Islam -- The Elephant That Defies Definition

We all know the story of the blind men who encounter an elephant.  One reaches out and takes hold of the trunk.  "It's a snake," he proclaims.  Another one comes across the tail.  "It's a rope," he shouts.  A third blind man grabs a leg, and says the beast is a tree.

That's Islam, a religion few in the west understand.   What's distressing is that his is one of the world's largest religions.  In America, we think of the Amish as a people who reject the use of zippers on their flies and prefer to stick with buttons.  The Bahai are a peaceful people with a lovely temple in Haifa.  The Bhuddists, are often seen as sitting  under trees, contemplating their place in the universe.  Stereotypes?  No doubt,  but they do relatively little harm.

But, Muslims are another matter.  Are they peace loving?  No doubt many are.  Can they be brutal?  Look at our friends, the Saudis.  They flog.  They decapitate.  They remove hands.  What don't they do?  And, it's not as though they're ignorant people.  Half of them are princes who have been educated at places like Harvard and Oxford.  But, if you know a bit of history, you also know that the Saud family became rulers of Arabia only with the invaluable help of a  Wahhabi imam and his followers.  What's a few floggings and decapitations of fellow Muslims if it keeps the Wahhabis happy and allows you to continue enjoying your oil money?  And, who really cares as long as the Saudis keep it within Arabia?

ISIS has proven itself a lot more ambitious than the Wahhabis.  ISIS wants for the world what the Wahhabis have gotten for themselves in Saudi Arabia; namely, Islamic domination over all faiths and the implementation of Sharia law.  What probably constrains the Wahhabis from embracing ISIS is the threat that the ISIS Sunnis pose to the rule of the Saud family.  That is not to say that the Wahhabis don't dabble a bit in global politics.  They've been extremely supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood.  And, they supply Wahhabi imams to serve in mosques throughout the world -- mosques built with their oil money.   Sermons by these imams are generally not what one would describe as temperate.

Do all Muslims carry this Wahhabi strain of intolerance?  No, but here is where it become even more confusing.  It has been suggested that Iraq be divided between the three major groups; namely, the Kurds, the Sunnis, and the Shia.  And, that's probably a good idea.  But, the Kurds are Sunnis, same as the ISIS people, and same as the Wahhabis.  It's interesting that the ISIS people have been genocidal toward Iraq's Yazidis.  The Kurds, despite also being Sunni,  have protected them.

The Pakistanis are largely Sunnis and have made life difficult for the Christians and moderate Sunnis living in Pakestan.  They object to educating their nation's girls.  In Iran, a country of Shia, we have a relatively well educated Shia youth, who despise the Shia Mullahs who control their lives.

In America, we have a fine moderate Muslim, by the name of Dr. Zuhdi Jasser.  He's a great guy.  He's founded a fine organization, the Islamic Forum for Democracy.  However, it should be noted that he is a member of the Muslim people known as Ahmadiyya.  They are a great people.  But, other Muslims don't recognize them as being Muslim.  They are to Sunnis and Shia what Jews-for-Jesus people are to the Jewish people.  In Pakistan, it is illegal for Ahmadiyyas to refer to themselves as Muslims.

There is one other thing that should be noted about Muslims and it is a phenomena that can be recognized in other religions.  It is that  practitioners of the faith vary in their views from region to region, and from country to country.  In the case of Catholics,  it has been observed that Catholics in Ireland have attitudes rather different than Catholics in Italy and different yet from Catholics in Latin America.  In the matter of birth control, most Catholics disregard the teachings of their church.

It is much the same for Jews.  The gap between Reform Jews and Orthodox Jews, as to how they understand critical matters of Jewish practice, varies enormously.  Jews who managed to escape Iran and come to American have been seen exhibiting clannish attitudes quite different from Jews who have lived here for a generation or more.

Educating Americans on Islam, in general, and the Muslim people, in particular, should be one of the highest priorities of America's Muslim leaders.  In this, they have failed miserably.  Perhaps even more important should be teaching the Muslims of America how to be true to their faith within the context of the American culture.  Organizations like CAIR, by railing against islamophobia are engaging in is a pointless exercise. Sure, there is islamophobia, but it comes out of ignorance.  It's time that CAIR admitted to their own co-relionists that there are indeed  aspects of Islam that are hostile to the American way of life.  However, Islamic  practice does not have to be incompatible with American culture.  Hundreds of thousands of American Muslims have demonstrated in ways large and small that they share the American dream.

America's politicians have often acted like the storied blind men.  But so have many leaders in the American Muslim community.  It's time they accepted an elephant for what it is -- an elephant.