Abattle is clearly on within the world of Islam for the
hearts and minds of Muslims. While extremists continue to justify
terrorism in the name of Islam, numerous fatwas have been issued by Muslim
religious leaders across the world in recent years emphasising that Islam
strictly prohibits the targeting of innocents, no matter what or how
justified the grievance. Some Muslim extremist outfits resort to literal
and completely out-of-context interpretations of a few passages in the
Koran to justify their crude ideology of a permanent targeting of all
‘infidels’. Most western scholars are of the view that the real
inspiration for most modern-day Muslim extremists can be traced back to
the violence-endorsing ‘Mardin fatwas’ of the outstanding Islamic scholar
and jurist from the medieval era, Ibn Taimiyah (1263-1328).
A little theological and historical background will
perhaps help the uninitiated to better appreciate the context of the
Mardin fatwas and their significance for today’s radicals. During the
heyday of Islamic rule the widely prevalent view among its jurists was
that the entire world was divided into two camps or territories: the
‘Abode of Peace’ (Dar ul-Salaam) and the ‘Abode of War’ (Dar
ul-Harb). Though not much attention was paid to it while Islam was at
its zenith, a third kind of territory was also conceived: the ‘Abode of
Treaty’ (Dar ul-Sulah). As is evident from the nomenclatures, for
Muslims, the region where Islamic rule prevailed was the ideal
Abode of Peace, where non-Muslims ruled was hostile territory
(Abode of War) and where different religious communities peacefully
coexisted through a treaty was an acceptable Dar ul-Sulah.
As long as Muslim power was in the ascendant, the first
two ‘abodes’ seemed to be the only relevant ones while the third appeared
to have been forgotten. But then came the brutal savaging of Baghdad – the
seat of the Abbasid caliphate – by the Mongols in the mid-1200s. This
stunned the Muslim world, plunging the Abode of Peace into turmoil and
chaos. It was into this world of a traumatised ummah that Ibn Taimiyah was
born, five years after the sacking of the then centre of Islamic
civilisation. Growing up as he did with an acute sense of Muslim
disempowerment, Taimiyah believed that straying from “true Islam” had been
the cause of his community’s downfall. Today’s Muslim extremist, living
amidst an ummah that feels disempowered and dispossessed, believes he is
reliving the Taimiyah times.
The Mardin fatwas are so named because they were given
in response to a question asked of Taimiyah: whether Mardin – a fortress
in South-east Turkey with a mixed population – was an Abode of Peace or an
Abode of War. Suffice it to say here that both western critics and Muslim
extremist admirers of Taimiyah interpret these centuries-old fatwas as
endorsing violence against unjust and despotic rulers. For the radical
Muslim, what was valid then remains valid now.
Fast-forward to the present day to register the
significance of 15 leading Muslim scholars from across the globe
symbolically reassembling in Mardin over a month ago (March 27-28) to
issue a ‘Mardin Declaration’ condemning all acts of terror and calling
upon Taimiyah’s misguided admirers to get real. We are today living at a
different point in history; it is an altogether different world in which
the categories delineated by classical jurists, if interpreted out of
historical context, are not only meaningless but dangerous too.
Without underplaying the symbolism of the Mardin
Declaration, it must be said that its greater significance lies in that it
is part of an ongoing battle within Islam the world over. Terrorism,
heinous crimes committed in the name of Islam in recent years, is
increasingly producing its own antidote. A growing number of Muslim men
and women, scholars, religious leaders and lay people alike, are engaged
in saying an emphatic no to violence and rediscovering the tolerant
tradition within Islam: an Islam that is at home with the world, an Islam
the world can be at home with. This is especially evident from the bold
assertion by many Muslims that in our present-day world, several secular
countries are better ‘Abodes of Peace’ for Muslims than many so-called
‘Islamic states’.
As regular readers of this journal are aware, Communalism Combat
does not privilege one religion above another or the believer above the
agnostic or atheist. Rather, the journal celebrates diversity and
pluralism and offers space to voices in support of mutual respect and
peaceful coexistence. We are especially happy to note that the winds of
change that have been blowing across the global Muslim mindscape now seem
to have hit the Indian landscape too. This much seems evident from the
writings of a young Indian maulana, Waris Mazhari. Although CC does
not agree with everything he says, we believe our readers will find in his
writings a refreshing willingness to engage with others in a spirit of
mutuality. We are grateful to both Waris Mazhari and Yoginder Sikand, who
has translated Maulana Mazhari’s writings from the Urdu, for permission to
publish English translations of the articles here.