The problem with non-Muslims defending ‘true Islam’

Powerful non-Muslims don’t seem to be able to stop telling Muslims what’s true Islam and what isn’t, and I find it dishonest and sinister.

Around Christmas time last year I was driving between Antrim and Belfast, listening to talk radio in my car. The guy hosting the show was interviewing a representative of the Muslim community following the siege of the Lindt café in Sydney in which three people died, including the gun-wielding hostage-taker, a troubled, Iranian-born Australian supporter of Islamic State (Isil).

My memory of the item has since faded, with the exception of an exchange in which the Muslim (to my shame, I don’t recall in what capacity he was speaking, other than as ‘a Muslim’) said that such radicals and terrorists were not followers of ‘true Islam’.

“Of course not, of course not!” the interviewer hurriedly interjected, apparently at pains to distance himself from the idea that terrorists could be true Muslims. A preposterous idea!

Perhaps I think in too black-and-white a fashion, but this struck me as fundamentally dishonest on the part of the Irish radio host, clearly not a Muslim, though whether Roman Catholic, Protestant or atheist I couldn’t say.

Because surely, to him, all manifestations of Islam, whether peaceful or violent, are equally devoid of any claim to the truth.

Sure, maybe he would prefer to have moderate Muslims around, rather than those bent on his annihilation, but unless he also believes that Mohammad is the prophet of God and the Qur'an His divine message, then he can’t say that their religion is ‘true’.

Am I being too pedantic, or am I right to keep a firm grip on the concept of truth as absolute? Something is either true or not true, isn’t it? If I say that one Muslim’s interpretation of the Qur'an is correct and another’s false, am I not admitting that Allah created the universe and must be worshipped and obeyed? Am I not, effectively, a Muslim?

Does it matter?

Well, this was not an isolated case. I’ve heard the same thing repeatedly on the radio – moderate Islam the true faith, terrorists’ Islam bad – from the non-Muslims who dominate the media and politics. And in January the communities secretary Eric Pickles wrote to mosques to tell them they must root out extremism.

After Pickles’ letter got an angry response from the Muslim Council of Britain, David Cameron leapt to his colleague's defence.

“What is happening in terms of extremist terror has nothing to do with true Islam,” he said, at a lawn mower factory in Ipswich.

But our prime minister (Church of England) doesn’t mean what he says, and it’s this dishonesty which really annoys me.

When he says ‘true Islam’, what he really means is any interpretation of Islam that he finds non-threatening. But he can’t come out and say it.

This strain of hypocrisy can lead to terrible confusion.

For example, what course of action can Labour's former communities secretary Hazel Blears have been promoting when, writing in Fabian Review, she first says this: “To ensure the true message of Islam is promoted – that it is a religion of love and peace – there should be appropriate regulation of the madrassa [a school where Muslims get religious education] curriculum and those who teach it.”

And then, in the next paragraph, this: “I believe it is wrong for government to sponsor a particular interpretation of a religion.”

Blears is a Roman Catholic, according to Wikipedia. In the article, she is silent on whether Sunday School should also only be taught by government-sanctioned Christians, even though a significant proportion of terrorist acts in the UK have been historically committed by her co-religionists.

Anyway, my interpretation of her contradictory points is that while she knows it is wrong for the government to interfere with what people choose to believe, it should do so anyway, in the name of national security.

Here’s a tip: Always be very suspicious when anything is done in the name of national security.

The regulation Blears is calling for, and Eric Pickles’ letter, are both instances of non-Muslims telling Muslims how they should interpret their own religion, and how to practice it. Note that this is always disguised with the empty flattery which drips from the expression, ‘true Islam’.

I don’t know about you, but to me this kind of resembles an attack on freedom of conscience, justified by a supposed threat from an enemy within, and targeting a minority group. Sound familiar?

Photo: Faris Algosaibi