Islamic Enlightenment
09 Sep, 2007
The following is a speech given by Ibn Warraq in Holland at the Pim
Fortyn Memorial Conference in 2006:
What we need, of course, is not a Reformation in Islam but an
Enlightenment. For me Reformation implies dishonest, piece-meal
tinkering with this or that aspect of Islam which really leaves the
whole unsavory edifice essentially intact.
But we are not going to be able to do away with or extirpate the
religion of one billion people, nor is it necessary. We need to
bring about the secularization of the habits, attitudes and thoughts
of Muslim people whether in the Islamic world or the West. We need
to separate the mosque from the state but we need to achieve this
formidable feat in the minds of Muslims, and not just politically.
This secularization was accomplished slowly in Western civilization
but the entire process was, perhaps, put into motion during the
Greek Ionian Enlightenment during the fifth century Before Christ,
but finally gathered crucial momentum during the early
Enlightenment, that is the late 17th century, though we usually
associate the Age of Reason, or L' Age des Lumières, Aufklarung, De
Verlichting, with the Eighteenth Century. It would be entirely
appropriate to mention and pay a tribute to the Dutch contribution
to the European Enlightenment, a contribution often neglected but
which has now been magnificently vindicated by Jonathan Israel in
his truly great historical work Radical Enlightenment.[1] The latter
work reassesses not only the equally neglected importance of
Spinoza, the Dutch Jewish philosopher and Biblical Critic, to whom I
shall return later, but also Van den Enden [1602-74], the Dutch
radical thinker, and the Dutch Spinozists like Adriaen Koerbagh
[1632-69], and his brother Johannes Koerbagh [d.1672], and Pieter
Balling [d.1669], Petrus van Balen [1643-90], Balthasar Bekker
[1634-98], Adriaen Beverland [1650-1716], Anthonie van Dale [1638-
1708]. Arnold Geulincx [1624-69], Willem Goeree [1635-1711],
Frederik van Leenhof [1647-1713], and Lodewijk Meyer [1629-81], to
name some of the most important thinkers.
Then there is of course the role played by the free presses and
bookshops of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other Dutch cities, which,
furthermore, gave shelter to such pre-Enlightenment figures as
Pierre Bayle, known as the Philosopher of Rotterdam. There was even
a group of French-speaking revolutionary thinkers, inspired by
Spinoza, particularly his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, based
here, known as the Hague Coterie. As I said earlier, I shall return
in a minute, to the significance of Spinoza's work for us today.
Perhaps we can call the present group of speakers gathered here for
the next three days as the New Hague Coterie.
How can we bring about an Enlightenment among Muslims? I shall now
set forth a series of concrete, uncompromising proposals if we wish
to bring about the hoped for Enlightenment. Wittgenstein once said
that we cannot hope to solve any problems of philosophy unless we
solve all of them. I think what he meant was that all these problems
are interconnected, and we cannot solve them in isolation, one after
and another; we must address them globally, comprehensively.
ROOT CAUSE FALLACY
We need to meet these problems head on. I hope no one is still
laboring under the illusion that Islamic Terrorism, which is the
logical outcome of Islamic Fundamentalism, is caused by any of the
following: poverty, Israel-Arab Conflict, Past Colonialism or the
putative present American Imperialism.
POVERTY
As commentators like Daniel Pipes have already pointed out over and
over again- and what follows is heavily indebted to his writings -
poverty is not the root cause of Islamic fundamentalism.[2] The
research of sociologists like the Egyptian, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, and
the economist Galal A.Amin, the observations of journalists like the
Palestinian Kahild M. Amayreh, and the Algerian political leader Sad
Saadi all lead to the same conclusion that modern Islamists are made
up of young men from the middle or lower middle class, highly
motivated, upwardly mobile, and well-educated, often with science or
engineering degrees.
Those who back militant Islamic organizations are also the well off.
They are more often the urban rich rather than the poor from the
countryside. Neither wealth nor a flourishing economy is a guarantee
against the rise of militant Islam. Kuwaitis enjoy high incomes but
Islamists usually win the largest bloc of seats in parliament. Many
modern militant Islamic movements increased their influence in the
1970s, just as oil-exporting states enjoyed very strong growth
rates.
In general, Westerners attribute too many of the Arab world's
problems, observes David Wurmser of the American Enterprise
Institute, "to specific material issues" such as land and wealth.
This usually means a tendency "to belittle belief and strict
adherence to principle as genuine and dismiss it as a cynical
exploitation of the masses by politicians. As such, Western
observers see material issues and leaders, not the spiritual state
of the Arab world, as the heart of the problem." Islamists
themselves rarely talk about poverty. As Ayatollah Khomeini put it,
"We did not create a revolution to lower the price of melon."
Islamists need the money to buy weapons not bigger houses. Wealth is
a means, not an end.
ISRAEL-ARAB CONFLICT
Nor is the existence of Israel the cause of Islamic terrorism. As
Benjamin Netanyahu put it “Thus, the soldiers of militant Islam
do not hate the West because of Israel, they hate Israel because of
the West --.”[3] Or as Wagdi Ghuniem, a militant Islamic cleric
from Egypt, said, “suppose the Jews said, 'Palestine--you
[Muslims] can take it.' Would it then be ok? What would we tell
them? No! The problem is belief, it is not a problem of land."[4]
Christopher Hitchens in the Sept. 2001 issue of The Nation wrote:
"Does anyone suppose that an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would have
forestalled the slaughter in Manhattan? It would take a moral cretin
to suggest anything of the sort; the cadres of the new jihad make it
very apparent that their quarrel is with Judaism and secularism on
principle, not with (or not just with) Zionism."
US FOREIGN POLICY
Nor is it American foreign policy. U.S. foreign policy toward the
Arab and the Muslim world has been one of accommodation rather than
antagonism. During the Cold War, the US always supported Muslims
against communists. Recent United States military action in the
Middle East has been on behalf of Muslims, rather than against them.
The US protected Saudi Arabia and Kuwait from Iraq, Afghanistan from
the Soviets, Bosnia and Kosovo from Yugoslavia, and Somalia from
warlord Muhammad Farah Aidid.
And what has U.S. foreign policy to got to do with the deaths of
150,000 Algerians at the hands of Islamist fanatics? Yes 150,000
Algerians have been murdered by the Islamists since 1992; that is,
15,000 people per year for the last ten years; that is five WTC
atrocities per year, or one every two and half months for ten
years!! As I wrote ten years ago, the principal victims of Islamic
fundamentalism are Muslim men, women, children - esp. women,
writers, intellectuals, and journalists.
ROOT CAUSE - ISLAM
The root cause of Islamic fundamentalism is Islam. What on earth has
American foreign policy got to do with the stoning to death of a
woman for adultery in Nigeria? It has every thing to do with Islam,
and Islamic Law. The theory and practice of Jihad - Bin Laden’s
foreign policy - was not concocted in the Pentagon, it is directly
derived from the Koran and Hadith, Islamic Tradition. But Western
Liberals find it hard to admit or accept or believe this. The
trouble with Western Liberals is that they are nice; they are
pathologically nice, terminally nice. They think everyone thinks
like them, they think all people including the Islamic
fundamentalists desire the same things, have the same goals in life.
