Thread by @AkyolinEnglish

Does Islam really require "religion police"?

From Iran to Saudis to the Taliban, the answer is yes, with two references: the Quranic duty of "commanding the right," the Prophetic institution of hisba.

I challenge this view in my new essay @newlinesmag:
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…

Here are some highlights:

The Quranic duty of "commanding the right and forbidding the wrong" is interestingly worded: the "good" is #maruf, which means "known." It may refer to ethico-legal values that are commonly known — and not necessarily all Sharia.
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…

No wonder, earliest exegetes of the Quran didn't understand "commanding the right" as enforcing all aspects of the Sharia. According to Abu al-Aliya and Muqatil ibn Sulayman, it was about "calling people from polytheism to Islam," not religious coercion.
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…

Also, a political interpretation of “commanding the right and forbidding the wrong” emerged in the early centuries of Islam.

In this view, the duty primarily involved speaking out against tyrants and even launching rebellions against them.
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…

So, it was only a late development in Islam that "commanding the right and forbidding the wrong" turned into full-fledged religious policing: punishing those who "give up prayers" or breaking musical instruments — none of which had any basis in the Quran.
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…

What about #hisba, the institution established by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)?

It was indeed a police force. But it was not about religious coercion. It was about preventing fraud in the marketplace. Only much later, hisba turned into religious policing:
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…

Religious coercion created a crisis in 17th century Ottoman Empire, when the militant Kadizadeli movement attacked all "innovations," from music to coffee.

Hanafi scholar Al-Nabulsi responded by referring to the Quranic maxim: "No compulsion in religion."
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…

Another Ottoman scholar, Katip Çelebi, also criticized religious militancy of "arrogant men, who label some of the community as infidels, some as heretics."

"Most fighting & strife between Muslims arises from this cause," he added.

At it still is today.
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…

Hence, I argue in @newlinesmag,

The way forward for Islamic civilization lies in divorcing 'commanding the right & forbidding the wrong' from religious coercion.

Let people be free to practice Islam, or not, based on sincere convictions and free choices.
newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…