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It is hard to imagine that an essay on Islam can add anything new to this subject. But that’s what Rémi Brague has achieved with his book. About IslamHe addresses all aspects of Islam and considers it from both Christian and Muslim perspectives. He relies heavily on Arab and medieval sources, of which he is one of the finest experts. Below is his interview with Brague by Madeleine Duffez and Benoit Dumoulin. Incorrect answerNo. 63, April 3, 2023. Incorrect answer.
Islam contains ritual and legal provisions similar to Judaism, but like Christianity they are universally applicable. Is this the cause of the conflict that arises in encounters with different cultures?
We must begin by asking ourselves why so many refuse to engage with the essence of Islam as a religion. Their scriptures are based on a combination of Christian and Jewish traditions. Also, I must be careful not to confuse the four meanings of the word Islam with which I have tried to distinguish. It is the civilization of Islam, the religion of Muhammad (the “Five Pillars”) with its basic attitudes of submission to God, beliefs and rules. , and those living in the Islamic world. To explain for those who confuse his first two meanings, Islam, his other two Abrahamic religions, are the first revelations of God, the pre-creation and the creation, against the approval of Allah’s exclusive sovereignty. I consider it a betrayal. This claim comes from the Qur’an (VII, 172). From this point of view, all non-Muslims are objectively apostates or amnesiacs. Basically, all humans are Muslims, conscious or forgetful. For this reason, becoming a Muslim is a restoration, not a conversion.
The characteristics of Islam, both obedience to specific laws and a universal call to abide by those laws, mean that it is almost impossible to coexist with other cultures. Non-Muslims may be tolerated for a period of time, especially those that fall under the category of “book people.” The designation originally included Jews and Christians, but each time Muslims were conquered, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and other religions were included under this umbrella. But the law is designed to make these religions disappear in the long run. It keeps non-Muslims in the status of second-class subjects by deliberate humiliation intended to show that it is in their interest to adhere to Islam.
You often criticize the hasty comparisons between recommendations for jihad and the history of the Crusades. Can you explain this “distortion of perception of the past”?
That comparison is fundamentally flawed. The Crusades are a historical fact from a thousand years ago. They were initially a reaction to the ban on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and distant trauma such as the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre by the Fatimids. Jihad, on the other hand, is a permanent obligation for the community and can always resume its military form and extend it to each Muslim when the “Umma” feels under attack. The Muslim world forgot the Crusades. However, when Islam came into contact with the West and Russia, both militarily and technologically more advanced societies, the sense that the Islamic world was being invaded revived. Therefore, today Westerners are designated as “crusaders”. This new Western crusader is often grouped as an ally of the “Jews,” but to those with a little knowledge of medieval history, this sounds like an ominous joke.
After Father Hamel was murdered by Islamists in July 2016, Pope Francis has denied any link between the violence and Islam. Instead, he drew dangerous parallels with domestic violence. Can Islam be acquitted of all forms of violence? Is Islamism a perverse result of Islam, or is it completely irrelevant?
It is necessary to distinguish between crimes committed by believers who betray the message of their religion and those committed by imitating its founders in the name of a religion. Islamism does not constitute Islam in general, and many Muslims do not practice this activist branch of their religion. However, Islamism is firmly based on the official biographies of the Quran, Hadith and Mohammed.Islamist groups understand these sources very well and are able to competently answer Muslim jurists who criticize them. [the Grand Imam of] al-Azhar: “It was not necessary. That Jordanian pilot should not have been burned to death. He should be content with cutting off one hand and the other leg (Quran, V, 33)!
Criticism of colonization avoids the question of why one’s country was colonized. You write about the decline of Islam as a civilization, which is often blamed on the West rather than the internal weakness of the Muslim world. Does this mean that certain Muslim countries have been taken off the hook in public debate?
We must understand that many Muslims live in a very painful paradox. On the one hand, they are told that their religion is the only true and definitive religion, the ultimate and supreme of all revelations. Islam is doomed to the exclusion of all other faiths. Their country, on the other hand, is the red lantern of the world economically, inventively, politically and culturally. The closer a culture is to the epicenter of Islam, the older their Islam, the worse this paradox is. What would the countries of the Arabian Peninsula look like today without oil and gas?
For you, the Islamophilia of some of our elites is a form of patriarchal contempt where Islam is seen as a simple frame of mind with rudimentary morals. are you saying
I pinpoint this phenomenon in my book, starting with an obscure colonial administrator who invented the term “Islamophobia.” I think that some of our intellectuals who worship religion would be horrified if Islamic norms were imposed on them. It shows that they still recognize that they can understand Islam without endorsing the trend. This also indicates a certain nostalgia for conventions that existed before modernization and had conflicting results. These include the birth of mathematical natural science, economic industrialization, rationalization of social relations, secularization, environmental degradation, and demographic winter. result.
Remi Braag offers a wonderful synthesis of Islam. By distinguishing between religion and civilization, he defines it without falling into essentialism. He showed that although Islam is not all of Islam, Islamism rests so firmly on its foundations that it is very difficult to denounce it as heresy. By distinguishing between people and ideas, Blaag presents a critique of religion that cannot be changed by friendship with his followers. He revealed that Islamophobia is a false concept and is often used to ban criticism of Islam.
Blaag emphasizes certain concepts of law at the heart of Islam. This is sealed by God in the Koran as an uncreated book. He stresses that the divine prescriptions that Muslims follow are difficult to apply because they are full of paradoxes, yet they still shape the social and political life of Islamic countries. Islam opposes Christianity because conscience does not mediate the relationship between man and God. All in all, a brilliant and well-sourced essay in which the author urges us to remove our “Western glasses” in order to truly understand Islam.
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