Satte 1

Camilla Satte
15 October 2015
Course: ESLG 0610
Assignment: Final Draft for Project #1
Professor Daryl Morazzini

Islam. A Religion of Peace.

One of the most misunderstood issues when talking about the religion of Islam is the
theory of armed struggle. From ancient times, one of the greatest challenges of the world was
the diversity of religions, millions of people with different beliefs could not live in peace with
each other, but today, the freedom of speech and religion allow well-known intellectuals, such
as Sam Harris and Majid Nawaz, to collaborate, share, discuss and debate their own
worldviews. While Sam Harris is adhering to an opinion that Islam is not a religion of peace,
Majid Nawaz including in consideration the fact that opposing the whole religion of Islam is
not the same as discussing issues of specific beliefs and movements, such as Jihadism,
Islamism or Fundamentalism.
Majid Nawaz went through hard way to come to a final opinion that he defends to this
day. At the age of sixteen, he joined the radical organization called Hizb ut-Tahrir, the
international pan-Islamic political organization. Then, Majid was arrested and sentenced for
five years in Egypt for belonging to a banned organization. In prison, his social circle
included people of various worldviews and beliefs; there were killers of the Egyptian
President (1981), the leaders of different extremist and moderate organizations, jihadists,
bomb makers, and supporters of Al Qaeda. This taught Majid to look at things from different
angles.
According to Majid Nawazs responses, he considers fundamentalism as a thought or
theory, whereas Islamism, in his opinion, is a practical embodiment of religious

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fundamentalism. 5 One of the strongest parts of Majids arguments is that he emanates his
statements from his own abundant life experience, which shows the depth of his
understandings on these issues. Today, in ideological terms, classic fundamentalist
organizations are functioning for cleansing Islam from imposing Western values; they are
calling for the creation of the ideal Muslim society. A characteristic feature of modern
Islamic fundamentalism can assume that its supporters, inside Islamic society itself, fighting
against the traditionalists and modernists. Nevertheless, Nawaz is a former Islamist and now
refers to the unity of Moderate Muslim, he believes that Islamism would inevitably fall apart.
In the understanding of Muslims, the Quran is the direct speech of Allah and it is not
the product of an inspired human; that is why the Quran is the most authoritative source for
determining a persons faith and the practical laws. In the book Islam and the the Future
Tolerance, Majid Nawaz gives detailed explanations of words that are misunderstood. For
example, unfortunately, at the moment the word Jihad brings to mind images of violent
zealots that kill so-called infidels in the Holy war. 3 This word was never used in the
context of armed conflicts. But what is the canonical concept of the word jihad? This word is
repeated thirty-four times in the Quran, and it means to be assiduous but readers of Quran
understand this word in different ways; on the one hand, a struggle with personal vile
passions, and on the other hand, the jihad is a fight for justice. It follows that international
media disseminated rumors that the Quran calls for aggression, extremism, bigotry, murder
and terrorism, 3 whereas it is malicious and false libel that do not have any basis in the
confession or doctrine of Islam.
There are many verses in the Quran that encourage Muslims to live on the basis of
friendliness and benevolence; one of the examples taken from the Quran is that, God forbids
you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your
homes, from dealing kindly and justly 9 (Quran, Soorah LX, verse 8). This indicates that the

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goal of Islam is to spread peace, forgiveness and friendship among people for the happiness
and tranquility of humankind.
In the book, Black Box Jihad, the author, Martin Schuble who used for his research
Nawazs prison life knowledge, examines the story of two boys, one from the Palestinian
territories, and another from Germany. Both of them became suicide bombers; they blew
themselves up along with dozens of innocent victims.6 Majid Nawaz helped the author to find
out that these children grew up in an atmosphere of war, where they saw violence and deaths,
which affected their psyche and worldview. By committing suicide, they wanted to bring
peace to the world; they were inspired by people who are real terrorists. The real terrorists
knew that sending children to death would not bring peace, but they were motivated by their
own selfish pursuits. Most terrorists commit these sacrificial attacks because that someone
else inspired them. In the book, Radical, Majid Nawaz giving detailed descriptions on how
these terrorists created method of indoctrination, or brainwashing, which includes showing
only particular verses of the Quran.4 For example, in the line Those who believe fight in the
cause of Allah 9 (Quran, Soorah IV, verse 76) the word fight is taught as it refers to
terror. Terrorists extracting only fighting verses to teach; consequently, suicide bombers
justification of his or her deeds will be these particular verses.
Sam Harris is an American publicist, neuroscientist, philosopher and active partisan of
scientific skepticism. Although he was raised in a family with secular views and his parents
never touched religious topics, he has always been interested in the study of religion. The
object of his study is based on investigation of humans faith, distrust and doubtfulness using
neurobiological foundations. By belief identification Harris belongs to atheists. He asserts
that the term atheism is not a philosophy or view, it is destroyer of bad notions. 1 Being
convinced that all religions are human-made deceptions, he calls all religious dogmas the
most perverse and wrong use of the human mind that we have ever invented. 1

