Western audiences, out of ignorance, yield too easily
\n<\/i>to fundamentalist Muslim claims that Islam is prescriptive
\n<\/i>in simple ways. To argue otherwise requires knowledge
\n<\/i>of Islamic\u00a0<\/i>hermeneutics, dialectics, and dialogics.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u2014 Fischer and Abedi, Debating Muslims<\/em> (p. 147)<\/p>\n Twenty years ago I published an academic piece on three North African writers which went largely unread \u2014 par for that course to be sure.<\/p>\n Jihad Ijtihad and other Dialogical Wars<\/a><\/p>\n I offer this link to the past because its matter remains topical. It explains in accessible terms to readers of English the concepts of jihad and its cognate ijtihad<\/i>, as well as the relationship of each to the other.<\/p>\n They anchor each end of a dialogical continuum running from holy war through conversion (by various means) and maieutic (giving birth to ideas) on to the hermeneutics of ijtihad, which might be defined as \u201cinterpretative work\u201d. Ijtihad began\u00a0before jihad, since Allah\u2019s edict to Muhammad at the moment of revelation was \u0625\u0642\u0631\u0627<\/b> iqra!<\/i> read! \/ recite!, which does after all require interpretation.<\/p>\n As interpretation of the work for which jihad calls, ijtihad must be understood dialectically (in light of the range of counter-arguments), hermeneutically (in terms of allusions and contexts, nuances and changes in word usage), and dialogically (in relation to the motives and manipulations of political others to\u00a0whom one is opposed).<\/p>\n Both jihad and ijtihad are \u201cethical discourse\u201d. They are conducted in a communicative environment driven by dialogue with others, by attempts to persuade those others \u201cto join one’s own moral and political community\u201d (Fischer and Abedi, p. 146). It should therefore not be surprising that poetry sometimes plays a persuasive role in Islamicist polemic and propaganda: http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2015\/dec\/29\/poetry-used-as-a-perfect-weapon-for-recruiting-violent-jihadis-study-finds<\/a>.<\/p>\n My point? Just read the epigraph again.<\/p>\n If you have declared someone an enemy or have been declared an enemy by someone else, best learn to know them (dixit<\/em> Sun Tzu in The Art of War<\/i>). The way it looks for the moment, the jihadis of Da’esh\u00a0have a better grasp\u00a0of the vulnerabilities of the so-called West — susceptibility\u00a0to bouts of collective fear, self-indulgent materialism\u00a0\u00a0— than the West does of theirs, whatever either\u00a0may be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Western audiences, out of ignorance, yield too easily to fundamentalist Muslim claims that Islam is prescriptive in simple ways. To argue otherwise requires knowledge of Islamic\u00a0hermeneutics, dialectics, and dialogics. \u2014 Fischer and Abedi, Debating Muslims (p. 147) Twenty years ago I published an academic piece on three North African writers which went largely unread \u2014 … <\/p>\n