In a surprising 2013 survey done by the Pew Research Center about the Muslim world, many countries in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and North Africa were found to have majority support for Sharia (Islamic law) and many of the draconian punishments that come along with it, such as executing an apostate and stoning an adulterer. These views are in every sense of the word extremist; just like the terrorists in Paris and the Islamic State soldiers in Syria and Iraq who have butchered countless innocent Muslims, Kurds, and Christians.
These majority views reveal that extremism is not a small problem in much of the Muslim world, although it comes in different levels. Stoning an adulterer is horrendous, but compared to what the ISIS soldiers are doing, it seems tame. Of course, while the media broadcasts much about Islamic extremism, it is certainly not just an Islamic problem. All religions, especially the ones with written doctrines, have the potential for extremist beliefs.
During a time that most Americans would rather forget, Christian extremism was alarmingly prevalent in the United States. In the 1920’s, it is estimated that the Ku Klux Klan had upwards of four to five million members, or about fifteen percent of the eligible population, i.e. Anglo-saxon Protestants. It can be argued, and surely is, that the Ku Klux Klan was not really a Christian group, but a political hate group. After all, they formed as a reaction to the freeing of African American slaves, who tended to be Christian as well. This is similar to the fact that the Islamic State murder’s other Muslims, so how could they be Islamic? These are both valid points, and the fact is that these groups are both extremely political. However they both utilize their religious books to validate their crimes against humanity. It is an unfortunate fact that these books have verses that can be used to justify these barbarous crimes, but they do.
In Leviticus, it is written, “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” It is no wonder some Christians detest homosexuality and try to “cure” them with pseudo science. The New Testament also seems to condone slavery: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” This was used by many pro-slavery Americans in the antebellum south, and gave rise to the KKK’s racist hatred of former slaves. Fortunately, many Christians today have ceased taking verses like this literal.
The Quran also carries passages that influence detestable behavior. The following verse is widely used by Jihadi suicide bombers for justification: “Let those fight in the cause of Allah who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter. To him who fights in the cause of Allah- whether he is slain or gets victory— Soon shall We give him a reward of great value.” Executing apostates, an act still widely considered justifiable in some parts of the Muslim world, is clearly represented in the Bukhari section of the Hadith: “The Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.'”
These books were written in Medieval and Ancient times, when things like slavery and execution’s were common. The majority of religious people in the world today cherry-pick their books, and do not take them literally, which is a very good thing. It is not ones religious faith that is the problem, per se, but how literally they take it.
Polls indicate that the contemporary Muslim world has a problem with literalism, which is less common in modern western society. Surely reasons such as poverty, lack of education, and political turmoil contribute to literal readings and radicalization. Studies on whether education is related to religious belief have been inconclusive at best. However one study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research has said that just one extra year of schooling makes someone 10 percent less likely to attend a church, temple, or mosque. It would make sense that learning about the scientific realities of the world would shape how one reads ancient religious books; whether as literature or as the word of God. While the aforementioned causes of extremism all play a role, saying that everything but religion causes these problems, as certain apologists imply, is dishonest.
Most religious literalism and extremism tend to be incompatible with modern liberal values, but whether all extremism is equally dangerous, as many people seem to believe, is also worth questioning. We have seen violence committed in the names of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and other religions. But what about a religion like Jainism, which promotes non-violence as its core value. If a follower of Jainism went on a killing spree, no one could truly point to their religion as a cause for this behavior. An extremist Jain would be more like Gandhi than someone shooting up an abortion clinic.
So is it fair to say that extremism in all religions is equally bad? No, some faiths have doctrines that validate many violent actions when taken literally (Christianity, Islam), and some do not (Jainism). I don’t expect the billions of Muslims and Christians to convert to Jainism, and I don’t believe its necessary. What must be battled is taking these popular religions and their doctrines literally. The enlightenment fought for reason against biblical dogma, now it is time to empower Muslim reformers to fight for reason and secularism in their society. One of the first solutions in doing this is for the West to stop acting like our culture or religion is superior. Our culture is simply ahead (in a political sense), and no religion is superior. If we truly want liberalism and freedom to spread, we must stop trying to promote our own capitalistic western culture, and begin supporting the one thing that promotes true freedom: reason.