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Sam Harris believes that the time when it is possible to freely cast doubt on religious
faith. By criticizing every religions and all kinds of religious movements, he claims that the
main problem at the moment is concentrated in Islam, and only this religion is the basis of
international terrorism. Harris sees religion as a major obstacle on the way of a more
enlightened approach to spirituality and ethics. He gives voice to the general reaction of the
Western countries on terrorist attacks such as September 11 attack. When he mentions this
terroristic attack, he emotionally touches audience because people immediately remembers
thousands of innocent deaths.
In an interview, Harris claims that the benefit of a religion is that it gives purpose of
life, but it is not an evidence of the veracity of any religious doctrine. Harris believes that it
is necessary to fight the ban on public criticism of certain religious ideas, beliefs and
customs, which are protected by the so-called tolerance. He is convinced that permission of
free criticism is vital for progress in every field of knowledge.
The significant difference between Nawazs and Harriss views is their perception of
the concepts of same Fundamentalism, Jihadism and Islamism on which they arguing. When
Majid explained that the word Islam must be known as a religion of peace, and at the
same time it can be proclaimed as a fight against terrorism, in response, Harris
characterizes the first term as obviously wrong, and the second as meaningless. 2 Both of
them oppose any type of negative movements of Islam, and came to the same conclusion that
one of the main problems of the Islamists, Jihadist and others, is the arbitrary interpretation of
the Quran and the Sunnah of revelation written by Muhammad without considering the
peculiarities of the Arabic language, historical context, causes of, specific conditions of life,
mentality of that people of that time, as well as other factors. All this engenders the abuse of
the sacred texts; it leads to their use for political purposes, in order to justify military conflicts
or material gain.

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The world is progressing... Centuries ago it was impossible to imagine how two
intellectuals with completely different beliefs can come up to collaborate and discuss in
peaceful manner controversial topics such as, Is Islam is religion of peace or war? Sam
Harris criticizes all religions but asserts that Islamic doctrine is especially dangerous for the
world, whereas Majid Nawaz instead of standing against religion itself he tells how to create
a counter narrative to Islamism and to make it unattractive to young generations. The
debating problem rose and still exists because of a widespread common ignorance about the
issues surrounding Islam and the tendency of identification with the cruelty of certain groups
or individuals that is distorting sacred precepts of Islam.

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Works Cited
1. A Skeptical Human. Sam Harris Arguments. Debate, Interview, and Lecture
Footage. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 19 Jun. 2015. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
2. Harvard Institute of Politics. Islam and the Future of Tolerance. Online video
clip. YouTube. YouTube, 16 Sep. 2015. Web. 25 Sep. 2015.
3. Harris, Sam, and Majid Nawaz. Islam and the Future of Tolerance: a Dialogue /
Sam Harris, Majid Nawaz. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015. Print.
4. Nawaz, Majid. Radical: My Journey from Islamist Extremism to a Democratic
Awakening. London: WH Allen, 2012. Print.
5. OlauspetriGoomba. Majid Nawaz Explains the Difference between Islam and
Islamism to Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins. Online video clip. YouTube.
YouTube, 27 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Sep. 2015.
6. Schuble, Martin. Black Box Jihad: Daniel and Saed on their way to paradise.
Munich: Carl Hanser, 2011. Print.
7. Sageman, Marc. Leaderless Jihad. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2008. Print.
8. TED. Science Can Answer Moral Questions | Sam Harris | TED Talks. Online
video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Mar. 2010. Web. 28 Sep. 2015.
9. The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary. Translated by Yusuf Ali.
Lahore: Sheikh Muhammad Ashraf Publishers, 1938.