Are we fundamentalists?

Barry Seagren finds that the parallels between Islamic extremists and evangelical Christians are too close for comfort.

The term fundamentalist has always had negative connotations, and especially so since 9/11.

Moreover, the secular media persistently lumps all types together: Islamic, Christian, whatever. If you’ve seen one fundamentalist, you’ve seen them all — not much fun, too much damn, and certainly mental.

To give an example, there was a report in The Times a while back entitled ‘Student faith groups unite to fight fundamentalism on campus’ (Times, 2/3/02). It stated: ‘On various university campuses, the activities of fundamentalist groups like al-Muhajiroun and conservative evangelical elements in some Christian Unions have been cause for serious concern to university authorities, student unions and faith communities’. I find that shocking. UCCF, the Christian Unions, are lumped together with one of the most extreme Islamist groups. The message is that all normal, respectable religious groups have to stand together against this dangerous fundamentalism.

The result has been growing hostility towards religion in general, and particularly towards evangelical Christians. Again, let me give two examples, both from The Times last autumn:

* ‘Religion causes harm, says poll’ (Times, 2/9/07). The poll showed that 42% think that religion has a harmful effect; only 17% think it is beneficial. That’s tragic. This country is not simply irreligious, but now anti-religious.

* ‘Oxford’s Christian colleges are not suitable for school-leavers. Halls may lose licences over evangelical doctrine’ (Times, 19/9/07). The article concerns a report on the seven private halls that teach theology at Oxford: ‘The report will be seen as an attack on the evangelical wing of the Church of England, which draws intellectual credibility from the association of one of its colleges, Wycliffe Hall, with Oxford … Halls could risk losing their Oxford University licences altogether if they teach a fundamentalist biblical doctrine on sexual ethics and in other areas of theology.’

That’s the situation. Islamic extremists have given fundamentalism an extremely bad name, and we have been lumped together with them. Now, why this has exercised me so much is that I think the media are not wrong in drawing the parallels; they are right. Evangelical groups have far too much in common with the radical Islamic groups. What I want to do in this article is to try to tease out just what the parallels are, and then what the differences are.

A book that is both disturbing and insightful here is The Islamist by Ed Husain (Penguin Books, 2007). This book has been frequently reviewed in the press and has been on the best-seller lists recently. Ed Husain grew up in East London, as part of a South Asian Muslim family. In case the name Ed makes you wonder about his credentials, it is short for Muhammed. He tells the story of how he gradually got involved with radical Islam, eventually became disenchanted and finally left. His book illustrates well the similarities between the Islamic groups he was involved with and the kind of Christian groups most of us have known. Let’s consider first the parallels and then the differences.

Eight disturbing parallels

1. Truth

We both claim to have the truth. Christianity is not just our personal religion, our private spirituality; it is actually true, true to reality, the truth. That’s exactly what Islamic fundamentalists claim as well. And that is the great heresy today. In the postmodern world, there is no such thing as truth, only your point of view and my point of view. Anyone who claims to have the truth is either foolish or dangerous, or both. This is why spirituality is in and religion is out. Spirituality is just the personal quest for meaning and transcendence, and that’s fine. Religion has to do with doctrines and truth claims, and that’s out. In claiming to have the truth, both we and Muslim fundamentalists stand against the relativism of our world. There is such a thing as truth, and it can be known.

2. Bible and Qur’an

We both accept holy scripture as our supreme authority. The only reason we can have the truth is that God has revealed it to us. The UCCF Statement of Faith, widely accepted among evangelicals, says this: ‘The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired and infallible Word of God. It is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behaviour. That’s virtually identical to what the Muslims believe about the Qur’an.

Here we are getting to the essence of fundamentalism. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines fundamentalism as ‘the strict maintenance of ancient or fundamental doctrines of any religion’. That’s what evangelicals are all about, isn’t it? We want to practise original, authentic Christianity, as found in God’s Word. Richard Dawkins has put it in a nasty way: ‘A fundamentalist is somebody who believes something unshakeably, and isn’t going to change his mind. And even if all the evidence in the world points in the other direction, because it’s in the holy book they’re not going to change’. I’ll plead guilty to that; it’s just that I’m not persuaded by Dawkins’s so-called evidence. We who have an unshakeable conviction that what the Bible says is true and right, and therefore stand under its authority are fundamentalists.

3. Loyalty to God

We both place our loyalty to god above all else. One criticism that is often levelled at parts of the Muslim community is that they won’t assimilate; they won’t conform to British values. Being Muslims is more important to them than being British. A survey carried out back in 1989 found that in the case of a conflict between British law and shari’a, Islamic law, 66% would follow shari’a. That percentage would be higher today.

Do you have a problem with that? I don’t. Personally, I am a patriotic American; I also love living here and feel completely at home here. Nevertheless, first and foremost I’m a Christian. If there were any conflict between what God asks me to do and what the laws of Britain ask me to do, I should obey God rather than man, and I hope I would have the courage to do so. Do I adopt British values? Only insofar as they do not conflict with biblical values. Again, I find myself with the extremists; my religion comes before my citizenship.

