The Barnabas Fund, Taqiyya and Islam

Ben White has just written an excellent review of Patrick Sookdheo's latest book, "Global Jihad". You can see the review on the Fulcrum site here. I've posted before on my quesions about some of the content and tone of Barnabas Fund publications and Ben does an excellent and fair job of assessing potential weaknesses that the Church in the West needs to be aware of. Patrick commands considerable influence and it is good to discuss and debate the use of some of his sources.

Ben assesses Patrick's use of the doctrine of taqiyya (deliberate dissimulation) as a reason for mistrusting any pronouncements and intentions of Muslims. He rightly highlights that it was a doctrine that arose in the shia community consequent upon their persecution by sunni Muslims. I would add, also, from some of my own recent research, that taquiyya was always a last resort when life was under threat; the far better way, in all the early Islamic authorities, was an honest and robust proclamation of Islamic intent.

Another point to add is the suggestion that Patrick may sometimes conflate classical Islamic doctrines of power and the more recent ideas within the al-Qaeda movement. Mainstream analysis of the political theology of the likes of Bin Laden suggest a Marxist/Western overlay of Islam that is influenced as much by secularism as by any traditional notions of Islamic power.

So check out Ben White's review....

Comments

[Mark Durie]

It is quite wrong to assert that taqiyya was simply a Shia invention, although this is widely claimed to be true. Indeed given that this claim is so widely put about, yet so easy to disprove, it might be regarded as a good example of Taqiyya.

Many Sunni authorities support the concept, see e.g. the editors comments on Sahih Muslim (Vol 4), Chapter 577,
Tradition no. 6303 p1373 (ed. by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui). Grounds for dissimulation, according to Sunni jurists, include i) jihad, ii) resolving disputes (including specifically those between husband and wife), iii) keeping someone's else's secret, and iv) when asked to confess some wrongdoing which otherwise would only be between you and God. The great Sunni scholar A-Ghazali wrote:
“Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish it through lying because there is no need for it. When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible..., and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory.”
“When the purpose is war, settling a disagreement, or gaining the sympathy of a victim legally entitled to retaliate against one so that he will forbear to do to, it is not unlawful to lie when any of these aims can only be attained through lying. But it is religiously more precautionary in all such cases to employ words that give a misleading impression, meaning to intend by one’s words something that is literally true, in respect to which one is not lying …”
“One should compare the bad consequences entailed by lying to those entailed by telling the truth, and if the consequences of telling the truth are more damaging, one is entitled to lie…”

(Keller, Nuh Ha Mim, ed. and trans. 1994. Reliance of the traveller. Rev. ed. Beltsville,
Maryland: Amana. Section r8.2).

[Richard Sudworth]

Thanks for your comments Mark. I appreciate your efforts to come back to me substantively and respectfully. I'm away at the moment so can't give you detailed references as you have done so well but I would point you to Yohanan Friedman's superb "Tolerance and Coercion in Islam". Friedman is a Jewish Israeli scholar who has written probably the definitive analysis of formative Islamic thinking on attitudes to non-Muslims and taqiyya is barely a footnote as a comprehensive ethical principle.

The point I am making is that it is one thing to have a concept referred to by a number of scholars, it is another to be a significant part of a religion's worldview. I think some of Patrick's treatment of taqiyya leaves the impression that it forms part of the Islamic worldview and that is misleading to the average Christian. The demurral that Ben makes in his review, and seems to be the case from my reading, is that taqiyya is more apparent in the worldview of shiite Islam.

The second, and perhaps most important point, that I make in my earlier post, is what then is the Christian response? That requires a Christian theology and without that our engagement falters. Dare I say that EVEN IF others are deceiving us, we are to reach out our hand in love and friendship?

[Ibn Abbaas]

A Muslim has also recently published a book review from a religious and theological perspective. It makes for an interesting read:

http://www.salafimanhaj.com/pdf_page.php?pdf=119