the Guardian<\/a>, UK.<\/p>\nRadwan shares similar concerns with me about the rise of Islamofascism. But, the solutions he offers are deeply problematic.<\/p>\n
Radwan\u2019s primary manoeuvre lies in disclaiming the value of reinterpretation performed by reformists and liberals, thereby \u201cforcing new meanings\u201d onto the Quran. In his opinion, this is simply playing into the hands of Islamofascists, who are given some legitimacy by this act and who will then counter it.<\/p>\n
His own answer is to simply declare the Quran to be fallible, and thus we do not need to concern ourselves debating the issue. Rather we should simply dismiss problematic verses entirely.<\/p>\n
This tactic seems to me to be born of intellectual laziness. After all, the Quran is open for use by anyone, Muslim or otherwise. The fact that Islamofascists use some parts of the Quran to justify their violence should not mean that other Muslims are \u201cforcing new meanings\u201d onto them if they interpret them in a nonviolent manner.<\/p>\n
Why does Radwan then give the privilege of default interpretations to the Islamofascists?<\/p>\n
Islamofascist discourse is not substantiated much by the Quran. But when it is, it relies on atomistic readings. A primary example of this is the \u201cverse of the sword,\u201d which is said by Islamofascists to \u201cabrogate all the peaceful verses.\u201d How they derived the authority for this abrogation is up for grabs, but Radwan seems to accept their interpretation and thus call for the verse to be declared fallible. Ironically, this is agreeing to the very same \u201chardline literalism\u201d he denounces in his article.<\/p>\n
If literalism is bad, then why give automatic privilege of interpretation to those who practise it?<\/p>\n
Radwan claims that this manoeuvre \u2013 to declare the Quran as fallible \u2013 to be the essential to side stepping the Islamofascists\u2019 claim that \u201cGod said it,\u201d and thus their interpretation is valid. One wonders then about other, admittedly human, texts like the Nietzsche\u2019s Also Sprach Zarathustra<\/em>, for example. That text inspired its adherents to commit evil through misreadings.<\/p>\nThese texts were never taken to be divinely inspired, but they were taken as (pardon the pun) gospel truth. Islamofascists themselves do this very thing to their scholars\u2019 opinions, but they never claim them to be divinely inspired. How does divine infallibility automatically relate to blind fanaticism?<\/p>\n
No, the answer does not lie in this fallibility claim. Divine inspiration, authorship and infallibility does not preclude one important factor \u2013 interpretation. Radwan conveniently forgets that the Islamofascists read the Quran atomistically (they rip verses out from their textual positions) in order to justify their positions.<\/p>\n
In fact, Radwan does the very same thing when claiming the Quran is contradictory. He once claimed he was tired of the argument that some verses are metaphorical, which he sees as escape clauses. Radwan needs to make up his mind \u2013 literalism or holistic readings? Of course, he is not obliged to follow any of the above but let\u2019s not pretend objectivity where there is none.<\/p>\n
I will be the first to admit that the Quran has some rather difficult verses. But rather than throwing them out, I was fortunate enough to discover that the arguments Islamofascists used to justify their interpretations were non-existent. They did not even quote the verses in full, let alone pay attention to context or even connect this to the theme of the entire text.<\/p>\n
Why anyone would give them default authority and deem other interpretations as \u201cforced\u201d is beyond me.<\/p>\n
The answer lies in reading the Quran as a whole. When one does this, one can clearly see that there are rules for conflict, and these rules are very fair. For example, the first rule given is to only fight in self-defence and never overstep that mark. If Islamic extremists paid attention to this rule alone, all acts of terrorism would stop immediately.<\/p>\n
However, they chose to follow their scholars manipulation of those verses for imperialist gain. And in Hassan Radwan\u2019s fallibility manoeuvre, he has done precisely the same.<\/p>\n
Farouk\u00a0 A. Peru is a human being in the world. He uses the faith \u2013 tradition of Islam to formulate his religious identity and as a means to truth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Farouk Peru In our current socio-political milieu, the world of Islam is coming under close scrutiny by the rest of the humanity, especially the West. Islamophobia is a veritable industry and many individuals make their fortunes by generating racial hatred towards Muslims. In this climate, one can only expect there to be criticism towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":590,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1156,1468,1467,1465,1469,26,1466,52,34,1464],"class_list":["post-6612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","tag-context","tag-dissident-muslims","tag-ex-muslims","tag-hassan-radwan","tag-interpretation","tag-islam","tag-islamofascism","tag-muslims","tag-quran","tag-the-guardian"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>By Farouk Peru<\/strong><\/p>\n