Thursday, October 21st, Pacifica Institute, Los Angeles hosted yet another memorable lecture given by our esteemed Dr. Özgür Koca who left the audience with undeniable food for thought.
Having spent roughly ten years of his life dedicated to teaching physics, mathematics, and astronomy, Dr. Koca then chose to divert his journey to new perspectives in the fields of philosophy and religion. With his well-rounded background he is able to draw on the resources of science, philosophy, and theology to develop a constructive Islamic theology that can help address the burning ethical, political, and religious issues Muslim societies are facing today.
The topic Dr. Özgür Koca spoke about was the importance of differentiating between Islam and the arrogated claims to Islam. His lecture entitled “Islam vs. Islam” critically focused on the terrorist group Islamic State, better know as ISIS or ISIL, and whether or not their interpretations and practices of Islam made them truly Islamic or, as Dr. Koca stated, “UN-Islamic”. Dr. Koca began his lecture by stating Islamic military jurisprudence and the Islamic philosophy of war. He said that while Islam is not a pacifist religion it does adhere guidelines and rules to war, “If war is inescapable then we must establish rules and guidelines to minimize the inhumane effects.” We must find the most humane way to domesticate an act when its annihilation isn’t a possibility.
Yet, when we turn to look at the way ISIS has chosen to conduct war, they have chosen their own interpretations. They have committed terrible atrocities by mutilating dead bodies, burying people alive, beheading journalists and aid workers, destroying tombs and history, torturing, forcing people for conversion, mass killing, mocking and humiliating their victims before execution, , just to name a few.
“I am a Muslim and I am outraged! Not just as a scholar, but as a Muslim, I am deeply hurt by this, how can they justify their action?” said Dr. Koca. The actions of ISIS are a clear clash to Islamic military jurisprudence that states that only combatants can be killed not the innocent, which is exactly what ISIS is doing.
Dr. Koca points out the obvious contradiction between the fundamental message of religion and those who practice it. The projections of restless and destructive souls onto the divine will is manifest through the arrogated understanding of the divine purpose, which is then exercised by those who perceive themselves as the instruments deemed to realize the volitions of the Divine Will on earth. The real problem, Dr. Koca says, “is then not religion per se but human arrogance blended with a profound ignorance about the authentic message of religious traditions. The antidote of arrogance is obviously humility, which necessitates the recognition of the limited nature of our knowledge.” ISIS has chosen to ignore the many years of interpretation of the Qur’an and have decentralized the message of mercy and distorted the text through “cherry-picking”.
“We must understand that there is no easy solution.” In order to begin to work towards a solution we must first understand that it will take decades of work. There will have to be decades of work in education, decades of work in constructing dialogue, decades of work in humanitarian aid, decades of work in politics and economy. We must reinstate the scholarly understanding of the religious texts. “We have to educate thousands of scholars on religious texts and we have to stop individualizing religious epistemology,” said Dr. Koca. Muslim community the blame game needs to be stopped said Dr. Koca following with the example of a burning house, he said, “ If your house is on fire, the first thing you do is try to put it out not go look for the person who started it. That comes after everything is settled.” The best way to do this is through education and the support of movements like Hizmet that strive to create positive social capital and education.
Dr. Koca finished his lecture by stating that we need to remember that the underlying message of religion is compassion and mercy, “The first word of the Divine was mercy and the last word must be mercy. Mercy envelopes whole existence. Mercy is and must be the central axis around which everything else revolves.”
A brief Q&A preceded the lecture where Dr. ÖzgürKoca states that the actions of the 1% or 2% cannot account for the beliefs held by the 98% or 99%. Pacifica Institute would like to thank Dr. Özgür Koch For his presentation “Islam Vs. Islam”, and our audience members for participating in our Lecture Series.