Jewish and Muslim Encounters with Modernity: Common Experiences.

 By: Karčić, Fikret, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 13602004, Dec2017, Vol. 37, Issue 4

Introduction

Modernity posed numerous challenges to great religious traditions, first Christianity, then Judaism and finally to Islam. These religious traditions responded to the challenges of modernity in different ways: Christianity through theology and Judaism and Islam through religious jurisprudence and thought. In this paper, we will focus on Judaism and Islam.

Modernity

Modernity represents totality of cognitive, normative and structural changes introduced into European societies during the period from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth-century A.D.[ 1] Modernity started in Western Europe and gradually spread into central and eastern part of the old continent. Harvey G. Cox has identified “five pillars” of modernity which include: ( 1) the emergence of sovereign national states, ( 2) science-based technology, ( 3) bureaucratic rationalism as a principle of social organization, ( 4) the quest for profit maximalization and ( 5) secularization.[ 2] These “pillars” have been deduced from the European historical heritage and experience in attaining modernity.

Jewish Responses to Modernity

In pre-modern times, European Jews lived in separated and autonomous communities (kehilla). Members of these communities were subjected to religious law (halakha) and the authority of religious leaders. Rabbis were not just spiritual leaders but also judges (dayanim). European states were satisfied if Jews paid taxes and did not offend Christian teachings. Modernity brought destruction of Jewish communities as public corporation and the end of compulsory application of Jewish law.[ 3] This was a result of the process known as “Emancipation”, which gave to the European Jews civil and political rights.

Emancipation of Jews in Europe passed through three phases.[ 4] The first phase which occurred 50 years before the French revolution (1740–1789) heralded the Emancipation in the sphere of thought and public life. The second phase, which covers 90 years (1789–1878), from the French revolution to the Berlin Congress, saw the Emancipation in Western and Central Europe. The third period, which lasted from the Congress of Berlin to the Nazis’ rise to power (1878–1933), witnessed the Emancipation of Jews in Eastern Europe and struggle for civil equality in the atmosphere of rising anti-Semitism.

The process of Emancipation brought significant changes in the status of Jews in Europe. Before the Emancipation Jews were seem as a separate nation, after the Emancipation they became individual citizens of European states. The result of the Emancipation was the subjugation of Jews to civil law, participation in political process and integration into European economies.[ 5]

Another process which was decisive for Jewish transition into modern world was Haskalah (“education”) movement. This movement of Jewish Enlightenment started in the second half of the eighteenth century and “opened Jewish mind to the culture of Europe”.[ 6] Goals of the proponents of Haskalah were to overcome ghettoization and to integrate Jews into European societies. Under the influence of Haskalah Jews started to study European thought and to apply its postulates to Judaism. Enlightened Jews started less to speak Yiddish or to study Hebrew and in a cultural sense they became Germans or citizens of other European states.[ 7] Haskalah did not take root in Eastern Europe and Russia. Jews in these countries continued to see themselves as a separate nation.

Modernity put numerous challenges to European Jews. Michael A. Meyer listed the following:[ 8]

Political modernization brought breakdown of communal authority and status of citizens.

Observance of Jewish law became a matter of individual conscience and not anymore recognized by state.

Judaism became a private matter between individual and God (following protestant pattern).

Judaism was portraited as a rational religion without dogmas and mysticism (religious rationalism).

Under the influence of historicism, Judaism was portraited as a faith that developed out of its own dynamism. Similarly, Jewish law was seen as flexible and adaptive. Role of “spirit of time” (zeitgeist) was emphasized.

To this, other authors add the issue of translation of religious texts into vernaculars, use of these translations in worship, the issue of educational institutions and the issue of lifestyle including mixed marriages, attire, architecture of synagogues, homes and so on.[ 9] European Jews responded differently to these challenges. Some insisted on observance of every practice of Judaism and they became known as Orthodox. Others were of the opinion to abandon traditional forms and to return to prophetic Judaism and this position became known as Reform Judaism. They consider Jewish law as binding. Some opted for “rational belief” and observance of law with understanding of its meaning and they constitute Conservative Judaism.[10] In this way, European Jews were divided with regard to ways how to respond to the challenges of modernity.

Muslim Responses to Modernity

Modern ideas and institutions came to the Muslim world in two ways: through military conquest by European powers or through modernization projects of independent Muslim countries. Muslims living under non-Muslim rule, as in Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Malaya, came into direct contact with European modernity. Muslims of the Ottoman state, on the other hand, came into contact with European modernity in indirect way via project of modernizing reforms known as Tanzimat (1839–1876).

Challenges posed by European modernity were complex.[11] In political realm, European powers acquired dominant position built on military supremacy. Muslim states were in decline. Muslims from different parts of the world asked their scholars to explain to them how this could happen. Contacts with European thought faced Muslims with the questions of philosophical rationalism, naturalism, theory of evolution, materialistic philosophy of history, scientific positivism, atheism and secularism.

