The demystification of Islam.

Slowly but steadily the realization is setting in among Muslims that the glory days of Islam are over--that whereas it once led the world in science and culture, since the Renaissance it has fallen behind drastically. What happened? It now seems clear that Muslims' anxious efforts to keep their faith pure and untouched by outside influences backfired on them. While the other monotheistic religions made some concessions to their constantly changing environment, Islam stayed stuck in the Middle Ages.

Modern theologians within the Christian and Jewish faiths have been debating a demystification of their own ancient belief systems in an attempt to make them more relevant to modern society (see, for example, "The Demystification of Belief Systems," in the July/August 2001 Humanist). Now some voices within Islam are finally being heard, perhaps signaling the beginning of a similar effort. In the October 1956 Atlantic, Ishaq Husseini reported proposals that varied in detail but "advocated moving away from a literal, absolute application of Islamic law to a more liberal interpretation, enabling `a flexibility which allows ... the greatest freedom while still keeping the faith intact.'" Forty-six years later, in the December 12, 2001, issue of the Atlantic, Sage Stossel informs us in his essay "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Islam":

   One school of thought that many Koranic scholars have found to be of
   special interest is that of "Mu'tazilism," which flourished in the Islamic
   world during the ninth century. The movement's proponents held that the
   Koran is a historical document rather than a God-given one and "developed a
   complex theology based partly on a metaphorical rather than simply literal
   understanding of the Koran." Though Mu'tazilism declined in the tenth
   century, many scholars and theologians interested in revitalizing Islam
   today have begun trying to bring the long forgotten movement back to the
   fore.

The article concludes that an approach that reassesses the Quran as a historical document may allow Islamic societies to "adapt to such Western concepts as liberal democracy and self-determination."

The terrorism of September 11, 2001 should have awakened most to the fact that a significant number of Muslims are encouraged to hate everything of Western origin--especially if it relates to the United States. One major reason for this antagonism is the frustration that results when people in some Islamic countries of the developing world are poor but have little chance of bettering their lot.

Admittedly, they have some valid reasons for despising the "Western" way of life. Perceived permissiveness and extreme, media-fueled consumerism make us a decadent society in their eyes. Furthermore, in the Middle East contempt of the West goes back to the Crusades and to am-al-nakhbah (the year of the disaster), the year 1920 when the French and the British marched into the Middle East after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Another thorn in their side is the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which established the state of Israel in Palestine under the guise of providing a homeland for the Jews--"a biblical people like us," as the British populace was told at the time (never mind that the displaced Palestinian Arabs were a biblical people as well). In reality, the purpose of this latter maneuver was (as one can now read in most encyclopedias) to provide a buffer zone for the strategically sensitive Suez Canal.

Worldwide, Muslims represent the largest and fastest-growing religious group. So it behooves non-Muslims to be sensitive to their views. With 1.2 billion practitioners, Islam represents roughly one-fifth of the world's population. The explosive growth of Islam may be explained by at least two important factors: the higher birth rate that is encouraged in most Muslim countries and the requirement that the children of each mixed marriage must also be Muslim. None of this should be worrisome to those who desire a peaceful coexistence if it weren't for the insistence of most Muslim sects--for example, the Sunnis, the Shiites, and the Sufi--to interpret at least part of their scriptures literally. This turns out to be a dangerous practice on the part of the mullahs especially when they quote passages from the Quran out of context and frequently to the illiterate among the faithful. Such literal interpretation, as Stossel's Atlantic article indicates, wasn't always practiced.

Why is a literal interpretation so undesirable? It becomes obvious when one looks at how the Quran evolved--how it was recorded and revised. For example, the structure of the Quran and its linguistic development is a major concern when it comes to its interpretation. Much of its content is poetry that is in-tended to be recited in Arabic. The 114 chapters appear in order of length, while individual verses are mostly in a random sequence without narrative thread. The original written text consisted only of consonants with the vowels left out. Thus many words can be vocalized producing different meanings. For this reason there are forty possible readings of the Quran of which, as scholarly efforts reveal, only approximately seven to fourteen may be considered legitimate.

