True Jihad is thus to actively fight the diseases of our own souls such as profane passions and temptations; envy, hatred, greed and selfishness. Moreover, it is to actively resist evil and injustice in the world with our words and actions. A martyr or shaheed is one who witnesses to the Truth of the Divine Unity with their life. Both the Greek and Arabic terms mean “witness.” We might say, “Dulce et decorum est pro Deo mori!”

Islam allows the use of force where necessary to uphold truth, justice and the rule of law, and to resist oppression. Such force is required to be minimal and proportionate for the purpose intended. It should be noted that the Prophet’s resistance to oppression was non-violent, initially and for most of his mission. However, violence is a manifestation of anger, an essential human attribute and therefore almost unavoidable, unfortunately. Anger must be tempered with patience, wisdom, justice and mercy, in keeping with the Divine Word, “My Mercy overcomes My Anger.”

Suicide-bombing is a by-product of the barbarity of modern warfare. Faced with overwhelming military odds capable of carpet-bombing or “nuking” entire cities, the Japanese kamikaze pilots and Tamil Tigers resorted to suicide missions before this tactic was adopted by Islamist groups. The tactic is perhaps legitimate as a last-resort method only against military targets, due to the Koranic prohibition of suicide. Muslim authorities differ about this matter, and about whether such missions are regarded as suicide or self-sacrifice.

Suicide-bombing of civilian targets is evil and prohibited under Islamic Law. I would tell suicide-bombers intending to attack civilians that they would be murderers, not martyrs, and that they would go to Hell, not Heaven.

2. HOW DOES ISLAM DEFINE APOSTASY? IS IT PERMISSIBLE FOR A MUSLIM TO CONVERT TO ANOTHER FAITH? HOW CAN LAWS AGAINST APOSTASY AND BLASPHEMY BE RECONCILED WITH THE KORANIC INJUNCTION OF "NO COMPULSION IN RELIGION"?

Classically, apostasy referred to a Muslim adult renouncing their religion and/or converting to another, and carried the death penalty in most schools of Islamic Law, although there was some debate as to whether this punishment was automatic and compulsory or left to the discretion of government. A tiny minority of jurists even applied this penalty to apostasy amongst other religions, e.g. Jews converting to Christianity or vice-versa, although not to converts to Islam!

The incidence of apostasy was always negligible, partly because of the punishment but also because of the nature of the Islamic message. The basic formula of Islam is, “There is no god but God”: faith in this is enough to make a person Muslim and one actually has to renounce this belief to commit apostasy. The Prophet Muhammad confirmed the message of monotheism, Unity and submission to God brought by Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ and other Messengers of God, to whose stories lengthy sections of the Koran are devoted. The Koran teaches that Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets, the last of the Messengers of God, and it is a simple fact of history that no religious figure even remotely-comparable to Muhammad has appeared since his time. Muslims who understood their religion have always accepted the identical truths found in other religions and seen no reason to commit apostasy, since Islam affirms the brotherhood of all the Prophets of God.

The death penalty for apostasy is not from the Koran, but based on a teaching of Muhammad where he said that executing a Muslim was only allowed for three crimes: (1) murder; (2) adultery when married and (3) “one who forsakes his religion and abandons the community.” The political ramifications of apostasy are clear in this Prophetic teaching; in the past, your faith-community was also your political community – all Muslims had to pledge allegiance to the Caliph or to one of his representatives, for example. Furthermore, to abandon Islam was to renounce the Muslim body-politic. Thus, apostasy was akin to treason, especially since religious wars featured prominently in the ancient and medieval worlds. Even today, treason during war carries a possible death penalty under English law.

The predominant modern Muslim view no longer regards apostasy as a crime, based on the above-mentioned interpretation of the Prophet’s teaching and upon the injunction, “Let there be no compulsion in religion,” (Koran, 2:256) and affirms the freedom of religious belief. This is the view of many leading experts and authorities in Islamic law throughout the world.

Laws against blasphemy are tricky since the protection of values that are sacred to any society is important. For example, there are laws against Holocaust-denial in many European countries and political scientists who criticize democracy are treated as heretics in secular, liberal societies. Finally, it should be noted that any laws against apostasy and blasphemy are almost-impossible to enforce fairly in modern, complex societies. Islamic law, which has always been flexible and dynamic although based on core values, must adapt as usual to changing conditions.

3. WHAT ARE THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM? HOW DOES ISLAM'S VIEW OF MALE-FEMALE EQUALITY DIFFER FROM THE WESTERN VIEW?

Ghazzali wrote a millennium ago that Shariah, the Sacred Law of Islam, is built upon certain fundamental human rights that apply equally to the sexes. These were faith, life, property, sanity, lineage and honor or reputation. This legal philosophy was worked out centuries before John Locke developed something similar in England.

Ibn Taymiyyah widened the scope of basic rights and values to include the following, based on a holistic reading of the Koran: the honoring of contracts; family and community relations, morality, trustworthiness and the love of God. Contemporary Muslim jurists add that the Shariah comprises further basic values such as the protection of fundamental human rights and liberties in general and the promotion of public welfare, education and scientific research. Again, the sexes share equally in them all.

Women’s liberation in early Islam was centuries-ahead of other societies: for example, the right to choose a partner for marriage and to own property independently. (In England, women had to wait until the 1880’s for the Married Women’s Property Act to give them the latter right.) Muslim women served as leaders, religious authorities, warriors, etc. throughout history. The Prophet’s wife Aisha led an army into battle, and female rulers featured prominently during Islamic history. The “Begums of Bhopal” were four queens who ruled the Indian royal city for a hundred years until 1926. Shariah still requires a husband to be the breadwinner and must provide for his wife and children, whereas a wife retains her property independently and has no obligation to support her husband, even if he is poorer than her.

Returning to gender issues, everything is rooted in God and a sense of the sacred. Whereas God is essentially One, creation is multiple, diverse and springs from an essential duality. (Koran, 51:49-50)

The sexes, magnificent Signs of God (Koran, 92:3), are prominent examples of pairing and duality in creation. The Names of God are multiple and diverse, and mediate between the ineffable Unity of God and the multiplicity of creation. Majesty and Beauty are aspects of God: men, being physically-stronger, represent majesty whilst women, the fairer sex, represent beauty. Similar applies to Transcendence (male) and Immanence (female), and to Outwardness (male) and Inwardness (female). Essential differences between the sexes in our physical, biological, emotional and psychological make-ups reflect the metaphysical realities described above; furthermore, they were manifested in the age-old traditional roles of the sexes. Men concentrated on outward roles such as bread-winning, industry, construction, politics and war. Women, being the “incarnation of the home,” generally remained in home-based roles such as motherhood.

For centuries, both sexes labored for long hours in fields, homes and factories. Since the Industrial and Electronic Revolutions, machines have made farming far-less labor-intensive; washing-machines and dishwashers have transformed the home similarly. The widespread availability of cheap contraception has now transformed women’s mothering
roles. In the knowledge-economies of the developed world, there is not much difference between gender roles. The subjugation of both to oppressive, debt-based financial systems is probably a more urgent issue today.