The Dead Hand of Islam AMERICAN ATHEISTS info@ATHEISTS.ORG AN INTRODUCTION Conrad Goeringer This essay, "The Dead Hand of Islam" by Colin Maine, appeared nearly two-decades ago; but its history as a review critical of the Islamic religion is shrouded in a degree of historical mystery. It was printed and distributed by American Atheists, and possibly elsewhere. We also know that along with other works such as Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses," it was banned in India. While the subcontinent is primarily Hindu, the government there often censors material which might inflame the passions of that deeply divided culture where Hindi and Muslim have yet to reconcile their arcane theological and ethnic differences. While Maine devotes most of this work to an examination of Islamic religion and the life of its founder, Mohammed, there are a number of passages which need to be placed in their proper historical context. Maine cites development in Iran, for instance, which followed the 1979 clerical revolution organized by Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers who overthrew the relatively secular -- but corrupt -- authoritarian regime of the Pahlavi dynasty. That revolution shocked many observers in the west, testament to our lack of appreciation of the role which religious ideologies, when fused with a political vision, often assume. A stern version of the Sha'ria or religious law was implemented, transforming Iran into a Muslim theocracy. Khomeini's doctrinal excesses soon led to his condemnation of Salman Rushdie's controversial novel (originally praised widely throughout the Middle East) and the declaration of a "fatwa" or death sentence on the writer. It has been argued, with some justification, that Khomeini's brand of Islamic religiosity does not truly represent the Muslim faith, and that the Ayatollah's behavior and vision was not an accurate portrayal of Moslems in general. Indeed, Iran's clerical elite is predominantly Shi'ite, a minority tendency in Islamic faith which is quite distinct from the more numerous Sunni Moslems in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Khomeini's zeal in "exporting Islamic revolution" quickly led to concerns not only in the United States and Europe, but in neighboring Middle Eastern countries as well. During this period, militant Islam was emerging as a threat not only to westernization and a spreading cosmopolitan consciousness, but to elites in Iraq, Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Energetic Islamic movements (one is tempted to use the term "fundamentalist" in describing them) soon positioned themselves to confront secularizing tendencies throughout the region, as well as governments which were described as corrupt, decadent, and beholden to foreign interests. Since that time, the political configuration of this area has changed significantly. While the events of the Gulf War created a regional alliance against Iraq (coincidentally, a relatively secular nation albeit one with territorial ambitions and a power hungry leader at its helm), it has been short lived. Meanwhile, there is a slow "thaw" within Iran, and the election of a new President there in 1997, with overwhelming support from reform-minded youth and intellectuals, suggests that another shift is already taking place. But these micro-developments beg the larger question, namely the role Islamic faith plays as an integral elements of a much wider concept, that of an Islamic civilization. Samuel P. Huntington has explored this notion on a global scale in his seminal work, "The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order" (New York, 1996). For our purposes here, the most provocative and significant idea is that in our post-cold war future where the world is undergoing a cataclysmic shift and fragmentation, religious ideologies can be expected to play an even greater role than they have in our immediate past. This realignment expresses itself in the creation of what Huntington refers to as political fault lines, places such as Bosnia where the historic confrontation between different "civilizations" is renewed with urgent poignancy. Back to Colin Maine, however. The Dead Hand of Islam excavates some of the basic ideas and quotes from Mohammed and the Koran which are the underpinnings of this faith now embraced by well over a billion people. Islam is, in fact, the fastest growing religious belief system in the world, a condition fueled by high birth rates in Moslem societies (a function of the status of women, to be sure) and the social dislocations wrought by engines of economic development and new technologies. For many, Islam has become a way of preserving a disintegrating cultural integrity against the onslaught of modernity. Militant Islamic nations such as Iran are by no means alone in their effort to establish cultural-doctrinal beachheads even in the west. The government of Saudi Arabia has been quietly funding Moslem religious groups and institutions in the west, and as I write this there is controversy over efforts to build a large Islamic school outside of Washington, D.C. to service the area's 200,000 or so Arab-linked people. Appreciating this trend, however, requires a balanced perspective. There are also forces at work -- globalization and economic development, a renewed post-cold war commitment to classical liberal ideas, cross-cultural pollination fostered by communication, tourism, trade and the exchange of scientific knowledge -- which in turn challenge religious "fundamentalisms" of all kinds. The outcome of this confrontation is by no means certain. Despite our technology and the widely held belief (especially in the west) that we are on the threshold of an open, technological universal civilization emphasizing progress, democracy and human rights, religious ideologies resonate with a surprising vitality. The "religious right" -- energized Protestant fundamentalists, evangelicals and even socially conservative Roman Catholics and Jews -- has become a forced to be reckoned with from Capitol Hill to state legislatures and local school boards. The current "economic meltdown" throughout Asia, while hopefully a temporary affair, seems to have exacerbated old religious-ethnic tensions and may be stimulating the rise of militant movements in that part of the world. And there is the throwback phenomenon in Afghanistan, the Taliban movement, once dismissed as a ragtag army of doctrinaire, mostly illiterate seminary students who seem to be consolidating their political and cultural grip on that nation. Despite a world with dreamy visions of "Star Trek," shopping malls and the internet, religious atavism of all kinds remains very much a part of our world, and probably our future. While some may object to Maine's selective quoting, or advance the proposition that this is not "truly representative of Islam," or that mobs of religious fanatics looting movie houses in Tehran for showing something as innocent as film kiss are not indicative of "real" Islamic belief, there is a powerful, compelling rejoinder. Islamic societies, whether Sunni or Shi'ite, have historically displayed a shocking degree of intolerance and hostility toward women, "infidels," and indeed those who question religion. Secular movements, tame by our standards, enjoy only a precarious hold in some Muslim countries; in many, they are non-existent, or linger beneath the surface as informal associations at universities or within organizations for women, students, writers and others. Even government secularism, as in Turkey, does not appear sufficient in establishing anything like our western conception of personal rights, and the important notion that it is the individual -- not the class, caste or some other group -- which is the ultimate unit or element of society. Islam will remain, in our lifetime, a potent force shaping the thinking, behavior and perceptions of over a billion people on our planet. With the rise of global institutions, it will even effect policies in the west. That alone should compel us to investigate this religious ideology which increasingly challenges secularism and the rest of the still-unfulfilled Enlightenment agenda. -- C.G. March, 1998 ©1998 All contents copyrighted by American Atheists