For liberals, the terrorists are but frustrated angels forever
thwarted by the Great Anarch, the Great Satan, the USA.
Western Liberals are used to searching for external explanations for
behaviour that they cannot comprehend; but I can assure them that
Hitler’s behaviour cannot be put down to the Treaty of Versailles or
the economic situation in the twenties or thirties. Evil is its own
excuse. No, the Islamic fundamentalists wish to replace Western
style liberal democracies with an Islamic theocracy, a fascist
system of thought that aims to control every single act of every
single individual, to quote Joseph Conrad: “Visionaries work
everlasting evil on earth. Their Utopias inspire in the mass of
mediocre minds a disgust of reality and a contempt for the secular
logic of human development.”[5]
It is extraordinary the number of people who have written about 11
September without once mentioning Islam. We must take seriously what
the Islamists say to understand their motivations, to understand
September 11, 2001. The four greatest influences on the modern rise
of Militant Islam have been the Egyptians Hasan al Banna, the
founder of Muslim Brethren, and Sayyid Qutb, the Indo-Pakistani,
Maududi, and the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini. They all repeat the
same message, derived from classical writers like Ibn Taymiyyah, and
ultimately from the Koran and Hadith, namely, it is the divinely
ordained duty of all Muslims to fight non-Muslims in the literal,
military sense until man-made law has been replaced by God’s Law,
the Sharia, and Islam has conquered the entire world.
Here is Maududi in his own words:
"In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology and programme which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals. 'Muslim' is the title of that International Revolutionary Party organized by Islam to carry into effect its revolutionary programme. And 'Jihad' refers to that revolutionary struggle and utmost exertion which the Islamic Party brings into play to achieve this objective."[6]
Maududi again:
"Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which Nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State."[7]
One survivor of the Holocaust was asked what lesson he had learned
from his experience of the 1940s in Germany replied, “If someone
tells you that he intends to kill you, believe him.”[8]
Unfortunately, liberals, even after September 11 have yet to learn
this lesson.
2. HOW TO BRING ABOUT AN ENLIGHTENMENT?
We are engaged in a battle of ideas. How can we change mentalities?
Ways of thought?
INTERNATIONALLY
WHAT THE WESTERN NATIONS CAN DO
IRAN REGIME CHANGE
Iran is fundamental in any struggle to bring about an Enlightenment
not only in the Islamic World but among the Muslims in the West as
well. Khomeini's Revolution encouraged Islamic Fundamentalism in the
1980s, and served as an inspiration to thousands of Islamic
militants throughout the world. The Iranian government was behind
major acts of terrorism, such as the blowing up of the Marine
Barracks in 1983 in Beirut by the terrorist group Hizbollah created
by Khomeini, acts which included the murder of individuals in Europe
such as Shapur Bakhtiar, the former Prime Minister, and Reza
Maslamoune, writer and intellectual, in Paris. Iran is among the
most active sponsors of modern Islamic terrorism, and is responsible
for the rising militancy of Islamic groups living within Europe and
the United States, for they see Iran as the supreme model, the
successful application of Islamic principles to modern society. The
fall of the Islamic Republic must be the primary foreign policy goal
of all Western States, and when it comes will be the equivalent of
the fall of the Soviet Union.
Every word from the American President supporting the students
protesting against the theocracy of the Ayatollahs is a boost to
their morale. As Iranian journalist Farouz Farzami pointed out in
the Wall Street Journal [January 12, 2006], pressure from the United
States has already created a dent in the Iranians' hard-line
position on uranium enrichment. Some in the Iranian Parliament are
already suggesting that all enrichment of uranium be suspended until
further notice in order to rebuild confidence with the European
Union. Farzami also wrote,
"Without U.S. military, economic and diplomatic pressures, the
leader-for-life of Libya, Col. Moammar Gadhafi would not be behaving
himself today, and the people of Afghanistan would still be under
the thumb of the Taliban." She urges the United States to impose
smart sanctions on Iran since she thinks her country will not change
without help from the West.
And yet, the West does not seem to have a coherent Iran policy. What
of sanctions? Will China and Russia agree to such a step at the
U.N.? In the meantime, the European Union could impose a ban of Iran
from all international athletic competition. While the international
trade union organizations could support their brothers and sisters
in Iran, many of whom have not been paid for months. Here are some
of the things that the West can do: Support pro-democratic
activities of Iranian groups working in the West; fund radio and
television broadcasts into Iran.
2. SAUDI ARABIA: ENEMY OR ALLY?
In August, 2002, the Rand Corporation published a report that
described Saudi Arabia as "the kernel of evil, the prime mover,
the most dangerous opponent." The report went on explain that
"Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies. The
Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners
to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to
cheerleader." And yet little seems to have changed in the West's
behaviour towards a regime that has financed terrorism, funneled
millions into madrassas that preach more anti-Western hatred, has
corrupted institutions of higher education like Harvard and
Georgetown University, has bought the favours of Western politicians
and seeks to destroy Western civilisation at every turn. We know the
reason: oil. But until we address the question of Saudi Arabia and
its influence on life in the West we shall have no progress, no
rest.
As Martin Walker[9] suggested: Or one might ask why Saudi Arabia
allows no Christian churches on its soil, when the desert kingdom
feels free to pump some $3 billions a year into building mosques and
subsidizing Imams and proselytizing their puritanical Wahhabi sect
of Islam. Some of that European money the gunmen of Gaza are
spurning might even be used for a referendum on which Europeans are
asked if all the mosques in the EU should be closed until such date
as the Saudis welcome some Christian churches and missionaries into
their land....
UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS
A. HUMAN RIGHTS CENTERS
Within each of their own consulates abroad Western nations can
perhaps set up separate Human Rights Centres, where documentation
about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, and other
Covenants, and literature discussing the principles of Human Rights
should be made available in European languages but perhaps also in
the local languages without references to Islam (or Christianity,
for that matter).
We need to continue Alliance Francaise-style institutions but they
need to be supplemented. Let us continue teaching European languages
in these centres to as many people as possible. Without access to
French, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch the intellectual
horizons of Muslims will remain limited; with these European
languages they will have access to, I hope, other points of view. A
well-stocked library would of course be essential, with works,
without attacking Islam as such, that unashamedly, unapologetically
defend western values: freedom of expression, freedom of conscience,
freedom to believe or not believe, and the principles behind the
separation of church and state.
B. RESTRUCTURING U.N. COMMISSION
Western nations need to insist on the re-structuring of the UN
Commission on Human Rights at Geneva, which failed miserably not
only to halt the genocide in Central Africa but cannot even pass a
resolution condemning the continuing killing and enslavement of
largely Christian civilians in Southern Sudan. As David Littman has
shown over the last five years the whole organisation has become
highly politicised with Muslim nations using the label "Islamophobe"
to silence any criticisms of Islamic countries with a long record of
the abuse of human rights. The Western nations have time and again
given in to pressure from Islamic groups. The West must criticise
the violations of human rights wherever they occur – defend the
Christians of Egypt, the Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, the rights of
apostates, of non-Muslims – I do not hear the voices of justifiable
outrage at the barbarities. By invoking Article 18 of UDHR, we can
legitimately protest the treatment of homosexuals, apostates, and
non-Muslim minorities.
