‘IS 비극’ 무슬림이 자초…이슬람, 타문화와 공존 속 평화 추구해야

* ‘아시아엔’ 해외필진 기고문의 한글요약본과 원문을 함께 게재합니다.

[아시아엔=아시라프 달리 아시아엔 중동지부장·번역 김아람 기자] 신도를 범죄로 이끄는 종교는 그 순간부터 종교가 아니다. 모름지기 ‘종교’란, 사회와 개인의 평화를 추구하고 사람들이 보다 나은 삶을 영위할 수 있도록 도와주는 역할을 해야 하기 때문이다. 그런 의미에서 이슬람 수니파 무장단체 이슬람국가(IS)는 종교집단이라 할 수 없다.

IS를 비롯해 지금까지 수많은 단체와 개인이 이슬람 교리를 정치 혹은 경제적 이유로 악용해왔다. 이슬람을 내걸고 악행을 자행하던 많은 단체들은 자멸했고, 우리 무슬림은 이들을 통해 교훈을 얻어왔다.

헌법상 이슬람 국가로 명시돼있는 파키스탄의 경우엔 정치에 미치는 종교의 영향력이 실로 어마해 저명 이슬람 단체들이 정치에 관여할 수 있는 제도가 갖춰져 있다. 2007년 파키스탄에선 현지 정부를 전복시키고 이슬람 율법(샤리아)을 근거로 강력한 이슬람 국가를 지향하는 ‘파키스탄 탈레반’(TPP)이 탄생했다. 이들은 ‘아프간 탈레반’과는 별개의 조직으로, 서구식 교육과 여성교육이 율법에 어긋난다고 주장하며 폭탄테러 등을 자행해왔다. 이에 파키스탄 정부는 미국의 협조 하에 TPP 소탕작전에 나섰지만 아직까지 갈등이 봉합되진 않았다.

폭력과 공포를 동반하는 이슬람 극단주의 단체들이 입헌 민주국가에 살고 있는 국민들의 자유를 앗아가는 건 아닐까?

아랍과 중동을 뒤흔들고 있는 IS를 포함한 이슬람 극단주의 세력의 확대를 막기 위해선, 무슬림들은 비(非)무슬림의 문화와 종교를 인정하는 ‘이슬람의 본래 의미’를 되새겨볼 필요가 있다. 불교가 널리 알려진 중국에서도 이슬람이 유입될 당시 별다른 충돌 없이 두 종교가 평화롭게 공존했으며, 유태인이 다수인 스페인 남부 안달루시아에서도 이와 마찬가지였다.

안타깝게도 IS는 무슬림이 만들어낸 괴물이다. 무슬림들이 이슬람 근본주의를 강요하기보단 다른 문명과 문화, 희망을 잃어가는 청년, 고통 받는 약자들을 이해했다면 지금의 비극이 일어났을까? 정치적으로 불순한 의도를 갖고 분쟁을 악용하는 세력이 지금의 IS를 만들었다. 또한 부당한 세력에 침묵을 일관하는 근대국가들도 IS를 방조했다.

IS가 같은 이슬람을 믿더라도 그들에 적대시하는 이들을 무참히 죽이듯, 사우디에서도 무고한 사람들이 형장의 이슬로 사라지고 있다. 그러나 무슬림은 사우디를 비난하지 않는다. 오직 IS를 탓할 뿐. 지금도 IS와 그 추종세력이 아랍과 이슬람국가에 산재해있다. 우리는 IS가 주장하는 ‘그릇된 신’이 아닌 ‘진정한 신’의 이름으로 그들의 악행을 막을 때, 이 땅의 테러를 종식시킬 수 있다.

How can we deal with IS?

The morning, when I began to write on how we deal with the Islamic State, or IS, in short, mentioned here and after, there were two reports in the Egyptian newspapers; the first was of the Bulaq Criminal Court in Cairo that handed novelist Ahmed Nagy a two-year prison sentence for publishing and writing an article with “obscene sexual content”, and the second reported how Muslim student girls in a secondary school in Bani Mazar, south of Cairo, demonstrated against having a Christian lady as a school director.

