Closing of the Muslim Mind by Robert Reilly - Book Report/Review Example

Closing of the Muslim Mind Robert R. Reilly's Closing of the Muslim Mind argues that the titular closing has been caused by a number of factors, but traces it primarily to a closing of the mind in the ninth century. Reilly is very careful to make a distinction that this only applies to a very specific school of thought in Muslim intellectual traditions and theology, the Ash'arites of the Sunni faith, but argues that this faith has achieved immense and disproportionate impact in the Muslim world (91-119). The Ash'arites deny reason, arguing that life is in essence an unbroken succession of miracles, all things constantly made and unmade by God: Allah can ignore logic, break his own promises, create contradictory situations (which explains contradictions in the Koran), and rewrite laws of nature; it is thus blasphemic to say that anything causes anything, or to explore reason. In Reilly's view, the success of this school over others in the ninth and tenth centuries lead to the decline of reason and therefore the closing of the Muslim mind. The consequences are drastic, but Reilly believes that, now that the problem has been diagnosed, it is possible to make fundamental changes in the Middle East by promoting different interpretations of Islam, embracing reason both in life and in theology, and essentially embarking on Aquinas' mission to unite reason and faith (197-207). Reilly refers frequently to the “dehellenization” of Sunni Islam in specific and Islam in general (11-40; 119-127). Initially, as Islam expanded, it was largely tribal, warlike and violent. This was due to the character of the region prior to Mohammed, of course: In many fundamental ways, Mohammed was a progressive reformer. Nonetheless, as a non-status quo power expanding outwards, Islam felt little need to absorb other cultures, until it started to find cultures and groups clearly superior in technological and military might. “Islam encountered Greek thought in its new Byzantine and Sassanid possessions. Exactly how these early Hellenic influences reached into Islam is a matter of some conjecture. What is clear is that huge areas of what had been the Byzantine Empire were largely Christian, and in them Greek philosophical notions had long been employed in Christian apologetics. There were also centers of Hellenistic learning in Alexandria (which moved to Antioch, Syria, around A.D. 718) and Gondeshakpur, northeast of Basra, Iraq” (23-27). As Muslims expanded, they encountered resistance, both theological and physical. As an outcome of the physical resistance, they got Greek books and knowledge; as an outcome of the theological resistance, Muslim scholars became versed in Christian ideology, Greek and Latin as languages, and became far more erudite (27-35). The consequence of this Hellenization was the emergence of the Mu'ztalite interpretation of Sunni Islam (41-58). Greek thought in its classical form emphasized the role of reason over the passions, the rigorous use of logic, questioning authority, engaging in experimental analysis of the world, and using dialectical modes of reasoning and questioning to arrive at the truth from multiple perspectives. The synthesis of Greek and Muslim thought produced a period that Reilly waxes poetic over in Chapter Two, a period of learning during which Islam was the cradle of civilization alongside the Byzantines pitted against a horribly backward and ignorant Christian Europe. The Mu'ztalites viewed Man as free: The Koran (40:40) says, “Whosoever does an evil deed shall be recompensed only with the like of it, but whosoever does a righteous deed, be it male or female, believing shall enter Paradise, therein provided without reckoning”, alongside many other verses which establish that men are to think for themselves, which Mu'ztalites used to argue indicated that men were supposed to be freely determine for themselves right and wrong, to create and inquire (35-40). But it was not to last. Political struggles determined the fate of Mu'ztalite interpretation. “The Mu'tazilites agreed with the Qadariyya that, without man's freedom, God's justice is unintelligible. To be held justly accountable for his acts, man must be free. The political implications of this position favored the Abbasid attempt to rein in the power of the ulema (Islamic jurisprudential scholars), whose monopoly on the interpretation of the Qur'an gave them great influence. When he acceded to the throne, al-Ma'mun took the title of imam, and chose a Shi'a as his successor. These actions clearly implied a claim on his part that he also had the authority to interpret Islamic scripture, and perhaps even to amend it. The Mu'tazilite teaching that the freedom of man also meant the freedom to interpret sacred texts reinforced this claim from another direction” (38-40). But when the ulema began to ascend to power and as caliphates changed and sought to enhance their power by giving themselves absolutely rights of control and interpretation, the Mu'tzalites lost out to the Ash'arites. The Ash'arites viewpoint is so utterly contrary