It is also important to note the circumstances under which Muhammad received the revelations that would later be called the Quran, The Recitation. Some scholars claim that Muhammad was subject to epileptic seizures. This would explain the reported physical pain and mental anguish that accompanied Muhammad's visions during the famous first revelation. This event occurred during a Ramadan retreat (a month of fasting) when he reached his fortieth year (612 CE). As the terrified and trembling Muhammad later told his wife, an enormous figure whom he believed to be the Archangel Gabriel, the messenger of Allah, embraced him with a grip so powerful that he almost lost consciousness. The strange apparition demanded that the frightened Mohammad recite the words of Allah. The exact circumstances, as he relayed this apparition to his wife, suggest he was experiencing an epileptic seizure. In Arabia in those days, however, visitations by angels and other spirits (jinn, the plural of jinni were quite common. Poets were said to get their inspirations from their personal jinni. So people believed, at times that Jinn took on human form to mislead the unsuspecting. Thus Muhammad's contemporaries, having no other valid explanation for his scary visions, had little trouble accepting his explanation.

Neurologists today have identified a "god spot"--a region in the human brain that, when electrically stimulated, will produce quasi-spiritual experiences. Modern neuroscience has also identified various reasons for epileptic seizures; a chemical imbalance can trigger a seizure, as can brain tumors. Despite the seizures, people afflicted this way are frequently highly intelligent and successful in their endeavors.

A case in point is the best-selling author and TV personality Karen Armstrong. She spent eight years in a British convent as a nun before realizing that she wasn't cut out for that kind of life. According to a public radio interview, she now considers herself a "freelance monotheist," having renounced doctrines such as the Trinity and other "fabrications by theologians." As she wrote in her 1993 bestseller A History of God, "As an epileptic, I had flashes of vision that I knew to be mere neurological defect: had the visions and raptures of the saints also been a mere mental quirk? Increasingly, God seemed an aberration, something that the human race had outgrown."

As one can see, there is a good likelihood that Muhammad had a similar affliction that no one in those days would have recognized as such. But he functioned perfectly well as an administrator and judge and as a great leader, general, and communicator. One must wonder then if Muhammad, who could neither read nor write, didn't receive his wisdom via divine revelation, how was it possible that he became so revered for his knowledge and worldliness? A plausible explanation may lie in how he spent his early years.

Having lost his father before he was born and his mother when he was about six years old, he was raised by his uncle, a trader. Thus, in his childhood and teens he must have been exposed to a great variety of views from Christians, pantheistic Arabs in Mecca (his hometown), Jews, and traders from many parts of the Middle East who conducted business in the bustling trading center. It is likely that he listened to storytellers and preachers whose ideas he absorbed and, over the years, critically assessed as to their validity and relevance to the particular society that had evolved in Mecca. The majority of Meccans were descendants of nomadic Bedouins who had settled there to adopt a less precarious lifestyle. In doing so, they gradually became more individualistic, which meant that they were inclined to loosen their ties to their tribe and clan in favor of amassing personal wealth. No longer did they feel compelled to share their riches with the rest of their compatriots, nor did they have the tendency to support the poor or disabled. But they still followed some of their pantheistic rituals that included such practices as Ramadan (a fasting period) and visits to the Kaaba (a shrine that at that time still contained idols of their ancient faith).

When one examines the beliefs and rituals of the various groups that mingled in this trading metropolis, one cannot help but notice the many similarities that one finds in the Quran. There are, for example, the same prophets: Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus. (Muhammad was considered the last and final prophet--the Seal of the Prophets--once Islam was established.) It is therefore not surprising to see the same biblical accounts and views of the different faiths repeated within the revelations that Muhammad received during his retreats and meditations. It is entirely possible that some of them were either experienced or at least reinforced by recurring epileptic seizures.

When one considers the circumstances surrounding the revelations as they appear in the Quran, their likelihood of misinterpretation, and their relevance to modern society in respect to law, one must conclude that nations which insist on a theocratic application of Islamic law will no longer be able to keep pace with the rest of the world. Their citizens will become increasingly more frustrated and will be encouraged by their clerics to look for someone else to blame. At the same time, their access to modern technology and weaponry will pose an even greater threat to them and the rest of the world. And this specter of violent confrontations looms ever more ominously given the effectiveness of modern news media and world trade and travel.

What are non-Muslims to do to help resolve these issues? It is clear that they must not impose their views on Muslims. Nor would it be politically possible to share their wealth with them. All that is left is to support Muslims in their quest toward modernization and give them a hand up (instead of a handout). Their dignity must be respected and they must be allowed to initiate change from within (nations with secular governments and large Islamic populations, such as India or Turkey, could become models).

Muhammad's incredible feats, accomplished within the brief span of twenty-three years, can be attributed to his uncommon open-mindedness which allowed him to absorb the wisdom of other societies and belief systems. For their own sake and for the sake of the rest of humanity, let's hope that his followers will strive to emulate their prophet in this respect.

Richard H. Nethe spent twenty years working as an advisory quality engineer specializing in data analysis for International Business Machines (IBM) in East Germany, West Germany, France, Canada, and the United States.