NOT GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION
Who will speak up for the rest of the Muslim world against Islamic State, asks Enver Mall
AMONG Muslims around the world who are opposed to the ideologies and methods of Islamic State is the almost unanimous belief that the organisation does not represent what true Islam is or was ever intended to be.
Whenever an atrocity is allegedly committed by IS – and in recent times there have been some barbaric ones – the first reaction is “not in my name” or “they don’t represent true Islam” or such phrases.
The next reaction, of dissociation, is often defensive, to deflect blame, along the lines that the terrorist group is behaving that way because it is really the product of Western imperialism and funded by and doing the bidding of Western states to serve their own self-interests.
In some twisted way, this defensiveness reminds one of how apartheid South Africa and its allies in the 1970s and 1980s would claim the liberation movements were simply proxies of the Soviet Union intent on taking control of South Africa for its mineral wealth and resources.
The denialism is often intertwined with clumsy, convoluted disclaimers that give rise to some of the most amazing conspiracy theories.
As is often the case, denialism is really a defence mechanism, a response to a feeling of helplessness, which in the case of most Muslims is because of the fingers pointing at them, making them “guilty by association” simply for sharing a religion with the organisation.
This feeling of helplessness stems from the fact that within the rest of the Muslim world, there really are no unifying voices or platforms to offer a united international Muslim front that is capable of speaking for ordinary peace-loving Muslim people around the world when dealing with atrocities being carried out by people purporting to be acting in the name of Islam.
IS’s fundamental goal is to reestablish a caliphate led by a modern caliph whose role is to be the de facto “leader” of the entire Muslim world.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, its leader, has pronounced himself the caliph and assumed the title “Caliph Ibrahim”.
The group now claims to be the highest authority of Muslims in the world and, because of this, it claims justification for being the true representatives of Islam.
The majority of Muslims in the world reject Islamic State and its caliphate yet do not seem to find a strong enough voice to convince the rest of the world that this is so.
Division
This is possibly due to there being no alternative, unifying leadership voices to unite the rest of the Muslim world across all ideological and political lines.
The conflicts between Shia and Sunni have roots over a thousand years ago and are the greatest cause of the division in Islam between Muslims in the Middle East.
This division is deep and South African Muslims, as are most other Muslim populations in other parts of the world, are generally far removed from the ideological and political differences which being either Sunni or Shia have spawned.
Generally, most South African Muslims, and most Muslim populations in other parts of the world, have little or no association with the Sunni and Shia conflicts and therefore have a notion of a simplistic, yet idealistic version of Islam that is supposed to unite and not divide Muslims of the world.
It is from this reference point that the “not in our name” and “not representative of the true Islam” phrases are used.
Muslims in South Africa, as in other parts of the world, are caught up emotionally in a conflict which they really have nothing to do with and it is understandable that they react defensively.
There really is no authoritative international Muslim voice which has both moral and legal standing, to directly challenge IS and its misrepresentation of what they believe is “the true Islam”.
Are there alternatives to challenging IS? Should the rest of the Muslim world opposed to IS and its methods then support Russia and now France who want to bomb IS and destroy them? I do not see this happening.
Whatever the solution, if indeed there is one, the protests, denialism and conspiracy theories do not detract from the fact that at present IS increasingly contributes greatly to making the world a more unsafe place.
One can but sympathise with the millions of peace-loving and innocent Muslims all around the world who don’t in any way identify with IS, its ideology and methods, but who are being held to ransom and being forced to apologise for the actions of the group for no reason other than they share a religion.
Mall is a Durban based attorney who considers himself a secular humanist.