Roger Abdul Wahhab Boase: Muslims must return to pluralism

From a speech by the author and academic to the Muslims of Europe Conference, in London

Islam is generally regarded as a religion that is hardly compatible with a pluralistic vision of society. Muslims themselves are partly to blame for this. It is not simply because they rightly reject the idea that there should be a separation between public and private domains, or that they are rightly reluctant to adopt some of the cultural habits of the host community.

It is also because most of them have little knowledge of, or respect for, religions other than their own, believing that Islam has superseded all earlier revelations and is the only religion acceptable to God. Worse still, they tend to take pride in their ignorance and respond to a growing sense of social alienation by subscribing to a belligerent version of Islam that closely conforms to the Islamophobic image of Islam so dear to the media pundits.

Early Muslim society was more pluralistic in a religious sense than some Muslim societies today. Yet this is a vision that many of them have lost.

Suicidal terrorism wherever it occurs is obviously a symptom of anger and despair, and these emotions are surely only aggravated by the use of military force. We cannot begin to tackle the root causes of terrorism and religious fanaticism until we address the needs and grievances of the poor, the oppressed and the politically dispossessed.

Those who see religious, cultural and ethnic diversity as a blessing must find a middle way between religious fanaticism and fanatical secularism. It is not simply a matter of respecting religious differences; we have to recover the practical spiritual wisdom that unites us and makes us human. This vision of a just, peaceful, multi-religious society can never be achieved without the active co-operation of the mass media.