Over the years, I’ve taken the position that Jihadis are not representative of Islam because they comprise such a small percentage of all Muslims. While I know little about Islam, I believe that most Muslims are peace-loving and condemn the militant actions of Jihad. It seemed unfair to me that 1.6-billion Muslims who are predominantly moderate should be painted with the brush of the few extremists.
But I had a recent epiphany that has me rethinking that position. Ironically, it came out of conversations I’ve had correcting people who claim that Barack Obama is Muslim. When I mention to a Christian woman I know that he is Christian, she counters that, no, Obama is not Christian. This woman does not believe that Obama is Muslim (as 29% of Americans do) and she knows that he proclaims himself to be Christian. She bases her assertion that he is not Christian on the fact that the Christian doctrine he believes in differs significantly from the doctrine in which her Christian sect believes (she is a Messianic Jew).
The problem with establishing someone’s faith this way is that there could never be universal agreement about a person’s faith. I explained to the woman—who considers herself to be a devout Christian—that Obama might claim that she is not a “true” Christian because she does not celebrate Christmas or Easter (and if Obama wouldn’t contest it, there are millions of other professed Christians who would). Since there is such great potential for disagreement among purported authorities in a faith that a given person is a true believer in the faith, it’s not possible to effectively communicate about a person’s faith based on some “authority’s” determination. The only way you can unambiguously communicate about someone’s faith is by conceding—at least for the sake of that conversation—that the person’s faith is the one he (or she) himself proclaims it to be.
Getting back to Jihadis, I realized that I was doing the same thing that this woman was doing. Even though most Jihadis strongly believe that they are practicing true Islam when making a terrorist attack, I was countering that, no, Jihadis are not “true” Muslims. Well, I can no longer have my cake and eat it too. If a Jihadi professes to be Muslim, I have to concede that they are Muslim. I must accept that the Jihadi is Muslim to fully understand the motivations behind their actions, even if it is to discuss whether or not Jihad is permitted by Islam.
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