There are many ways to be a Muslim

The answer to the question "Who is a Muslim?" is both simple and very complicated, says Shelina Janmohamed

In a recent CNN interview with Reza Aslan, a professor of religious studies in the USA, the news anchors interrogated him about why Muslim countries are apparently all so violent, why they all (allegedly) oppress women, why they all “promote” female genital mutilation. Vipin Kumar / Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesShow less

The front cover of the UK’s notorious tabloid newspaper The Sun earlier this week carried the striking photograph of a Muslim woman wearing a Union Jack hijab with the caption “United against IS”. (IS is the acronym the newspaper uses for ISIL.)

In smaller text it urged “Brits of all faiths to stand up to extremists”. It was a provocative and unexpected move from a paper more often known for declaring that “Creeping Sharia” is taking over.

At the high-brow end of the newspaper spectrum, The Sunday Times magazine had as its front cover a feature depicting four different British Muslims. Inside were detailed and personable accounts of their experiences and views. It was a refreshing and human perspective of their life experiences.

The rise and declarations of ISIL, especially the self-branding of the group as an “Islamic” state has re-ignited a discussion that has dominated Muslim political discourse for years. Who is a Muslim? What is a Muslim like and what do they do? But most importantly, who gets to decide? These were the underlying questions from both The Sun and The Sunday Times, and are the same questions being posed both within and outside Muslim circles.

ISIL is using stark traditional Islamic iconography and concepts to attempt to usurp all differing expressions and viewpoints on what it means to be Muslim. The Arabic text on its flag, the black colour that is referenced in Islamic traditions, its claim that it is a caliphate are all designed to reinforce their contested position that theirs is the only acceptable way to be Muslim, and therefore whatever they do is Islamic.

This circular logic is how they justify the cruel beheadings, the rape of women, the destruction of religious sites, the massacre of innocents. It is why the religious arguments of scholars of all stripes that attempt to offer advice and guidance have such little effect. In their eyes, only they have the “true” Islam, and all others – Muslims and otherwise – are imposters. ISIL is the mirror image of George W Bush’s stand – I paraphrase – of being “with us or against us”.

What is clear again and again, across the globe, is that this is not the Islam that more than 1.5 billion Muslims believe in, and which they assert again and again. In fact, the constant refrain that there are many ways to be Muslim that has echoed since the early days of Islam, is once again being amplified. The message is that to lump all Muslims into one box is to subscribe to the “my way or the highway” belief that ISIL propagates.

In a recent CNN interview with Reza Aslan, a professor of religious studies in the USA, the news anchors interrogated him about why Muslim countries are apparently all so violent, why they all (allegedly) oppress women, why they all “promote” female genital mutilation – the assumption being that all Muslim states are identical. Mr Aslan pointed out the obvious: “Even the way that you are talking about all Muslim countries as the same is – and I use this word very seriously – stupid.”

The answer to the question “Who is a Muslim?” might seem simple: it is whoever makes the declaration of Islamic faith. In reality the answer is far more complex. There are many ways to be a Muslim, and those who say there is absolutely and rigidly only one way teeter precariously on the chasm of denying the beauty and breadth of the ummah. Instead, what they embrace is political opportunism.

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and blogs at www.spirit21.co.uk