‘fundamentalism’ with intolerance, fanaticism, terrorism and the like
(Said, 1987). Historically there is little evidence for such an
identification – Islamic doctrine being explicitly a tolerant one – at
least in relation to ‘The People of the Book’ – Jews and Christians. As
the body count in Bosnia suggests, intolerance between Muslims and
Christians has often been the other way around.
What is clear is the attraction of Islam in the South as a
sophisticated and ‘civilised’ religion that permits polygamy and is not
identified, as is Christianity, with the former colonial powers
(Gbadamosi, 1978). Hence in areas such as southern Nigeria, where
tribal religions formerly predominated, Islam has often grown much
faster than Christianity, whilst in areas which have been historically
Muslim, such as Egypt, the reassertion of Islamic identity is a part of
the rejection of Western colonialism.
Islam has the great advantage of offering not only a religious
doctrine, but a social and cultural tradition separate from, and equal
or superior in many respects to, that of Christian Europe. Centuries
of theological and artistic achievement can be drawn upon. Pilgrims
making the journey to Mecca (usually by jet airliner rather than
camel train) will be greeted by the spectacle of vast assemblies of the
faithful from all over the world with whom to exchange experiences.
The doctrine of Islam has always been one not only of common
religious observance, but the assertion of a social and political unity
of all the faithful – the Umma (Islamic community). Consider the
Koranic verse ‘this your nation is a single nation, and I am your Lord
so worship me’ (Surah 21: verse 92).
The political appeal of Islam can be seen in the way in which
pragmatic politicians, like Saddam Hussein in Iraq, turned to it as a
way of generating political support. The Ayatollah Khomenei, in
Iran, was immensely effective in denouncing the Shah as an agent of
the American ‘Satan’ in allowing alcohol, Coca-Cola and mini-skirts
and discouraging polygamy and hashish. Khomenei described Islamic
government as the government of the ‘oppressed upon earth’ in a
reference to the Koranic verse ‘And we wish to show favour to those
who have been oppressed upon earth, and to make them leaders and
inheritors’ (Surah 28, v. 5).
The problems of applying Islam to contemporary political situa-
tions and structures are considerable and are discussed further in
Chapter 6. Perhaps the major difficulty is its strict incompatibility
IDEOLOGIES 83