Islam under Siege

Author: Akbar S. Ahmed
Vistaar Publications, New Delhi, 2003

Reviewed By Niraj Kumar

World has changed a lot after the September 11, 2001. A new government under the leadership of Hamid Karzai is ruling Afghanistan, which was earlier ruled by Taliban and acted as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda. Iraq is under the US control and Libya has agreed to mend its ways. The initial knee-jerk reaction of revenge for the death and destruction caused by the September 11 attacks by the Americans has given way to a desire to understand the reasons behind these attacks. A wide variety of literature was produced globally, each attempting to explain the turn of events from its own perspective. Akbar S. Ahmed’s ‘Islam Under Siege’ is one such book that tries to answer some questions and clear certain misconceptions regarding the role of Islam in perpetuating this crisis.

The author has observed that Islam became a synonym for ‘terrorism’, ‘fanaticism’ and ‘extremism’ after September 11 (see Ahmed, 2003: 1) and questions are being raised that ‘why do they hate us?’. In the attempt to find the explanation to these questions, he uses his understanding of theology and his mother discipline, anthropology. He has effectively used the concepts such as asabiyya propounded by Ibn Khaldun meaning group loyalty or social cohesion, hyper-asabiyya, honour and post honour to explain the increasing violent tendencies among the Muslims.

According to the author, Islam requires the believers to follow two categories of behaviour. First include belief in god, fasting, praying, charity and pilgrimage to Mecca. Second category includes faith in adl (justice), ishan (compassion) and ilm (knowledge). The absence of the second category of behaviour is evident from the emergence of Taliban and Al-Qaeda, September 11 attacks and the instances of jubilation that followed it in the Muslim world. For the author even Taliban that projects itself as the flag bearer of Islam, violate the tenets of Islam by discriminating against women and treating harshly the minorities. This tendency, according to the author, got strengthened and the process is continuing due to the disintegration of traditional notion of asabiyya and honour.

Globalisation with its capacity to affect every single individual has challenged the primary forms of identity- family, tribe, state and religion. In this vacuum of insecurity religion becomes a vehicle of response to globalisation for individuals, which often gets translated into violence. Further, violence against the Muslims, especially against the Muslim women in Kosovo, Chechnya and Indian states of Kashmir and Gujrat, gives excuse to extremist groups to save Muslims from being dishonoured. Therefore, the collapse of asabiyya as an impact of globalisation also meant the collapse of adl, ishan and ilm, and the rise of hyper-asabiyya, a new mutated and dangerous from of asabiyya. Taliban is one such form of hyper-asabiyya. For the author, no one is to be blamed more than the leaders of the Muslim countries for the spread of culture of violence among the Muslims. According to him, apart form Iranian government and Taliban, the leaders in the Muslim world are of royal descent or are military dictators, who are more interested in maintaining their rule by obeying the US than looking after the needs of the masses.

Lastly, author identifies the responses of the Muslims to the crisis situation into two categories. First is the policy of inclusion in the hope to generate dialogue and harmony for bringing different societies and people together. Second category encourages the activities that promote exclusion, confrontation and rejection. The author while prescribing the attitude to be adopted in future, rejects the second category as it confirms the ‘Clash of Civilisations’ theory propounded by Samuel Huntington and supports the first category that believes in the ‘Dialogue among Civilisations’ theory introduced by President Muhammad Khatami of Iran.

There is no doubt that the author through this book has been able to address the principle concern of answering certain uncomfortable questions that surrounded Islam as a faith in the aftermath of September 11, but in the process he has raised certain issues that needs some more discussion. He argues that the other religions of the world should acknowledge the presence of Islam and allow Muslims to practice their faith with honour for then only Islam will be a good neighbour to non Muslims. Here it should be pointed that the onus not only lies on the other world religions to understand Islam, but Islam also needs to adopt/change itself for the uncomfortable situations that arises due to its increasing interaction with the other world religions.

Further, the author also questions the Islamic credentials of Taliban for its demolition of Buddha statue in Bamyan (Afghanistan) and considers it as a ‘PR’ disaster for Islam. While in a similar situation he blames all the Hindus for the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya (India) by a crowd without questioning their religious credentials and considers it as one of the prime reasons for the loss of honour Muslims felt world over. The application different standards for two different groups operating in different part of the world having only similarity that they believe in the extremist behaviour has unnecessarily questions the academic credentials of the author. Moreover, as the author expects the other world civilisations to treat the symbols of Islamic faith respectfully, he could have avoided referring the Hindu god ‘Hanuman’ a monkey.