C. DEFEND CHRISTIANS
How did secularization take place in the Christian West? Some of the
factors involved in the secularization of the West were: advances in
knowledge in general and the sciences in particular meant that the
criteria of rationality could be applied to religious dogma with
devastating effect; Biblical Criticism- I shall return to that later
- which led to the abandonment of a literal reading of the Bible;
religious tolerance and religious pluralism that eventually led to
tolerance and pluralism tout court. As scholar Chadwick put it, “once
concede equality to a distinctive group, you could not confine it to
that group. You could not confine it to Protestants; nor, later, to
Christians; nor, at last, to believers in God. A free market in some
opinions became a free market in all opinions...Christian conscience
was the force which began to make Europe ‘secular’; that is, to
allow many religions or no religion in a state, and repudiate any
kind of pressure upon the man who rejected the accepted and
inherited axioms of society...My conscience is my own.”[10]
Thus simply by protecting non-Muslims in Islamic societies we are
encouraging religious pluralism, which in turn can lead to pluralism
in general. By insisting on article 18 of the UDHR which states,
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or
belief...” we are loosening the grip of fanatics, we are
encouraging in the words of Chadwick a free market in all opinions,
in other words, democracy.
Why are Western nations not addressing the human rights violations
of millions of Southern Sudanese Christians by the Muslim North?
Already several hundred thousand people have died, many thousands
have been sold as slaves by Muslim slave traders, YES, in the 21st
Century, slavery flourishes. And yet, the West continues to dither
as the killings and enslavements continue.
While the West continues to apologise about its colonial past,
Turkey refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. The West, at
least, can commemorate it, by allocating one day in the calendar as
a special day of Remembrance for the Armenians.
D. THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN
Central to any enlightenment in Islam must be a change in attitude
to women. Women represent the group that suffers the most in Islamic
societies even where Islamic Law is not applied literally. I discuss
their plight below.
CRITICISM OF ISLAMIC STATES, STATESMEN, AND MULLAHS
A. FATWAS
All Western states must take seriously fatwas issued against any of
their nationals by tinpot mullahs from their pulpits and mosques.
Ambassadors must protest to the governments concerned and demand an
explanation. A few years ago, Khalid Duran wrote a conciliatory,
ecumenical book about Islam and yet he had a fatwa slapped on him by
some mullah in Jordan. The immediate reaction was for Duran to go
into hiding and get 24-hour FBI protection. I believe this reaction
was inadequate. Instead of giving in to the mullahs, Duran and the
State Department should have taken the mullah concerned to court;
the US Ambassador to Jordan should have protested, and asked for the
mullah to be punished.
B. CRITICISE EXTREMIST RHETORIC
Demand the same standard of behaviour from Muslim leaders that we
expect from any civilized nation. The West must criticise Muslim
leaders that spout anti-Semitic or anti-Western rhetoric or hate
speech. Why was Mahathir of Malayasia not brought to task for his
anti-Semitic remarks? It is not enough to speak of diplomatic tact,
real-politic; we must take these remarks seriously. No Western
politician would survive in office one day were he or she to utter
the remarks uttered by Mahathir and others. All Holocaust denial
must also be instantly replied to. As to Ahmedinajad, I am glad to
see that there were official reprimands to his outrageous comments
about Israel. But were they worth anything? Why is the West always
so helpless in the face of such Islamo-fascists?
C. REWRITING TEXTBOOKS
Demand the re-writing of Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian Textbooks preaching
hatred of the West, of Jews, of Non-Muslims. Surely Ambassadors can
legitimately raise concerns about the continuing demonisation of the
West in school textbooks especially in Saudi Arabia, Syria and
Egypt. These issues should also be brought up at the United Nations;
it is scandalous that they have not been brought to the attention of
the Secretary General, the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and
other authorities. (It is another reason why confidence in the
United Nations has fallen in the West) If Muslim children are
taught:
"All religions other than Islam are false. Do not befriend
Christians and Jews, emulation of the infidels leads to loving them,
glorifying them and raising their status in the eyes of the Muslim,
and that is forbidden. You will hardly find any sedition without
Jews having a part in it, they are responsible for World War I, the
French and Russian Revolutions. The West is the source of the past
and present misfortunes of the Muslim world, the spread of Western
practices such as democracy must be resisted."
Then, do we really need to continue asking, "Why do they hate us?"
They hate us because they have been taught to do so. Are we still
going to sit around and debate and maintain that it is poverty which
leads young people to acts of terrorism when we have ample evidence
that their malleable minds have been poisoned for years? The hour is
too late for such shoddy thinking. Middle Eastern autocracies have
an obvious self-interest in perpetuating such hatred of the West,
they are able to maintain their power by blaming all their ills,
failures, corruption, and incompetence on Western–Zionist
conspiracies. Also beware of Asian dictators who pontificate about
"Asian values”, you know that is but a subterfuge to hold onto
power.
D. MUSEUMS OF PRE-ISLAMIC CIVILIZATIONS
Museums can host exhibitions of Pre-Islamic Civilisations of Iran,
Iraq and North Africa, both in the West, and where possible in the
Islamic World. Why? Many sociologists and various ethnic groups
within the Islamic world have realised that many young people
brought up with Islam, albeit in a mild informal way, cling onto
"Islam" as their sole cultural identity, providing much sense of
belonging, security and anchor among insecurity and drifting. But if
taught that a part of their cultural heritage includes the splendid
civilisations of Pre-Islamic Iran – witness Persepolis, Darius,
Xerxes; or Egypt and with its magnificent monuments, and Iraq, the
cradle of civilisations, of Babylonians – would we not be educating
a generation of children with a wider and more tolerant world view?
It is evident that many Iranians especially those living in the West
have no sense of cultural inferiority even though they have
abandoned Islam, because they have a just sense of their Pre-Islamic
heritage. Here is what I wrote ten years ago in my first book, Why I
am Not a Muslim:
"It was not until the 19th century that a Muslim country took,
once again, an interest in her pre-Islamic past. In 1868, Sheikh
Rifa al- Tahtawi, the Egyptian man of letters, poet and historian,
published a history of Egypt, giving full attention to her pharaonic
past. Up to then, of course, histories of Egypt had begun with the
Arab conquests. He sought to define Egyptian identity in national
and patriotic terms - not in terms of Islam, or Panarabism. Perhaps
for the first time in Islamic history, someone tried to see his
country as having a 'living, continuing identity through several
changes of language, religion, and civilization.'[11]
"The reason Sheikh Rifa's achievement is so important is that for
the first time since the early days of the Shu'ubiyya, someone dared
to challenge the official Muslim dogma that pre-Islamic times were
times of barbarism and ignorance; and unworthy of consideration. He
dared sing the praise of pagan Egypt, he dared give voice to the
thought that there were, after all, alternatives to Islamic
civilization, that civilization did and can take different forms. If
this process of historical education were to continue – after all,
Iraq and Iran can also boast of a magnificent pre-Islamic past - in
other Muslim countries, it would lead to a much-needed broadening of
the intellectual life, a deeper tolerance for other ways of life, a
simple expansion of historical knowledge that has remained so
limited and narrow. Greater knowledge of the pre-Islamic past can
only lead to the lessening of fanaticism. If pharaonic and later
Christian Egypt were seen to be an equal source of pride, then would
not the Copts be accepted as fellow Egyptians, instead of being the
persecuted minority in their own ancestral land that they actually
are? Would we not get a truer Algerian identity, asks Slimane
Zeghidour, if we acknowledged our common and varied past - Berber,
Roman, Arab, French?[12] The idea of change and continuity will also
have to become a part of the Muslim's consciousness, if Muslim
societies are to move forward - this will only occur with the
recognition of the pre-Islamic past, and a just appraisal of the
period of European colonialism.
