During Ramadan just passed this last weekend, an Australian born Muslim cleric was reported to have called for the beheading of a Dutch MP for denigrating Islam.
The world currently faces the real risk of nuclear weapons being obtained by a Shiite leader, Ahmadinejad, who draws his belief system from a strain of Islam that longs for the apocalyptic return of the 9th century Imam, Mohammad al-Mahdi. A significant portent to the messianic return of the Mahdi will be the re-possession of lands once ruled by Muslims. For Ahmadinejad, this means first and foremost, Israel.
How are we to deal with militant, fundamentalist Islam? For Australians, living as neighbours to the largest Muslim country in the world, this is no minor issue.
First, let’s be clear that the call of brave dissidents like Ayaan Hirsi Ali for Muslims to renounce their fundamental beliefs is a counsel of despair. Over a billion Muslims are not going to convert to a form of Enlightenment agnosticism or atheism.
No, the answer to Islam is Islam. The fringe of Islam must be dealt with by the mainstream of Islam. And this mainstream must be encouraged and supported to come to peace with and champion secular, pluralist, liberal democracy.
The test for Islam in this regard, as for any divinity and revelation based belief system, is whether the mainstream can hold the view that its God does not want faith enforced by the sword: Does Allah have confidence in his capacity to move the minds of his creatures, can his truth evoke adherence without compulsion, or is his truth and power so feeble that it cannot compete in a market-place of beliefs?
The kind of Islam we are talking of is one that, like Christianity has done in the shadow of its religious wars, privatises faith and practice, renouncing any desire to force resolution of public issues and law by anything other than the vote of citizens, as citizens – and one which believes and teaches that Allah supports this.
I believe that in its traditions and some parts of its history, Islam has the resources to become this kind of Islam. But how do we assist, and assist mainstream Islam to become explicitly loyal to liberal democracy? How do we get the mainstream to champion and defend it against other Muslims who might seek to subvert it? Here are a few priorities for debate.
Obviously we first ensure that we are not tempted by the actions of the militants to betray our own values, not least in regard to stringent application of a non-discriminatory use of the law. Bans of the burka are a case in point.
But in defence of those values, we should also insist that mainstream Islam accepts that it is subject to intellectual challenge in a society with free speech and allows individuals the freedom to leave Islam. Violence against critics and apostates must be prohibited and sanctioned forcefully.
Liberal democracies allow faith-based schools, but all such schools should be required to integrate liberal democratic civics in the programs they run, and be licensed only with continuing compliance.
Where evidence arises that religious facilities are being abused to promote hatred or violence, our intelligence services should be tasked to gather the evidence needed for Police to excise and prosecute the militants, preferably with the support of the mainstream.
We should fund leadership development that promotes the capacity of mainstream leaders. In particular, we should promote dialogue with the mainstream on women’s rights, a touchstone issue and indicator for the liberal democratic disposition, and promote women’s leadership programs here and in developing Muslim countries.
Finally, we should have a much better funded program of media and internet programs that promote the liberal democratic worldview and experience into the homes and onto the computers and phones of Muslims across the globe.
Of course, where soft power is insufficient in the short term, we must support action to militarily contain Iran and militants groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, and Jemaah Islamiah.
But ultimately, our aim is to see global Islam build a kinder, gentler, liberal sense of itself. We see this Islam expressed in the Sufi tradition that militants are trying to destroy in Pakistan, and the Indonesian expression that Abu Bakar Bashir is trying to subvert. This kind of Islam is already practiced by millions of Muslims across the world. The challenge is how we make sure that in the internal war for the heart and soul of Islam that is being waged by militants or hardline fundamentalists from oil-rich countries, they win.
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