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Prejudices about Islam will be shaken by

this show
The hajj, subject of a new exhibition at the British Museum, shows
that a respect for other faiths is central to Muslim tradition
Karen Armstrong
The Guardian, Sunday 22 January 2012 22.45 GMT

Hundreds of thousands of piligrims pray at Mecca's Grand Mosque. Photograph: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images

Ever since the Crusades, when Christians from western Europe were fighting holy wars
against Muslims in the near east, western people have often perceived Islam as a violent
and intolerant faith even though when this prejudice took root Islam had a better
record of tolerance than Christianity. Recent terrorist atrocities have seemed to confirm
this received idea. But if we want a peaceful world, we urgently need a more balanced
view. We cannot hope to win the "battle for hearts and minds" unless we know what is
actually in them. Nor can we expect Muslims to be impressed by our liberal values if
they see us succumbing unquestioningly to a medieval prejudice born in a time of
extreme Christian belligerence.
Like Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Sikhs and secularists, some Muslims have
undoubtedly been violent and intolerant, but the new exhibition at the British Museum
Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam is a timely reminder that this is not the whole

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story. The hajj is one of the five essential practices of Islam; when they make the
pilgrimage to Mecca, Muslims ritually act out the central principles of their faith.
Equating religion with "belief" is a modern western aberration. Like swimming or
driving, religious knowledge is practically acquired. You learn only by doing. The
ancient rituals of the hajj, which Arabs performed for centuries before Islam, have
helped pilgrims to form habits of heart and mind that pace the western stereotype
are non-violent and inclusive.
In the holy city of Mecca, violence of any kind was forbidden. From the moment they left
home, pilgrims were not permitted to carry weapons, to swat an insect or speak an
angry word, a discipline that introduced them to a new way of living. At a climactic
moment of his prophetic career, Muhammad drew on this tradition. Fleeing persecution
in Mecca in 622, he and the Muslim community (the umma) had migrated to Medina,
250 miles to the north. Mecca was determined to destroy the umma and a bitter conflict
ensued. But eventually Muhammad broke the deadly cycle of warfare with an audacious
non-violent initiative.
In March 628, to general astonishment, he announced that he was going to make the
hajj. This meant that he had to ride unarmed into enemy territory, yet 1,000 Muslims
accompanied him. The pilgrim party narrowly escaped being massacred by the Meccan
cavalry, and eventually entered the sacred territory of Mecca where they simply sat
down beside their camels and refused to move. Knowing that they would lose all
credibility if they slaughtered pilgrims on this holy ground, the Meccans negotiated a
truce and Muhammad accepted humiliating conditions that filled the Muslims with
dismay. But the Qur'an proclaimed that this apparent defeat was a "clear triumph"
because, like Jews and Christians, the Muslims had acted in a spirit of peace,
self-restraint and forbearance. Two years later, hostilities ceased and the Meccans
voluntarily opened their gates to the prophet.
Clearly the Qur'an did not despise Jews and Christians; this affinity with "the people of
the book" was also central to the Muslim cult of Mecca. The Arabs firmly believed that
they, too, were children of Abraham, because they were the descendants of his eldest
son Ishmael a regional view shared by the Bible. It was said that Abraham and
Ishmael had rebuilt the Ka'bah, the sacred shrine of Mecca, when it had fallen into
disrepair, had dedicated it to their God, and then performed the rites of the hajj. Many
Arabs thought that Allah, their high God, was the God worshipped by the people of the
book, and Christian Arabs used to make the hajj pilgrimage to the Ka'bah alongside the
pagans.
The Arabs had no conception of an exclusive religious tradition, so they were deeply
shocked when they discovered that most Jews and Christians refused to consider them
as part of the Abrahamic family. The Qur'an still urged Muslims to respect the people of

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Prejudices about Islam will be shaken by this show | Karen A...

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the book and revere their prophets, but decreed that instead of facing Jerusalem when
they prayed, as hitherto, they should turn towards the Ka'bah built by Abraham.
Like Abraham, who had not belonged to a closed-off cult, they would take no pride in an
established institution and, as Abraham had done, focus on the worship of God alone.
Hence the Muslim hajj is all about the Abrahamic family not Muhammad himself.
Pilgrims re-enact the story of Hagar and Ishmael, symbolically returning to the era that
preceded religious chauvinism.
Alas, all traditions lose their primal purity and we all fail our founders. But the British
Museum's beautiful presentation of the hajj can help us understand how the vast
majority of the world's Muslims understand their faith. Socrates, founder of the western
rational tradition, insisted that the exercise of reason required us constantly and
stringently to question received ideas and entrenched certainties. The new exhibition
can indeed become a journey to the heart of Islam and also, perhaps, to a more
authentic and respectful western rational identity.
Members of Guardian Extra are invited to an evening viewing of the exhibition
followed by a two-course meal plus a curator's talk and Q&A session in the Great Court
restaurant. The event takes place on 3 February at 5.30pm. For more information, go to
guardian.co.uk/extra
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