November 5, 2012
"God Is Not A Dictator"
From:http://en.qantara.de/wcsite.php?wc_c=20041&wc_id=21651&wc_p=1
The Koran has thus distant been subjected to erroneous interpretation, says Mouhanad Khorchide, Professor of Islamic Religious Education during a University of Munster. Khorchide is job for an emancipation of a faith.
Interview by Arnfrid Schenk as well as Martin Spiewak
Professor Khorchide, what was your reaction to a new argumentative Mohammed movie upon YouTube?
Khorchide: you suspicion it was tedious as well as tasteless. you didn't recognise a Prophet Mohammed as he was portrayed in a movie so you didn't feel it was directed during me as a Muslim.
Many Muslims find it formidable to adopt this attitude, what is your recommendation to them?
Khorchide: Ignore it, do not allow yourselves to be provoked. The movie is a trap laid specifically to provoke, as well as Muslims regularly tumble in to this trap.
Why do Muslims conflict in this way to insults aimed during a Prophet? After all, unlike Jesus he doesn't have boundless status.
Khorchide: The complaint lies elsewhere. On such occasions, Muslims opening their restrained anger. The video itself isn't a cause of a agitation, usually a trigger. The Islamic collective mental recall is still etched by crusades, a colonial era as well as what is noticed as an unjust Middle East policy, as well as a wars in Iraq as well as Afghanistan.
You have usually written a new book in which you describe a Koran as a love letter from God to humanity. How did you arrive duri! ng this interpretation? The Koran would normally be described as a absolute book as well as in a West additionally as a dangerous one.
Khorchide: The question is: which picture of God have been you articulate about? Many Muslims pretence which their God wants to be glorified, which he despatches orders as well as makes certain these orders have been obeyed. Those who obey have been rewarded, as well as those who do not have been punished. But this is a notice of God identical to which of a genealogical personality who cannot be challenged. This is since many Muslims perspective a Koran as a rulebook.
And you don't?
Khorchide: you have a opposite celebration of a mass of a Koran. God is not an primitive genealogical leader, he's not a dictator. Of a book's 114 suras, since do 113 of them begin with a word "In a name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful"? There has to be a reason for this. The Koranic God presents himself as a amatory God. That's since a attribute in in between God as well as man is a down payment of love identical to a a single in in between a mother as well as child. you would identical to Muslims to save themselves from a picture of an primitive God that's being connoted in many mosques, in eremite education or during courses of theological instruction.
Are you observant which for centuries, Islamic divinity has supposing a flawed direction manual for a Koran?
Khorchide: Contemporary Islamic divinity is during slightest unilateral. It is formed upon a master-servant relationship. Reformers who interpret a Koran differently, who contend Islam is some-more than usually a sacrament of manners as well as regulations, have so distant not succeeded in asserting themselves.
Why not?
Khorchide: For domestic reasons, partly. Many rulers of Islamic kingdoms describe themselves as "shadows of God upon earth". This sends out an undeniable message: any ! a single contradicting a ruler is additionally contradicting God. In sequence to have certain which a populace remains compliant, they erect a picture of a God for whom tractability is paramount. To this really day, this plays an critical purpose in a dictatorial state such as Saudi Arabia, where any opposition is not usually hold up as a secular opposition, yet additionally as a transformation opposite God.
The judgment of God's forgiveness additionally existed in Christianity, yet a opposite assimilate of a Bible was nevertheless accepted. Why has this not happened inside of Islam?
Khorchide: Many theologians have forged alliances with those in power, such as a Salafist scholars in Saudi Arabia, for example. After all, they additionally great from an Islam which serves as a regulatory authorised framework. People hold off to them when they have questions about what they should as well as should not do. Repressive structures mingle as a result. Christianity has succeeded in overcoming this incapacitation of a faithful. That's not quite been a case in Islam.
Do you see yourself as a source of enlightenment?
Khorchide: you wouldn't put it identical to that. If you take terms out of their European context, people suspect which you're perplexing to impose something visitor upon Islam. Change can usually come from within. We do not need an enlightenment of a kind you know from European history, yet maybe a remodel which focuses upon a maturity as well as reason of humankind. The Koran does exactly this, incidentally.
There is much speak of ruin in a Koran. How does this fit in with a judgment of mercy?
Khorchide: Hell is zero other than a confrontation with one's own transgressions. It's not a low mark which comes from without. As a important mystic once said: "I'd identical to to do away with a hellfire as well as set bliss alight, so which people do not act out of fright of ruin or goal for! paradis e." We humans should essay for something higher, a alliance as well as companionship of God. However, normal divinity has taken a less metaphorical perspective of a images of bliss as well as hell, as well as instead literally described them as element spaces with element pleasures as well as punishments. But if you're usually you do something great since you fright low mark or goal for reward, afterwards that's not enough.
But this literal assimilate appears to be widespread, particularly between immature Muslims in Germany.