4. Lived-out faith

We both apply our faith to all of life. Ed Husain’s experience is interesting here. He was born into a family who were followers of an Indian holy man and followed a spiritual form of Islam. It was in RE lessons at school that he was first introduced to the idea that Islam is more than that. It is a complete code of life. Perversely, RE in a state school was his first step on the road to extremism. One of the genuine strengths of Islam is that it does embrace every area of life. One of the leaders who first influenced Husain says this: ‘Our aim is to change the Muslims, to make them live Islam as a complete code of life, not as a mere religion. Islam is more than a religion. We want to see Islamic government, Islam taken out of mosques and homes, and into all areas of life’ (p.32). Isn’t that what we want when we speak of the Lordship of Christ over all of life? Our faith doesn’t apply simply to some narrow ‘spiritual’ compartment of our lives; it is to inform and shape all that we do and think.

The controversial area here is politics. It has often been said that you mustn’t mix religion and politics. That’s nonsense. Biblical truth is to be applied to everything, including political issues. Thank God for people like Wilberforce who sought to bring a Christian voice to bear on the political issues of his day. Thank God for organisations like CARE who seek to do the same today.

There was a front-page headline in The Times recently, ‘Hardline takeover of British mosques’ (Times, 7/9/07), and the article was all about the Deobandi sect. There were some truly objectionable things in the article, but what the Deobandis want is not simply for Muslims to live in their own little en-claves in Britain. They want Islam to have a growing influence in British society. They want the Islamisation of Britain. Well, don’t we want a similar thing? We don’t just want to live in our own little inward-looking Christian ghettos. We want to have a Christian voice in the public sphere; we want to claim our society for Christ and to see it increasingly shaped by biblical truth.

5. A dividing line

We both sharply distinguish between believers and unbelievers. The attitude of many today is that all religions are basically the same; we all worship the same god and it’s all about peace and love. The Islamic fundamentalists don’t see it that way. They make distinctions. To them, we are the kuffar, the unbelievers. And don’t we look at the world in the same way? We believe that all people are made in God’s image, but we don’t believe that all people are God’s children. Humanity is sharply divided into those who belong to Christ and those who don’t, those who are saved and those who are lost.

6. Challenging modernity

We both reject many aspects of the modern world. The following is by a Muslim writer, from a longer article called ‘Shari’a: A Practical Guide’. ‘Muslims are generally shocked by the general lack of respect and discipline here, especially if they are immigrants and not born here. They are particularly shocked by lack of discipline in schools and the difficulties faced by so many teachers in getting children to behave in class and actually learn.

‘They are shocked by the appalling rates of theft, drunkenness, drug addiction, sex outside marriage, abortions, rape of children and old ladies, homosexuality Ð especially when it is put forward as quite normal and an acceptable alternative sexual lifestyle; homosexuals in positions of authority (from teachers to MPs). They are also shocked by the general lack of respect for those in authority, and older people in general. In Muslim homes, children would probably be expected not to smoke in front of their parents, not to sit down or start eating before them. They are terrified of their girls being chatted up, taken advantage of and made pregnant by British boys and men, who seem to be uncontrollably predatory and often drunk ‘(quoted in Islam in Britain, Isaac Publishing, 2005, p.16).

Amen to all that! Muslims are sometimes criticised because they will not be reconciled to various aspects of modernity. Well, there’s a lot in the modern world that we’re pretty set against too.

7. Against nominalism

We are both critical of nominal and liberal believers. Muslim fundamentalists make a distinction between true Muslims and partial Muslims. Ed Husain cites the views of a key Pakistani radical called Mawdudi: ‘Mawdudi taught that there were “partial Muslims” and “true Muslims”. “Partial Muslims” confined religion to prayers, rosary beads, remembrance of God’s name, piety, and dress … “True Muslims” allowed their desires, their ideologies, their thoughts and opinions, their likes and dislikes, all to be shaped by Islam. Allah’s guidance holds complete sway over their hearts and minds, their eyes and ears, their bellies, their sexual desires, their hands and feet, their bodies and soul’ (Husain, p.37). Don’t we make much the same distinction between nominal Christians and those who are thoroughly committed to Christ?

The same parallel applies in the case of the liberals. There are many liberal or moderate Muslims who get along fine in the West. To Islamic fundamentalists, liberal and moderate are dirty words. They say the liberals have had their minds colonised by the West; they have compromised the faith. Don’t we have the same attitude? I cringe when I listen to some of the hopelessly vague churchmen who appear in the media. They don’t represent me. We are critical of liberals, feeling they have lost their confidence in the Bible and have watered down biblical truth to make it fit in better with the modern world. We often cheer for the moderate Muslims, but the uncomfortable fact is that our counterparts in the Muslim world are the fundamentalists, not the moderates.

