{"id":113648,"date":"2021-04-19T22:49:22","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T04:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113648"},"modified":"2021-04-19T15:19:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T22:19:39","slug":"religious-extremism-and-the-teachings-of-the-founders-of-religions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/19\/religious-extremism-and-the-teachings-of-the-founders-of-religions-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious extremism and the teachings of the founders of religions."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The\nburqa ban announcement caused a stir among Muslims, who saw it as yet\nanother attack on their community. In the past few months, the government has\nundertaken a number of controversial measures under the banner of fighting\nextremism, which have increasingly intimidated the Muslim population and\ndisregarded rule of law principles – <\/em>Farzana Haniffa<\/em><\/a>, Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Colombo\nwriting in the Al Jazeera on the 12 Apr 2021<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Justice and the Law Society (JATL) of the University of\nQueensland is a vital organisation within the TC Beirne School of Law. An\nactive society with diverse membership, JATL performs an important role in\npromoting awareness of social justice issues in the law. In a well-researched\nand informative article titled Debate on the Burqa\u201d (http:\/\/www.jatl.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/19\/debate-on-the-burqa<\/a>), the multiple facets associated with the\norigins and contemporary debate on the Burqa is \nexamined in detail. It is strongly recommended that this article is read\nin full by anyone interested in the debate surrounding Burqa. The following\npassage summarises the contemporary ethos surrounding a dress that has caused\nso much controversy, as well as a misunderstanding of the origins and the\nreligious reasoning behind the Burqa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article says, quote Reflecting on practices across the Muslim\nworld, it is apparent that Muslim women\u2019s dress clearly comes with political,\nreligious and cultural messages that an observer can decode. Dress can be seen\nto align the wearer with a Salafi (fundamentalist\/literalist) or with a\nmodernist interpretation of Islam. It can signify a political direction either\nin support of, or against, secularism, or Islamisation, or Western cultural\ndominance through colonisation, or globalisation. It also can reflect a\ncultural identity and tradition. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Afghanistan, a woman wears the light hues of the burqa and secludes\nherself (purdah) to demonstrate her and her family\u2019s honour and respect for\nsocial order. On the Arabian Peninsula she wears a black Abaya as a\nreflection of Salafi traditonalism, which generally restricts her\nmovements in public non-segregated spaces. In conservative Wahhabi-informed\nSaudi Arabia all women, Muslim or non-Muslim are required by law to wear an\nAbaya in public places with religious police (muttawa) employed to enforce it. In\nMalaysia, she wears the vibrant colours of traditional baju kurung with tudong\nand is not constrained by notions of purdah as Malay women have for centuries\nworked with and alongside men. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these identifications are not static. For example, the spread\nof Salafi Islam from Saudi Arabia to Southeast Asia has meant that some\nMalaysian women who want to show their identification with that world\u2011view now\ndon black Abaya and Niqab. Wearers of face coverings also believe it brings\nthem closer to God and personifies their piety, spirituality and the highest\npossible personal level of modesty. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, there are reports of young Iranian women testing the\nboundaries of compulsory chador dress code by adopting tighter fitting clothing\nand minimal or loose headscarves. In democratic Muslim Indonesia, what Muslim\nwomen wear is at the forefront of religious and legislative debate both\nnationally and particularly in the provinces which now have the legislative\npower to set and enforce their own dress codes and morality programs\u201d<\/em> unquote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following passage in the above quoted excerpt is relevant in\nexamining the impact of the Burqa in Sri Lanka. the spread of Salafi\nIslam from Saudi Arabia to Southeast Asia has meant that some Malaysian women\nwho want to show their identification with that world\u2011view now don black Abaya\nand Niqab<\/em><\/strong>\u201d. It can be argued that the spread of Salafi Islam from Saudi\nArabia has indeed influenced Sri Lankan Muslims as well considering that the\nextent of self- expression and the linking of a dress towards Islamic piety and\nmodesty has grown and taken hold in parts of Sri Lanka perhaps in the last few\ndecades more than ever before. Fifty years or so ago, this statement by Muslim\nwomen, in some instances on their own accord, but arguably at the dictates of\nmen in many other cases, was not so apparent to many who lived in Sri Lanka then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salafism\nis explained well by Jonathan A C Brown in an article on Salafism published in\nthe Oxford Bibiliographies (https:\/\/www.oxfordbibliographies.com\/view\/document\/obo-9780195390155\/obo-9780195390155-0070.xml<\/a>). Brown states in the\nintroduction, quote News reports often\nmention the Wahhabi movement\u201d or Wahhabi Islam\u201d without providing any\ncontext. This controversial modern Islamic movement actually represents part of\na larger phenomenon in Islamic thought: Salafism. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Salaf are the pious forbearers of Islam, usually understood as the first three generations of the Muslim community (as opposed to the Khalaf, or the later generations). The Arabic adjective Salafi and the English noun Salafism taken from it are complex terms that refer to a trend in Islamic thought that places particular emphasis on a return to the piety and principles of the Salaf as the only correct understanding of Islam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although all Muslim scholars look to the Salaf as role models, the majority believe that the institutions and historical developments that scholars have accepted within thought and practice over the centuries represent legitimate expressions of Islam. Establishing and adhering to schools of law (madhhab), adopting the Near Eastern traditions of Greek logic and speculative theology, and the emergence of Sufi brotherhoods were all accepted by mainstream Sunni and Shi\u02bfite scholars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Salafi strain in Islamic thought, however, has questioned the authority and legitimacy of these developments, preferring to emphasize of role of hadith a<\/em>nd the literal ways of the Salaf over such historical adoptions. Although this conservative and iconoclastic trend has always existed in Islamic thought, it is most commonly