 Growing
pains
Shifting the focus away
from perceiving Islam as a homogenized faith in a dichotomized
relationship with
the West
Firoozeh
Papan-Matin
June 28, 2005
iranian.com
Reza Aslan's No god but God: the Origins, Evolution, and
Future of Islam is an engaging survey of Islam from
its origin in 7th century A. D. until today. It is written with
an informative and
sophisticated narrative for non-specialist readers. The book's
research, based on scholarly medieval and contemporary sources
on Islam, provides the background for the debate that is advanced
by the author.
Aslan, a specialist on religious studies, takes
issue with the present conventional view that Islam is a religion
with inflexible and obdurate attitudes towards the West. He argues
that Islam is a self-conscious religion that throughout centuries
has been subjected to interpretation and evaluation
among Muslims themselves.
 For instance, the intellectual debates
of the
9th century A. D. concerning the nature of Quran and the definition
of faith, offer some insight into the dynamic history of Islam
as a religion that has been embraced by diverse people and
cultures. Aslan's study points out how the developments in Islam
have
occurred not in abstraction but through a tangible historical
process. He calls attention to the diversity within Islam from
its beginnings
in Arabia until today.
No god but God poses a challenge to the familiar
the clash of civilizations debate propounded by Samuel Huntington
in a book
of the same title
in 1996. Huntington's analysis depicts Islam as an aggressive
civilization in an antagonistic relationship with the values
introduced by the Enlightenment. He argues that Islam is a
religion of violence
and that Muslims are one violent mass who provoke violence
and invoke it in return. His theory is reminiscent of Kurt's
cry "exterminate all the brutes" in Conrad's
Heart of Darkness.
Aslan's analysis of Islam provides a lively response
to this debate by shifting the focus away from perceiving Islam
as a homogenized faith in a dichotomized relationship with
the West.
Rather than a clash of civilizations, Aslan argues for a
clash
of monotheisms and calls attention to the internal conflicts
of Islam that have played a crucial role in the formation
of the post-colonial
discourse. The debates among Muslim traditionalists and
the reformists are attempts to define Islamic modernism.
And the relationship
between Islam and modernity does not find its genesis
in the affront with the West but involves varied constituencies
that have gained
momentum against the colonial background.
Aslan questions the relationship of Islam to democracy
and rejects the assumption that their coexistence is a contradiction
in terms.
Aslan proposes that the coming together of democracy and
Islam is an idea that cannot be imported from outside into
the cultural
fabric of a society but must grow out of it in time and
through
experience in order to better define itself.
 Aslan further
argues that it is not secularism but pluralism and respect
for diversity
that defines democracy. Given the presence of the politically
oppressive regimes in the Middle East, both secular and
Islamic, an indigenous
democracy does not have the chance to express itself
in the arena of everyday political practices. Therefore, political
reform
in state politics is an indispensable part of the development
of democracy
in the region.
Aslan's survey of Islam illuminates the most salient
issues that concern Islam today. However, his argument does not
resolve the questions of modernity, constitutionalism,
Islamic-law, political representation, women's rights
and
human rights.
These issues
remain to be addressed in the continuing public discourse
on
Islam and politics.
About
Firoozeh Papan-Matin is Assistant Professor, Near Eastern
Languages and Civilization, University of Washington, Seattle.
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