12/18/2005

Idolatries of the Muwahhidoun (Updated)

Last Shabbat, I stayed with the Jewish chaplain of West Point, Rabbi Huerta, a true gentleman and scholar. He has served two tours of duty in Iraq, and is studying Arabic to better understand the political situation. During our conversation he mentioned something I had never heard before about Wahhabi Islam; the Wahhabis are hyperliteral in their reading of the Qur'an, surpassing even the Jewish Karaites of the Tenth Century. Their literal reading goes so far as to say that if the Qur'an speaks of "the hand of Allah," then Allah must have a hand, an actual physical hand.

Indeed, Rabbi Huerta possessed books of Wahhabi commentaries stating that anyone who did not believe in a physical, tangible God was a heretic and an apostate.

This explains many things about our enemy. First, they are so cavalier about murdering those who we perceive to be fellow Muslims because they are not truly "fellow Muslims" at all; to the Wahhabi, those from the more traditional Islamic communities are heretics deserving of death. Second is their astonishing emphasis on Paradise as a place of sexual excess. To the typical religious mind, sex is as irrelevant to the afterlife as suntan lotion is to a deep-sea diver; the afterlife is a world of the spirit, far removed from the physical. But if you believe (as the Wahhabis do) that Allah has a physical form, then surely the afterlife must be physical as well; therefore, it will be marked with the most sublime experiences available on the physical level, i.e. sex, hallucinogens, and delicious foods.

Moreover, it becomes easier to understand how Wahhabi Islam can be so devoid of the Judaic spirit that is found, in some measure, in both Christianity and traditional Islam. Wahhabis are unconcerned with the spiritual world; for them, the realm of action is entirely the physical. This must be the source of their characteristic impatience with opposing groups. If you believe, as we Jews do, that setbacks in the physical realm can be offset by spiritual efforts, at a time when your physical adversaries are too strong to be challenged directly you will focus your attention on good deeds, charity, scholarship, internal cohesion, and all the myriad ways in which you can shape the spiritual battlefield, as it were, in your favor; patience and prudence will eventually win the day. But for a Wahhabi, the war can never pause, only change form. And none of their deeds are intended to have abstract effects, but are relentlessly practical and geared toward the political realm.

Note that the Sufis, skilled mystics whose practices influenced Maimonides and his descendants, are viscerally hated by Wahhabis.

We must realize two things about our enemy. First, Wahhabism is as fundamentally different from the old Islam as Christianity was from Judaism, if in a different manner. Though both depend on the same text, the Qur'an, Wahhabism's reading of the text diverges sharply enough from Islamic tradition to effectively make it a new religion entirely. And Wahhabism promotes a rigid adherence to ceremonial law on the one hand, and a frighteningly sloppy view of interpersonal law on the other, compared to traditional Islam. To lump the two together and call both Islam is to be complicit in the destruction of one of the world's monotheisms, for the original Islam will be destroyed in the end unless steps are taken.

Second, Wahhabism is ultimately a pagan religion. I mean this in the Jewish sense of the term, meaning that Wahhabism's belief in a physical deity is repugnant and violates the Noahide code under which all mankind is bound. Under the law, those who practice this abomination must either repent or be suppressed by the courts, by any means necessary including the death penalty.

In a free country, this is to some degree academic. But even if we prefer to allow the free exercise of religion, we have no obligation to allow foreign states like Saudi Arabia to actively promote a new religion that preaches violent war against the West. They call it Islam not only to gain internal legitimacy but external as well; we would be far less tolerant if Scientology started advocating terror bombings. Yet the situation today is functionally equivalent; and Saudi Arabia must be restrained, with force if need be. We must realize the stakes, and react accordingly, or else we will see unending war to the death.

All of which raises the question: why are most Muslims so quietly accepting a descent into paganism?

[UPDATE 19 Dec: Soccer Dad sent me an email in which he noted a disagreement between two prominent Jewish medieval commentators, Maimonides and the Ra'avad, about the belief in a corporeal God. Maimonides says that such a belief is heretical; the Ra'avad says that such a belief is wrong, but not actual heresy in the legal sense.]

6 comments:

John Sobieski said...

I can't agree with that distinction. I would recommend you read Andrew Bostom's Legacy of Jihad. What we see today in Islam, whether it is Sufi, Wahhabi, Salafi, Sunni or Shiite, it matters not. The distinctions are irrelevant. It is all Islam as Islam has been for 1400 years, weak jihad, strong jihad, jizya forced on the dhimmis or aid demanded of the West. It's all the same.

Jihad whether through the sword, tongue, money, immigration (settlements in dar al-harb) demographics or dawa, all Mohammedans have the same goad - a global culture ruled by the canons of Islam and only Islam.

Mastiff said...

I see what you are saying, to a point. The difference is how willing a given group is to defer its goals in the face of a strong opponent. Practically speaking, I can live with someone who would prefer to see me enslaved, but won't do anything about it because he knows that he would lose.

The other difference is a point of Jewish law. Baldly put, pagans are under a continual sentence of death. The only question is whether it is appropriate and prudent at any given time to carry out the sentence.

Legally speaking, therefore, Jews have much more license to carry out unrestrained war against Wahhabis than any other Muslim group (assuming that a competent authority actually declares them pagan; I am not a rabbi, nor do I play one on TV).

Obviously, I would prefer for such an outcome to be unnecessary… but the Wahhabis seem to be forcing the issue.

Anonymous said...

"Obviously, I would prefer for such an outcome to be unnecessary… but the Wahhabis seem to be forcing the issue."

Mastiff, sorry but your Wahhabi/non-Wahhabi Islam divide is delusional and strategically dangerous.

The fact is that Islam has not an "extremist" branch separated from the rest of Islam. On the contrary: no expert on Islam can say that Bin Laden or Zarqawi are Muslim apostates, as they are following the Perfect Muslim Model embodied by Muhammad.

The fact is, the "extremist", or "moderate", categories are non-Islamic ones. The real --the canonical-- Islamic divide is between Infidels (the "kafir", the enemy to be submitted, converted, or destroyed), and Muslims.

Good links supporting my view:

http://www.jihadwatch.com
http://www.faithfreedom.org

Best regards,

J C

Mastiff said...

I'm not saying that "normal" Muslims should get a free pass. To the contrary, the postulated paganism of the Wahhabis is simply one more reason in a long list to deal with them harshly.

You make war on your enemies. When some of those enemies also promote a degraded religion, all the more reason to make war on them.

Anonymous said...

Mastiff,

(I am anonymous, J C)

My point is: Wahhabis are "normal" Muslims. Or is there a Muslim organization rebutting the validity of jihad and Sharia law (e.g., the laws of dhimmitude) on basis of the Koran and Hadith?

J C

Anonymous said...

No 'Wahhaabi' says that Allah has a physical hand, face etc. Rtaher they quote that belief in this attribute is necessary, but to define it is heresy (quoting one of their scholars). You will find them denouncing those who make Ta'weel (interpretation) of these verses which bring about different meanings apart from what is clearly stated, but none of them at all (unless you can quote them and prove otherwise) state that Allaah is physical in any sense like a human, indeed the Qur'an states - 'And there is none like unto him' (Surat al-Ikhlaas).

Check out Islam-QA which is a Salafi/Wahhaabi site and read through their fatws on these topics.