Religion Confusion, Part 3

Islam

When the visible head of the Catholic Church gives an address at a Catholic university on the subject of the link between faith and reason in which he quotes a Medieval source in an attempt to illustrate the point that recourse to violence for the sake of religion is not rational, the response from the Islamic world is … fire-bombed churches, murdered missionaries and cries of “the pope must die!” Hmm…. What do you suppose that means? Does this make any sense? Is this a good way for Muslims to witness to the truth? My view is that it fairly illustrates that Muslims in general (I am unaware of any substantial condemnation of these violent and aggressive acts coming from other Muslim leaders) are basically unconcerned with the notion of truth or rational discourse.

Violence is man’s usual and typical recourse if he cannot defend his position with reasonable argumentation. If I am looking for the truth about God and man, and Islam is not able to address such things, why should I believe it? Because there is a sword pressing against my throat, or the threat of death by explosion if I do not “submit”? This is not genuine faith, but fear. Truth casts out all fear. (The exact quote is “love casts out all fear” (1 Jn 4:18), but I think it applies to truth as well.) If truth is not one of the objects of Islam, then what is its appeal? Is Islam simply the religion of testosterone?

Writing in the late 1930s, Hilaire Belloc gave an excellent explanation of the history and nature of Islam from a Catholic perspective in the chapter “The Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed” of his book The Great Heresies. (I highly recommend this book to everyone.) According to Belloc, Islam was not a new religion. It is in fact a perversion or distortion of true Christian doctrine (that’s what the term “heresy” means). I’ll try to summarize here.

Muhammad was pagan, as was the society in which he lived. He was never a Christian, hence he never had the benefit of the supernatural life of God (Sanctifying Grace) which comes through baptism, nor of experiencing God’s love from inside the Church. (See my posts, Life from the inside (Parts 1 & 2) [Feb. 5 & 14, 2006], and And another thing … [Feb. 19, 2006].) It is also not outside the realm of possibility, given what is known about his early years, that his experience of even natural love was somewhat limited: his father died before he was born and his mother died when he was 6, and it seems he had no older siblings or other close relatives (although reliable documentation is sketchy at best); he was taken in by his grandfather, but he also died when Muhammad was only 8; finally he came under the care of his uncle who was the leader of their clan which was the guardian of the pagan temple in Mecca. It is possible that by his adult years the memory of the warmth and intimacy of love he experienced in childhood may have grown cold and dim. Were this the case, he may have had difficulty relating to the concept of the love of God. Regardless of the reason, love has no part in the relationship between Allah and the Muslim. Islam is divine slavery.

If Muhammad was a prophet, he was a prophet like no other. His actual behavior and circumstances were more like some of the patriarchs and kings of Israel (having political power and many wives) and the judges like Gideon and Samson (waging wars of conquest). In contrast, the actual prophets of Israel and Judah, I think, tended to be unmarried (it’s hard to raise a family on a prophet’s salary!)—I know of only two who were married, Isaiah and Hosea (if I’m wrong here, please correct me). The Old Testament prophets lived under the near-constant threat of persecution and were frequently on the move (on foot, not horseback). Many were killed for their unpopular teachings, calling the people to reform their lives and return to the Lord. According to Muhammad, on the other hand, Prophethood came with “perks”—as Prophet he was entitled to have as many as eleven wives (total) [instead of the maximum of four permitted by the Qur’ân] (most of which were politically motivated to shore up his position by creating family ties with potential rivals), considerable material wealth and absolute political and judicial power.

Muhammad had a reflective turn of mind and an active imagination. He was a merchant and, starting in his teens, traveled far and had dealings with all kinds of people and picked up all kinds of new ideas. He took the Church’s teachings but then adapted them to suit his own sensibilities.

