The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
When last I visited Manhattan, City Journal gave me a book by one of my fellow contributing editors, Guy Sorman. It was titled The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam. I thanked them, took it home, put it on my shelf and forgot about it. As you can see from the Amazon page, I wasn't the only one; as far as I can see this book has been widely ignored.
I brought it with me to read on my recent excursion to the Baltics. I was wrong to have ignored it, and so were the critics. I'd like to recommend it to everyone on Ricochet. It is out of date now--it was published in 2002--but it is one of the most thoughtful answers I've read to the questions I'm asked over and over again.
Just before reading the book, I had in fact just given a lecture making precisely the points with which he concludes:
Who is the real enemy of Islam: the West or Muslim tyrants? And what does the future hold: a return to fundamentalism or the opening of Islam to modernity? The Muslims are at a crossroads. And they are not the only ones: To a lesser degree, Western societies hang between those in favor of an open society and the rest who want communitarianism.
As for fundamentalism, it leads to war, not among civilizations, as we have often been told, but between Islamists and Muslims. The war which has already begun has at times claimed Western lives but Westerners are not the main targets. The real stake is to assume power in the Muslim countries.
Can Islam be reconciled with modernity? Two hundred years ago Rifaa had concluded that Western science did not go against the spirit of the East, a quest for reconciliation that Muslims, both liberal and progressive, are still pursuing. They can be found all over in the Muslim countries but we don't pay much attention to them. (My emphasis.) ...
The fate of these children of Rifaa depends on our solidarity, and on their fate depends our safety.
Although I chose that passage because it summarizes his thesis, one of the great virtues of the book is that he does not treat Islam as a single thing or the Islamic world as a single entity. That one should not do so is a proposition so obvious--to me--that I'm astonished it need so often be defended. How much can one really explain by noting that Sarah Palin and Vladimir Putin are both products of the historically Christian world? This explains something, to be sure, but far from enough to say anything definitive about the democratic and liberal instincts of either. Russia and Turkey, it seems to me, have far more in common, culturally, than do Russia and Alaska. (I say this having never been to Alaska, but I am guessing.) Yet the proposition that the Islamic world is as complex as the rest of the world does need defending, again and again. I hereby defend it.
If you're searching for a moderate Islam, this book would be a good place to start. I don't endorse every word, but I endorse more of them than I usually do when I read books treating this subject.
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Mar '11
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Claire,
Interesting recommendation and I will pick up a copy of the book (it would be super if I could get it for Kindle...sigh....not available).
But even before reading, I want to second your comments about the Islamic world. One of my personal frustrations with how Americans at large, but Republicans specifically, talk about Islam and even Shariah is the way they are presented as monolithic. Or, if a distinction is made, it's often akin to Herman Cain's comment in the GOP NH debate "Muslims that are trying to kill us and those who are not"
Surely we need to be vigilant against people trying to kill us of whatever stripe. Nevertheless, to say this misses the boat would be a gross understatement.
More even then missing the boat, I would propose that it is a fundamentally un-conservative way of seeing the problem. Conservatives have deep respect for history and civilization--we are supposed to better understand the way the complex historical-cultural web of religion, informal mores, laws, climate, family and economics shape the social landscape.
Are we just lazy, or do we not suppose that it works the same way in other places?
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
I don't know. I'm as puzzled by this as you are. But I'm also guilty of it: It had never occurred to me prior to visiting Helsinki, for example, that Finns weren't, basically, just Scandinavians. A few hours there immediately persuaded me that they were very different from other Scandinavians. Why had I not realized that before? Laziness, I suppose.
Nov '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Claire- wondering if you've read Bassam Tibi's The Challenge of Fundamentalism? Thoughts? It's been on my to-read list for a while ever since Daniel Pipes recommended it...and I'm thinking it should get bumped up the queue.
Oct '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Part of it is how extreme Islamism has been selling itself as mainstream (via war, terrorism, and any means necessary) for the past half-century. And modernists are excluded in Western nations because of how gullible our elite is (look over there, a Jew! We're not radicalizing your communities and oppressing the women! What's that, Saudis are funding radical mosques? Well, uh, um, it's the Jews fault!)
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
I haven't read that book, but I've followed him over the years and generally find him worth one's time.