to Western notions and to basic rules of logic and rationality that it is hard to fully illustrate the magnitude of the problem. They deny cause and effect: Reilly discusses people in the Muslim community who have been lax about their gun training because they feel that if Allah intends them to hit they will (127-156). Allah can create things to happen in any order: Talking about secondary causes, or about Allah creating rules and then following them, is absurd. They reject any discussion with other cultures or impressions of truth: Only the Koran and Allah is truth. Caliph Omar told Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas regarding captured books to, “Throw them in the water. If what they contain is right guidance, God has given us better guidance. If it is error, God has protected us against it” (35-37). This has led to the startling fact that Spain translates more books in a year than the Arab peninsula does in a thousand (127-156). It is very difficult to pursue science or interdisciplinary work with people who believe that what you are saying is false and can only ever be false, no matter what. Many Muslims, hampered by this view of the world, find reading the works of non-Muslims or engaging outside of their intellectual circle to be not only a waste of time but philosophically and logically pointless. This also means that authority is absolutely unquestionable: If one can't hear about the abuse of authority from a new source, how can one deny official propaganda? In fact, it basically ended theology. It's impossible to do theological analysis if you assume that God is inscrutable. Morality is also impossible to analyze: God says it is wrong and thus it is. It is true that the ascendancy of Ash'arite ideology did not undermine the leading role of Muslim empires in crafting the fate of the Middle East for centuries, but eventually, in Reilly's view, the embrace of this philosophy caught up to them, and it led to the emergence of a pathological culture that has led to the numerous flaws in the Middle East and in the Arab and Muslim world (127-172). Aside from sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab peninsula is at the bottom of the barrel in terms of life expectancy, poverty, patent completion, scientific achievement and graduation of scientists, etc. This has obvious implications for the rise of al Qaida and radical Islamism (173-192). Suicide bombers can embrace radical ideas and accept the idea of dying without question because the ideology has enhanced it. Violence against the infidel is enhanced because, since the Koran is the one truth, it's impossible for Muslims under the influence this ideology to consider the viewpoints of other cultures or religions or consider that what they have heard is wrong. Muslim culture reinforces radical Islamism: Mainstream television stations discuss how Hurricane Katrina or other disasters are punishments for wickedness (173-192). In this climate where authority isn't questioned and totalizing ideologies are totally embraced, the mind closes and it is very easy to see people embrace suicide bombing and terrorist tactics. “What we are witnessing today is the ultimate consequences of the rejection of human reason and the loss of causality as they are played out across the Muslim world in the dysfunctional culture engendered by them” (180-210). It is important to note that there are many obvious problems with Reilly's picture that should lead us to take it with a grain of salt. He barely discusses Indonesia at all, the largest Muslim country. Reilly makes clear that his conclusions apply only to Sunni theology in the Middle East in particular, and in fact argues that many Western Muslims have come naturally to embrace re-hellenization and a rationalist Islam. It is also difficult to talk about al Qaida without mentioning what al Qaida says they want, rather consciously. Yes, they want an Islamic monarchy, but they make clear that a big part of it is US foreign policy. In short, al Qaida can make appeals based on this radical Islam, but the success of those appeals and the hatred in the region are not just caused by Ash'arite Islamic interpretations. Numerous other factors are clearly at play in anything so important as the closing of a culture's mind, such as economic, social, political, gender and foreign relation issues. Then there are obvious questions of cultural essentialism: Is Reilly saying that an entire culture just has a behavior, uniformly and eternally? In fact, Reilly is very careful to say that Islam and Muslims is very complex. But Reilly has identified a real factor, a cultural approach that has led to absurdities ranging from Islamic science to suicide bombing. What is the solution? “What Thomas Aquinas did for Christianity, someone needs to do for Islam” (200-207). Islamic leaders, particularly Western Muslims, need to start pushing back to a Hellenic model and equilibrium. Embracing causality, logic, rationality, free will, questioning of authority and of phenomena, and so forth need to be viewed not as blasphemous but as the highest goal for the righteous. Read More