True vs. Actual

I keep thinking about BBC reporter Olenka Frenkiel’s reference to “True Islam.” She asserts that the West values religious liberty and tolerance to such a degree that we are ignoring “Actual Islam,”—an openly oppressive religious system that sanctions slavery, oppression, and murder. What are the differences between True Islam and Actual Islam? Is the connection between the theology of Islam and the practices of its followers merely a tenuous thread, with the current followers guilty of distorting the truths set down in the Qur’an, or is Islamic theology the root of the problems?

I realize that anyone could make a similar argument against Christianity and the abuses present in “Christian” nations. You could easily highlight the atrocities committed by men and women in the name of Jesus Christ. You could find examples of Christian women who allow their husbands to abuse them in the name of “godly submission,” and you could point out the divorce and abortion rates in families that attend church and own copies of the Bible. However, the words of Jesus Christ do not in any way grant them permission for their actions. He came, not as a warrior, but as a sacrifice, a physician, and a redeemer. He came not to force conversions, but to freely forgive, to heal, and to save.

As I study Islam, all I know is that the Gospel found in the Holy Bible is not ambiguous or vague when it comes to wife-beating or murder. All I know is that Allah is not the Father of Jesus Christ, nor was Jesus a prophet of Allah like Muhammad. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, blameless life and never forced a single person to believe in Him through violent means.

And I know this because I have read it for myself.

According to the BBC, over 75 percent of Pakistani women are illiterate. In some regions only one woman in ten can read. As I sit here writing, the images of broken, burned, and dying Pakistani women have not yet faded from my mind’s eye. As I study what sacred Islamic texts say about women, I am painfully aware that very few Muslim women ever have the opportunity to read the Qur’an for themselves. In most cases, everything they know about Allah and Muhammad they learn from their male relatives. Most of what their male relatives know about Islam, they in turn learn from imams and scholars, who are the “custodians of Islam.”

These “custodians of Islam” base their teachings from the Qur’an—it is the highest authority in Islam. The Sunnah is secondary to the Qur’an—it depicts events in the life of Muhammad and lays out ethics for living. Hadiths are also secondary to the Qur’an. Each hadith explains the commands of Muhammad and is a narration of a period of his life.

I want to learn more about these texts; I want to know if “True Islam” endorses “Actual Islam.”