How Do I Protect My Children From Religious Extremism? (Part Two)
Q. I want my children to have the courage to be visibly religious Muslims, but I am scared that their religiousness will alienate them from mainstream American society and make them vulnerable to religious extremism. I am terrified by the stories of young Muslim teenagers being brainwashed by the violent ideology of ISIS, turning into home-grown terrorists or disappearing to join ISIS across the world. How do I make religion an important part of my children’s lives while at the same time protecting them from religious extremism?
Thank you for your excellent question. I am answering your question in four parts over four weeks:
Part Two - The Superficial Religiousness of Extremism (this week),
Part Three - Nurturing Genuine Religiousness, and
Part Four - Protection From Brainwashing
Part Two of Four - The Superficial Religiousness of Extremism
Outward religious practice does not mean that someone has become genuinely religious. I explained in Part One of this answer that genuine religiousness comes from a fear of God that engenders humility and, as a result, does not define the way that we behave with other people.
By contrast, a religiousness that is superficial does not come from a genuine fear of God and therefore does not engender humility. Instead, it comes from a desire to use one’s outward religious practice to gain the admiration, veneration, obedience, submission, and control of other people. Since the inward purpose of this outward religious practice is to gain the admiration, veneration, obedience, submission, and control of other people, this kind of religiousness defines the way that one behaves with other people.
It becomes a means to criticize others, to condemn them, to urge them to obey one and submit to one’s authority, to teach them to admire one, to venerate one, to learn from one, and to take one as their (often exclusive) means to gaining the pleasure of God.
The outward religious practice of extremist groups such as ISIS is exactly this kind of superficial religious practice. That is why it is associated with a desire for political control, for cruel and inhumane punishment, for gathering a band of zealous followers who are indoctrinated to believe that the ISIS leadership represents God’s rule on earth, for making videos that proclaim the corruption of the whole world except for them and their small band of zealous followers, and, in the worst cases, for shedding the blood of other people.
It is important for us to see this extremism for what it is--a superficial religiousness that uses outward religious practice to gain the admiration, veneration, obedience, submission, and control of other people. It is easy for someone who is not a religious Muslim to discern the superficiality of this religiousness. Because someone who is not religious does not value outward religious observance, they can easily see the manipulative behavior for what it is. But for someone who values outward religious practice (a religious Muslim like you, for example), discerning the manipulative behavior is not as straightforward. They feel torn between loyalty to the commands of Allah Most High and between what, deep down inside, they know is something terribly wrong. And there are certain kinds of religious Muslims who are particularly vulnerable to being deceived (I will insha’allah describe why that is the case in Part Three of this answer).
If we want to protect our children from religious extremism, we have to be able to tell the difference between a genuine religiousness that engenders humility and a superficial religiousness that is motivated by a desire to gain the admiration, veneration, obedience, submission, and control of other people. We have to understand that not everything that glitters is gold. When superficial religiousness becomes widespread, and when we fear our children may fall into it, learning how to distinguish between the glitter and the gold becomes religiously obligatory.
The Holy Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) taught us to protect ourselves from being deceived by superficial religiousness. In many rigorously authenticated hadiths, he predicted the appearance of Muslims who would “recite the Quran although it would not go below their throats and go into and out of religion like an arrow that pierces through its target,” meaning that their recitation of the Quran would not affect their hearts and their outward religious practice would not be a means of a deep, heartfelt, and permanent religiousness. (Bukhari and Muslim) In other hadiths, he mentioned that the outward religiousness of these Muslims would be so great that the Companions would look down on their own prayers and fasting in comparison to theirs. (Bukhari and Muslim)
The Holy Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) was describing the appearance of a sect that came to be known as the Khawarij, which might be roughly translated as, “those who use a superficial religiousness to snatch political authority”. This sect has resurfaced periodically throughout Muslim history and has always been characterized by intolerance, harshness, desire for power, and bloodshed.
Mainstream Muslim scholars unanimously classify ISIS as a modern manifestation of the Khawarij.
The actions of the Khawarij can be easily refuted by the Quran and Sunna, and many Muslim scholars have authored comprehensive refutations. But my goal in this answer is not to give you a comprehensive refutation of their positions. My goal is to teach you to identify the Khawarij and Khawarij-like tendencies in a much more straightforward manner. All you have to be able to do is to understand the difference between a genuine religiousness that is based on a fear of God that engenders humility, and a superficial religiousness that is motivated by a desire to gain the admiration, veneration, obedience, submission, and control of other people.
In order to do that, whenever you seek an outward display of religiousness, you have to ask yourself, “Is this an example of genuine religiousness or is it a superficial religiousness?” You have to be critical. You cannot allow yourself to be fooled by anyone who has a beard, wears a turban, and has the ability to cite Arabic texts. Don’t be intimidated by an outward show of religiousness or religious knowledge.
In this past week’s live webinar, Sidi Abu Munir described the life of Shaykh Shukri al-Luhafi. I urge you to watch the recording of the webinar to see a beautiful description of a genuine religiousness that is based on a fear of God that engenders humility. Seeing several examples of genuine religiousness will give you the ability to distinguish it from a superficial outward religiousness.
Now that I have explained the difference between genuine religiousness and superficial religiousness, we can move on to try and understand how to nurture genuine religiousness in our children. As we do that, we will insha’allah gain a deeper understanding of the difference between a genuine religiousness and a superficial religiousness. That will insha’allah be the topic of Part Three of this answer next week.
Every week, Hamza Karamali will select one of your questions to answer in this space. If you’ve any questions that you’d like to ask, please submit them here.
