Islam for Non-Muslims
- RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
- ISLAM AS A RELIGION
- ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
Addressing the Criticisms of Islam
SECTION TWO: ISLAM AS A RELIGION
15: ADDRESSING THE CRITICISMS OF ISLAM
Introduction: The religious system in general and Islam in particular have often been targets of criticisms from various directions. Attacks on religion ordinarily come from the atheists, secularists, materialists and others who have lost interest in religions mainly due to wrong or abusive roles of certain religions, which obviously do not include Islam. By contrast, the charges against Islam in particular are mainly leveled by those who dislike Islam due to rivalry with or misunderstanding of Islam. Now we try to review these criticisms.
(A) Anti-Religious Criticisms: The blanket charges against all religions have two leading sources: one originating from social scientists and the other from physical scientists.
(1) Social Scientists: Faulty or Imperfect Definitions: Some social scientists try to present religions as outdated cultures, comprising of superstitious beliefs or useless rituals that hurt rather than help people. Some prominent examples include sociologist Tylor’s narrow characterization of the religion as “beliefs in the departed souls”, Marx’s dismissal of the religions as “opium” of the people, Freud’s definition of religion as “illusion or disorderly obsession with father figure (God)” and so on.
A very first glance at these criticisms makes it quite plain that these criticisms exclusively apply to religions other than Islam. Islam is certainly much more than the Tylor’s tunnel vision of religion as the belief in the ‘departed souls’ applicable to only Animism or Shintoism. Because Islamic benevolent provisions touch almost every aspect of human life involving spiritual, ethical, legal, social, political, economic and the like.
Islam Not Like ‘Opium’: Likewise, it was not virtually Islam but the Christianity that Marx targeted for criticizing as “opium”. As a reminder, in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution in England, when the workers were abused by their factory owners (bourgeois), the Church leadership offered little help except advising them for tolerance in exchange for Afterlife reward. This acted upon them like “opium’, dulling their pains and blunting their desire to protest against factory-based injustice. If Islam were there on the scene, Marx would have reasons to thank and praise it for its (i) readiness to protest “(wherever injustice has been done” (4:148) and (ii) protection of the workers’ interests in particular through well-defined labor laws. Obviously, the socialist criticisms of religions are not relevant for Islam.
(2) Physical Scientists: Second type of charges comes from the modern scientists who underestimate the faith for being incompatible with science. They unjustly complain that faith cannot be proven by testing in the laboratory exactly the way scientific theories are done. They also refer to the examples of historical clashes between the Church and science. Nonetheless, Einstein, the most renowned among them, answered this blame by declaring that religion and science are both essential and mutually helpful.
The second blame against a particular religion for its historical conflict with science obviously does not apply to Islam. The Quran has numerous revelations on scientific matters; but none of them has any conflicts with any theories of science. What’s more, the history of Islam shows no record of blaming or punishing any scientists for disclosing any scientific facts. The history of religion-science conflict, as you remember, goes back to the time when the Church punished Galileo for simply discovering the scientific truth that earth goes round the sun. Thus it appears the anti-religious charges are not necessarily anti-Islamic, as Islam keeps itself clean from those charges.
(B) Anti-Islamic Criticisms: There are some criticisms that are directly pointed at Islam.
Not surprisingly, anything good or bad may be subject to criticisms. It is however not the existence of criticisms but the validity of these criticisms that should count toward evaluating something facing criticisms. Now we turn to an objective assessment of the criticisms targeting Islam.
(1) Controversial Provisions: If you look at the overall provisions of Islam in a comparative format, you will realize how favorably they compare with those of other religions. It, however, has some provisions in particular that often draws criticisms. Rigorous penal codes, women’s modest clothing, tough stance against alcohol or adultery, polygamy, war policy etc. are cases in point. Islam has its own explanations for these apparent controversial provisions (see article 48). These issues aim at the greatest good of the greatest number rather than serving narrow vested interests and thereby catering to their ultimate well-being rather than short term benefits.
(2) False Propaganda: Even if the controversial provisions of Islam are ‘blessings in disguise’, these are often not presented to the world in correct form. Of course, in the non-Muslim world, there are some fair-minded observers who do not hesitate to utter words of praise for bright spots of Islam or protest against abuses of innocent Muslims like Palestinians in Israel, Uighurs in China, Rohingyas in Myanmar etc. One case in point is ex-US President Jimmy Carter’s book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” in which he boldly spoke out against injustice done to the Palestinians. There are second groups who misinterpret Islam, not always out of any ill feeling but mainly for knowing less or wrongly about it. This is not much of a potential problem as their confusions are bound to clear up with their progressive learning about Islam.
The worst of the problem comes from the third group who deliberately paint Islam black, out of jealousy or hostility. Their propaganda often gains a measure of success because most propaganda machines or news media outlets presently enjoy non-Muslim ownership, causing a bias against Muslim interests. Many fair-minded western scholars observed that external sources sometimes go too far to make bad names for Islam through improper criticisms. For example, French scientist Bucaille, before his conversion to Islam, independently commented, “The totally erroneous statements made about Islam in the West are sometimes the result of ignorance, and sometimes of systematic denigration” (P. 110). It’s therefore important that those who are engaged in distorting facts this way should keep from oppressing their souls through lying about Islam. People at the receiving end of information should also need to broaden their knowledge and conduct reality checks to know Islam factually.
(3) Misapplication of Islam by So-called Muslims: Relatively recent but probably more damaging are the criticisms that are leveled not against the provisions of Islam but un-Islamic practices of so-called Muslims committed in the name of Islam. Acts of terrorism that are often linked to some radical Muslims of the contemporary world is a burning example. The fact of the matter is that any action in violation of Quranic rules or Prophetic tradition, no matter who the actor is, has nothing to do with Islam and Islam cannot be blamed for that.
Islam Vs Muslims: You need to distinguish between Islam (which has a standard set by the Quran and authentic Hadith) and the Muslims, who show wide variations in the quality of their performance, many of which fall short of Islamic standard. For example, some of them are ignorant about Islam, some have incomplete or imperfect knowledge about it, some bypass moderate norm of Islam, some twist Quranic meaning to suit personal advantage, some are hypocrites committed to harm Islam by wearing Muslim masks and so on. All of these practices do not truly represent Islam. Islam should, therefore, be judged not by the so-called Muslims but by real Islam itself.
Conclusion: It appears from the above that most of the criticisms against Islam are ill-motivated or misplaced and there are good answers and solid defense for all these criticisms.