Opinion: Can the West avoid a ‘holy war’ with Islam?

Sydney
4 November 2001

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Opinion: Can the West avoid a ‘holy war’ with Islam?

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Opinion: Can the West avoid a ‘holy war’ with Islam?

By Fr Bruce Duncan

The Allied military intervention in Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden’s terrorists has suddenly raised the frightful prospect of a religious war lasting many years.

Muslim religious authorities have insisted that nothing in Islam justifies surprise, terrorist attacks on innocent civilians as occurred in the United States. But the western world is alarmed at the militancy of certain Islamic groups which instead of denouncing this terrorism have sounded the drums of ‘holy war’ or jihad.

The United States and its allies need to move cautiously lest they inflame religious fundamentalism and draw thousands of new recruits to the terrorist ranks. Decisions taken now could determine whether or not we will face a terrorist onslaught lasting for generations, with the nightmare threat of mass destruction from atomic, biological or chemical weapons.

Religious wars in the past have exacted an enormous toll in human suffering because they are fought with such ferocity for goals greater than life itself. Religious wars can readily abandon the restraints of military and political calculation, and instead charge combat with a spiritual energy which exalts death for one’s god.

Paradoxically, even atheists can worship their martial gods, as did the Stalinists, who decked out their deities in the disguise of Marxism-Leninism.

The terrorist attacks not only exposed the complacency of the West, but revealed how vulnerable its core economic and political institutions were to assault by people with relatively unsophisticated weapons. The West is hopefully now more aware how deeply many Muslims feel about their humiliation by western colonialism, and the recent setbacks to their economic and social development.

Islamic revivalism can be seen in large part as an attempt to find an answer to modern problems through a sifting of Islamic cultures and history, to reinforce values and beliefs with which to contest the invasion of western economics, ideas and media.

Traditional Muslim societies are deeply offended by much of what they see in the electronic media in particular, with the decay of family life, the profoundly secularised view of life, the use of alcohol, smoking and illicit drugs, and the disrespect for social and familial authorities.

The terrorist attacks have also heightened popular fears about Muslims and deeply reinforced caricatured views about Islam. Many westerners view Islam through the lenses of a secularist worldview, assuming that the religion of Muhammad is an atavistic survival from the past that will disappear with modernisation. Instead we are witnessing a resurgence of Islam and it may yet provide the cultural foundation for a new flourishing of Muslim societies.

It would be well for leaders in the Western world to remember how deeply entrenched in its own history and military traditions has been the ‘holy war’ mentality. Not only did the crusaders march off to make war on the Muslims at the command of the Pope and in the name of God, but even after the crusades in Palestine failed, they dragged on elsewhere for hundreds of years, setting a pattern which influenced the attitudes of the conquistadors in the New World and the colonial carve-up of much of the world.

The Church now recognises that the crusade mentality in Europe was a tragic mistake with devastating consequences for millions of people. It is even more astonishing when we consider that for centuries the early Church strongly prohibited killing even in self-defence. This changed after the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in AD 310, when Christians had to help defend the Empire, thus moderating the prohibition against killing.

The rethinking of the Church’s prohibition against killing took clearer shape with St Augustine (354–430), whose thought was most influential six centuries later as Europe emerged from the Dark Ages after the barbarian invasion. The Church struggled for centuries to tame the warrior cultures of the Germanic tribes which prized nothing more than honour and glory won in battle.

The failure satisfactorily to curb this martial spirit is evident even from the history of the last two centuries, with its record of bloody colonial conquest throughout the world, two world wars and innumerable other conflicts.

Unfortunately, the West still has not purged itself of all aspects of the crusade or ‘holy war’ mentality. President Bush’s unhappy slip, calling for a ‘crusade’ against terrorists and their state supporters, in terms of a straight-out contest between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, could well play into the hands of Islamic extremists.

‘Operation Infinite Justice’ was also provocative, but such overblown and presumptuous rhetoric was abandoned as it was offensive to religious believers, and not just Muslims.

Instead of declaring this a ‘war’ against terrorists, would it not be better to use the more restrained word, ‘campaign’? Indeed, why not speak of a ‘police action’ sufficient to bring to justice the perpetrators and their accomplices? Killing bin Laden may only make him a martyr in the eyes of many, instead of him being recognised as a mass murderer of whom other Muslims would be ashamed.

American anger against the New York mass murders is entirely justifiable and justice must be seen to be done, but especially so in the Muslim world if we are to overcome the legacy of hundreds of years of religious conflict.

The anti-terrorist alliance’s ultimate goal must not be just to restore a fragile peace by putting terrorists on trial. The West must support the melding of Islamic thought and tradition with the modern currents for international law, social justice and human rights, particularly by vigorously supporting democracy, economic development and education in Muslim countries.