The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam

somos los piratas

Exile is the second key story line in Western religion that shapes violent images of God. Notice that the Exodus story is a story about God's liberating violence. But what if instead of defeating your enemies you are always getting your ass kicked? What if instead of living in the Promised Land you are always living under foreign rule? How do you make sense of that?

While Exodus is a story in which God uses superior violence to free an oppressed people; exile, on the other hand, is a story where God uses violence to punish the chosen people for their sins. If Exodus was a story of God's liberating violence; then the exile is a story of God's punishing violence. Obey God and prosper. Disobey God and suffer.

This theme of exile is key to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam today. Islam was once a great empire, far superior in wealth and culture than Western Europe. How then does one explain why the Islamic empire declined and gave way to domination by imperial, capitalistic, and mostly "Christian" nations? The logic is simple: if fidelity to God leads to historical prominence, then historical decline is caused by lack of fidelity to God, Muhammad, and the Qur'an.

As the charter of Hamas states:

Hamas "found itself at a time when Islam disapeared from life. Thus, rules were broken, concepts were vilified, values changed, and evil people took control; oppression and darkness prevailed, cowards became tigers; homelands were invaded, people were scattered…When Islam is absent from the arena, everything changes."

From this perspective, Israel's occupation is seen as punishment from God for deviations from Islam. Thus independence, development, dignity will be achieved only by a return to Islam, the re-Islamization of societies that have become lax and therefore weak.

(to be continued)