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“IDEOLOGICAL JIHAD - Come Mr. Aly Let Us Reason Together” by
Vickie Janson. $18 if ordered from ideologicaljihad@gmail.com Also available
from Koorong Stores. Reviewed by John Morrissey, writer and teacher.
If you are looking for a bland and reassuring appeal for reconciliation
between moderate Muslims and Western civilisation, with its Judeo-Christian
roots, then Vickie Janson’s publication is not for you. With the
authority gained from years of study of Islam’s teaching and dialogue
with Australian Muslims, she shows that the sticking points are both inherent
and alarming in their implications. Her findings are also endorsed by
a foreword from Dr Mark Durie, one of Australia’s leading writers
on the relationship between church and state.
The book takes the form of a respectful but frank address to the Islamic
Council of Victoria’s Waleed Aly and the claims which he made in
his work People Like Us: How Arrogance is dividing Islam and the West
(2007). Throughout the text, the author appeals continually to ‘Mr
Aly’. Her conclusions will not be palatable for those who sincerely
believe in the possibility of accommodation with Islam, but the promise
of her sub-title, Come Mr Aly, Let Us Reason Together, is borne out by
her arguments substantiated by references to the Qu’ran and the public
statements of Muslim scholars.
Ideological Jihad examines the claim that we share a common spiritual
heritage, shows the differences between Islam and the Western concept
of the state, makes some interesting comments on the topical issue of
the veil, and exposes the reality behind the often blurred term “jihad”.
Readers will find some of her conclusions a little too uncompromising,
but hard to refute, given the evidence offered. Vickie Janson argues that
we do not share a common spiritual heritage as “people of the book”
and monotheists, because our understanding of God and our relationship
with the Divine are so fundamentally different. The total submission required
by Islam to the point of being a slave is so different from the Judeo-Christian
concepts of Covenant and love that we have to recognise that they are
poles apart. She
develops rather beautifully and at length the theme of love of God and
our neighbour throughout the Old and New Testaments, which came to perfection
in the person of the Messiah, Our Lord Jesus Christ. His message was somewhat
different from that of The Prophet six centuries later!
But it should be recognised that this does not mean that we worship and
pray to different Gods. If Muslims recognise the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, it is their understanding of the nature of this God and our
relationship with Him which differs from that of Jews and Christians,
not the apprehended reality. To say that we worship and pray to a different
God would be dangerously close to admitting the charge from atheists like
Richard Dawkins that God exists only as a concept in the minds of mankind,
that is that creation begets the Creator.
Christians often squirm when the austerity of Islam is contrasted with
the permissiveness of Western society, but the author has an answer to
this unity of church and state which is the Muslim model sanctioned in
the Qu’ran. She shows readers the difference between the concept
of what is permitted (halal) and that which is unclean or sinful in Islam,
and the Christian distinction between what is sacred or holy and what
is not sacred but not necessarily sinful.
The author defends secular society, with its separation of church and
state, and emphasises the democratic freedom which it embodies for us
all – including Muslims – even while it does permit the moral
shortcomings for which it is blamed. We are reminded that the alternative
is the imposition of Sharia law, which has been reintroduced in countries
such as Pakistan and Iran and even found limited acceptance in Western
countries (in the name of tolerance and respect for cultural differences),
to the detriment of those subject to it – especially women.
On the question of wearing the veil in Western countries, Vickie Janson’s
arguments are less complex. She advances some quite basic concerns, which
would appear to apply particularly to the full niqab, as worn in Saudi
Arabia, and the burqa, as found in Afghanistan, rather than the mere hair-concealing
hijab or chador. Fundamentally, she is irked by the presumption of purity
and superiority expressed by many who wear the veil, and suggests that
the under-exposure witnessed when confronted by the full veil offends
our sense of decency or openness. To this she adds the usual concerns
about the veil symbolising the subjugation of women and perhaps involving
security risks.
For this reviewer at least, the chapter on jihad is the most important,
and Vickie Janson saves it until last. She refutes the familiar argument
that the holy war is a Christian concept, exemplified by the Crusades,
and reminds us that the extent of Islam by 1095 AD had been won by the
sword under an imperative inherent in its teachings. Thus the Crusades
were a response to what for Muslims was an ongoing holy war to extend
Islam. The author also notes that the hideous slaughter carried out by
Christians in the sacking of cities was contrary to the teachings of Jesus,
while similar atrocities on the part of Muhammad’s followers were
quite in accord with his teachings.
So successful is the author in establishing that the command to violent
jihad is inherent in Islam that the reassurances of her opponents are
shown to be quite hollow. She quotes local Muslims who understand it to
mean “holy fighting” and refuse to condemn suicide bombing.
Furthermore, she concludes that the oft-expressed fears about Islamophobia
are also disingenuous, the real source of fear being that of retribution
from other Muslims.
In essence, Vickie Janson has disposed of Mr Aly’s charge that the
fault lies principally with non-Muslims. However unpalatable it is, she
shows that Islam seeks accommodation only on its own terms, those being
submission when it is dominant and sharia law for its adherents when it
is in the minority. To read Ideological Jihad is a sobering experience.
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