Moderate Islam 101.3: A Religion of Peace?

Post 911, conservative pundits have gone out of their way to portray Islam as inherently violent. While most pundits can be easily dismissed, similar arguments being advanced by otherwise moderate religious leaders and scholars pose a trickier dilemma.

The conservative argument goes something like this: Because the Quran is the perfect and unchanging word of God, Islam is based, not on reason, but purely on faith. It's all there in black and white. Reason need not apply. In turn, progressives argue that diverse and decentralized Islam resists such silly generalizations.

None other than Pope Benedict XVI added fuel to the fire when in a 2006 speech he retold a conversation between a Byzantine emperor and a Muslim interlocutor in which the emperor said, "Show me just what Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

He went on to observe that, "As a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement [not to act in accordance with reason is against God's nature] is self evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even rationality."

To no one's surprise but his own, Muslims worldwide reacted angrily to the Pope's suggestion that Islam is inherently violent and irrational.

Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America, took issue with the notion that, "Somewhere in the minds of Islamic suicide bombers is an unstated understanding that if anyone tried to reason them out of their plans they would counter that logic had no role because this was the will of God."

She went on to say the Pope was off base when implying "that there may be something in [Islam] that is intrinsically friendly to fanaticism."

There is considerable tension within Islam between backward-thinking literalists who believe the Quran cannot be interpreted, and forward-looking moderates who, without disputing that it contains God's exact and perfect word, believe the Quran must be interpreted for its true meaning to be understood.

Among the backward-looking literalists are extremists who cherry pick the parts of the Quran that support their violent cause - a cause many think is more political than religious - and ignore the parts that don't. Their pitch goes something like this. The Quran is literally the word of God. Violent jihad is a sacred duty. God is unknowable. To question his perfect word is blasphemous. Do as he has [or we have] commanded and heaven will be yours.

The truth "on the ground", as it typically does, lies somewhere near the middle. Diverse and decentralized Islam resists generalizations. But there is an aspect of Islam that can be manipulated to misrepresent God's will. If scholars and clerics could somehow find a way to get on the same page, meaningful dialogue might ensue.