The Ka\u2018ba in Mecca (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)
Although dating to pre-Islamic times, it has been the center of the Muslim world since the early seventh century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least once, and perhaps twice, I used Daniel W. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam<\/em>, 2d. ed. (Malden MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) as the principal text for my own introductory course on the religion of Islam. \u00a0Along the way, I marked a few passages that reminded me of points that I myself wanted to make in a revised third edition of my book on Islam for Latter-day Saints (on which I\u2019m finally beginning to really get to work). \u00a0Here are four of those passages:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
[T]he most urgent set of theological, ethical, and political problems faced by the Muslim community in the contemporary world is posed by the challenge of pluralism. . . . \u00a0Muslims in the contemporary world continue to make the case for the rationality of Islam, but reason is no longer the central challenge they face. \u00a0The yardstick of the postmodern world is not reason, but tolerance. \u00a0The question most often posed by outsiders to Islam is not whether the claims of Islam are true and reasonable \u2014 a suitable religion for \u201cmodern\u201d people; the new most frequently asked question is whether Islam is \u201ca religion of peace.\u201d \u00a0Are Muslims, in other words, able to accept a place as one community among many? \u00a0Are \u201cIslamic\u201d values compatible with a system of democratic pluralism, and with the ideology of pluralism that often accompanies it? (283-284)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like their intellectual forebears, contemporary Wahh\u0101b\u012bs draw the circle of Islam narrowly, and are thus most easily identified by what they oppose, including all manifestations of\u00a0\u1e63\u016bfism [sic<\/em>], all manifestations of Sh\u012b\u2018ite Islam, all forms of theological or philosophical discourse, most forms of music, and, in general, any idea, scientific or otherwise, that cannot be justified from the Qur\u2019\u0101n or the Sunna. . . . \u00a0Wahh\u0101bism, in short, is an ideology vigorously opposed to pluralism, whether that pluralism is within the circle of Islam or without. . . . \u00a0One of the rallying cries of Wahh\u0101bism has been the Qur\u2019\u0101nic imperative to \u201ccommand the right and forbid the wrong.\u201d \u00a0Error and evil must not simply be avoided for the sake of one\u2019s own soul, they must be actively opposed, whether by argument or by force. \u00a0The agent of choice for this job is the state, and it is thus incumbent upon the state to use its resources and coercive power to implement this vision of Islam. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n[E]xtreme tendencies within the Wahh\u0101b\u012b tradition have come together with other trends in modern Muslim thought to produce a new cult of martyrdom. \u00a0(285-286)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wahh\u0101bism, with its bold claim to represent the one true understanding of Islam, represents one important way of responding to the challenge of pluralism: to utterly reject the possibility that religious (or even cultural) diversity may be a good thing. . . . \u00a0Partly because of the resources and visibility of\u00a0Wahh\u0101b\u012b Islam in the modern world, non-Muslims are increasingly prone to identify \u201ctrue\u201d Islam with\u00a0Wahh\u0101b\u012b forms. . . . \u00a0There is a good chance, in other words, that the ordinary Western lay person, when she thinks of Islam, has in her mind a version of Islam which has been in some way colored by\u00a0Wahh\u0101b\u012b ideas. \u00a0The more hawkish among Western commentators on the Islamic world regularly dismiss any divergence from the\u00a0Wahh\u0101b\u012b pattern as, at best, fringe ideas or movements which do not represent \u201ctrue\u201d Islam. \u00a0(287)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is one measure of the success of\u00a0Wahh\u0101bism that it has for so long and so successfully convinced many non-Muslims that it is the real thing. \u00a0(288)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 At least once, and perhaps twice, I used Daniel W. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam, 2d. ed. (Malden MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) as the principal text for my own introductory course on the religion of Islam. \u00a0Along the way, I marked a few passages that reminded me of points that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1104,11441,11444,5487,11438,66,2950,11435,1769,8721,11432,11429,2896,2893,11426,11423],"class_list":["post-84974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-death","tag-extreme","tag-extremes","tag-extremism","tag-fringe","tag-islam","tag-islamic","tag-mainstream","tag-muslim","tag-pluralism","tag-religion-of-peace","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorist","tag-wahhabi","tag-wahhabism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Ka\u2018ba](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/05\/Mecca.jpg\")
<\/a>