A serious challenge for Muslims was the criticism of Islam and Muslim societies by European scholars. The method of investigation, already employed in Europe in the critique of the Bible and the Christian and Jewish tradition, was applied to Islamic sources. The most important challenge which modernity posed to Muslims was in the realms of social institutions and social ethics.[12] Muslim legal institutions including organization of government, criminal law, family law and the like were often the subject of European critics. It was specially the case with the issue of slavery, polygamy, repudiation, social position of women, external symbol of the adherence to Islam and so on.

Muslims of Europe, especially those in Tsarist Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were dealing with the issue of being Muslim minority under non-Muslim rule, migration into Muslim lands, service in non-Muslim army, application of Islamic law in personal matters by organs of non-Muslim government, Muslim religious organizations, education, relations between Islamic religion and European culture and the like.[13]

Muslim responses to these challenges were different.[14] They varied from a total rejection to uncritical adoption of European ideas and institutions. Under the external pressure in the mid-nineteenth century, a broader movement for reform of Islamic norms and institutions started.[15] This movement was known as reform (islah) and renewal (tajdid). Central position in programs of this movement belonged to Islamic law and institutions.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, various groups have been formed within the reformist movement. Religious modernists continued to consider Islamic law as part of the Muslim religion, advocating its application in the existing scope (personal status) and modernization of its regulation. Secular modernists looked on Islam as a religion in the modern sense of the word, emphasizing its moral values. They were of the opinion that religion should no longer represent the basis of social, political and legal life. Some of them requested the complete repeal of Islamic law from legal sphere, others only from public law. Orthodox reformist showed aspirations for the reform of Muslim society based on theoretical reflection of experiences from the first three centuries of Islam. Traditionalists were for maintaining of status quo in Muslim society. All these orientations were present with variations among Muslim communities in Europe.

Common Issues

Contemporary Muslim scholar Mustansir Mir was the first who noted importance of the Jewish and Christian encounter with modernity for Muslims.[16] He has identified three areas in which this experience is instructive for Muslims. These are:

God and nature. In this area, challenge is “to establish need for belief in personal God in a world which seems to explain itself by referring to itself”.

Secularism. Separation of religion and state was accepted by Jewish scholars as an established fact. This position among Muslim scholars was gradually developed during the twentieth century.

Interfaith dialogue and pluralism. Christians are those who started this process, Jews and Muslims are major parties to it.

To these three major areas, other issues could be added.

Position of law in religious thought. Law occupies a central position in both Judaism and Islam. According to this author, it is important to study how halakhic community responded during last two centuries to the pressure of modernity.[17] Development of Halakha in diaspora could be compared with development of Islamic jurisprudence in minority situation (fiqh al aqalliyyat).

Citizenship. European citizenship of Jews was accepted as desirable indicator of the Emancipation. Similarly, Muslims of Europe first accepted citizenship of European states and later on developed its theoretical justification (haqq al muwatana).

Assimilation/integration. These two options Jewish and Muslim scholars in Europe continue to discuss during modern era. Mainstream position is integration without assimilation.

Education_B__I_._i_ This issue occupied minds of modern Jewish and Muslim intellectuals in Europe. It is interesting to note that two important movements in Judaism and Islam were named after education: Haskalah (“education”) among European Jews and jadid movement in Tsarist Russia (from usul-i jadid, “new method of education”). The debate especially centred around introduction of secular subject into curriculum of traditional schools (yeshiva and madrasah, respectively).

Translation of religious text into vernaculars. Modern era witnessed debates among Jewish and Muslim scholars about the need of translation of religious texts into local languages. Debate centred around permissibility of the translation of the Torah and the Qur’an, respectively. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, for instance, the Qur’an was for the first time translated into vernacular during the last decades of the nineteenth century and its translator was a non-Muslim, Mićo Ljubibratić.

Lifestyle. In the both communities, frequently discussed issue was that of distinctive attire for the adherents of respective religions. Generally, reformists were in favour of adoption of European lifestyle while orthodox/traditionalists were in favour of keeping distinctive appearance.

Umbrella organizations. Jews never had an umbrella religions or political organization in Europe. Similar situation was with the Muslims. Today’s Muslims in Europe are in the stage when they are trying to build religious organizations at national level with some ideas and prototypes of umbrella organizations at European level.

Conclusion

Historically, European Jews encountered modernity earlier then European Muslims. Latter came into contact with modernity during the time when their homelands were included into European states after military conquest of Muslim lands such as in Tsarist Russia and the Balkans. European Muslims and Muslims at the other end of the periphery of the Muslim world encountered modernity in more direct and profound way then Muslims of central lands. In that way, experience of European Muslims was a precursor for other Muslims.

Muslim responses, as in the case of Judaism, were given in the form of religious law responses or treaties. Comparative study of these responses may give us deeper insight into common heritage of these two religions in modern times. It could help us, also, to find answers to some questions facing contemporary Muslim communities in Europe.

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