Bad Faithmanifestations represent trends of thought that have existed
from the very beginning of Islam, and both fi nd their inspi-
ration in the words and deeds of the Prophet. God may be
One, but Islam most defi nitely is not.Indeed, the central doctrine of tawhid in Islamic theology – the
profession that ‘There is no god but God’ – is itself in part a
formula for preventing ideas of God becoming fi xed. Notice
how the fi rst phrase, ‘There is no god’, sits uneasily alongside
the second, ‘but God’. On the one hand, it is a statement of
the truths the Muslim believes were revealed by the Prophet.
But, on the other hand, it is also a statement that God is greater
still – Allahu Akbar! (literally, God is greater). ‘Tawhid suggests
that God is beyond any description, beyond any human knowl-
edge’, explains Aslan. He laments the fact that bigotry and
fanaticism are the new false idols in Islam.
The same can be said of Judaism. Although there is no equiv-
alent movement that stands out to the extent of Wahhabism
or Christian fundamentalism, there is an issue around which
religious conservatives can rally and exert infl uence, that of
the politics of the state of Israel. Thankfully, there is a lighter
side to this too. I was once told the joke, by a rabbi, about an
orthodox Jew and a gentile caught in a lift on the Sabbath.
Being in Jerusalem, the lift had two sets of controls. One control
had normal switches to operate the lift. The other had a set of
buzzers, that did not start the lift, but prompted a non- orthodox
operator to do so. Why the buzzers? They meant that, on the
Sabbath, the orthodox Jew could still use the lift and not work
(for operating a lift counts as work). ‘But that is ridiculous!,’
the gentile exclaimed in rational indignation. ‘Ah,’ replied
the Jew. ‘It is God’s ridiculous ways that remind me that He is
unknown.’
Although many Victorians struggled with the implications of the
new sciences for their beliefs, it was not until the twentieth century
that fundamentalism as a religious movement emerged and, more
widely, that words like conservative, orthodox, ultra-orthodox,