The deliberate ignoring of the pre-Islamic past has had a subtler
corrupting influence on the peoples of the Muslim world, as Naipaul
put it, "the faith abolished the past. And when the past was
abolished like this, more than an idea of history suffered. Human
behavior, and ideals of good behavior, could suffer." Everything is
seen through the distorting perspective of the "only true faith,"
human behavior is judged according to whether it has contributed to
the establishment of this one "truth" - truth, courage, and heroism,
by definition, can only belong to "our side"; the period before the
coming of the faith was to be judged in one way," what lay outside
it was to be judged in another. The faith altered values, ideas of
good behavior, human judgments. The fact that this "true faith" was
established with much greed and cruelty is overlooked or excused -
cruelty in the service of the faith is even commendable, and
divinely sanctioned. This perverted division of the world into the
faithful and infidel has had a disastrous effect on the perception
of even nominally secular-minded Arab intellectuals."[13]
DEFEND WESTERN CIVILIZATION
By hosting exhibitions in Islamic countries – perhaps through
Western Cultural Centres - one could proudly present the
achievements of Western Arts, and Science. Classical Music concerts
can also play a subtle role in showing that Western Civilisation
indeed does possess spiritual values in the music of Beethoven,
Mozart or Verdi.
I shall return to the Defense of Western values a little later.
WHAT VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS CAN DO
TRADE UNIONS
Trade Unions must support their fellow workers
WOMEN’S GROUPS
Women's Groups. As Phyllis Chesler recently reminded us, "Most of
America's left-dominated intelligentsia deny, support, or
underestimate Islamism and the real meaning of Islamic jihad."
Western feminists must be bolder in defending Muslim women suffering
from gender apartheid, honour killings, genital mutilation and
forced marriages.
IN THE WEST
A. WHAT THE STATE CAN DO
1. STOP ALL IMMIGRATION FROM MUSLIM COUNTRIES
Stop all Immigration from Muslim countries. One may legitimately ask
how simply halting immigration can help bring about an enlightenment
in Islam. The greater the number of Muslims, not born in the West,
will only make the possibility of changing mentalities, teaching
tolerance, and assimilation into Western society where freedom of
religion guarantees their freedom to worship in whatever way they
see fit, but which also becomes a matter of personal conviction,
private conscience, all the more difficult. The greater the number,
greater the chance of Muslims gravitating into enclaves where they
risk being influenced by radical Islamists. Western states will
simply find it impossible to allocate resources to educating Muslims
into the values of religious tolerance the greater their demographic
presence.
There was a flurry of reproaches when in the province of Baden-Wurtenberg,
in Germany, Heribert Rech of the ruling Christian Democratic Union
party advocated a 30-topic loyalty test for applicants, especially
Muslim applicants, to become naturalized citizens. Every applicant
for naturalization had to concur with the free democratic structure
of the German constitution, and accept the following principles,
among others:
1. Only the State, in accordance with the prevailing laws passed in
Parliament, has the power to administer and enforce the law.
2. The equality of rights of man and woman.
3. Acceptance of the Principles of Democracy.
4. Freedom of Expression-freedom to criticise religion, even though
it may offend some.
Since 21% of Muslims living in Germany believe the German
constitution incompatible with the Koran, and combined with the fact
that many Muslims feel they owe their allegiance to the Umma, the
Greater Islamic Community, rather than the Western state they find
themselves in, these kinds of questions seem, in principle, to me to
be legitimate. These questions become a necessity when Muslims apply
for sensitive jobs in the military, secret services and state
government where national security issues are paramount, and where
it seems perfectly in order to ask where the loyalties of the
applicants lie – with the State or Islam. These are uncomfortable
questions to pose in a liberal democracy but I do not think we can
pretend that real problems of loyalty do not exist.
2. FUND EXPATRIATE SECULAR GROUPS
Fund Expatriate Secular Groups (e.g. Iranian groups such as No to
Political Islam) that are fighting against fundamentalism in their
own countries. They are all desperately underfunded. The West can
make use of defectors from Islam (apostates) in the way the West
used defectors from communism.
As I wrote in Leaving Islam,[14] there are very useful analogies to
be drawn between Communism and Islam, as Maxime Rodinson[15] and
Bertrand Russell, have pointed out, between the mindset of the
communists of the 1930s and the Islamists of the 1990s and 21st
century. As Russell said, “Among religions, Bolshevism
[Communism] is to be reckoned with Mohammedanism rather than with
Christianity and Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism are primarily
personal religions, with mystical doctrines and a love of
contemplation. Mohammedanism and Bolshevism are practical, social,
unspiritual, concerned to win the empire of this world.”[16]
Hence the interest in the present situation and its haunting
parallels with the communism of the western intellectuals in the
1930s. As Koestler said, “You hate our Cassandra cries and resent us
as allies, but when all is said, we ex-Communists are the only
people on your side who know what it’s all about.”[17] As Crossman
wrote in his introduction, “Silone [an ex-Communist] was joking
when he said to Togliatti that the final battle would be between the
Communists and ex-Communists. But no one who has not wrestled with
Communism as a philosophy and Communists as political opponents can
really understand the values of Western Democracy. The Devil once
lived in Heaven, and those who have not met him are unlikely to
recognize an angel when they see one.”[18]
Communism has been defeated, at least for the moment, Islamism has
not, and unless a reformed, tolerant, liberal kind of Islam emerges
soon, perhaps the final battle will be between Islam and Western
Democracy. And these ex-Muslims, to echo Koestler’s words, on the
side of Western Democracy, are the only ones who know what it’s all
about, and we would do well to listen to their Cassandra cries."
3. THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN
Central to any reform or enlightenment of Islam particularly in the
West must be the safeguarding of the rights of women. Often women
born into Muslim families in the West suffer all sorts of
indignities, domestic violence, genital mutilation, arranged
marriages, unequal treatment, honour crimes, and yet have no means
of defending their human rights since often the police and other
civil and secular authorities refuse to act for fear of offending
Muslims and their religious and cultural traditions. Multicultural
attitudes, and political correctness in Western societies lead to
tragic conclusions for many young Muslim women. All women regardless
of ethnic or religious origin have the right to the protection of
the state, even if it means offending religious traditions. Not all
religious traditions are worthy of respect, and many are counter to
several of the articles of the UDHR of 1948. Practices like polygamy
must be strictly banned; the laws of the state must override any
religious traditions that deny basic human rights to women.
There are good arguments for banning of religious scarves in state
schools, since, in France, for example, there is a strict separation
of state and church and there has been a rigorous ban on wearing
outward signs of religious affiliation. Such a ban was introduced to
avoid the fracturing of not only schools but also society as a whole
into religious factions, and the risks of a descent into communalism
are real and are to be fought. Second, Muslim girls are often
coerced into wearing such scarves by Muslim men, and wearing them is
not the free choice of normal ten-year-old girls. French Muslim
women actually approved of the French Government's decision to
uphold the ban.
