Tolerant or bigoted? Peace-loving or militant? Reasonable or fanatical? In the days following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Western media has taken a closer look at Islam, presenting a confusing, often contradictory, picture of a faith embraced by more than 20 percent of the world’s population.

One of the most prevalent myths about Islam is its apparent monolithic character, says Dr. Børge Schantz, one of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s foremost scholars of Islam. “There is no single face of Islam,” he explains, just as there is no one face of Christianity capable of reflecting the many, many variations of the Christian faith around the world.

The 10th century split between Shiite and Sunni Muslims continues today as the most significant division within Islam. Among the world’s more than 1 billion Muslims, a mass of divergent religious practices and beliefs exists, says Schantz. The differences arise not only from conflicting religious interpretations of the Koran and the Traditions, but also reflect cultural and regional influences.

Osama bin Laden claims what he is doing has a basis in the Koran and the teachings of Muhammad, says Schantz. “But of course more moderate Muslims can also defend their positions, and counter bin Laden’s interpretations, using the same Koran.”

“You could look at the Koran and the teachings of Muhammad and, just like some Old Testament Biblical passages about ‘destroying enemies,’ take one part of the text to justify acts of violence,” says Schantz. “It’s a matter of what parts you pick and how you interpret them.”

It is religious extremism, or fundamentalism, that can distort Islam, allowing adherents to justify horrific acts of violence in the name of their faith, says Schantz. Fundamentalist strains—present also in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and other faiths—are characterized by a harking back to an older, “more pure,” form of the religion.

“Both fundamentalist and more liberal Muslims want to preserve the Islamic faith,” says Schantz, “the fundamentalists by turning the clock back to the 13th century, and the liberals by reinterpreting the Koran to fit the 21st century.”

For more than a decade, Schantz has tracked the rise of Islamic fundamentalism not only in the Middle East, but in parts of Asia and Africa as well. In 1989, Schantz was asked by the Adventist Church’s office of Global Mission to establish the Seventh-day Adventist Global Centre for Islamic Studies, an organization he headed up for eight years.

“Fundamentalism can be described as such a strict and detailed adherence to traditional orthodox tenets, that there develops a militant spirit of resistance to everything in society considered to be in conflict with the accepted scriptures,” Schantz wrote in a 1993 article exploring this extremist trend.*

The individual Islamic fundamentalist can be described, in part, as a person “looking for simple answers to big issues,” says Schantz.

The distinction between “secular” and “sacred,” a concept that is basic to Western societies, is not found within fundamentalist Islam, says Schantz. He explains that in most Muslim regimes, politics, law, and religion are indivisible. “The one system of law, Sharia, takes care of inheritance, treatment of criminals, women’s rights—or lack of rights, however you want to interpret that—and also religious issues, such as the consequences of apostasy.”

“We can bomb Afghanistan and say this is a response to terrorism, not a war on Islam,” says Schantz, “but in the fundamentalist Muslim mind, the distinction between civil and religious, or political and sacred, cannot be made. It is all one.”

The animosity felt by many fundamentalist Muslims toward the West is an “extremely complicated matter,” says Schantz.  Socio-economic issues play into the situation—the extreme poverty in places such as Afghanistan can act as a spur to renewed religious fervor. “The belief is that by practicing their faith in a more rigorous, more faithful manner, they will receive the blessings of Allah,” he explains.

“No doubt bin Laden is concerned about Palestine, the suffering children in Iraq, United States support of Israel, and the stationing of U.S. troops on Saudi Arabian soil,” says Schantz. “But the secular influences from America and the West—democracy, individual freedom, pornography, alcohol, women dressed immodestly, and so on—are also significant factors.”

As military action in Afghanistan continues and bin Laden calls for a “Holy War,” Adventist Christians should continue to recognize the complexity of the situation and resist the temptation to generalize about Islam, says Schantz. “And we should never forget that Christian and Muslim alike are all children of the same Creator, dearly loved by Him.”

*Børge Schantz, “Some Fundamentals about Fundamentalism and Fundamentalists,” Adventist-Muslim Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1993, p 26-27.