Tolerance Borne Out of Apathy

Do not rush to emulate and admire Muslims who outwardly present themselves as “open-minded”. For many of them, their open-mindedness is not due to having truly embraced tolerance for valid differences of opinion but is instead an outcome of not respecting the sanctity of the deen. Many tend to “academize” religion and view it merely as an intellectual exercise or only as a subject pivotal to their career growth and source of income.

As much as many of them like to portray themselves as being more “mature” and “tolerant” than “hot-blooded” Muslims, the truth is that many of them are not as passionate about the deen as they should be. They neither care about the proliferation of heretical views in the ummah, nor do they mind forming close bonds and friendships with heretics who happen to be their fellow academic peers or members of an organization, think tank, etc. These are not merely open-minded people; rather, these are people who have lost their sense of protective jealousy for the deen of Allah.

I have also noticed selective “open-mindedness” displayed by some students of knowledge, and the pattern I have seen is that some tend to be strict and lax in their tolerance of opposing views depending on the Islamic science in question. If they are very passionate about hadith or fiqh, they will be firm and uncompromising with those who stray off the mainstream position while simultaneously being flexible in accommodating unorthodox views in the domain of aqeedah because they are not as interested in theology, and vice versa.

Obviously, I am not suggesting that displaying our ghayrah for the deen means we throw tantrums and destroy public property. Rather, I am claiming that open-mindedness must only be respected when it is consistently applied out of principle within the bounds of mainstream Islamic scholarship and not out of a disproportionate passion for a particular subject or lack thereof. Otherwise, superficial tolerance is cheap and overrated.