The State authorities must also resist pressure from Muslim men and
Muslim religious authorities to segregate Muslim girls from certain
school activities deemed unIslamic. Public swimming pools must never
be segregated to appease Muslim demands.
4. EDUCATION
NO FUNDING FAITH BASED SCHOOLS
No to funding faith based schools. No secular state should finance
faith-based schools; such an act would be fundamentally divisive. It
is the State's responsibility to teach certain values, a common core
of principles that will produce responsible citizens with a minimum
set of allegiances not only to that State but also to all his or her
fellow human beings. Faith-based schools will only create
allegiances to one particular faith, will create a feeling of
exclusiveness undesirable in a society where we have to learn to
respect and live with all kinds of different faiths. Muslim schools
in the West may well perpetuate the inequality of treatment of women
found in Islamic countries and Islamic doctrine. They may also avoid
the teaching of science deemed unIslamic, or may even teach
prejudices such as anti-Semitism, and anti-westernism. Particularly
in Muslim schools, there is a very real danger that pupils will be
taught that the secular constitutions and secular laws are unworthy
of respect, and that all Muslims should and do recognize only the
authority of and allegiance to God's rulings as revealed in their
Holy Text, the Koran. There is ample evidence that this is exactly
what is being taught in Muslim schools in the West.
Not only will faith-based schools further isolate children into
cultural ghettoes , they will cut them off from the wider culture of
the host country , from the rich cultural and spiritual heritage of
the West , which is the equal of any civilisation that has ever
existed.
HOLOCAUST
French teachers, in recent years, have been intimidated by Muslim
pupils into not teaching the Holocaust. The common core curriculum
must be maintained in the face of such blunt terror activities. Such
a curriculum must include history, and under World War II, it is
perfectly legitimately and important to teach the Holocaust
SCIENCE
An introduction to Science must also introduce pupils to principles
of scientific methodology. Biology, of course, does not make any
sense without the theoretical underpinning of Darwin's Theory of
Evolution. As a trained and fairly experienced Primary School
Teacher, I know that children can grasp the essentials of the theory
easily, and are fascinated by it. To encourage a child's natural
curiosity – man, as Aristotle put it, desires to know – is the
surest way to create future, thoughtful and secular citizens.
HUMAN RIGHTS: SEPARATION OF RELIGION FROM STATE
All pupils need to be taught something about Human Rights, the
workings of Civil Societies, and the reasons for the Separation of
Religion and State. The Separation of Religion and State is
essential in any multi-faith state, and is the only way to guarantee
that the state will not break down because of religious
factionalism, sectarianism. The organisation of society must be
based on appeals to reason and not to some immutable set of rules
established in the Bronze Age. All laws must be secular, and are
designed to ensure peace, and protect the freedoms of all the
citizens of the state regardless of religion, gender and class. All
disputes must be lifted out of the religious sphere. As Pope
Benedict recently pointed out in his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est,
"A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the
Church", where politics is "the sphere of the autonomous use of
reason. For the Pope, the role of the Church is to "bring about
openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good," not to
"impose on those who do not share the faith ways of thinking and
modes of conduct proper to faith."
COMPARATIVE RELIGION
I think the most effective way to engender tolerance would be to
teach, as neutrally as possible, Comparative Religion with equal
time devoted to each of the major world religions. One could perhaps
celebrate the major religious festivals and ceremonies within the
classroom, each child being taught the basic tenets of each religion
with due respect. Here it is essential also to teach about atheism,
agnosticism, and secular humanism, and their objections to the
"historical" religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. An
exposure to a healthy dose of skepticism is, as the French
philosopher Raymond Aron once said, the best antidote to fanaticism.
In Great Britain, in early 2004, a spokesman for the Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority stated that atheism would be taught during
religious education classes since "there are many children in
England who have no religious affiliation and their beliefs and
ideas, whatever they are, should be taken very seriously." While at
least fourteen per cent of the world population is thought to be
non-religious, unbelief in Europe varies between thirty per cent in
France to as high as 59% in the Czech Republic.[19]
HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY
Such studies on world religions could perhaps be prefaced by courses
in critical thinking, and the principles of historical methodology,
which would, in part, explain the agnostic's skepticism to the
claims of the three Abrahamic religions.
TEACHING OF WESTERN HISTORY, OF WESTERN ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE ARTS AND
SCIENCES.
Do we have to go on apologising for the sins our fathers? Do we
still have to apologise for, for example, the British Empire, when
in fact, the British presence in India led to the Indian
Renaissance, resulted in famine relief, railways, roads and
irrigation schemes, eradication of cholera, the civil service, the
establishment of a universal educational system where none existed
before, the institution of elected parliamentary democracy; the rule
of law, and the nature of that law was the best of what the British
left behind? What of the British architecture of Bombay and
Calcutta? The British even gave back to the Indians their own past:
it was European scholarship, archaeology and research that uncovered
the Greatness that was India; it was British Government that did its
best to save and conserve the monuments that were a witness to that
past glory. British Imperialism preserved where earlier Islamic
Imperialism destroyed thousands of Hindu temples.
On the world stage, should we really apologise for Dante,
Shakespeare, and Goethe? Mozart, Beethoven and Bach? Rembrandt,
Vermeer, Van Gogh, Breughel, Ter Borch? Galileo, Huygens,
Copernicus, Newton and Darwin?, Penicillin and computers?, The
Olympic Games and Football?, Human Rights and Parliamentary
Democracy?. The West is the source of the liberating ideas of
individual liberty, political democracy, the rule of law, human
rights, cultural freedom. It is the West that has raised the status
of women, fought against slavery, defended freedom of enquiry,
expression and conscience. No, the West needs no lectures on the
superior virtue of societies who keep their women in subjection, cut
off their clitorises, stone them to death for alleged adultery,
throw acid on their faces, or deny the human rights of those
considered to belong to lower castes. [20]
How can we expect immigrants to integrate into Western society when
they are at the same time being taught that the West is decadent, a
den of iniquity, the source of all evil, racist, imperialist and to
be despised? Why should they, in the words of the African-American
writer James Baldwin, want to integrate into a sinking ship? Why do
they all want to immigrate to the West, and not Saudi Arabia? They
should be taught about the centuries of struggle that resulted in
the freedoms that they and everyone else for that matter, cherish,
enjoy, and avail themselves of; of the individuals and groups who
fought for these freedoms and who are despised and forgotten today;
the freedoms that the much of the rest of world envies, admires and
tries to emulate. "When the Chinese students cried and died for
democracy in Tiananmen Square [in 1989], they brought with them not
representations of Confucius or Buddha but a model of the Statue of
Liberty."[21]
KORANIC CRITICISM
SPINOZA AND THE TRACTATUS
Reforming Islam only implies adjustments and modifications to what
would remain essentially a theological construct, and if applied
would result in a still theologically conceived and ordered
society.[22] What we need is an Enlightenment in the Islamic world,
of the Islamic mind-set or worldview. For the Enlightenment marks
the most dramatic step towards secularization and rationalization in
Europe's history, and has had no less a significance for the entire
world. Both the Renaissance and the Reformation were incomplete. "By
contrast," writes Jonathan Israel, "the Enlightenment –European and
global – not only attacked and severed the roots of traditional
European culture in the sacred, magic, kingship, and hierarchy,
secularizing all institutions and ideas, but (intellectually and to
a degree in practice) effectively demolished all legitimization of
monarchy, aristocracy, woman's subordination to man, ecclesiastical
authority, and slavery, replacing these with the principles of
universality, equality, and democracy."[23]
"Spinoza and Spinozism were in fact the intellectual backbone of the
European Radical Enlightenment everywhere, not only in the
Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, and Scandinavia but also
Britain and Ireland."[24] And the work that did more than any other
to bring about this profound revolution in human history was
Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico- Politicus published clandestinely
but nonetheless courageously by the Dutch publisher Jan Rieuwertsz
[c.1616-87] in Amsterdam in 1670. For Spinoza the Bible is purely a
human and secular text, theology is not an independent source of
truth.
