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 Window on Eurasia
'Moderate Islam' Is Not Equivalent to Islamic Moderation, Writer Says
Paul Goble
Tallinn, June 13, 2006 – „The difference between Islamic moderation and
‚moderate Islam’ is approximately the same as that between a water
pipe and a sewer,” according to a leading Muslim commentator in
Russia. And those who confuse the two, he says, are consciously or not
undermining the Islamic faith.
In an article posted online last week, Abdulla Rinat Mukhametov said
that he welcomed the decision of the Union of Muftis of Russia (SMR) to
host a conference at the end of May under the slogan „Moderation –
the Direct Path in Islam” as „a necessary and important
undertaking”
[http://www.islam.ru/pressclub/analitika/wasum/?print_page]
But he said that as a Muslim scholar, he was disturbed by the
terminological confusion that seemed to dominate the proceedings in
which many speakers treated „moderation,” „wasat” (the Arabic
term for moderation), „the middle path,” „moderate Islam,” and
„a balanced approach” as synonyms.
They are not, Mukhametov insisted, and he provided perhaps the clearest and most succinct discussion yet on offer in the Russian media of the distinction between „wasatism,” on the one hand, and projects of
so-called „moderate Islam,” on the other.
According to Mukhametov, „wasatism” is commonly understood by
Muslim thinkers as „a balanced, constructive and evolutionary approach to the development of the Muslim world,” one that seeks to „avoid
conflicts,” find „compromises between various Islamic
tendencies,” take into „consideration the realities of the surrounding world,” and discuss innovation „on the basis of a critical rethinking of its
own heritage and that of others.”
It is thus based on the „Islamic principle of ‚the golden mean,”
a considered approach lying between two extremes, fanaticism and
infantilism. And it is called for both in the hadith [the sayings] of
the Prophet (peace unto him) and in the works of Muslim scholars both
of the past and of the present day.”
But at its core, this principle, despite „all its rationality and
pragmatism,” has its origins „in the fundamental strictures of the
Koran and the Sunna [the traditions of the faith]. It limits itself to
proposing a streategy for their ealization in the present-day world.”
Indeed, „various pro-Islamic parties use the term ‚wasat’ in
their ideological work.”
„Moderate Islam,” much discussed in Russia and the West, is
something else entirely, Mukhametov argued. It is „a collective term
for various kinds of ideas and conceptions the common feature of which
is the necessity to ‚subordinate’ the Muslim religion to
contemporary Western values by excluding from it everything that
contradicts them.”
„In other words,” Mukhametov wrote, the goal of „moderate
Islam” is „to find a basis for someone to be ‚a Muslim’ without
Islam.”
Many Muslim writers in the Russian Federation, including most
prominently historian Rafael’ Khakimov who serves as an advisor to
Tatarstan President Mintimir Shaimiyev, have pushed the idea of
„moderate Islam” over the last decade. And they are supported by
non-Muslims within Russia and abroad for a variety of reasons.
In many respects, Mukhametov argued, projects for „moderate Islam”
recall the attempts of the Bolsheviks to „reform Orthodoxy in the
1920s,” when the atheistic regime sought to weaken the church and its
hold on the population by promoting the renewal movement of the Living Church.
Now Muslims in the Russian Federation and elsewhere are faced with a
similar challenge, sometimes from within their own ranks and sometimes, Mukhametov insisted, because of the policies of American
neo-conservatives. But to the extent that Muslims understand the
differences between wasat and „moderate Islam,” they will be able
to resist.
And Mukhemtov concludes his article with the following lines: This
effort, he said, and he asks forgiveness in advance for what he calls
the following „banality,” represents yet another case when people
in Russia „wanted something better but things turned out just like
always.”
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