The occasional pearl

Technorati Tags: Diana West,Park 51,Amman Message,tolerance,ciatations

While slogging through the Townhall.com muckroom email the other day, I happened onto a column written by Diana West.  Ms West has on occasion written some columns with which I totally agree, and some which are not so compelling.

This week’s column, available at her website here, caught my eye because of its underlying subject, the so called, and mis-named, Ground Zero Mosque.  (The project has been re-named by its proponents as Park 51.)  What follows is a lesson in the advantages of close reading and accuracy in citation.

At one point West writes,

The crucial fact is, whether we are brutalized by acts of jihad or confused by acts of dawa (proselytizing), their goal is identical: more Islamic law. And this end will always justify the means as seen, for example, back in 2005 when hundreds of acclaimed Islamic clerics and heads of state gathered in Amman, Jordan. There, quite anti-climactically, they issued the "Amman Message" that declares that no Muslim who adheres to a recognized school of Islam may be labeled an apostate. Subtext: Not even Osama bin Laden could be, in effect, ex-communicated or otherwise blackballed or removed from good standing by these Islamic authorities. One of the 552 signatories was Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.  [Rauf is the imam of the Park 51 project.]

The problem with the quote is that a reading of the Amman Message doesn’t support West’s claim.

An inquiring email to West produced a prompt response:

Here you go:

http://ammanmessage.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=74

(1) Whosoever is an adherent to one of the four Sunni schools (Mathahib) of Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i and Hanbali), the two Shi’i schools of Islamic jurisprudence (Ja`fari and Zaydi), the Ibadi school of Islamic jurisprudence and the Thahiri school of Islamic jurisprudence, is a Muslim. Declaring that person an apostate is impossible and impermissible. Verily his (or her) blood, honour, and property are inviolable. Moreover, in accordance with the Shaykh Al-Azhar’s fatwa, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare whosoever subscribes to the Ash`ari creed or whoever practices real Tasawwuf (Sufism) an apostate. Likewise, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare whosoever subscribes to true Salafi thought an apostate.
            Equally, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare as apostates any group of Muslims who believes in God, Glorified and Exalted be He, and His Messenger (may peace and blessings be upon him) and the pillars of faith, and acknowledges the five pillars of Islam, and does not deny any necessarily self-evident tenet of religion.

West’s opening link brings up a discussion section of the Amman Message, which, indeed, does support her claim.  There’s a problem.  The supporting material does not appear in the Amman Message itself.  On the site’s home page is a link to “”Three Points of the Amman Message,” where you will find her source.

The Message itself does, however, contain this: 

…the origin of divine religions is one, and Muslims believe in all Messengers of God and do not differentiate between any of them. Denying the message of any one of them is a deviation from Islam. That is because the origin of divine religions is one, and Muslims believe in all Messengers of God and do not differentiate between any of them. Denying the message of any one of them is a deviation from Islam" which is in the original document.  [emphasis added]

  Maybe the sentence “Denying the message of any one of them is a deviation from Islam” could be interpreted as the basis for the Point West quoted. 

Religious writing is often ambiguous.  Personal essays should be less so. 

There’s a lot to be learned.  While West is correct in that there are questions to be asked about claims for tolerance, there are also questions to be asked about where the answers might be found.

There are many references in the Amman Message to the evils of extremism, but “Denying the message of any one of…” could very well negate the effect of those references.

I owe Ms West a debt.  Had she been more precise in her column, I wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to check her facts; and I wouldn’t have read, albeit cursorily, the Amman Message, some parts of which are disturbing to my Western mind.

Trust, but verify.

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