Interview in the Scotsman

The Scotsman today feature a Q&A with me in the wake of this week's government report into discriminatory attitudes. Here.

Comments

[sunniva]

Excellent article.

Osama, I must ask you a frank question. It is asked respectfully and in good faith.

You say that young Muslims in Scotland are returning to the tenets of their faith, to its roots.

How then do you, as a young modern Scottish Muslim, living in a pluralistic secular society, understand the passages of the Qu'ran, especially the Medinan ones, which announce non-believers (whether Jews or Christians or pagans) to be enemies of Islam, for no other reason than their non-belief?

Are your fellow Scots who are not Muslim (nor have any calling to Islam, or likely to have) existential enemies of Islam by the persistance of their non-belief alone?

In your interpretation, are these passages for all time or merely for the seventh century?

[Graham Mackenzie Spence]

Good to hear a voice of reason, and good to see another %age point towards you becoming Osama Saeed MP. But do you think you will still talk to us when you are in Westminster Osama? :-)

Best of Luck
Graham

[Osama]

Sunniva, I've been lucky enough to be taught by some pretty fabulous Islamic teachers and scholars over the years. I've gone through the tafsir of the famous verses of the Quran. It's clear that the verses do not pose a problem when considered in their proper context.

That's if you study it, but you don't even need to do that. It's just blindingly obvious. Ordinary Muslims do not pick up the Quran and read into it as you have put. If they did, there would obviously be problems, which there are not. As I said, Muslims in Scotland feel more Scottish than the rest of the population. I've never heard Muslim preachers arguing what you have put by quoting those verses, or anything else in the faith.

In fact, I'm not sure Al-Qaeda types even use these verses as their justification for what they do. The only place they get constant airing is by Islamophobes on the internet.

Thanks Graham, I won't be changing my phone numbers or email so I'll always be in touch ;)

[Graham Mackenzie Spence]

Hi Osama and Sunniva,

Could Osama perhaps expand on the above, or ask someone else to if busy?

In between times I might be able to help a bit. A couple of years ago, Dr Jamal Badawi, using the context in which the scripts were written gave a great explanation of one of the apparent contradictions that give us westerners so many problems in understanding.

The Qur'an expressly says "There can be no compulsion in religion" and in other places the Hadiths spell out the value of imposed belief, i.e. it has none.

This seems to sit in total contradiction with the hadith: "If a Muslim changes his religion, kill him." I remember Badawi explaining that the hadith was written in a time of war, where changing religion meant not only changing personal belief, but switching sides in the war. The equivalent in western history would be something like one of Cromwell's new model soldiers deciding to become a Catholic, a decision that would probably have had very permanent and rather fiery outcome

He then cited an example from the Medina period of Mohammed's ministry, when someone converted to Islam, then switched back and repeated this a couple of times, and Mohammed himself effectively said fair enough, your choice pal. (I hope the paraphrasing here does not count as innovation!)

This highlights the problem of interpretation, and the fact that the more extreme interpreters actually want it to mean 'kill the infidels'. And by extreme, I mean those on both Western and Muslim extremes; those that are looking to pick a fight and polarise everyone else into doing so.

There is a lot of misunderstanding both in the West about Islam, and in Dar ul Islam about the West. Hopefully Osama will be able to give, or get someone else to give a better explanation than mine.

To pretend there are no differences between the western and Islamic traditions would just be silly. What we need is a rational and honest discussion as to exactly what those differences are.

Best Regards,
Graham

Quaradawi's "the Lawful and The Prohibited in Islam", translated by Dr Helbawy is a great way of understanding some of these. It seems to be designed as a day to day handbook, and because it deals with everyday issues and the religious reasoning behind the decisions, it shows really well how the jurisprudential translates to the everyday.

[aineliva]

Oy Vay Osama, you are becoming a politician. Another of those whose living is funded by the taxpayer, and with assured and nice fat pensions. That's been your life's ambition.... Oy Vay again......

[aineliva]

Sunniva the answer lies somewhere in the following: What's the difference between Philosophy and Religion? Philosophy poses questions that sometimes have no answers, whilst Religion gives answers that cannot be questioned.