[Islam]

"True" Islam.

On September 17, 2001 President Bush made a speech praising Islam, inadvertantly framing a misguided debate:

These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it's important for my fellow Americans to understand that.... The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war.

Bush wasn't the first one to frame the debate thus, nor will he be the last. Since 9/11, a lot of ink has been spilled trying to isolate various violent strands of Muslim theology from "mainstream" Islam--with the implication that the violent strands don't represent "true" Islam. This argument isn't even unique to Islam. Pat Robertson's message is regularly called a corrupt one. Even Bush, whose outward behavior seems to refute an inner faith, is dismissed as a faker.

These are comforting views, because they imply that there's an externally valid, "true" faith--something fixed against which we can measure the deviations. Further, it allows us to imagine that we can look at a particular behavior and go back to the standard to find out if it's in accord with the religion. Suicide bombing? What's the Koran say? Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

George W.'s faith appears to be deep and abiding. God seems to be the only external source of authority he recognizes. How do we distinguish between his faith and that of, say, Mother Theresa's? They are both deeply religious, deeply observant. There's no actual, real guide to eliminate Bush's faith as false. Religions don't have universal standards of measure.

So Muslim extremists shouldn't be dismissed as corrupt--or worse, disingenuous--just because their behavior appears at odds with rational conduct. Quite the contrary, it should be taken very seriously as authentic expression of faith. Understanding, rather than dismissing, terror as an expression of Islam is critical to understanding how to prevent it in the coming decades.