Eirenic Islam
From John Goodman
Sir: I imagine many people, when confronted by the choice of Tory v. Labour, run into the same emotional conflict as I do. We have a basic and practical sympathy for the social and economic views of the Conservatives, but have a terrible suspicion that, lurking under the skin of the reasonable Tory, there is a racist, intolerant bigot — the kind of fellow-traveller who passively elected the Nazis in the early 1930s.
Your issue of 12 November is a confirmation that our caution is justified. Take, for example, the article by Patrick Sookhdeo, ‘Will London burn too?’ In all the years I have studied and discussed Islam I have never even remotely heard of the ‘doctrine of sacred space’. (Just think about it — if Muslims really believed it they would be angrily laying claim to Spain, Austria, chunks of China, most of the Balkans and the 800-million-strong Hindu population of India.
‘Dar al-Islam’ means the land of peace, meant to contrast with ‘Dar al-Harb’, the land of war. In the ideal of the former, people of the Book (Christians, Jews and Muslims) live in harmony. There is no implication at all that Muslims have to wage war to convert one to the other the very idea is an oxymoron.
John Goodman Mumbai, India
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