Twisting Islam to Justify Cruelty

Journal Article 1: Twisting Islam to justify cruelty

Paul Sheehan in his piece titled ‘Twisting Islam to justify cruelty’ which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald (27/05/2013) responds to the 2013 murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, a British soldier, and explores the Islamic stance on the killing of non-Muslims. Sheehan argues that Islam advocates the murder of non-Muslims, and validates this view using the opinions of a Muslim cleric, Omar Bakri Mohammed, selected verses from the Qur’an and statistics from thereligionofpeace.com. Sheehan’s perspective, while evidently substantiated, generalizes the Muslim population and fails to acknowledge the complexity of Islam and its followers.

Firstly, the writer is over simplistic in his approach to the Muslim population, as he presents the views of Omar Bakri Mohammed, as being representative of a large proportion (thousands of Muslims) of the Muslim community. In doing so, he overlooks or ignores the many groups and subgroups that exist in Islamic society, including the Sunnis, Shias, Salafis, Sufis, Wahabis, etc. These various subclasses have differing perspective on combat against infidels and its permissibility in Islam; thus, his perspective doesn’t cover the variety of views that are present on the issue of killing non-Muslims existing in the Islamic community.

Secondly, the writer’s highly selective use of quotes again, generalizes the issues at hand and Sheehan distils the Holy Qur’an, a very intricate, dense and complex text, to, more or less, a mere collection of fragmented quotes. In order for unbiased meaning to be sourced from the Qur’an, some degree of academic knowledge about the historical context of particular verses, understanding of the process of revelation(wahy), kn...

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...he distinction between modesty and immodesty is easily blurred. While the majority, like Zulfiye Tufa, understand that ‘fashion is a medium of expressing… internal beliefs’, other individuals tread a thin line. For this reason, “Hijabistas”, especially fashion bloggers with followings in the thousands, receive criticism both from within and outside the Muslim sphere, regarding their promotion, be it conscious or involuntary, of the coexistence of hijab with an adorned sexual self, exhibiting beauty to the public sphere.

The article explores the varying different forms or interpretations of hijab which are emerging, but underlying the text is the concept that while it can be a means of individualism hijab is inevitably a public, yet simultaneously very intimate, display of one’s relationship with God, and has great spiritual significance for the individual.