"...Spinoza offers an elaborate theory of what religion is, and how
and why religion construes the world as it does, creating a new
science of contextual Bible criticism. Analyzing usage and intended
meanings, and extrapolating from context, using reason as an
analytical tool but not expecting to find philosophical truth
embedded in Scriptural concepts." [25] In his attack on the very
possibility of miracles, and the credulity of the multitude,
Spinoza's Tractatus made a profound impression everywhere –in
England, Italy, Germany and France. Spinoza, in effect, denounces
clerical authority for exploiting the credulity, ignorance and
superstition of the masses. Spinoza`s ideas were easy to grasp in
one sense even by the unlettered , ideas such "as the identification
of God with the universe , the rejection of organized religion , the
abolition of Heaven and Hell , together with reward and punishment
in the hereafter , a morality of individual happiness in the here
and now , and the doctrine that there is no reality beyond the
unalterable laws of Nature , and consequently , no Revelation ,
miracles or prophecy ".[26] Ecce Spinoza's Biblical Criticism.
Koranic Criticism, on the other hand, has lagged far behind. But
surely Muslims AND non- Muslims have the right to critically examine
the sources, the history and dogma of Islam. The right to criticise
is a right of which Muslims avail themselves in their frequent
denunciations of Western culture , in terms which would have been
deemed racist, neo-colonialist or imperialist had they been directed
against Islam by any European. Without criticism of Islam, Islam
will remain unassailed in its dogmatic, fanatical, mediaeval
fortress; ossified, totalitarian and intolerant. It will continue to
stifle thought, human rights, individuality; originality and truth.
Western intellectuals and Islamologists have totally failed in their
duties as intellectuals. They have betrayed their calling by
abandoning their critical faculties when it comes to Islam.
Some Islamologists have themselves noticed the appalling trend in
their colleagues. Karl Binswanger has remarked on the "dogmatic
Islamophilia" of most Arabists. Jacques Ellul complained in 1983
that "in France it is no longer acceptable to criticise Islam or the
Arab countries." Already in 1968, Maxime Rodinson had written, "An
historian like Norman Daniel has gone so far as to number among the
conceptions permeated with medievalism or imperialism, any
criticisms of the Prophet's moral attitudes and to accuse of like
tendencies any exposition of Islam and its characteristics by means
of the normal mechanisms of human history. Understanding has given
way to apologetics pure and simple."
Patricia Crone and Ibn Rawandi have remarked that western
scholarship lost its critical attitude to the sources of the origins
of Islam around the time of the First World War. Many Western
scholars of the 1940s were committed Christians, such as Montgomery
Watt who saw a great danger in the rise of Communism in the Islamic
world, and thus welcomed any resurgence of Islam. They were
insufficiently critical of the Islamic, Arabic sources. John
Wansbrough has noted that the Koran "as a document susceptible of
analysis by the instruments and techniques of Biblical criticism it
is virtually unknown." By 1990, we still have the scandalous
situation described by Andrew Rippin, "... I have often
encountered individuals who come to the study of Islam with a
background in the historical study of the Hebrew Bible or early
Christianity, and who express surprise at the lack of critical
thought that appears in introductory textbooks on Islam. The notion
that 'Islam was born in the clear light of history' still seems to
be assumed by a great many writers of such texts. While the need to
reconcile varying historical traditions is generally recognised,
usually this seems to pose no greater problem to the authors than
having to determine 'what makes sense' in a given situation. To
students acquainted with approaches such as source criticism, oral
formulaic composition, literary analysis and structuralism, all
quite commonly employed in the study of Judaism and Christianity,
such naive historical study seems to suggest that Islam is being
approached with less than academic candour."
There is, among many well-meaning Western intellectuals, academics,
and Islamologists, the belief that somehow Islam will reform itself
without anyone anywhere ruffling any feathers, disturbing Muslim
sensibilities, or saying anything at all about the Koran. This is
wishful thinking. If one desires to bring about an Enlightenment in
the Islamic world or among Muslims living in the West, at some
stage, someone somewhere will have to apply to the Koran the same
techniques of textual analysis as were applied to the Bible by
Spinoza and others, especially in Germany during the 19th Century.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia, and other Islamic countries (for
example ,Brunei) have established Chairs of Islamic Studies in
prestigious Western Universities, which are encouraged to present a
favourable image of Islam. Scientific research, leading to objective
truth, no longer seems to be the goal. Critical examination of the
sources or the Koran is discouraged. Scholars, such as Daniel
Easterman[27], have even lost their posts for not teaching about
Islam in the way approved by Saudi Arabia.
In December, 2005, Georgetown and Harvard Universities accepted $20
million each from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for programmes in
Islamic Studies. Such money can only corrupt the original intent of
all higher institutions of education, that is, the search for truth.
Now, we shall only have "Islamic truth" that is acceptable to the
Royal Saudi family, a family that has financed terrorism, anti-Westernism
and anti-Semitism for over thirty years. Previous donations from
various Saudi sources have included gifts of $20 million, $5
million, and $2 million dollars to the University of Arkansas, the
University of California, Berkeley; and Harvard respectively.
INSTITUTE OF KORANIC RESEARCH
The European Union urgently needs to establish an independent
Institute of Koranic Research, devoted to unhampered, scientific
enquiry, armed with all the necessary tools and techniques of modern
research, whether philological, philosophical or hermeneutical. Such
an Institute could be financed with just a fraction of the total
Pentagon budget in persecuting the war in Iraq, or more generally
the War on Terror. The Institute of Koranic Research would be
expected to publish an academic journal, to house an Orientalist
Library, and to make available to the greater public the results of
its research. Already, a group of scholars represented in the
collection Die dunklen Anfänge edited by Karl-Heinz Ohlig and
Gerd-R.Puin has expressed an interest in the establishment of such
an institute. Koranic Research is falling behind Biblical Research:
in the 21st century, there is still no critical edition of the Koran
that takes into account all the thousands of variants found in
manuscripts or classical Koranic commentaries or books of Hadith
(collections of Traditions). There is no critical catalogue of all
the extant Koranic manuscripts in the Western libraries, Museums and
Private collections. Many important early Koranic manuscripts remain
unpublished. There is no reliable history of Koranic orthography.