Khorchide: Not usually in Germany, as well as not usually between youngsters, unfortunately. This is a rarely simplified conviction which presents God as zero some-more than a bookkeeper or a judge, who calculates how mostly I've prayed. you can assimilate those who want to keep a kind of eremite to-do list. But it's a pity. This kind of approach doesn't allow conviction to move upon from a rarely facile stage. It's some-more formidable to say: you would identical to to do something great for a sake of goodness; or you essay for inner soundness which finds a countenance in great character traits as well as actions.
But this deferential take upon Islam, as preached by in advance Salafists, really seems to resonate with immature people in Germany right now. Why?
Khorchide: These youngsters feel rootless, sidelined. They have been searching for an temperament and, upon top of all, for something which will distinguish them. Many immature people aren't hearing a "you belong", yet rsther than a "we Germans you Muslims". The Salafists yield them with a validation they seek. An temperament which flies in a face of mainstream society. They pick out elements of Islam which intensify a differences, such as a beard or clothing that's exactly a same length as a Prophet's. But this is an outmost temperament though a core.
You sight Islamic eremite teachers. How do German Muslims conflict to your views! ?
Khorchide: The immature ones say: which all sounds really nice, since did no a single tell us about this before? you can brand some-more with this kind God, they say. And even yet there have been additionally some reservations, my views have additionally met with high regard from associations noticed as conservative although they have been essentially quite heterogeneous. you try to yield theological explanations for everything, regulating Islam as my basis. you equates to my arguments with a Koran. The 220 pages of my book contain references to 400 passages of a Koran in sequence to uncover which this is not usually my personal view.
And what about reactions to your work in a Arab world, is there some bargain there too?
Khorchide: In a summer, you went to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, a many critical Sunni management in Islam. After my lecture, a comparison scholars were reticent as well as didn't contend anything. But a undergraduates as well as doctorate students came up to me as well as asked if they could investigate in Munster or write their doctorates there. The immature ones have been seeking for something new.
Will your book additionally be translated in to Arabic?
Khorchide: Yes, yet I'll tailor it slightly to a Arab mentality.
Take a prick out of it a little?
Khorchide: you suspect you could put it identical to that. But a categorical message will be a same: which God is a God of mercy, which Islam is a sacrament of mercy. Any other assimilate of Islam is not Islam.
Why is it which many Muslims have a utterly opposite bargain of Islam? They're celebration of a mass a same Koran, after all.
Khorchide: The Koran was written in a exemplary Arabic of a seventh century. It's thus really formidable for non-Arabs to understand. When Arabs read it, they maybe assimilate 40 per cent as distant as a language is co! ncerned. But even greater difficulties movement in a theological celebration of a mass of a verses. Most Muslims do not regard themselves with a loyal hint of a Koran. That's since you Muslims mostly bottom a conviction upon what you have been told. We have been harking back to statements done by theologians in a ninth as well as tenth centuries.
In your book you write which when noticed as a authorised system, Sharia is a contradiction of Islam. Why?
Khorchide: For a really reason which it reduces Islam to a authorised system. Some Muslims even go as distant as to contend which if you're not in favour of earthy punishment, afterwards you're not a Muslim. All a contention surrounding Sharia equates to which it's usually about either or not you follow rules.
Your parents have been Palestinian, yet you went to school in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia as well as complicated in Austria; what impact has this had upon your eremite socialisation?
Khorchide: Saudi scholars explain which their republic is pure, loyal Islam's usually home. But this Salafist mindset has reduced a conviction to zero some-more than a faade. A man is a sinner if he shaves off his beard; a lady is a sinner if she doesn't wear a headscarf. In mosques, you saw how usually those with a longest beards were authorised to serve as imams as well as lead a prayers. What's a point of that? As a Palestinian in Saudi Arabia, you wasn't authorised to investigate or get any healing insurance, yet in Austria, a non-Islamic nation, nothing of this was a problem. you started asking questions, you longed for to get to a core of this religion.
You additionally criticize those who have been described as magnanimous Muslims. Why? Are you not singing from a same song sheet?
Khorchide: They additionally revoke Islam in a identical way to a fundamentalists. The fundamentalists hollow it out, by focussing upon a faade, upon external features.! The lib erals yield a in advance reply by dispensing with almost all external facilities as well as rituals as well as limiting it to a shahada, a stipulation of belief. That's not enough. The shahada contingency find a countenance in life.
So what needs to happen for your bargain of Islam is to find wider acceptance?
Khorchide: There contingency be a discourse, as well as a sermon needs institutions, it contingency be taught, students contingency continue a message. you think Islamic divinity here in Germany represents a great opportunity since you have much greater leisure of movement. But it will take a single or dual generations.
Arnfrid Schenk und Martin Spiewak
DIE ZEIT 2012
Translated from a German by Nina Coon
Editor: Aingeal Flanagan
Mouhanad Khorchide has been Professor of Islamic Religious Education during a University of Munster since July 2010. His new bookIslam ist Barmherzigkeit Grundzge einer modernen Religion(Islam is Mercy Essential Traits of a Modern Religion) was published by Herder in October.
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