QUR'AN, COMMENTARY AND VIOLENCE ISSUE

WOS: 000415837000001Nowadays, it seems as if there is a conjunction of Islam and violence in Western belief. Some might even come to connect Muslim people with a violence-prone entity. Such perception is based on the traditional concept of war (battle) which claims that both kufr (the lack of faith) and the existence of infidels is a reason to go to war. Furthermore, it was circulated by Western researchers such as Joseph Schacht, Rudolph Peters, who suggest that the term Jihad has been exploited by certain Islamic states and Muslims for their imperialist aspirations. We would, yet, propose that such link is facilitated by groups such IS who come to justify their violent approach to terrorism with references to the Qur'an and the concept of Jihad. There seems to be a distinctive connection between terrorism, violence and the exegesis of Qur'an in many IS interpretations. It is such widespread misconception that highlights the need for a more scientific approach to the question whether religious violence is connected to the Qur'an and its exegesis or not. It is a matter of common knowledge that throughout history religion has often been perceived as the driving force behind multi-dimensional excesses, projects of social reform or societal engineering, ambitions of power, and political squabbles and face-offs, and has been wielded in these contexts. In the case of Islam, the instrumentalization of religion and its abuse for various agendas is a commonly encountered situation in our contemporary world, especially in the Middle Eastern landscape that includes Turkey. One factor, among many, that strips religion of its essence is the failure to properly identify points of convergence and divergence between religion and societal order/law, while treating and evaluating the religious and the non-religious together in a haphazard way. Under these circumstances, it is not only the voices that are raised and the demands that are made in the name of religion that lose their meaning, but also the anti-religious discourses and reactions. As a result, religion becomes the plaything of social conflicts and polarizations on the societal level and of spiritual upheavals, turmoil, and excesses on the individual level. Whether the tendency to radicalization and violence found in modern Islamist movements is caused by religion or by fundamental religious texts is a matter open to discussion. We maintain that exterior motives and global/imperialist engagements are more defining factors in radicalization and proclivity to violence than religion per se or its sources, which in this case have the status of instruments. It is even possible to argue that depending on the given social and political situation, religion can adopt various functions ranging from improving order and well-being in society to promoting chaos; and that it is, in a way, an instrument of justification. Put more openly, religion can function as a cement supporting the present order when there is a strong and well-functioning political order, system, and authority. On the other hand, when disorder and chaos reign in different parts of the Islamic world, as is the case today, religion can turn into a tool of conflict, disintegration, and manipulation. This also holds for religious sects. In a climate of strong political and social stability, different religious schools and sects can be an asset, or at least they can be perceived as such. However, in a contrary situation, these very same sects may be manipulated as a major factor in the retrospective clashes and conflicts among Muslims of varying propensities subscribing to different identities. As such, following the invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies in 2003, law and order in this region crumbled into pieces. In the chaotic atmosphere produced by this invasion, hundreds of thousands became victims of violence. Terrorist organizations parading a religious point of reference found themselves a firm stronghold in this atmosphere of lawlessness and chaos. These organizations mobilized religion as the most effective source of motivation in order to give a garb of meaning to their acts of terror and violence. In an atmosphere of escalating war and violence, reading and interpreting religious texts as calls to war is perceived as normal and ordinary. When looked at from this point of view, it becomes necessary to shift our attention to the matter of identifying the sociological contexts in which religion or religious texts are associated with violence, instead of directly labeling a given religion as " the source and reference point of violence". The increasingly Middle-Eastern-centric nature of radical movements that feature religion as a reference point and sectarian conflicts between Muslims exhibiting various temperaments is a reality that further testifies to the fact that concepts of religion and denomination turn into tools of fragmentation, conflict, and justification in environments of political chaos. Without a doubt, imperialist engagements play a very important role in this Middle East centered chaos, which has been continuing since the day the Ottoman Empire, the last and greatest Muslim political authority in the world, retreated from the historical stage. However, it also needs to be said that the astonishing tendency shown by Muslims to being openly and easily manipulated in these exploits is closely related to the deteriorating spiritual health of the entire ummah. At the same time, it should be kept in mind that groups resorting to radicalization and violence belong more commonly to the ranks of those whose identities have been rejected and marginalized, who have been pushed out of their living space and made powerless, and who have therefore resolved to prove their identities and create a space of power and influence for themselves. For it is clear that reaching such a goal by legitimate means is both costly and laborious. The trend of radicalization in religious movements that has increasingly been gaining momentum in the Islamic world is related on the one hand to the dynamics of conflict which can in a way be described as the domestic issues of the Islamic world and whose historical roots go back to the death of the Prophet, and on the other hand to the tendency to perceive religion as an ideology and to willingly and knowingly read and understand religious texts in an anachronistic style with the purported aim of seeking out "the sole and absolute truth", turning away from the pluralism that is to be found in the history and the tradition. Scratching the wounds of ancient conflicts and digging out the old battle axes from the depths of history are deeply painful signs of the failure of the Islamic world to come to its senses despite having been stung from the same hole countless times thanks to the Middle-East-centered exploits of global actors, as well as its inability to derive a lesson from this great disgrac