Sacred and Secular in Islam: Policy implications

Abstract

A simmering issue in the Islamic world’s relations with the West concerning the tension between the sacred and secular took a sudden violent turn on September 11, 2001 when Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network launched a coordinated assault on the U.S. in the name of sacred duty. The West reacted with stunned surprise. But, given the long history of Islamic fundamentalist grievances on the issue, is the West’s surprise itself surprising? While it is clear from Bin Laden’s own pronouncements that the motivation for the attacks is sacred rage against an infidel secular West, the West, joined by several Islamic organizations, has sought to dismiss Bin Laden’s self-proclaimed sacred struggle as bogus. President Bush has, instead, moved to lay claim to that designation himself, saying the U.S. is engaged in a sacred contest with an ‘axis of evil’. The administration believes that snapping the terrorist networks by driving their members into the sharp prongs of military reprisal, and combining that with closing their financial operations at home and abroad, will be enough to dispose of the fundamentalist scourge. That view, however, is sadly mistaken. The fundamentalist challenge, rooted in religious justifications, is unlikely to go away that easily. Which then leaves us with taking the fundamentalists at their own word. In their declared aims, the fundamentalists have put up a spirited defense of Islam against an ancient foe now ensconced in the United States. We should inquire into what they mean by Islam and why for them the United States has come to be a citadel of infidels.