And at a local level, Sedonaman, we need only to look at examples like the Jewish warrior and female religious leader known as “al-Kahina” (the [female] Soothsayer), who lead the local Tamazight (Berber) resistance to the Arabs and Islam in the 7th century.
Kahina (Dhiya) fought the Muslims for years, and is still remembered as a hero by many Tamazight people (“Berber” is pejorative, a likely Arabic borrowing from the Greek for “Barbarians”).
I also reject the idea that Islam somehow saved the Middle Eastern or North African people from tribalism by providing a greater ANYTHING. The Arabs were and to some extent still are very tribal (maybe not so much among the educated and urbanized elite, but that generally is not the majority of society in any given place), and this isn’t such a big change from the earlier societal structures.
The Assyrians have their tribes and the
Arabs have theirs, and it’s been that way for a very long time. Islam did squat to change this, as it preserves the tribalism of Arabian society, despite verses in the Qur’an saying that it is wrong. Maybe Islam could make a better case for abolishing tribalism if it did not at the same time romanticize and elevate Muhammad’s origins from among the Quraysh people (who somehow were
deferred to by God in the transmission, preservation, and canonization of the Qur’an, despite Muhammad’s request that it be read in different dialects!), and spend so much time talking about this or that people of this or that tribe, and (most importantly) bending to tribal custom.
Islam, as usual, talks out of both sides of its mouth. On one side, everyone is equal and no one is better than anyone else and tribalism is bad and blahblahblah, and on the other side…well…let’s just say it took the very tribal mindset of the Arabs and used it to create a religion in which the old divisions between clans are simply replicated on a bigger scale with reference to anyone who dares not be Muslim. “Dar el-Harb”, anyone?
Before the tribe was Banu Khalid or Adi or what have you…now the “tribe” is Islam itself. Doesn’t seem like a great social improvement, really, as they still turn on each other on those occasions where there isn’t an evil Western or Jewish infidel around to terrorize, subjugate, and kill. And in response to this charge, they can only point to Northern Ireland, as though blights on Christianity ameliorate blights on Islam. Pathetic losers, all of them. You know what your book asks you to
not do, people. But the fact that Islam cannot control tribalism (think Somalia, a “state” united
only by Islam; they’ll probably never be rid of tribalism because many aren’t open to wider ideas) is not really a “failure” (Christianity didn’t really, either; we took care of it by advancing as whole societies, with a plurality of beliefs). I would say it is evidence, however, that glowing reviews of Islamic history and society are hogwash. They always have been, and always will be. At least Christians and others generally have the good sense to say “yes, we fall short
as societies of living theocratically, so we aren’t going to do that, as that was never our point to begin with” (indeed, you’ll find some writings among the Oriental churches that completely discount the idea that a “Christian society” is even possible or desirable; why else do you think they instead fled to the desert in record numbers following St. Anthony’s lead?). With Islam, it’s pretty clear to everyone that isn’t a neo-Muslim internet apologist that this was (at least part of) Islam’s
raison d’etre from the very beginning, hence, Islam will never be rid of these kinds of divisions. It thrives on them and perpetuates them.
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