Saturday, July 24, 2004
The Associated Press recently produced a feature on al-Azhar, the ancient university in Cairo considered the center of Sunni Islamic learning.
One of the people The AP quoted was al-Azhar's grand sheik, Mouhamed Said Tantawy, whom I met two years ago in Egypt. Some people consider Tantawy Islam's pope, though Sunni Islam has no hierarchy of clergy. Besides, Tantawy lacks the institutional structure that undergirds the pope.
Still, he's enormously influential. When he speaks (sometimes issuing fatwas, or religious rulings), people listen, especially Sunni Muslims.
But he seems to offer two messages -- one of hope, peace and harmony; the other of angry radicalism that appears at times to encourage suicide bombers. That, at least, is how it appears to many observers, including me, who stand outside Islam.
Mixed messages
Islam cannot afford such mixed messages from its leaders now. Because terrorists claim to act in the religion's name, Islam is on the defensive worldwide. As it publicly disassociates itself from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it also seeks to make the valid point that it has been, historically, a religion that has helped millions of believers lead better lives.
There is, in fact, an excellent case to be made that Islam is a beautiful faith. But Tantawy--and with him al-Azhar -- is failing Muslims worldwide by not being a consistently strong voice for all that Islam holds precious and against the ways extremists hiding behind Islam distort and misuse the faith.
It's true that some leaders of other faiths also can be criticized for bad theology and worse social relations. As a Christian, for instance, I'm sometimes appalled both by the rigid anger I find on my far theological right and by the spineless failure of belief I find on my far left.
But at the moment, Islam is the religion most in the limelight and most in need of reasonable voices to defend it. There are such voices, to be sure, both locally and internationally. But Tantawy's failure to condemn terrorism consistently and his willingness to say things that encourage fanatics means the majority of Sunni Muslims (who make up more than 80 percent of Islam) have been unable to count on a consistent message of peace and reconciliation from their top leaders.
And because most of the world fails to draw any distinction between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, this failure of Sunni leadership tends to undermine the efforts of all Muslims trying to present an attractive picture of Islam to the world.
In a speech in New York in late 2002, Shabana Azmi, a member of India's parliament, described what Muslims need to do. Her words still are valid:
"It is time ... that the silent majority should speak up. We should decide, stand up and be counted and say, 'What kind of Muslim am I? Am I the Muslim who believes in Islam and what the Qur'an teaches me, or am I the Muslim who will be led by the Taliban and its distorted Islam and the bad name it gives Islam?'
"Religion is too potent a weapon to be left to the zealots alone."
Peaceful values
As I say, there certainly are some helpful Muslim voices denouncing terrorism and upholding the faith's traditionally peaceful values. One is Feisal Abdul Rauf, imam of Masjid al-Farah in New York . He has written a helpful new book, "What's Right With Islam: A New Vision of Muslims and the West," which calls for the message of hope I hear only sometimes from Tantawy. (See also "Taking Back Islam," edited by Michael Wolfe.)
Rauf praises American Christians who have shown goodwill toward Muslims and have sought "to engage in dialogue regarding our common American identity." More to the point, Rauf maintains his authentic Muslim identity even while critiquing comments made by a few misguided Christian leaders.
He notes, for instance, that the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, has called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion," while the Rev. Jerry Vines, past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has said the Prophet Muhammad was "a demon-possessed pedophile."
Rauf says he finds "these words unbearably painful to hear, and they are words that cause unspeakable anger in other parts of the world. Such words also represent false and un-Christian theology."
True interfaith dialogue requires that kind of openness and honesty.
X Bill Tammeus is a columnist for The Kansas City Star. R Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.