The foundation of his doctrine was the unity and omnipotence of God. The attributes of God, His utter transcendence and personal nature, His creative power, the fact that He is all-good and exists outside of time, the good angels who serve Him, the bad angels who rebelled against Him, the immortality of the soul and its responsibility for its actions in this life, the final judgment—these are all elements of Catholic doctrine that he adopted. But where he departs from it—the central point of his heresy—is an absolute denial of the Incarnation or any possibility of an incarnate God. God is SO transcendent, Muhammad thought, that He couldn’t possibly enter into His creation by taking on a human nature (oh, the shame of it all!). So he eliminated the Trinity altogether (too confusing). Along with the Incarnation went the whole sacramental system, especially the Eucharist and the priesthood. Like every other heresy, Islam starts with the truth and then oversimplifies it. Neither Muhammad nor any of his followers ever developed a detailed theology. He was content to accept all that appealed to him and to reject all that seemed to him too complicated or mysterious to be true.

The root of the problem is that he set himself up as the final arbiter of truth; anything that seemed unreasonable to him, he simply tossed out (or twisted and reshaped into something else more to his liking). Where did he get that kind of authority? He claimed that the angel Gabriel told him it was so. But it couldn’t have been the real Gabriel, because Gabriel knew that Jesus was the Son of God (cf. Lk 1:26, 35), which Muhammad denied. Was Muhammad a fraud, making things up as he went along? That might be a little strong, although it could be the case. Or perhaps he was visited by another angel, a fallen angel (demon), who called himself “Gabriel” in order to deceive him. Or perhaps his “visions” were merely dreams which he misinterpreted and embellished. All three of these possibilities (or any combination, or others besides) might be the case. In any event, in his mind simplicity was the key to everything. And the structure and practice of Islam to this day utterly discourages any deep thought along religious or theological lines.

A large part of Islam’s initial success was its doctrine on social and economic justice. The Graeco-Roman world at that time (7th Century) suffered under ubiquitous slavery, rampant usury and indebtedness, complex and burdensome imperial taxation, the tyranny of lawyers and a meddlesome central government. (Hmm … Sort of like America today.) Muhammad preached a new spirit of freedom and relaxation: upon accepting Islam, slaves were freed, peasant farmers were relieved of their debts and crushing taxation, clerical and imperial discipline were swept away, usury was forbidden, and there was free justice under few and simple new laws that everyone could understand. The intricate tax system was replaced by a simple and straight system of tribute to the Caliph(s) (who succeeded Muhammad’s place of authority after his death). As a result of this arrangement the Caliphs became extremely wealthy and were thus able to carry on the expensive business of war and conquest over an extended period of time. Given the opportunity and probability for success of throwing off such unjust burdens, who wouldn’t want to sign on to such a venture? There was also a certain underlying historical character throughout the whole region of the Middle East of natural conformity, a sort of instinct for obedience to one religious head, which was also the civil head, and a general similarity of social structure. This general character is older than any historical record, and it persists to this day.

Muhammad had the good fortune to marry a wealthy widow (he was around 25 at the time, and she was about 40). From this position of security he was free to work out his visions and enthusiasms and undertook his propaganda. But even as his following grew and his doctrines spread, it was all done in a small and ignorant way; there was never any organization. Everything was undertaken in a haphazard and slipshod manner. The Muslim temperament was never tolerant. It was in the main fanatical and bloodthirsty. It felt no respect for, or even curiosity about, those from whom it differed and was absurdly vain of itself, regarding with contempt the high Christian culture around it. And yet it did not exterminate all those who did not accept the new faith. Why? Because the forces of Islam were still too few to govern by force. In the early centuries, the greater mass of the populations remained Christian, and it was they who preserved the Graeco-Roman civilization which was their heritage, surviving under the surface of Mohammedan government.

Certainly, there are numerous “points of light” (elements of truth) in Islamic teaching (e.g. profound reverence for Mary (Miriam), the mother of Jesus, and the recognition of Jesus’ virginal conception and birth), but, like the laudable passages of the Talmud, we have no problem with these. On those points there is no disagreement, no source of confusion. And, as noted above, these elements were all appropriated from Catholic teaching anyway.) Recent years have shown also how individuals or groups of members of both faiths can certainly agree and work cooperatively on certain issues of mutual concern.

But on the whole, especially in the realm of doctrine, Islam and Christianity are irreconcilable and mutually exclusive on the most fundamental level. These two religions cannot both be true because they flatly contradict one another on the most basic question: Who is Jesus Christ?