FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - Fighting for God: right or wrong? - Jihad & the State
Rant Number 571 28 January 2014
‘Shall I go to fight jihad in Syria, Father?’ Funny question to put to a Christian priest. Yet I was asked it. By a boy – I shall call him Yusuf. British, born and bred. What shall I say?
A Socrates, I imagine, would take Yusuf on a long, moral cross-examination. Show him at last that he does not really know what he thinks he knows. What jihad really is, etcetera. Alas, I am no Socrates. Nor am I a Muslim scholar. I could only tell Yusuf what I think.
First, jihad – a struggle or effort in the way of God - is certainly a key duty in Islam. There are of course many types of jihad. By the pen, by word, by money and so on. But military jihad, armed fighting is what is at issue. Most scholars would say that jihad cannot be fought against fellow Muslims so here is a difficulty: ‘Yusuf, the Assad followers are also Muslims. Why jihad against them? Or is it the Syrian Christians you wish to target?’
Yusuf has a pat answer: ‘The Christians there are few – they don’t matter. The dog Assad’s butchers are no true Muslims. They are Nusairis, Alawites, kuffar, people outside Islam. Ibn Taymiyya issued a fatwa against them centuries ago. It is legal to do jihad against them. Especially when they kill true Muslims.’
Reference to Ibn Taymiyya shows up Yusuf’s ideology: Wahhabi-type Islam. Hardly the most enlightened. Still, love it or hate it, it counts many adherents. But a word Yusuf used strikes me.
‘Legal? You are British and the British government cracks down on jihadis who return from the Middle East. It claims they are terrorists.’
‘It is a lie! It can’t be terrorism to protect the defenceless from a murderous dictator! Anyway, my first duty is to Islam. I am British OK but Muslim first.’
Whether British subjects (I like the old-fashioned word) fighting jihad are terrorists, I will bypass. But Yusuf’s question is genuine: are duties to the state always supreme for a believer? Or can they sometimes be overridden by obligations to the Creator?’
St Peter had no doubts. He declared: ‘We must obey God rather than men.’ (Acts 5:29) Affirmed indeed before the Jewish high priest, the highest authority of Judaism. There is no dilemma: the primary duty for a Christian is to God. Caesar, civil power, can only come second.
Observe however how Peter’s stance concerns the freedom to confess Jesus Christ, not about going out to slay other human beings. So the context is very different. Nonetheless it is clear that Caesar is not equal to God. State authority can never be absolute over a religious conscience. To equate God and Caesar would be blasphemy - to assert that the state is divine. Tantamount to belief in two gods. And to exalt that phoney divinity, a man-made creation, the state, over the One True God. La samaha Allah!
Christians taking up arms to defend the faith against a wicked state – absolutely inconceivable? Not quite. In 1927 a ferocious persecution broke out in Mexico, spearheaded by the fanatically anti-Christian and atheist President Calles. Episode alluded to in Graham Greene’s novel, The Power and the Glory. Oppressive laws were enacted against any church activity and education. Sacred buildings profaned and vandalised. Priests persecuted, forbidden to wear clerical garb and many murdered or jailed. At last bands of faithful peasants rose up in spontaneous revolt. Even female battalions were formed, waving the banner of St Joan of Arc. (Right on, girls! That’s my kind of feminism!) Their battle-cry was ‘Long live Christ the King!’ They were named ‘Cristeros’. Fighters for Christ. Of course, the state had overwhelming fire-power and the brave Cristeros were largely exterminated. Some regard them as martyrs, however – I certainly do.
Suppose a young English Catholic had gone to fight for Christ the King in Mexico, in scrupulous obedience to his conscience and to church teaching, would the British authorities have termed him a terrorist? Arrested and detained him on his return? Don’t know but…does it matter? A Christian must obey God rather than men!
It seems unlikely a returning Englishman from the Mexican war would have gone on to blow up 10 Downing St. Hence, the analogy with young jihadis back from Syria is rather imperfect. I read that Teresa May is so worried about the fiery chaps that she is using powers under the Royal Prerogative to bear on suspected British jihadis. Dodgy but…you - Christian, Muslim or whatever - wouldn’t fancy another bloody 7/7 in London, would you?
Remarkable how sundry lefties and progressives and even some Islamists like to invoke a comparison with the 1936-39 Spanish civil war. A popular cause with European intelligentsia. Militants from many countries flocked to join the international brigades. Are foreign fighters in Syria like them? Nope. Muslims who fought in Spain were serving under General Franco, ‘the bad guy’ in that conflict. Moorish troops - among his most loyal units. Little wonder because they were battling against the Republicans, including communists, anarchists, atheists and freemasons – not quite beloved folks in Islam.
Back to Yusuf. I ask how his family would feel. Father and brother are on his side, mum a little less. (La mamma e’ sempre la mamma, a softie, as Italians say.) I also remind him of the less sanguinary kinds of struggle in God’s way. ‘Why don’t you fundraise for medical supplies, aid to refugees… ?’ His large brown eyes glaze over. That was no good. In Yusuf’s case jihad has to mean war.
Then ‘Have you discussed this with your Imam?’ I inquire. He nods assent. An online Imam, apparently – the most unreliable type. ‘Why don’t you give another a go?’ I give him the email of a good scholar known to me. He takes it and goes away.
What now?
Got to pray for Yusuf. That God’s will for him be done.
Revd Frank Julian Gelli
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