I like almost everyone else was deeply appalled by the terrible murder of Army drummer Lee Rigby last week by Islamist extremists. The alleged perpetrators of this heinous and vile act were both brought up as Christians and later converted to Islam, then radicalised under the bigoted and intolerant stewardship of hate-preachers like Omar Bakri Mohammed.
There are various questions and concerns here. Could moderate Muslims do more to help stop this extremism from emerging from their midst? And are the radical beliefs the alleged perpetrators really that much of a deviation from the true teachings of Islam? I offer an atheist's perspective on all this.
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The apologists are out in force. How sorry they all are and how these alleged perpetrators do not at all represent moderate Muslims or Islam as a whole. They claim much has been done but they "can't be complacent". Wow- you don't say?!
The main line of their argument seems to be that these are criminal acts and so cannot be justified in Islam. "No Muslims would support their vile acts" was a phrase voiced by an Imam called Ajmal Masroor on a recent BBC Big Questions programme about this issue. However, scratch beneath the surface of this glossy veneer and you find something called the No True Scotsman fallacy. It is described here.
Following on from Masroor's logic, an imaginary conversation to extrapolate his argument may go something like this:
Person A: "No Muslims would support their vile acts"
Person B: "Anjem Choudary, for one, refuses to condemn their acts, which is tacit support; and he is a Muslim".
Person A: "Anjem Choudary is not a true Muslim. No TRUE Muslims would support these vile acts".
And there we have it - the fallacy is fulfilled. The act of correcting the original assertion does nothing to address the faulty logic that drove its conception.
In fact, a common line you'll hear from atheists is that we should doubt the moderate Muslims' position on this. Radical Islamist ideologies are actually not that much less logical from reading the "scriptures" i.e. the Koran - we shall return to this problem later - than the interpretation that the moderates have adopted. Perhaps this is in fact closer to the dark truth that some Muslim apologists don't want to admit - extremist interpretations of the Koran's message are all too easy to make, and perpetuate.
Other Muslims are taking a more pragmatic and strict approach, trying to clamp down on the dodgy Mosques that house the hateful Imams who are teaching that Jihad is the true way of Islam.
Apart from the perpetrators, the main other bad guys in this piece are the far right wing groups like the EDL who are behind and / or support these dreadful reprisal attacks. This sort of pathetic fear tactic never works and I utterly condemn it. Right wingers really need to face the real world and wake up from their proud indulgences of yesteryear. Wake up, and smell the coffee.
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The best solutions- the ones we should all be aiming for - avoid demonisation, avoid hatred, and avoid killing.
It seems to me that religion is a big part of the problem here. It is not entirely evident to me that its answers can truly solve the situation. I think we may need to look beyond religion. Some of my ideas to improve these things would not go down well with religious types:
* Back to that touchy subject of the Koran. I think Imams of a common voice as it were, need to get together and develop a written official narrative for the correct and non-violent interpretation of the Koran. And these interpretations of the scriptures - including context, meaning and modern relevance of Koran's passages, need to be interspersed within the Koran's pages. Sorry if that sounds offensive but I think it may be necessary. This "new" version then needs to be promoted as the only valid version and interpretation (at least within some arbitrary domain, such as the UK, or accepted for Western Muslims etc.).
This would not only give theologians something useful to do with their time, but would do a lot to undermine extremist narratives and make it clear that they are not accepted. I think refusal to even consider such an approach says one of two things. Either there is actually no agreement on the official and best interpretation of a peaceful Muslim doctrine, in which case the argument that "violent extremists do not at all represent moderate Muslims' beliefs" is at least somewhat problematic; or you really do think tradition is more important than people's lives. Neither option is good.
(As an aside, I feel that the Catholic Church needs to do the same damn thing for the Bible even more urgently - and with the presence of a Pope this should be easier).
* The Media - Please stop giving a valid prime-time platform to vile hate preachers like Anjem Choudary. At least part of the problem is perception - that of non-Muslim people on the verge of swinging to the right, and the last thing they need to hear is Choudary and his goons spouting threats to turn football stadia into mass gallows under the auspices of Sharia Law in the UK.
This is an example of where free-speech is being a bit of a hindrance (I've previously said I'm not free speech's biggest fan - one of its problems is that the idea that ludicrous, damaging opinions will be laughed down, relies on the fact that the listeners are tuned into reality - which is not always the case with religious types!) Basically, moderation is the key and shutting down the Daily Fail (Mail) would help a lot.
In summary, it's not my job as an atheist to make religious people feel comfortable. They should be respected, and feel safe and free from the danger of reprisal attacks; but their beliefs and behaviours need to be challenged.
Relevant source material for further reading:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331565/Woolwich-terror-suspects-The-web-extremism-surrounding-murder-Drummer-Lee-Rigby.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10082413/Woolwich-attack-Islamists-campaign-to-recruit-street-gangs.html
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/05/25/defying-islamism/
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/tarek-fatah/uk-beheading-jihad-terror_b_3325363.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
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