Sunni-Shia fighting is continuous in the Islamic world. The conflict between Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan is about the supremacy of Islamic law. The Persian-Arab divide is explosive. The Syrian Alawites are occasionally attacked as heretics because of their worship of Mary, Sufis and Ahmadiyya are suspect, etc. Muslims living in the West, beyond the reach of an Islamic state with the power to enforce Islamic law, are beginning to challenge the traditional tenets of Islam that are so out of step with modern views of human rights.
These disagreements will damage the unity of Islam no matter what non-Muslims do. But when one group dominates, it will demand the support of all the rest in the battle against the unbeliever, to continue the pursuit of global supremacy for Islam.
The option: We and Islam can remove the cause of the permanent warfare.
Our strategy should be defined as inviting Muslims who reject the goal of Islamic political and religious supremacy through violence to join us against the Muslims who are using violence in seeking it. If this coalition based on mutual respect and equality wins the war against the supremacists, much of the tension between Islam and the rest of the world would be eased.
There would still be issues between Islam and the West over human rights. Islam’s list of rights and ours are different. But with violence removed as an option for spreading the religion, we would have the time to deal with those serious issues as we walk back from the edge of global religious war.
Such an invitation has been issued, with the definition of what it means to reject the doctrine of Islamic supremacy through violence:
We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree.
We affirm the inviolable freedom of the individual conscience. We believe in the equality of all human persons.
We insist upon the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights.
We find traditions of liberty, rationality, and tolerance in the rich histories of pre-Islamic and Islamic societies. These values do not belong to the West or the East; they are the common moral heritage of humankind.
We see no colonialism, racism, or so-called “Islamaphobia” in submitting Islamic practices to criticism or condemnation when they violate human reason or rights.
We call on the governments of the world to:
reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and state-sanctioned religion in all their forms; oppose all penalties for blasphemy and apostasy, in accordance with Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights;
eliminate practices, such as female circumcision, honor killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage, that further the oppression of women;
protect sexual and gender minorities from persecution and violence;
reform sectarian education that teaches intolerance and bigotry towards non-Muslims;
and foster an open public sphere in which all matters may be discussed without coercion or intimidation.
We demand the release of Islam from its captivity to the totalitarian ambitions of power-hungry men and the rigid strictures of orthodoxy.
We enjoin academics and thinkers everywhere to embark on a fearless examination of the origins and sources of Islam, and to promulgate the ideals of free scientific and spiritual inquiry through cross-cultural translation, publishing, and the mass media.
We say to Muslim believers: there is a noble future for Islam as a personal faith, not a political doctrine;
to Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Baha’is, and all members of non-Muslim faith communities: we stand with you as free and equal citizens;
and to nonbelievers: we defend your unqualified liberty to question and dissent.
Before any of us is a member of the Umma, the Body of Christ, or the Chosen People, we are all members of the community of conscience, the people who must choose for themselves.
Released by the delegates to the Secular Islam Summit,
St. Petersburg, Florida on March 5, 2007
Endorsed by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Magdi Allam, Mithal Al-Alusi, Shaker Al-Nabulsi, Nonie Darwish, Afshin Ellian, Shahriar Kabir, Amir Taheri, Wafa Sultan, Hasan Mahmud, Tawfik Hamid, Ibn Warraq, Manda Zand Ervin and Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.
Where are the Western leaders who will issue this invitation to end the permanent state of war declared by the believers in Islamic supremacy? Where are the Islamic leaders who will accept it?
Originally posted on 5/25/09
Update 8/9/09: Response to Secular Islam Summit http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/015663.php
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