Pushing Past Terror to Understanding

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Why are we are once again faced with the conundrum of religions tolerating intolerance in their midst? Intolerant groups, some very extreme, exist in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, so the question is why don't the more mainstream groupings within these religions speak out more forcefully against and teach the next generation to reject supersessionist, triumphalist forms of their faith that lead to intolerant perspectives and violence?

Bishop John Chane: From the Christian perspective, that has already begun, although it might seem very quiet to some. It's an issue that takes time to begin to accomplish-to train people, to teach new generations.

What is the mechanism for this teaching?

Bishop John Chane: Initially, it is that religious leaders and theologians need to be clear in speaking out on behalf of those faith traditions against the kind of behavior which is terroristic and which is a condemnation of the goodness of God and the unconditional love of God that all three Abrahamic traditions share.

Why do religions seem to embrace or allow for these supersessionist or triumphalist forms, in which one revelation supercedes the one that came before, and one truth trumps all others and seems to allow for these kinds of intolerance?

Bishop John Chane: It's now up to the interreligious communities to step up to the plate and do the kind of work they know they have to do. And it is being done. But I think that people need to understand that it doesn't happen overnight.

Akbar Ahmed: I have been involved in looking at Muslim society and trying to make some sense of what's going on for at least two decades, long before 9/11. After 9/11, there is so much interest in Islam, and people are coming up with instant kinds of reactions and analyses. The fact of the matter is that Islam has been, for the last two centuries, involved in a very convoluted and intense internal debate between the inclusivists and the exclusivists.

The inclusivists are based in Islam, chapter and verse. They argue the most popular names of God are rahman and raheem, merciful and compassionate. There are verses in the Qur'an that say let there be no compulsion in religion. There are other verses that say know each other, appreciate the different nations and tribes we have made. And look at each other with wonder. So there are verses that strongly argue for inclusivism. And there are other verses, like in other sacred texts, that could be interpreted to call for confrontation, to mean conflict, which are being used by the exclusivists.

Over the past two centuries, we've seen a period of colonization, when Muslim lands were thrown off balance, scholars marginalized, societies turned upside down. And for the past 50 years, we have seen a process of some kind of independence from Western colonial powers-some kind of independence as there are still neo-colonial influences at work.

At the start of the 21st century, look at the Muslim world: 57 states, the vast majority ruled by military dictators or corrupt politicians-sometimes allied with the West, hoping to get oil or for some other sort of realpolitik. So the result is that a lot of the ordinary Muslims-1.3 billion people-are really frustrated and angry and sometimes they're violent.

So when people talk about "Islamic terrorism,"-Islamic this, Islamic-what they really mean is Muslim this or Muslim that, because Islam is not telling them to behave like this. It's not the religion. These are people responding in anger, in irrationality and emotion to a political situation or one based in their ethnicity or of tribalism. It's their interpretation of the life they're leading today. So 9/11 is simply one of the posts on this journey, and I'm afraid 7/7 is not going to be the last. Until we begin to look at the root causes in the Muslim world-which is the primary job of the leaders of the Muslim world-nothing very much is going to change, because the problem needs to be identified and then tackled.

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