Made in Canada ?

Hatred, freedom, and the future of Islam

ELLIOTT BROWN

Why would seventeen men from Toronto’s suburbs want to attack Parliament Hill, hold political leaders hostage, and blow up Canadian landmarks? This is the question most often asked and most rarely answered in media reports surrounding the alleged terrorist plot uncovered in Toronto two weeks ago.

Some commentators have implied that asking “who” will answer “why.” Others have said nothing about Islam for fear of brushing all Muslims with an extremist brush. Both approaches are wrong, though for the right reasons. The “War on Terror” is not a war against Islam, but a war within Islam. This is a conflict in which Canadians can no longer be bystanders.

By now, we are fairly clear on who the accused are. All seventeen are Muslims, all but two are no more than 25 years old (five are less than 18), and most were born in Canada. Of course, talk of motives may be premature. Under Canadian law, the seventeen accused are just that: accused, but as yet considered innocent. However the courts may ultimately rule that past comments made by some of the group, and their associates indicate that Islamic extremism has already seduced some Canadian Muslims. Suspect Zakaria Amara wrote, “I hate flags. I hate countries . . . I hate man-made laws . . . I love for the sake of Allah and I hate for his sake.” This is not a message of moderation.

The war on terrorism is not just a battle against militants in the far-off reaches of the world; it is, above all, a struggle to save the soul of Islam from a brutal ideology of hatred, one which knows no borders. Of course, there is nothing inherently anti-democratic or violent about Islam. The so-called clerics who justify violence against both Muslims and non-Muslims in the name of Allah are in no way more “authentic” than those who condemn such violence.

As in all other religions, it is a matter of interpretation, and that is the crux of the problem. The shari’ah (or sacred law of Islam) as extremists advocate it is not found in the text of the Qur’an; it is instead a petrified interpretation of Islam from the 10th century, when reactionary clerics banned all adaptation of Islamic ethics and laws to new circumstances.

Confronted with the global transfer of political and economic pre-eminence from the Islamic world to the West, this medieval view of Islam has become an ideology of hatred and discontent. As author of the bestseller Terror and Liberalism, Paul Berman, has written, jihadism is the newest variant of totalitarianism. Its adherents seek to destroy all other interpretations of Islam, to root out everything they see as modern and liberal, and they are willing to kill Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the process.

Not all Muslims cleave to the extremist message. Just as Europe underwent its Reformation three hundred years ago, creating in the process the essential elements of a free society — individualism, pluralism and the secular state — so are Muslims today fighting amongst themselves over the future of Islam. Many Muslims have chosen to confront the clerics and religious extremists who seek to arrest the modern world and who attempt to force history to run backward. As in Europe, the struggle between reformers and retrograde extremists has not always been peaceful.

What the jihadist ideology proves is that the Islam of tenth-century Arabia cannot coexist with democracy any more than the Christianity of tenth-century Europe could. This is the real “root cause” of terrorism. After September 11, 2001, Michael Scott Doran wrote that the West was caught in “somebody else’s civil war.” This is no longer true: it is our struggle too.

Canadians enjoy equally the fundamental freedoms, democratic and legal rights outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These are the “man-made laws” decried by Zakaria Amara — the rights of women to work, to travel, and to associate with whom they choose; the right of all Canadians, Muslim and otherwise, to hold and express their own religious and political beliefs; the right of homosexuals and others to live their lives without persecution.

It has been argued before that freedom of belief and expression should extend especially to those with whom we disagree. However, while we must respect the rights of those who advocate hatred or tyranny, this does not mean we must accept their views. If anything, with freedom comes the responsibility to confront such opinions, to protect our freedom and extend it whenever possible to others.

The jihadists would yoke Muslims of the twenty-first century with the prejudices of the 10th. Their vision is tyranny dressed up as piety, hatred masquerading as justice. But Islam contains a message of peace and tolerance too. As Muslims around the world struggle for the future of their religion, it is our job to help those who think Islam and democracy can coexist. In our schools and our legislatures, in our media and our conversations, in our towns, in our cities, and abroad, we must argue against extremism and encourage those Muslims who do the same.

We must spread the liberal vision of freedom and individual rights, not because it is our way of life, but because it is desirable, because it is essential to our security, and because it is right. Above all, we must prove to the unconvinced and to ourselves that freedom is worth having, worth defending, and stronger than hatred.

Elliot Brown is completing a masters degree in political studies, studying political Islam in Central Asia.