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Enough about Islam: Why religion is not the most useful way to understand ISIS
A new article about ISIS in The Atlantic has reignited the perennial debate over the relationship between jihadist terrorism and the religion of Islam.
The article, by Graeme Wood, repeatedly emphasizes the “Islamic” in Islamic State, calling out what it describes as “well-intentioned but dishonest campaign to deny the Islamic State’s medieval religious nature.”
“The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic.Very Islamic,” Wood writes.
The Ku Klux Klan is also white. Very white. The problem with framing discussions of extremism in this manner is that, for many people, it extends into causality and a too-intimate merging of a mainstream demographic with the identity-based extremists who claim to be its exclusive guardians.
Wood’s piece rolls out, coincidentally, the same week that the White House convenes a massive summit on countering violent extremism (CVE), which is uncoincidentally also focused on Muslims and Islam, albeit with gentle but disingenuous disclaimers. Actions speak louder than words, and the White House’s CVE strategy shows it is clearly only interested in tackling Muslim extremism.
What is the relationship between Christianity and Christian Identity? What does being German mean to Nazi ideology? What about the neo-Nazi movement Golden Dawn, a Greek identity movement heavily influenced by German Nazism? Should we understand that as German or Greek? How does Hinduism inform Abhinav Bharat, and how does Abhinav Bharat inform our understanding of Hinduism?
The 969 Movement in Myanmar is led by a Buddhist monk, and its very name refers to the Buddha and his teachings. It is very Buddhist. But is its xenophobia very Buddhist? Is a graduate-level understanding of Buddhism our only path to understanding the persecution of Muslims in Myanmar?
Source: www.brookings.edu