INSTITUTE FOR SYRIAC STUDIES
This naturally leads to the most fascinating book ever written on
the language of the Koran, and if proved to be correct in its main
thesis, probably the most important book ever written on the Holy
Book of the Muslims. Christoph Luxenberg’s Die Syro-Aramaische
Lesart des Koran [Verlag : Das Arabische Buch; Berlin, 2000]
available only in German came out just over five years ago, but has
already had an enthusiastic reception, particularly among those
scholars with a knowledge of several Semitic languages, at
Princeton, Yale, Berlin, Potsdam, Erlangen, Aix-en-Provence, and the
Oriental Institute in Beirut.
Luxenberg tries to show that many of the obscurities of the Koran
disappear if we read certain words as being Syriac and not Arabic.
Syriac is an Aramaic dialect and the language of Eastern
Christianity, and a Semitic language closely related Hebrew and
Arabic. Luxenberg's research has underlined the importance of
research into Eastern Christianity. There are hundreds of Syriac and
Karshuni [Arabic language but using Syriac script] manuscripts which
have not even been catalogued scattered round the world. There is an
urgent need to examine the sectarian milieu of the Near East out of
which Islam emerged, and this means research into Syriac history and
literature.
TRANSLATION FUNDS
Any researcher, writer or publisher in the field of Islamic Studies
immediately comes up against the language barrier. Over the last ten
years I have been involved in bringing scholarly but difficult to
locate articles to the attention of a larger public. (This effort
has been much appreciated by specialists as well.) Many of these
articles are in German, and have never been translated. But
publishers are reluctant to pay for their translation given the
extraordinary high costs of translations. I have nonetheless put
together many anthologies of such articles in English that examine
the sources of Islam and the Koran in a critical manner. But they
need to be made available in all the major European languages and of
course they should be translated into Arabic, Persian (farsi), and
Urdu, at least. My last collection, What the Koran Really Says, was
a heavy tome of 782 pages. You cannot imagine the cost of
translating such a book into Dutch or French. But I assure you that,
in the long run, it is only this kind of research - made available
to as wide an audience as possible - that will bring about an
Enlightenment in Islam, in the Islamic world.
A major task of the Institute of Koranic Studies would be
translations of works like Luxenberg's Die Syro-Aramäische Lesart
des Koran, which remains untranslated, five years after its
publication, despite its importance in the history of Koranic
research. Many of the works of the Dutch Orientalist, Snouck
Hurgronje remain untranslated, such as his account of his pilgrimage
to Mecca disguised as a Muslim. Even the classic study of the Koran,
Noldeke's Geschichte des Qorans has never been translated. But such
a translation would be major task that only a properly funded and
properly staffed Institute could carry out.
REASON NOT REVELATION
In Conclusion: First, we who live in the free West and enjoy freedom
of expression and scientific inquiry should encourage a rational
look at Islam, should encourage Koranic criticism. Only Koranic
criticism can help Muslims to look at their Holy Scripture in a more
rational and objective way, and prevent young Muslims from being
fanaticized by the Koran’s less tolerant verses
Second, the only solution is to bring the questions of human rights
out of the religious sphere and into the sphere of the civil state,
in other words to separate religion from the state and promote a
secular state where Islam is relegated to the personal. Here, Islam
would continue to provide consolation, comfort, and meaning, as it
has to millions of individuals for centuries, yet it would not
decree the mundane affairs of state.
----------------------------------
[1] Jonathan I. Israel. Radical Enlightenment, Philosophy and the
Making of Modernity 1650-1750. New York: Oxford University Press,
2001.
[2] The whole section on Poverty and Militant Islam leans heavily on
the article by Daniel Pipes, God and Mammon: Does Poverty Cause
Militant Islam, National Interest Winter 2002.
[3] B. Netanyahu, “Today, We Are all Americans ” in The New York
Post, 21 September, 2001.
[4] Steven Emerson, International Terrorism and Immigration Policy
January 25, 2000 United States House of Representatives Judiciary
Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. House Subcommittee on
Immigration and Claims Hearing on International Terrorism and
Immigration Policy.
[5] J. Conrad, Under Western Eyes, Harmondworth: Penguin Books, 1957,
p. 85
[6] Sayeed Abdul A'la Maududi, Jihad in Islam. 7th Edition December
2001, Lahore Pakistan, p. 8
[7] Sayeed Abdul A'la Maududi, Jihad in Islam p. 9
[8] Quoted by Eliot A. Cohen, World War IV, Let’s Call This Conflict
What It Is, Nov. 20, 2001, Opinion Journal (www.opinionjournal.com)
[9] UPI ,Washington, Feb.3.
[10] O. Chadwick, The Secularization of the European Mind in the
Nineteenth Century, Cambridge, 1975, pp. 21-23
[11] B. Lewis, Islam and The West. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1993, p. 172.
[12] Telerama [Paris] 1 July 1992
[13] New York Review of Books, January 31, 1991
[14] Ibn Warraq, Leaving Islam, Apostates Speak Out, Amherst:
Prometheus Books, p. 136
[15] Maxime Rodinson: Islam et communisme, une ressemblance
frappante, in Le Figaro [Paris, daily newspaper], 28 Sep. 2001
[16] B. Russell, Theory and Practice of Bolshevism, London, 1921 pp
.5, 29, 114
[17] A. Koestler, et al, Intro. by R. Crossman, The God That Failed,
Hamish Hamilton, London, 1950, p. 7
[18] A. Koestler, et al, Intro. by R. Crossman, The God That Failed,
Hamish Hamilton, London, 1950, p. 16
[19] Statistic provided by the Czech Statistical Office, and
available online at Wikipedia.com, article, "Atheism.”
[20] A.M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America, Reflections
on a Multicultural Society, New York: Norton, 1992, p. 128
[21] A.M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America, Reflections
on a Multicultural Society, New York: Norton, 1992, p. 129
[22] Formulation borrowed from: Jonathan I. Israel, Radical
Enlightenment, Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750, New
York: Oxford University Press, 2001. p. vi
[23] Ibid., p. vi
[24] Ibid., p. vi
[25] Ibid., p. 202
[26] Jonathan I. Israel, Radical Enlightenment, Philosophy and the
Making of Modernity 1650-1750, New York: Oxford University Press,
2001. p. 296
[27] D. Easterman, New Jerusalems, London, 1992, pp. 92-93.
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Ibn Warraq is the author of Why I Am Not a Muslim and the editor of The Origins of the Koran, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, and What the Koran Really Says.