From the first impression, no one could relate those two cultural and social accidents with what is happening far away at the hands of IS elsewhere, when they are kidnapping, bombing or killing children and women in Syria and Iraq, when they are attacking soldiers and policemen in Egypt and Libya, or when they are bombing mosques in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

For me, the link between the press reports and IS crimes is very clear, as both show that there is always one party whose faithful members blindly believe that they are the only people with the right to decide and judge according to their Islamic teachings.

I am not here to defend Islam, but I have to say that any religion which forces its believers and followers to be criminals, is not a religion to be followed. Religions were created to offer peace, sustain a noble life for societies, spread justice and maintain freedom for all, equally. And this is not the same religion as that of the IS.

The slogan of Islam has been misused from age to age to make political and economic gains, which makes us look at other experiments around us in order to not replicate them because of their failure, in spite of using Islamic slogans.

In Pakistan, which was founded in the name of Islam and the army is in control of internal and regional security, various Islamic organizations are employed to serve volatile policies, allowing and prohibiting things occasionally.

This situation led to the rise of ‘Pakistani Taliban’ in 2001 and made the army and border guards attack these groups in all places where they rebelled against the government’s acceptable policies then. That also led to foreign intervention on the pretext of fighting terrorism. American drones killed both rebels and innocent civilians. Suicides expanded the scope of their operations in local networks in the north-western border provinces and other more extremist Islamic organizations attacked the cities of Islamabad, Lahore and all the way to Karachi.

The situation in Pakistan today poses a question, which we address on a larger scale: Does this extremism, spread in the name of Islam, with fear and violence curtail the marginal scope of freedom which constitutional democracies secure and international documents confirm?

In this period of massive conflicts and wars in the Arab world, we are in a compelling need to carefully consider the experiments of others. We are also in need of drawing inspiration from the true Islam’s spirit of tolerance towards non-Muslims which allows them freedom of belief and worship.

When Islam entered China, it did not abolish Buddhism despite the millions who embraced it peacefully. Similarly, Islam in Andalusia was the paradise of the Jews who were expelled from it after the fall of the last Muslim kingdom in Granada.

It is Islam that allowed its scholars, intellectuals and translators of various ideological and religious affiliations to lead a life of scholarship in Islamic capitals in Asia, Africa and Europe and together created a civilization on which the Renaissance in Europe was based after the end of the Middle Ages.

Europe freed itself and embraced Islamic knowledge in Andalusia, taking off the mantle of phony religiousness, abolishing indulgences and securing its citizens’ life under constitutional democracy and secular politics. Nobody has the right to return us back to those ages by inventing new indulgences for forgiving sins or otherwise.

Democracy has secured people’s life in Europe, prevented sectarian strife and opened channels of dialog among nations. Bloody conflicts have disappeared worldwide, except in the Muslim world. May its democratic Islamists end their conflicts and open a peaceful road to development and progress!

Actually, we need to be clear that the Islamic teachings of IS do not belong to our definition of the real religion. But to treat this, we have to go deeper and further in our own school books, in our own scholars’ brains, in our men of authority, and our media’s approach of telling news.

Sadly, I confess that we all have created IS. Ignorance of other cultures and civilizations created IS. Following the dark ages created IS. Preventing hope to live among youthful minds created IS. The destructive political intentions to utilize conflicts and wars created IS. The silence of modern states against unjust countries created IS.

We still have innocent people who are beheaded in Saudi Arabia the same way IS does to their enemies of the same religion, but we do not criticize Saudi Arabia, or other countries with such practices, and only blame IS. Actually, IS replicas are living among other Arabic and Islamic states, and only when we can stop them from being so cruel in the name of God, can we stop the terrorism of IS.