As an American Muslim, when I see the issues and events about Islam that get treated as “news” in the mainstream media, it bothers me that so many are portrayed as “problems within Islam,” the religion, when they are in reality problems of culture.
WHAT IS ISLAMIC CULTURE?
Islamic culture generally includes all the practices which have developed around the religion of Islam. There are variations in the application of Islamic beliefs in different cultures and traditions. Thus, American Muslims (viz. African American Muslims) are not trying to emulate arab culture, nor are Arabs trying to emulate American Muslim culture. Islam is accepting of both cultures.
Islamic culture and Muslim culture refer to cultural practices common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to early Umayyad period, were predominantly Arab, Byzantine, Persian and Levantine. With the rapid expansion of the Islamic empires, Muslim culture has influenced and assimilated much from the Persian, Egyptian, Caucasian, Turkic, Mongol, Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Malay, Somali, Berber, Indonesian, and Moro cultures.
The dynamic part of Islam comes in the form of diversity and manifests itself in two levels.
- The first level is interpretational diversity of scriptural texts. It is this diversity that led to the establishment of the various schools of jurisprudence.
- The second level of diversity is cultural. The fact is that the principles of Islam, when it comes to social affairs and dealing with people, has always been guarded with and subject to cultural traditions and customs.
Throughout Islamic history, Muslims in Africa and Asia maintained their way of life without transgressing the principles of Islam and kept the Shariah intact. A process of cultural selection went underway to keep what did not contradict Islamic principles. Consequently, Muslims in their different societies did not abolish their cultural practices altogether and this is evident with Arab Muslims, Turks, Asians, Africans and American Muslims.