanquisher? The Muslims that Ben Affleck pointed out just want to go to work and eat some sandwiches, and not kill any infidels? In many parts of the Muslim world, they are stuck, certainly not endorsing extremism, but living in societies where notional endorsements are implicitly made every day. A simple survey of alcohol consumption in private across the Arab world is a basic but effective indicator of the schism between private irreligious practice under cover of darkness vs pious public dissimulation during the day.
The Arab Muslim state, from Egypt to the UAE, is the most complicit in this hypocrisy, promoting non-negotiable religious values and enshrining them in the constitution, education and public order laws , in a sort of ’curated’ Islam (dare I say, a ’real Islam’), that dovetails as closely as possible with the government’s political needs.
Most Arab states share Isis’s ideology. They’re trying to have it both ways | Brian Whitaker | Comment is free | theguardian.com
►http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/28/arab-states-share-isis-ideology-islam
As far as many of the Arab public are concerned, discriminating against members of the “wrong” faith, or those who hold unorthodox views, is not only acceptable, but the right thing to do. For Arab governments, enforcing religious rules and allying themselves with God helps to make up for their lack of electoral legitimacy.
