ISIS targets Muslims, not the West: scholar
UVic lecture centres on need to include Islam, not shun it
The Islamic State horrifies Western democracies with recorded beheadings, but it is really directing its propaganda at Muslims, says a university religious scholar who will be speaking in Victoria.
To counter the message, Canadians must embrace Muslims as part of the community, he says.
William Morrow, a professor in the school of religion at Queen’s University and an ordained Anglican priest, said one element of the Islamic State, or ISIS, being missed in democracies such as Canada, is who the group is targeting with its propaganda.
“They are trying to establish themselves in the minds of certain people as the real thing, as completely indifferent to the people of the West and willing to use whatever possible means to create the ideal Islamic state,” Morrow said.
“We don’t see it, but ISIS is speaking first and foremost to Muslims,” he said. “And Muslims are the ones who have to speak, first and foremost, against ISIS.”
Morrow will be speaking at the University of Victoria in a free lecture co-sponsored by the Anglican Diocese of B.C. on Thursday called The Islamic State: A Case Study of Religion and Violence.
In a telephone interview, he said another element often missed, largely because of media inattention, are the ongoing efforts by Muslim leaders and ordinary Muslim people to speak out and work against ISIS.
“After ISIS declared itself the caliphate [supreme Muslim state], there was a very large body of Islamic scholars all over the world who issued a statement denying that claim,” said Morrow. “We also find Muslims active in attempts to prevent radicalization of young people.”
“You will find frequent statements made against terrorism or the actions of ISIS made by Islamic leaders and ignored by Western press,” he said.
He said Western Christianity is not immune to the destructive, murderous, intermingling of politics, religion and violence.
Northern Ireland, for example, is the site of long-running political battles. Catholic/Protestant differences contributed to the creation of violence by providing a lens through which the two groups watched and interpreted each other’s actions and words.
“Violence can be justified by interpreting reality to create a threat or to offer an opportunity to exploit someone else’s weakness,” said Morrow. “Religions in general are very powerful tools to interpret reality.”
He said one element of interpreting reality in order to breed terrorism and murder is the use of religion to create “the other.”
Morrow said this “othering” process is often assisted by religious symbols or impulses. It helps make it possible for people to regard themselves as part of an “in group” threatened from without by members of an “out group.”
“We all construct in-groups and out-groups,” said Morrow. “The creation of the other is a very typical human response.”
But “at what point and under what circumstances does the ingroup become possessed of a perspective on the world which regards some kind of out-group as a threat that must be suppressed or eliminated?”
He suggested Western, including Canadian, institutions and churches find ways to welcome Muslims in order to counter this “othering” process. “We need to find ways to embrace [Muslims] as part of the community,” Morrow said. “That’s really important.”
Islam “is not the Big Satan, it’s not some kind of enemy,” he said. “The vast majority of Muslims are very decent and good people. ... In other words: ‘Don’t cut them out of the community,’ ” Morrow said.
William Morrow’s lecture on The Islamic State: A Case Study of Religion and Violence, is from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8, at the David Strong Building, Room C118. Admission is free. For more information, email csrs@uvic.ca.