Islam and Western Politics: A Delicate Dance

David Claydon (Ed) Islam, Human Rights and Public policy (Acorn Press, 2009)

Richard Shumack

Two highly publicized recent events have raised the question of the compatibility of the Muslim worldview with human rights in the Australian context. First, is the spectre of home grown radical Islamism found in the arrest of Muslim men allegedly involved in planning an attack on the Holdsworthy military base near Sydney. Second, is the proposal for a Federal Charter of Rights, and the mixed response it has received amongst Christians. The recent release, then, of Islam: Human Rights and Public Policy is timely—if not prescient. The book’s agenda is clear: to inform politicians and policy makers on the nature of Islam and the realities of Muslim political agendas. It takes the form of a series of loosely connected essays, from a range of contributors including theologians and political thinkers, Westerners and those from Muslim backgrounds. The essays are grouped into 5 themes: worldview tensions, freedom in Islam, jihad and violence, the politics of Sharia (Islamic Law) and Islamization, and the possibility of dialogue between Islam and the non-Islamic world. In assessing the contribution of this book to public debate the first thing that must be underscored is the reality that the majority of Australians, policy makers included, lack the depth knowledge of Islam required for such a debate. Books such as this are sorely needed, if only to raise awareness. The value of this particular offering is the flagging of at least three crucial issues affecting the debate.

First are the political implications of the explicit rejection by traditional Islam of Secularism—and indeed any notion of a separation of religion and politics. The essays on this by Kit Wiley (Human Rights, Sharia Law and the Western Concept of Democracy) and John Azumah (The Sharia – Islamic Law) argue that Islam cannot be engaged with simply as a religion: the Sharia speaks individually and socially without distinction. They recognize that Islam maintains provisions for Muslims living as a minority faith in a non-Muslim country to abide by the laws of their context, however they point out this is not the Islamic ideal. Islamist agendas are clearly to, in time, replace secular states with Sharia ruled theocracies. It is recognized that there are different legal schools within Islam, but what is emphasized is the clear incompatibility of conservative schools of Sharia with Western democracy. These essays alone are worth the read.

Second, the book repeatedly warns that the Islamist agenda is not simply the ravings of a few radicals. Islamization is a broad movement encompassing a large sweep of theologians, intellectuals and political movements. So in The Creed of the Sword Mark Durie argues that the use of violence in achieving political ends is not limited to “terrorists”, but is a legitimate Islamic political tool. Military jihad then is revealed as orthodox, and Muslim quotation of the Qur’an to the contrary in debating this is often selective and disingenuous. Similarly, essays by Patrick Sookhdeo point out that the Islamization project promotes other tools such as Islamic finance and banking and intentional migration.

In Religious Policy, Multi-Faith Dialogue and Australian Values John Harrower raises a third key issue: the difficulty of true interfaith dialogue due to the intractability of traditional Islam in adopting the assumptions necessary for such dialogue. Mark Durie locates the theological underpinning for this in the proscriptive example of the prophet Muhammad’s non-negotiable public presentations of Islam.

Islam: Human Rights and Public Policy does, however, leave some key questions unaddressed. A weakness of the book as a whole lies in the fact that it engages only with traditional/conservative Islam. This is despite the fact that it repeatedly mentions a battle for Muslim hearts and minds between traditional, and more liberal/modern, forms of Islam. That this dynamic is left unexplored is especially evident in Elizabeth Kendall’s study on violence and Sharia in Canada in which she argues Islam is both radicalizing and repelling Muslims. The assumption of this book may well be that conservatives are winning this battle, but not enough is done to distinguish between different types of conservatives or to grapple with the reality that many Western Muslim intellectuals do not share all the characteristics of the conservatives described in this book. A more nuanced approach would lead to greater clarity.

given that public knowledge of Islam ... veers between naivety and fear, this book is essential reading

A second question is the appropriateness of drawing quick parallels between the Australian and international contexts – such as in Daniel Pipes essay on Eurabia. Certainly, it can be prudent to observe international trends, however raising local fears based on a looming European crisis must be backed by careful argument. This is particularly so when the reality is that the demographics of Australia’s Muslim community differ substantially from that of Europe or the UK, being more diverse, dispersed, and politically passive.

Questions are also raised by the book’s protectionist attitude toward Australian values and culture. The question of which “Australian values” need to be protected from Islam is fraught with difficulty. We may seek to defend religious freedom for individuals, but may we not also value harboring the Muslim refugee? This takes us to the heart of a dilemma for Christians contributing to public policy. Christianity makes a clear separation between political policy based in law and church outreach based on grace. In The Hidden Currents of Western Responses to Islam Mark Durie seems to view any Christian concessions to Islam as dhimmitude (the acknowledgement of second class citizenship in a Muslim context), however the interplay between grace and dhimmitude for the Christian is left unexplored. For example, how might Jesus’ command to carry the load an extra mile (Matthew 5:41) be viewed in this light? Might that not be considered dhimmitude? Where might be the place of grace in this discussion? Durie recognizes the issue but again there is more work to be done here.

In the end, however, this may be asking too much of a book that modestly seeks to be a brief political primer on the issues raised by the encounter of Western democracy with political Islam. It is in the nature of such a work to raise more questions than it answers, and given that public knowledge of Islam, fueled by the popular media, veers between naivety and fear, this book is essential reading for those formulating public policy.

Richard Shumack is a postgraduate student at Melbourne University connected to the National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies. He is a Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity.

12-Nov-2009 10:40 AM Andrew Satchell
Appreciate a book being helpful to understand the mindset of Islam on these matters. I will consider buying this book to be able to help talking to Muslims and understand where there viewpoints on governing,laws etc come from.

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