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I don't know how long this thread will last or whether it will turn into a cesspool but while it is here I figure I will post a question I've wanted to ask for awhile in the Middle East thread but did not want to start a derail. Is there a book or a series of articles or even a well-regarded webpage which collects the various theologic arguments made by suicide bombers, salafist groups, etc. and examines them in light of Islamic jurisprudence, textual support, etc.? One of the thing which might help frame this discussion is if someone has already objectively looked at the various published motivations and examined how they fit with what is found in the Qur'an, the hadith, or the more commonly accepted schools. For instance, if a verse is taken out of context it might look like it supports an action but if all of the schools interpret it differently it might help put the passage in a more nuanced light.
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Jul 4, 2015 23:07
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Xandu posted:There might be (probably not as much in English since most English analysis of Jihadi material is written by non-Muslims), but while this is interesting in some ways, I also think you have to take a step back and ask if it even matters. Religion evolves and changes and can't simply be defined by what's in a book, even though that's what most adherents will tell you. There's plenty of violent, awful stuff in the Qur'an, just as there is in other religious texts. More important is how it's interpreted, and most "manistream" Muslims will downplay the violence, etc because it's not important to their understanding of Islam. I come from the standpoint that people are generally evil and don't really need a reason to kill, maim, torture, etc. Any unifying idea such as religion or some other ideology can always be twisted to support what a person really wants such as power, money, etc. So, I understand what you are saying. I am not a scholar of comparative religion or sociology or anything and don't have to tools to really analyze things myself. I am mostly looking for a scholarly work which looks at the claims made by salafists or individuals and measures the degree of textual or historic support. I'm not looking to see whether modern Muslims would be considered "true Muslims" or whether they should believe a certain way based upon the texts. I don't have to draw any conclusions based on the analysis I am just interested. I see that Islam is like other religions in that they have a great number of differences across regions, etc. and am fascinated by things such as the Zaidis, Ibadis, Sufis, etc. just as I am with the various Christian and Jewish groups that have sprung up over thousands of years. Many times I notice that groups try to go back to source texts and reinterpret them for a certain place/time and the results mostly depend on the people interpreting rather than the texts. I'd be interested to know how the modern salafists fit in with historical understandings of Islam. Are they a historic aberration and is their theology based on unique and spurious claims or is there something that they are referring which has historical precedence? I appreciate some of the links so far and am reading my way through them.
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Jul 5, 2015 17:17
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