8. ‘Evangelism’

We both seek to spread our faith. Evangelical Christianity is a missionary faith. We want to see all people come to know Jesus Christ. Islamic fundamentalism too is a missionary faith, and it is making headway in Britain. Ed Husain’s account of his time as president of the Young Muslim Organisation (YMO) at Tower Hamlets College is fascinating because of the parallels with our Christian Unions. Many of the goals, methods and activities were the same, and they really went for it. They were the most prominent organisation on campus; they galvanised the Muslims to stand up for their faith; they put the liberal, politically correct administration on the back foot; they saw people converted to Islam. I wish our CUs could do half as well.

BUT . . . I find all this quite troubling because on the one hand I cannot deny all the parallels, but on the other hand I certainly do not want to be lumped together with the Islamic extremists. Are there any real differences between us?

Let me suggest three absolutely crucial differences between Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism: methods, fruits, and focus.

1. Love, not war

The most blatant difference is the Islamic willingness to use force. Many Islamic fundamentalists believe they are at war with the West and they are prepared to use any means necessary to defend and advance the cause of Islam, and for some that includes the sword. They call it jihad, and they say it is the duty of every Muslim. The apostle Paul was certainly a radical. But his method was sacrificial love, not hateful terror; it was patient persuasion, not raw force; it was dependence upon the Holy Spirit, not dependence on the human sword. And it was never to conquer but always to save. That is an utterly crucial difference. For Ed Husain, one of the turning points in his disillusionment with radical Islam was a killing at his college. He saw the things he had advocated played out right before him, and it shocked him.

Does Islam really sanction the use of force and even violence? The fundamentalists say that they represent pure, authentic Islam, and they cite verses from the Koran to justify their methods. They say the moderates have compromised Islam. On the other side, there are many moderate Muslims who say that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and that it is the extremists who have perverted Islam and are not true Muslims. They too cite verses from the Qur’an to justify their views. Which one is right? What does the Qur’an really teach? It is certainly not my place to say. I do know that there is a titanic struggle going on for the soul of Islam, with huge implications for the whole world.

2. Where would you rather live?

Jesus said, ‘By their fruits you shall know them’. Why is the West the way it is? Why are the Muslim countries the way they are? There are all sorts of influences that shape a society — climate, resources, wars, etc. But surely the most basic factor in the kind of culture people build is how they think, how they see the world. The civilisation they build will be the expression of the world-view they hold, and that means their religion.

Christianity has been the backbone of our culture for centuries and many of the good things we enjoy in the West are the fruit of our Christian heritage. There was a brilliant essay published recently in The New York Times called ‘The Politics of God’ (NY Times, 19/8/07). The writer is a liberal humanist, but he understands our history: ‘For more than a millennium, the West took inspiration from the Christian image of a triune God ruling over a created cosmos and guiding men by means of revelation, inner conviction and the natural order. It was a magnificent picture that allowed a magnificent and powerful civilisation to flower.’ Quite right. In a parallel way, the Muslim countries are the fruit of Islam. Where would you rather live? Today millions are voting with their feet, fleeing Muslim countries and trying to migrate to the West. ‘By their fruits you shall know them.’

This may sound extreme, but when I look at fruits, I have to conclude that Christian fundamentalism, by which I mean a vibrant, uncompromising biblical Christianity, has been and still is the hope of the world, whereas Islamic fundamentalism is one of the greatest dangers the world faces today. Not all fundamentalists are the same.

3. Religion or relationship?

I want to be a bit more tentative about this final point. It often seems that some Muslims focus on their religion more than on their god. Consider the slogans: Islam is the answer; Islam will conquer the world. Our focus is different. We follow a person, not a religion or an ideology. We don’t follow Christianity; we follow Jesus. I don’t quite understand how this works itself out in practice, but this may be a third crucial difference. They seem to promote an ideology, and often a very politicised ideology; we promote a person. They follow Islam; we follow Jesus.

The few testimonies I have come across of British Muslims who have repudiated radical Islam have made similar points. Within radical Islam they worshipped god through their politics, and activism virtually replaced personal devotion to god. When Ed Husain describes the things that led him to get out, he mentions the realisation that his inner consciousness of god had hit an all-time low. ‘Despite huge political success, I despised myself for appearing pious and upright in Muslim eyes when all the while I knew that there was a vacuum in my soul where god should be’ (Husain, p.147). In describing his converts, he says, ‘We drew them to Islam as a force, a power. Today, I doubt very much if they were humble hearts who turned to god (Husain, p.144). That is a very crucial difference of focus.

The similarities are strong and unnerving, but there are also some absolutely crucial differences: methods, fruits, focus. Back to my original question: are we fundamentalists? Yes, we are, in the best and most basic sense of the term, and let’s not lose our nerve on this one. But not all fundamentalists are the same. There is a world of difference between the life-giving fundamentalism of the Bible and the destructive fundamentalism we see in some forms of Islam.