There was a time when Islam inspired great learning*, beautiful art, architecture, and poetry (not to mention spirituality); that is a rather uncomfortable fact for those who want to see it as nothing but a tribal heresy or to those, the puritans within, who think that anything related to culture is an "innovation". In a similar fashion, George Steiner is surely right when he says that it is hard to imagine a lot of the west's cultural greatness without Christianity and the 'pull to the north of the future'. No use putting this to one side: something is lost when we forget those second spaces.
But, then, if we are honest with ourselves, should we not ask: what is it in religion that inspires so much fanaticism and hatred? Don't think we have the stomach or openness for such questions (in a similar vein, the relation between Auschwitz and western culture is not something that can easily be broached, and is a kind of blind spot. I mean, do you really want to sit and talk and ask how the Trenches, the Gulags, colonialism, environmental destruction, and so much of the violence of the 20th century can be explained if we are so enlightened?).
Lest one lose sight of reality, it should also be readily admitted that religion is not the cause of everything (good or bad) or, indeed, always the 'prime mover'. Fanatics-secular or religious- sometimes see it that way.
But back to the question: why is it that it that there is so much backwardness, stupidity, violence, and rabid fanaticism in the so-called muslim world?
I want to explore this. Someone wrote me:
"[This is what] I cannot understand about Islam, because I honestly don't believe that any other religion - at least now, at this point - can lead to such a way of thinking"
The 'thinking' being, in this case, death threats to writers (and lets put the burning of books, the cartoon controversy etc in the same category).
Now, of course, these are important signs of regression and depravity, of a childish, infantile mentality. But still, I'd say, nothing in comparison to the use of state power to kill, maim, and traumatize-whether it's Iraq or Darfur.
But here's the dope,dear readers. What about the vast majority of contemporary Muslims who did not agree with those reactions and were abhorred by them? Aren't they "Islam" as well?
Secondly, to what degree are such acts and views related to Islam-and which Islam-rather than political acts? "Cannot understand about Islam" seems to imply that there's this ahistorical, well-defined thing that can easily be wheeled in to explain or confirm whatever
prior perceptions one has.
Because I know the person I know it's not a case of simple prejudice. But the naivete is quite startling for someone so intelligent.
...
*Levinas, Difficult Freedom, 'Monotheism and Language':
Islam is above all one of the principal factors involved in this constitution of humanity. Its struggle has been arduous and magnificent..It swarmed across three continents. It united innumerable people and races. It understood better than anyone that a universal truth is worth more than local particularities. It is not by chance that a Talmud apologue cites Ishmael, the symbol of Islam, the rare sons of Sacred History, whose name is formulated and announced before their birth. It is as if their task in the world had for all eternity been foreseen in the economy of Creation...The memory of a common contribution to civilization in the course of the Middle ages, when Greek texts entered Europe via the Jewish translators who had translated Arab translations, can be exalting only if we still manage today to believe in words, devoid of rhetoric or diplomacy.
But, then, if we are honest with ourselves, should we not ask: what is it in religion that inspires so much fanaticism and hatred? Don't think we have the stomach or openness for such questions (in a similar vein, the relation between Auschwitz and western culture is not something that can easily be broached, and is a kind of blind spot. I mean, do you really want to sit and talk and ask how the Trenches, the Gulags, colonialism, environmental destruction, and so much of the violence of the 20th century can be explained if we are so enlightened?).
Lest one lose sight of reality, it should also be readily admitted that religion is not the cause of everything (good or bad) or, indeed, always the 'prime mover'. Fanatics-secular or religious- sometimes see it that way.
But back to the question: why is it that it that there is so much backwardness, stupidity, violence, and rabid fanaticism in the so-called muslim world?
I want to explore this. Someone wrote me:
"[This is what] I cannot understand about Islam, because I honestly don't believe that any other religion - at least now, at this point - can lead to such a way of thinking"
The 'thinking' being, in this case, death threats to writers (and lets put the burning of books, the cartoon controversy etc in the same category).
Now, of course, these are important signs of regression and depravity, of a childish, infantile mentality. But still, I'd say, nothing in comparison to the use of state power to kill, maim, and traumatize-whether it's Iraq or Darfur.
But here's the dope,dear readers. What about the vast majority of contemporary Muslims who did not agree with those reactions and were abhorred by them? Aren't they "Islam" as well?
Secondly, to what degree are such acts and views related to Islam-and which Islam-rather than political acts? "Cannot understand about Islam" seems to imply that there's this ahistorical, well-defined thing that can easily be wheeled in to explain or confirm whatever
prior perceptions one has.
Because I know the person I know it's not a case of simple prejudice. But the naivete is quite startling for someone so intelligent.
...
*Levinas, Difficult Freedom, 'Monotheism and Language':
Islam is above all one of the principal factors involved in this constitution of humanity. Its struggle has been arduous and magnificent..It swarmed across three continents. It united innumerable people and races. It understood better than anyone that a universal truth is worth more than local particularities. It is not by chance that a Talmud apologue cites Ishmael, the symbol of Islam, the rare sons of Sacred History, whose name is formulated and announced before their birth. It is as if their task in the world had for all eternity been foreseen in the economy of Creation...The memory of a common contribution to civilization in the course of the Middle ages, when Greek texts entered Europe via the Jewish translators who had translated Arab translations, can be exalting only if we still manage today to believe in words, devoid of rhetoric or diplomacy.
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