Jun '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
There was a time when I believed that the farther one travels from Mecca the more moderate becomes the practice of Islam. Indeed, as a general principle my belief was true some 25 or 30 years ago. But from Mindinao to Indonesia, through Waziristan and Afghanistan, across to Iran, eastern Turkey, and now to North Africa these formerly quiet lands have become infected by Islamic extremism. It seems to me that Wahhabism and its Salafist offspring are to blame. If so, the problem has its source in Riyadh. US diplomats have yet to take on the House of Saud for its complicity in financing terror. The best thing we could do is open our national lands for domestic oil production and thereby reduce the funding to terrorist organizations. Moderate forms of Islam might then have a chance to rise with sufficient strength against the radicals to displace them. I noticed in my travels that Islamic practice tends more toward a fatalistic inertia than to violence. A pacific Islam might have a chance to examine modernity and adapt to it on a local level.
Edited on Jun 19, 2011 at 7:06amRe: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
I'd certainly say there's a huge strain of this in Turkey. Obviously I can think of a million counter-examples--historic and contemporary--but overall, my emotional reaction to Turkey is why do you just accept this?
Jun '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
I'd certainly say there's a huge strain of this in Turkey. Obviously I can think of a million counter-examples--historic and contemporary--but overall, my emotional reaction to Turkey is why do you just accept this? · Jun 19 at 4:08am
Indeed, the counter-examples are many. However, T.E. Lawrence remarked that the Islamic world tends to burst into a great conflagration from time to time only to see the fury abate when the initial frenzy wears off. He was likely thinking of the Mahdist revolt in the Sudan, an event that occured just a generation before he went to Arabia as an advisor to the future King Faisal. This insight supports my point. If only we could cut off the sources of funding, the current state of affairs might recede of its own accord. It would be a bold move by a future president to declare that his energy policy would be to make America a net exporter of oil within his term, say four to eight years.
Feb '11
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Claire,
First, Western awareness of the variety of Muslim practice in the Middle East is poor. Few in US can tell the names of the first two Islamic caliphates, or the names of the first 4 Caliphs. Or know the story of the grand schism between Shiite and Sunni. Someone should ask Obama!
Second, undersanding the Alawites , or the Druze, or other local sects is impossible, except for a few academic types. Do you understand the doctrines of the Alawites or Druze or the Gulen Movement? Or the role of brotherhoods amonst the Kurds? Or why the Omanis seem to have a more tolerante form of Islam?
Third, "Western Sceince" does go against the spirt of Islam, where fate is taught as dogma. Two hundred years ago, one thousand years ago, and today.
One mistake is the belief that the Arab-Islam needs a reformation. It already had a major split 1300 years ago - Sunni and Shiite - and that did not lead to any improvement. What it needed was what transformed Judism and early Christianity, which was the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. That got them think about peaceful persuits.
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Steven Zoraster:
Second, undersanding the Alawites , or the Druze, or other local sects is impossible, except for a few academic types. Do you understand the doctrines of the Alawites or Druze or the Gulen Movement?
Trick question, right? The Druze aren't really Muslims. (So who is? By my lights, anyone who says he or she is.)
Dec '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Have we forgotten that Alaska WAS Russia until Secretary Seward made his shrewd purchase?
May '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Claire, Maybe since you've been aware of Islam and Muslims of all types for so long, you are alarmed that some people in America are sounding an alarm about Islam. I did not have the first clue about Islam until two years ago. The only thing I barely recalled about it was my 7th grade world history teacher asking, do you know what "jihad" is? As a young adult, my best friend married a Muslim and I was reminded that Islam is a monotheistic religion, with the same God as Judaism and Christianity. I had no fear of it, no distrust, no problem, and I knew a kind, decent person who is Muslim. What I didn't know until a couple years ago is that Islam is also a political ideology, in addition to a religion. That's what hardly anyone knows in America. And that's what people should know, so that they can be aware of designs by some Muslims to create a caliphate. Didn't you write a book about this happening in Europe? I don't understand what you don't understand.
Dec '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
I'd certainly say there's a huge strain of this in Turkey. Obviously I can think of a million counter-examples--historic and contemporary--but overall, my emotional reaction to Turkey is why do you just accept this? · Jun 19 at 4:08am
"Islam" means "submission" -- submission to the will of God. "In'shallah" means "if God wills it." Western culture used to be based on, "Man proposes, God disposes," meaning that our initiative is limited by Providence. Islam preaches that God is the source of all initiative, that He will tell mankind what to do and when and how to do it.
Add to that cultural influence a top-down authoritarian tradition, where if God doesn't tell you what to do, some official does, and you can appreciate how a people can lose their appetite for trying to change and innovate cultural practices. In Japan, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down: is it different in Turkey?
May '11
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
"If only we could cut off the sources of funding, the current state of affairs might recede of its own accord. It would be a bold move by a future president to declare that his energy policy would be to make America a net exporter of oil within his term, say four to eight years."
I don't know if that would help but I am all for it.