identified with two periods: the burgeoning of classical Salafism with the 14th-century scholar Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), and the Salafism of the 18th-century movements of revival and reform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This early modern incarnation of Salafism in turn gave birth to two trends in Salafism that have flourished until today. Despite their common use of the term Salafi, these two modern movements are in fact very different, and they will be referred to here as modernist Salafism and traditionalist Salafism. Both classical Salafism and modern Salafism have clashed with the mainstream of Islamic thought, which will be referred to, for the sake of convenience, as Sunni or Shi\u02bfite orthodoxy. Due to its controversial nature, writings on Salafism often feature heavy biases that need to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, there is scholarly disagreement over whether the term Salafism really represents a unified phenomenon; that is, is the Salafism\u201d of Ibn Taymiyya really the Salafism of Ibn \u02bfAbd al-Wahhab (d. 1792) or Muhammad \u02bfAbduh (d. 1905)\u201d, unquote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those\nwho take the view that there is Muslim extremism\u201d in Sri Lanka and the Burqa\nis associated with such extremism, should take note of Brown\u2019s statement, done\nwith considerable research, that Salafism is a movement towards what some\nIslamic scholars believe as the trend in Islamic\nthought that places particular emphasis on a return to the piety and principles\nof the Salaf as the only correct understanding of Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether this is so or not is really a matter for Muslims\nand something that should be discussed and debated, understood or rejected by\nMuslims themselves. Salafism, or for that matter, any other branch of the Islam\nfaith or any segment of any other religion, could be called extremist should\nthey take the view that non-believers or non-adherents have no place in society\nand therefore should be sidelined or eliminated through coercion or violence.\nBut, a movement that takes the view that they represent the real piety and\nprinciples of Islam, cannot be called an extremist movement for this reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extremism, whether it is Islamic, Christian or\nBuddhist is taken as a deviation from an assumed or imaginary norm\u201d that these\nreligions teach or their founders pronounced. These norms are highly\ninterpretable as there no direct recordings of what the founders of these\nreligions said in order for present day generations to understand what the norm\nis or might have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What many Buddhists appear to believe and\npractice today can be described at best as ritualistic, and not consistent with\nthe teachings of Buddha. Rituals are cultural practices and not practices\ndesired, encouraged or dictated by Buddha, but they cannot be called extremist\npractices. In Sri Lanka, there is a movement that believes Prince Siddhartha\nGautama was a Sri Lankan and not an Indian and he became Buddha in Sri Lanka.\nCould one call this movement or those steeped in ritualism extremist? Misguided\nperhaps, but not extremist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this context, determining or defining what religious\nextremism means is difficult, and it will mean different things to different\npeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an ideal world where logic, and internal,\nuniversal, human characteristics like love and compassion to one self and\nothers, rather than a belief in an external divinity for one\u2019s presence,\nactions and reactions, it would have been easier to desist from any form of\nself-defined extremism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life amongst human beings is far more complex,\nand therefore a universally accepted understanding of what religious extremism\nis also very complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps one could approach religious extremism\nfrom a different point of view. Whatever the professed religion of a human\nbeing is, and whatever they understand and believe as the teaching of that\nreligion is, all human beings live in a society, large or small, more diverse\nor less diverse, and of all hues and colours, political beliefs and cultural\npractices. Each such society will be at peace within it and with others, if the\nconstituents of that society maintains a balance or an equilibrium within it,\nand which can only come about if the constituents accept that there has to be\ncompromise with each other in recognition of the diversity of opinion, beliefs,\nand practices within that society. Diversity within a society is a healthy sign\nif that diversity is viewed from a broader societal point of view rather than\nonly as an advancement of individual practices of one segment within it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides this, if each constituent is able to\nconsider the point of view of another from that other constituent\u2019s\nperspective, it would greatly help to ease tensions that arise within a\nsociety. It would also help if people belonging to different faiths could\nponder for a moment how the founders of their faiths would look at today\u2019s practices\nby their followers and how close or distant they are from the founder\u2019s\nteachings. The founders may find that interpretations of their teachings and\ncultural edifices that have been built on such interpretations have taken over\nthe essence of their teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sri Lanka, it is perhaps time that the\nconstituents of all religious faiths examined the premise of diversity with\nmutual regard and respect for that diversity, but, whether individual segments\nwithin the Sri Lankan society have looked at only their religious practices\nwithout consideration of how others may view such practices.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Burqa and Salafism too should be looked at\nin this context. People of all religious faiths should be able to coexist with\neach other in the Sri Lankan society that has as little turbulence a possible.\nWords, action and behaviour that encourages turbulence should be questioned by\nthe very people who create that turbulence. This applies to people of all\nfaiths, and it would mean some compromises being made, not on the principles of\nthe faiths, but the practices of the faiths, as increasingly, the growth of\npractices that does not seem consistent with the principles of different faiths\nappears to be on the rise.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale The burqa ban announcement caused a stir among Muslims, who saw it as yet another attack on their community. In the past few months, the government has undertaken a number of controversial measures under the banner of fighting extremism, which have increasingly intimidated the Muslim population and disregarded rule of law principles – Farzana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-raj-gonsalkorale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}