Hamza Yusuf Quotes
There's a statement in the Quran: There should be "absolutely no compulsion in religion."
Yusuf, Hamza. "The Alchemy of Happiness: Hamza Yusuf on the Beauty and Wisdom of Islam." Interview by Arnie Cooper. The Sun, June 2008.
There were times and places where the Ottoman Turks forced Islam upon conquered peoples. However, much of the time, they operated with a pragmatic tolerance so that they could govern smoothly. The non-Muslims were always second class citizens however. See {635095} for another example.
The “People of the Book” are the Jews and the Christians who believe in the Old Testament book of God which Muslims recognize. Others who would not accept Islam would be killed, but if Jews and Christians are submissive and fell so, they may pay a special additional tax, the Jizyah.
This article was originally directed against non-Muslim religions who actively sought to convert Muslims. However, Islamic organizations, have also historically made their greatest inroads with the poor and ignorant members of a society. The madrassas of Pakistan, the activities of Hezbollah, in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza all have common characteristics with the Salvation Army where services are provided for the poor and often uneducated with the required participation in religious services, education and/or prayer. There are many Christian, Muslim, and other religious leaders who do not approve of such attempts at conversion, but there are forces within these same religions who not only take advantage of poverty and ignorance to convert but are almost exclusively devoted to that tactic. The Russian Orthodox Church had the same protest against Protestant sects targeting the poor after the fall of the Soviet Union. In general, most religions see nothing wrong with converting people in times of crisis, so long as they are doing the converting. But if another religion is converting their adherents, then it is a violation of human rights.
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus
Historically, when Christian Europe was torturing and butchering people over differences of religious opinion, Islam was for the time, in most places, a model of tolerance. Suhrawardy died before Islam degenerated into an intolerance that almost rivaled in brutality that of the Christians centuries ago. And while his statement about the invention and initiation of brutal intolerance is correct, he would be shocked at the behavior of 21st century Iran, Pakistan and some other Islamic nations who from a traditional Islamic perspective had degenerated.
In the American system, we do not oppose any religion. We do oppose the right of any religion to use the power of the state and governments to compel or use government resources to promote or subsidize their religion. Other countries have established churches or a national religion. In that sense, some religions perceive America objects to their religion because we do not make it our established religion. Opposing prayer in public schools is not opposing prayer. It is only opposing prayer in that specific context where all payers are paying including the non believers in that particular religion.
This was a remarkable public statement for its time. No other political leader of an Islamic country would dare claim that people have a right to be atheists. Very few would even suggest that people should be free to choose their own religion.
Hamza Yusuf (born Mark Hanson; 1958) is an American neo-traditionalist Islamic scholar and co-founder of Zaytuna College. He is a proponent of classical learning in Islam and has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching methodologies throughout the world.
