Here is an interesting article that I found in a Pakistani newspaper (You gotta love Google News). You can find the article here
The article states that students of various educational institutions, misinterpretation of Islam is one of the main causes of terrorism in Pakistan. Some Muslims in Pakistan misunderstand their own religion and believe that it promotes jihad against the West.
The article also says that several external forces contribute to the problem. One scholar said that poverty, illiteracy, poor leadership, lack of development programs, and a poor economy also influence the situation. Another scholar cited internal instability as a cause of terrorism.
This is an interesting article and I would recommend that you all check it out.
-Chris
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I thought it was also interesting to see the different perspectives on why the terrorism has grown to be such a problem in Pakistan. Along with the explanation of a misinterpretation of Islam, students also pointed to political and especially economic causes. One comment even pointed to the decrease in security felt by people in general.
“People have absolutely no tolerance and no one feels secure,” she said.
This reminded me of the theory of ethnic conflict by I think Lake and Rothchild about how conflict arises out of group insecurity and fear for the future.
After thinking about why an individual would have such an extreme misinterpretation of their religion I have come to the conclusion that the media plays a large part in this problem. The media often portrays Muslims in general as terrorists, they do not specify the fact that only a few of the total Muslim population actually resort to this extreme form of violence. The media has a way of stereotyping and generalizing entire groups as opposed to treating people as individuals. When the young Muslims in Pakistan see other members of the Islamic religion being labeled as terrorists I can see how it would be easy to see this as normal.
I took a class that discussed the religion of Islam, and my professor emphasized that Muslims need to reconcile the differing opinions that exist in their religion. It is not up to the West to determine which interpretation of Islam concerning different points of doctrine is correct. Muslims are the only indivduals that can determine what they believe. In other words, Islamists may not be misinterpreting Islam; it is up to the Muslim community to decide, and I don't believe that decision has been made yet.
Braidy has a good point- but that is something akin to saying that "Mormons" need to figure out what we believe, and that we need to get Warren Jeffs, the Community of Christ, etc to come and figure out what we think. The differences exist in the Muslim world the same way they do for us- the divisions run too deep, and there is not an over-arching body that can reconcile the differences. It is therefore our responsibility to differentiate for them- recognize that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace and raise a family, and making absolutely sure that we have no beef with them, while demonizing and vilifying those that wish to do us harm. It's that distinction, like Jessica said, that I think is missing in the general public discourse- I have been slandered several times for trying to suggest that not all Muslims are nuts on some right-leaning political blogs. Once the distinction is made, both in the Muslim world and in our own, real progress can be made.
The article's title "Misinterpretation of Islam — root cause of terrorism" seemed to suggest that the root cause of terrorism is misinterpretation. However, the article discusses several different theories on why terrorism exists. I agree that there is a misinterpretation of terrorism, but I don't think it is the root cause of terrorism or even one of the main factors. Like we discussed in class, poverty and anti-globalization seems to be two important factors of the cause of terrorism among many. Steve said, "vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace and raise a family." I admit that I don't know much about Muslims, but it seems that even if the media focused more on these individuals terrorism wouldn't go down by much unless we do something about poverty and their interpretation of globalization.
You guys might slam me hard but I read a book called Islam Unveiled by Robert Spencer and while I can’t say that I am an expert on Islam he seemed to know a lot about it. His book appeared to analyze Islam from an unbiased perspective and his purpose seemed to be a fact finding mission not a smear campaign. One of his conclusions is that Islam is not like American religion. American Christians read the Bible but don’t practice everything that is written, there seems to be some modern day interpretation accepted nationwide that allows us to oversee radical and extreme views from the Bible. However in Islam when a group tries to modernize the Qur’an they are treated as villains. Another of Mr.Spencer’s conclusions was that Islam disdains reform, has a narrow and literal translation of the Qur’an and that it is a violent religion from the core. Thus this article calling Islam a misinterpretation may be a misnomer, Islam is in fact interpreted very realistically by the media.
Samuel-
To be perfectly honest, that book sounds like a farce to me. I lived in Malaysia, as a missionary, for 1.5 years, which is 80% Muslim (some places I was in were over 95%). It would be the same as an Islamist looking at some of the radical Christian groups in the US and determining that Christianity is rigid and inflexible in it's traditions of hate (as certainly, given the Crusades, holy wars, inquisitions, indulgences, etc are evidence of). I reiterate- generally, the people that I know of the Muslim faith just want to live their lives. They don't take passages literally, just as we don't. There are some fanatical, crazy, idiotic people that use Islam as a means of getting power and intimidating the population of a country, but they are the exception rather than the rule. If the West would not lump them all into one category, as that book I am sure did, then there could be a lot more progress made. Look at the most populous Muslim nation (Indonesia)- they now allow Muslims by law to convert to whatever religion they choose, and though a few terrorist cells operate, mostly they are very pro-Western and progressive.
Since I am not Muslim, and only have one really close friend who is (who was raised around a lot of Mormons in Mesa,AZ), it is difficult for me to say how Muslim's live according to their religion. I think that Sam's point may have some validity because of the radical teachings of the Quran. I found a website (biased, to point out radical teachings) that refers to many teachings of the Quran, and they seem pretty radical. These teachings include catching and killing infidels wherever you find them, fighting is good for you, and lots of other stuff I think is pretty radical...
I don't believe that the majority of Muslims are living according to the Quran word by word. As Steve argues, these people are just living their lives. I believe that the religious "new terrorists" are not misinterpreting Islam, but following it radically. I see them following "the law" as closely as the Jews were in Christ's time... maybe obeying the letter but not the spirit...
There are also radical teachings in the bible, but I believe that the overall direction of the teachings shift in the New Testament. I don't really think I need to kill any wicked people because they are wicked after reading the new teachings that Christ put forth. I have very little knowledge about the Quran, but I do not know of any big "shifts" in teachings comparable to the Old and New Testaments. Maybe this is why there are fewer radical Christian terrorist groups? From what I have read, I don't believe that Muslim terrorists are misinterpreting Islam, but following the part they believe justifies their actions.
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