Understanding Islam

On my morning walk at "the Lake," I breathed in the fresh air, exercised my lower body with hill work, exercised my upper body trying to swat away the hungry new crop of mosquitoes, and exercised my brain with this excellent Brookings Cafeteria podcast. I've nearly completed Hamid's new book -- Islamist Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World.

We can go only so far in our understanding of a culture or religion when we have no firsthand experience or solid point of reference. After all, I can't even really understand the mindset of a fundamentalist who asked me whether I believe evolution or creationism. How can that even be a choice in this day and age?  And yet...  We have to try. We have to try to appreciate what is both important and obvious to others, even if it's neither obvious nor important to us.

Hamid's book and the podcast interview provide many valuable insights, and I encourage everyone to experience both of them first hand. I can't begin to do justice to his wealth of knowledge, but a couple things stick out.

Hamid goes back to the root of Christianity and the fact that Jesus was a "revolutionary" who had no hope or desire of nation-building. The New Testament is all about individuals, what we believe, and how we conduct ourselves. Anything resembling politics or government is conspicuously absent.Therefore, it's not surprising that eventually a Reformation occurred and we find ourselves in a secular society where the role of religion (for most of us) is fairly circumscribed.

The prophet Mohammed, on the other hand, was in a leadership position and was very interested in "nation-building."  The Koran is filled with "laws" about how to conduct ourselves in groups, how to form a law-abiding Islamist society. This is an overly simplistic summary, but Hamid's basic premise is that separating religion and politics for Muslims is very difficult and unnatural. If we're waiting for a Reformation that will somehow make it easier for us to understand each other and share the planet, we shouldn't hold our collective breath.

Another important point. When Muslims think about history, they think about the vast, highly successful and advanced Ottoman Empire. That was their heyday and it has vanished. So they question why it happened, why did God let it happen, and what can they do to get back into God's favor and ascend to their former greatness. Obviously, for many of them, a return to a more observant, pious society is an important step.

And one last story. When visiting Egypt, Hamid encountered a man who was smoking hashish while bemoaning secularism and wishing for the implementation of sharia law. When Hamid pointed out the irony (that the man was wishing for sharia law that would prohibit him from smoking hash), he said he felt bad about smoking hashish and wanted the state to stop him. We've seen this throughout history. For many people, authoritarianism (or fundamentalism) is easier. It provides something to believe in and rules to live by.

I'll never really understand such a vastly different value system, but at least I'm trying.