A World without Islam

A. Hama
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Abstract

A World without Islam Graham E. Fuller Little, Brown and Company, 2010 The current book, with its provocative title, is likely to entice those who believe that the Christian West, with the United States as its vanguard, is locked with Islam in a life-and-death struggle, a "clash of civilizations". Current foreign policy is related to this premise and if Islam in general can be contained, and "radical" Islam in particular neutralized, then anti-western terrorism and current troubles in Muslim countries would disappear. However, author Graham Fuller argues that differences in doctrine between Islam and Christianity are not the primary sources of conflict and points out that other social forces would have engaged the West in conflict had there been no Islam. The world would still not be as conflict-free as those who image a world without Islam would like to believe. Fuller's main theme is that religion serves as a vehicle to further social and political ends of the ruling elite - and if a god is truly on our side, then so much the better. Like political institutions, Fuller notes, religions have spent a great deal of time "striving to preserve orthodoxy" and quashing dissent. Religious dogma reflects contemporaneous secular interests and like secular institutions, religions have evolved over time to accommodate changing social norms and ideology. Both theological flexibility and rigidity can be readily observed in Christianity as well as in Islam. It should not be surprising that ruling elites have closely linked religious institutions to secular institutions, to shape social behavior towards a desired end, rather than for the purpose of mass spiritual salvation or enlightenment. Such social engineering has had disastrous consequences for the non-believing segment of the population, particularly for "heathen" minorities. Religious institutions, of course, do not have a monopoly on evoking behavior that leads to mass atrocities, as modern secular states have demonstrated. Thus, a closer examination of "religious-based" violence will frequently reveal profound socio-political and possibly ethnic roots. Fuller states that there is little "serious analysis" of the consequences of US foreign policy actions. In fact, analysis tends to focus on "others" - "why do 'they' hate us" and "why can't 'they' accept America's values" and abandon their "negative intentions". This leads to policies that inflame instead of reduce anti-US hostility. Without actually speculating on what the world would be like without Islam, Fuller argues that other institutions would have come into conflict with the West had Islam not been established. The main value of this book is the historical narration, from the fragmentation of the Roman Empire, the conflict between different factions within Christianity, the rise of Islam within this environment and the experience of non-western regions that have come in contact with Islam. Rather than seeing them as mutually exclusive, Fuller points to the close relationship between "religion, power and the state," and views the "clash of civilizations" through this lens. Religions are "vehicles for political power," a phrase that appears repeatedly in this book. Ethnicity, which "may or may not be augmented" by religious differences, is also viewed as significant, though secondary to political power. In contrast to the ethnic exclusiveness of Judaism, Islam preached universalism, similar to Christianity. However, early Islamic practitioners perceived their religion in ethnic terms, as an "Arab religion" - the Qur'an was written in Arabic and the Prophet was an Arab. Initially, conversions of conquered non-Arab peoples were discouraged. With further expansion out of Arabia into non-Semitic cultures, the need to secure cooperation from multiethnic populations superceded ethnocentrism. Just prior to the rise in Islam in the early seventh century AD, Eastern Orthodox Christianity dominated much of the Middle East. …
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没有伊斯兰的世界
《一个没有伊斯兰教的世界》格雷厄姆·e·富勒·利特尔,布朗公司,2010。这本书的书名颇具挑衅性,很可能会吸引那些相信以美国为先锋的基督教西方世界与伊斯兰教陷入一场你死我活的斗争,一场“文明冲突”的人。当前的外交政策与这一前提有关,如果伊斯兰教总体上可以被遏制,特别是“激进”伊斯兰教被中和,那么反西方恐怖主义和当前穆斯林国家的麻烦就会消失。然而,作者格雷厄姆·富勒(Graham Fuller)认为,伊斯兰教和基督教在教义上的差异并不是冲突的主要根源,并指出,如果没有伊斯兰教,其他社会力量就会把西方卷入冲突。世界仍然不会像那些想象一个没有伊斯兰教的世界的人愿意相信的那样没有冲突。富勒的主要主题是,宗教是实现统治精英的社会和政治目标的工具——如果上帝真的站在我们这一边,那就更好了。富勒指出,就像政治制度一样,宗教也花了大量时间“努力维护正统”和镇压异见。宗教教条反映了当时的世俗利益,就像世俗机构一样,宗教随着时间的推移而发展,以适应不断变化的社会规范和意识形态。在基督教和伊斯兰教中,神学的灵活性和刚性都可以很容易地观察到。统治精英们将宗教机构与世俗机构紧密联系在一起,以塑造社会行为,以达到预期的目的,而不是为了大众的精神救赎或启蒙,这不足为奇。这种社会工程对人口中不信教的部分,特别是对“异教徒”少数民族,造成了灾难性的后果。当然,宗教机构并不像现代世俗国家所展示的那样,垄断着引发大规模暴行的行为。因此,对“基于宗教的”暴力进行更仔细的审查将经常揭示深刻的社会政治根源,可能还有种族根源。富勒指出,几乎没有对美国外交政策行动的后果进行“认真分析”。事实上,分析往往集中在“他人”身上——“为什么‘他们’恨我们”和“为什么‘他们’不能接受美国的价值观”,并放弃他们的“负面意图”。这导致的政策只会激化而不是减少反美敌意。富勒认为,如果没有伊斯兰教,其他机构可能会与西方发生冲突,但他并没有实际推测没有伊斯兰教的世界会是什么样子。本书的主要价值在于历史叙述,从罗马帝国的分裂,基督教内部不同派别的冲突,伊斯兰教在这种环境下的兴起,以及与伊斯兰教接触的非西方地区的经历。富勒没有把它们看作是相互排斥的,而是指出了“宗教、权力和国家”之间的密切关系,并通过这一视角来看待“文明的冲突”。宗教是“政治权力的工具”,这句话在本书中反复出现。种族问题虽然次于政治权力,但也被认为是重要的,因为宗教差异“可能会扩大,也可能不会”。与犹太教的种族排他性相反,伊斯兰教宣扬与基督教类似的普世主义。然而,早期的伊斯兰教徒认为他们的宗教是一种“阿拉伯宗教”——古兰经是用阿拉伯语写成的,先知是阿拉伯人。最初,被征服的非阿拉伯民族的皈依是不被鼓励的。随着阿拉伯文化向非闪米特文化的进一步扩展,获得多民族人口合作的需要取代了种族中心主义。就在公元七世纪早期伊斯兰教兴起之前,东正教统治着中东的大部分地区。…
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来源期刊
Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies
Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies Social Sciences-Political Science and International Relations
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期刊介绍: The quarterly Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies (ISSN 0193-5941), which has been published regularly since 1976, is a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to scholarly papers which present in depth information on contemporary issues of primarily international interest. The emphasis is on factual information rather than purely theoretical or historical papers, although it welcomes an historical approach to contemporary situations where this serves to clarify the causal background to present day problems.
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