Name: news journal
Date: Sunday September 09, 2007
Time: 10:18:45 -0700
Comment
Islamists biggest weapon is misinformation. Portraying a false image and fooling non-muslims into looking at a few good things (same or more of which can be found in any good non-islamic spiritual teacher) and enlist them to glorify islam. At the same time the evil of islam is well hidden until it is time. Most dangerous are the non-muslims with this half-knowledge because they act on the behalf of the islamists. They don't take the time to understand what it is all about before talking about it check this out... http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709090362
Name: vbv
Date: Sunday September 09, 2007
Time: 23:19:30 -0700
Comment
What do muslims know of their glorious pre-islamic past in countries like India,Pakistan and Bangladesh? Absolutely nothing! For them history begins with Mo ,their so-called prophet and also ends with it. They hold their own ancestors ,the Indus Valley Civilisation,the authors of Vedas, Puranas,Upanishads,Yoga, Ayurveda,the Epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana, or classics of Kalidas,,the various philosophies (such as Advaita,Samkhya, Mimamsa,etc.),or even modern thinkers like Gandhi,Radhakrishnan,Aurobindo,Tagore,etc.,in utter contempt! They would rather uphold in great esteem tyrants,despots,madcaps,bigots and immoral muslims like Mahmud of Ghazni,Mohamed Ghori,Aurangzeb,Tughlak,and the like. These things are deeply ingrained in their minds generation after generation that they simply cannot see beyond their rotten idealogies. Further, I was watching the Notorious "Q TV" , where the compere was shamelessly ascribing the thoughts of Francis Bacon,and several other Western thinkers' philosophies,science and other matters to Koran. It is a joke that a 600 or less pages of the 'holy shit' is deemed to contain all science,philosophy and all intellectual matters humans have discovered and yet to be discovered! This is how the misinformation is spread.It is an insult to human endeavours and civilization,an insult to scientists and thinkers who had dedicated their life to further science,etc. Does Koran say that it invented the Electric bulb before Thomas Alva Edison,or radio before Marconi,what about automobiles,mobile phones,spaceships,all the wonders of modern science and technology??? Koran with all the foreboding of 'knowledge' kept the Arabs and the conquerred peoples in Dark Ages and in utter ignorance! Islam only teaches hatred ,disparagement of all non-islamic cultures and civilization.It calls all pre-islamic cultures "Jahilyas" (dark ignorance ,an epiteth that would most suitably apply to islam itself) and a muslim should wipe out their ancestors' heritage in favour of an Arabic slavery! The mullahs, kazhis,Peers,Imams etc. contribute to this fundamentalistic doctrine,which also helps in keeping the ignorant masses firmly in their grips to do all their iommoral biddings.The World would definitely be a better, prosperous and more peaceful place without the rotten creed of islam!
Name: nm
Date: Sunday September 09, 2007
Time: 23:40:48 -0700
Comment
Please spread the habit of meditation in muslims. Let them see their inner self and get enlightened so that they could get out of their jihadi mindset.
Name: vbv
Date: Monday September 10, 2007
Time: 00:58:55 -0700
Comment
You are right when you said the British rule in India was beneficial also as it gave us the roadways,the railways,post&Telegraphic services,the Indian Civil Services,infact even a secular governance and education. The Indian Renaissance came about because of British rule,we were able to throw away the rotten islamic influences. The great Indian pre-islamic history was known to us thanks to the works of dedicated European indologists. We owe a lot to the western,secular education.Infact we rediscovered India ,thanks to the Britishers and also the European indologists. The author is right in emphasizing this and suggesting similar measures in teaching Western Civilisation,Pre-Islamic Civilisation,comparative religions,science ,technology,philosophy,art,socialogy,gealogy,palentology,archealogy,etc. in those islamic countries help them get a true and broad perspective of the world,learn to respect others point of view,appreciate Shakespeare,Tolstoy,Victor Hugo,Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali,etc. The archtecture of the Great Pyramids,Taj Mahal,Angkor Vat temple,The St. Paul's Cathedral,Notredam Cathdral,the magnifent modern architectures,etc. Infact appreciate the sheer beauty and magnififent variety the world has for us ,rather than being in a rathole of only Islam!This may bring about some degree of enlightenment and tolerance,I ardently like to hope so!
Name: India and the British
Date: Monday September 10, 2007
Time: 05:31:10 -0700
Comment
At the time the British entered India, the economy was flourishing and India was exporting its goods across the world. Indian goods, especially textiles were doing so well in Europe that European manufacturers had to put pressure on their respective governments to regulate the flow of Indian goods into their countries. The entire country was completely self-sufficient right down to the villages. They were able to manufacture what they needed, and what they could not was easily available within the country at reasonable prices. The British changed all that, they turned the entire economy into an import dependent, non self-sustaining one. When the British were ordinary traders, they were simply another buyer or seller in the market, and hence the forces of demand and supply would dictate the price levels. By the close of the eighteenth Century the industrial revolution was in full swing in Europe. The manufacturing industry was booming, and there was tremendous demand for raw materials. The price levels of goods in India was fairly low, and the English East India Company and its employees were able to make handsome profits. One they became the rulers of India, the situation began to change drastically. They were now able to dictate price levels, and hence substantially increase their profits. They would often use the money they obtained from taxes to fund such activities. This money which should have been spent on the welfare of the people was instead used to increase the profits. Export duties were fixed such that Indian exporters could not compete with British traders. They fixed internal duties at levels where it was cheaper for people to buy goods imported by the British then to buy locally made goods. The British had set up a one sided free trade, while the Indian economy was thrown open to the entire world, India did not have similar access to foreign markets. Hence Indian industry suffered, they had no markets to sell their products in, either at home or abroad, and this eventually led to a complete collapse of local industry. India, which was a rich exporting country, was reduced to a poor raw material exporting economy. The British would use their political might to buy the raw materials cheap and they would send it to Britain where they would make the finished goods. These would be shipped back to India and sold at a massive profit. These goods easily competed with locally made goods, as local goods were more expensive. This was not only because of the abnormal duties but also due to the fact that local goods were largely hand made as compared to the machine made British goods which were cheaper to produce. As the British gained territory ,slowly the entire country became dependent on the English East India Company for their basic necessities. The British began to also reorganize the agricultural system. Once they were in control of the land, they were able to dictate to the farmers which crops they wished them to cultivate. Since they were solely concerned with making profits, their policies did not take into account the needs of the Indian people. Their land revenue reforms placed unrealistically high demands on the land lords, which could only be met by producing cash crops, which the British preferred as they were more profitable. This produced disastrous consequences, soon there were massive famines as the amount of food being cultivated fell. The British, more concerned with making their profits, did little to help. The economic condition of the people, particularly of the peasants, declined and the nation slipped into poverty. A unique feature of the British economic exploitation of India was that for the first time, massive amounts of wealth was being drained out of the Indian economy into that of a foreign country. Although in the past India had experienced many foreign invasions, none of them consistently drained the wealth of India for such a long period as the British did. Even wasteful Indian kings, who did little welfare work with the taxes they collected, still inevitably spent the money within the Indian economy. While some historians hold that after the British crown took over the rule of the country, from the English East India Company , the economic plunder of India lessened, this was hardly so. Right until the point of independence, the economic policy of the British was guided not by the interests of India, but by the needs of the British Industry. While many would say that the British did spend a lot of the money it earned in infrastructural facilities like railways and communication facilities, the truth is, such expenditure was done so as to improve the movement of goods in the country, hence increasing the profits of the British. Under the British system, where India became a major importer of foreign goods, a tremendous amount of wealth was drained out. The British would also remit a considerable amount of the money that they earned from the collection of taxes to Britain, where the money played an important part in the development of the British economy. As John Sullivan, who was the President of the Board of revenue for Madras said "Our system acts very much like a sponge, drawing up all the good things from the banks of the Ganges, and squeezing them down on to the banks of the Thames".
Name: Andrew Stunich
Date: Monday September 10, 2007
Time: 18:43:49 -0700
Comment
Great Speech. Words to live by.