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Julie Andrews once sang ‘Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could…’. Drop that into a discussion on creation and you would get all sides of the argument nicely wound-up. However, when thinking about the use of history to illuminate and explain the present, the song takes on a different sense.
Take the huge response that has been raging over the Arab world and in Europe apparently generated by the rather poor film on the life of Muhammad. The film could easily have been ignored or laughed off as the ridiculous piece of filmmaking it actually was, but it wasn’t. It was seized upon and used as the catalyst for a series of apparently coordinated, violent protests.
Clearly the rage that is undoubtedly there is also being manipulated for political purposes. The recent call from Emad Abdel Ghaffour (one of four permanent assistants to the newly elected Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi) to criminalise contempt of Islam is an example of that. However, leaving aside politics and freedom of speech issues for a moment, it is important to remember that this anger was not suddenly lit; it was merely sparked into flame.
Nothing could excuse the violence and loss of life, yet, when viewed through the lens of history, the level of ferocity unleashed by such a comparatively minute spark can at least be more readily understood.
The reaction has to do with a strong sense of victimhood that runs deep though modern day Islam. There is an intrinsic, long-held belief that the West is anti-Islamic and, indeed, that it is out to destroy Islam. Conspiracy theories abound and are part of the language of Muslims whether in the UK, Europe, the West generally, or the Muslim heartlands of the Middle East.
Much of this was born within the colonial period when the prime losers of power as Europeans took over North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia were Muslim nobles and landowners. This narrative of anti-Islamic conspiracy continues today in relation to the creation of Israel, the publication of the Satanic Verses, as well as the allied actions in Iraq. The conspiracy theory is lent credence by the actions of those such as Pastor Terry Jones, who was brought to international attention for burning a copy of the Qur’an, and the US soldiers in Afghanistan who were photographed urinating on dead Taliban fighters.
The extent to which we agree or disagree with this sense of grievance will vary greatly. But before we can even have this debate, we need to recognise how the past forms and informs the present, and to emphasise that it is only by studying history with care that we might respond to contemporary events reasonably and appropriately.
Furthermore in the case of this Muslim anger and the narrative of victimhood, it might also help us to recognise that it is not just Christians that face critique, misrepresentation and lampooning in the west – something that would help those Christians who are gravitating to the narrative of persecution to see their travails in a wider context.
Sean Oliver-Dee is a guest blogger. He is an Associate Research Fellow at the London School of Theology and the Interreligious Advisor for the Diocese of Peterborough. He has written papers and consulted on government-religion relations for a number for NGO’s, think-tanks and government organisations in the UK, Europe and the US. His new book, Muslim Minorities and Citizenship: Authority, Communities and Islamic Law is published by IBTauris on 20th September 2012.
Image by fendt1 from pixabay.com available in the public domain.
