The Qur’an
Words in action
War, peace and petro-dollars
The Israel/Palestine conflict and the struggle for control of and access to the city of Jerusalem constitute a major source of distrust between Muslims, Jews and Christians today. Hard-line Islamic fundamentalists are capitalising on the sense of insecurity generated by Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian land, which is backed by the US and other western countries.
Islam has a long history of diversity and intellectual debate which is manifested in the huge variety of traditions. Today, though, they are in conflict with each other. Some Sufis express their relationship to God through music and dance; the Shi’a venerate the Imam Ali as an intermediary between the individual and God. For Sunni Muslims, though, God may not be described in human language, nor represented in any art form.
Saudi Arabia has its own clerical hierarchy, and the dominant religious message here is a belligerent and patriarchal Islam, know as Wahabism. Backed by immense oil wealth, the Saudis are attempting to impose their strict, rigid, narrow and, many would say, divisive interpretation of Islam on the whole Muslim world.
At its most basic, the Saudis are printing thousands of copies of their own translation of the Qur’an in 44 languages, and distributing them at low cost or free around the world.
On the opposite side of the religious divide, the Shi’a priestly caste that rules Iran has imposed a rigid orthodoxy on its population which is enforced by state violence in the form of a massive increase in public executions, floggings and hangings.