Oct '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Katherine:
<snip>
What I didn't know until a couple years ago is that Islam is also a political ideology, in addition to a religion. That's what hardly anyone knows in America. And that's what people should know, so that they can be aware of designs by some Muslims to create a caliphate...
The political ideology is new--and somewhat Westernized. Its supporters desperately want the world to believe that their ideology and Islam are the same thing, but they're not. Islamism was born of the same totalitarian impulse that gave us fascism and communism. Its proponents want to create a Catholic Church for Muslims, as when the Catholic Church held sway over much of Europe.
May '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Joseph Eagar
Katherine:
<snip>
What I didn't know until a couple years ago is that Islam is also a political ideology, in addition to a religion. That's what hardly anyone knows in America. And that's what people should know, so that they can be aware of designs by some Muslims to create a caliphate...
The political ideology is new--and somewhat Westernized. Its supporters desperately want the world to believe that their ideology and Islam are the same thing, but they're not. Islamism was born of the same totalitarian impulse that gave us fascism and communism. Its proponents want to create a Catholic Church for Muslims, as when the Catholic Church held sway over much of Europe. · Jun 19 at 5:50pm
I don't think the political ideology is new. The Prophet Mohammed was a great warrior and a political leader. He conquered lands in the Arabian Peninsula and forced conversions and/or submission to Muslim rulers. What do you mean by the political ideology being "somewhat Westernized?"
Jul '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Joseph Eagar
The political ideology is new--and somewhat Westernized. Its supporters desperately want the world to believe that their ideology and Islam are the same thing, but they're not. Islamism was born of the same totalitarian impulse that gave us fascism and communism. Its proponents want to create a Catholic Church for Muslims, as when the Catholic Church held sway over much of Europe. · Jun 19 at 5:50pm
To equate Islam with Islamism is akin to supporting the Islamists. Why do you think the Arabs spend so much money trying make the world believe Islam and Islamism are the same thing? Katherine has apparently bought into it. The purpose is to make us all expend our energy fighting each other while the Islamists do their thing unhindered. I guarantee you that even though I am a Muslim and practice no such Islam, I doubt Katherine will ever take me seriously as she does the Islamists. And although that is her choice (and mistake), it will in the end be my fault for believing in my religion. That is exactly what the Islamists want people to do: For us ordinary Muslims not to exist.
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Katherine, what I don't understand is this. Why do so many Americans believe one of two theses that are so overwhelmingly silly that you would not imagine you'd need to think much to dismiss them? Roughly, they are:
1) There are no Islamists, and no real Muslim subscribes to a totalitarian philosophy inimical to Western liberal democracy. Examples to the contrary should be dismissed as perversions of the real Islam.
2) There are only Islamists, and all real Muslims subscribes to a totalitarian philosophy inimical to Western liberal democracy. Examples to the contrary should be dismissed as perversions of the real Islam.
You would think no one would entertain either claim, simply on logical grounds: Since the founding of this religion, how many Muslims have existed? How many kinds of states, each with their own histories, have they lived in? How many languages do they speak? Is there any other religion, in the history of the world, that has given rise to only one interpretation? Is there any book that has ever given rise to only one interpretation? Any sentence, even?
Edited on Jun 20, 2011 at 1:51amAug '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Katherine
I don't think the political ideology is new. The Prophet Mohammed was a great warrior and a political leader. He conquered lands in the Arabian Peninsula and forced conversions and/or submission to Muslim rulers. What do you mean by the political ideology being "somewhat Westernized?"
I think the answer is that some of the political ideology (such as a blurred line between church and state) is not new, but other parts are indeed very new, and adopted from some of the most pathological parts of recent Western history (fascist movements, the excesses of the French revolution...).
Mohammed was a great warrior and political leader. Islam does tend, more so than Christianity, to see the State's function as being a proxy for God's will, rather than as being a secular institution not really capable of executing God's will. But that's not all that's going on.
Don't take my word for it. Instead, I'd recommend reading some Bernard Lewis. I learned what little I know about this topic from his books, and he puts it much better than I can.
Edited on Jun 20, 2011 at 6:22amAug '10
Re: The Children of Rifaa: In Search of a Moderate Islam
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Islam does tend, more so than Christianity, to see the State's function as being a proxy for God's will, rather than as being a secular institution not really capable of executing God's will.
I hasten to add that just because Islam has this historical tendency does not make Muslims incapable of wanting non-theocratic government or a free society. I think this relative tendency can be overcome with reform, rather than destruction, of the faith.
I'd say in some forms of Islam, this tendency had already been overcome, but now these versions of Islam are being taken over by Wahabism and so on.
Edited on Jun 20, 2011 at 6:30am