Posted on 02/12/2006 5:31:47 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
Scholar answers American-Statesman's questions in advance of his visit to Austin this week.
By Eileen Flynn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Reza Aslan is a writer and scholar on Islam who argues in his recent book, "No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam," that the faith is undergoing a reformation. He will be the keynote speaker Thursday at a University of Texas conference on Islam.
Aslan spoke with the Austin American-Statesman last week. Edited excerpts follow:
Austin American-Statesman: Muslims overseas have reacted violently to Danish cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. Why this extreme response?
Reza Aslan: It is an extreme response, but it took months to get to this point. The cartoons came out five months ago, and for a large amount of time, because they were so deliberately provocative and promote these widespread and noxious stereotypes, the response of the European Muslim community was to get some sort of retraction, some kind of apology through largely peaceful and fairly effective economic boycotts.
It was only months later when that avenue failed that it spread into the Muslim world where, as we know, there are plenty of political and religious leaders who are more than happy to use any excuse to further this propaganda that Islam is somehow under threat by the Western world.
Austin American-Statesman: Christians have seen some pretty ugly depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. But you haven't seen this kind of violent reaction. Why the difference between Muslim and Christian responses?
The fact is, a Christian in suburban Indiana might be angry at the depiction of Jesus in (the film) "The Last Temptation of Christ," but he is not about to leave the comfort of his middle-class life to do anything about it. These spontaneous acts of violence and protest have primarily taken place in these places in which people are living lives in incredible economic depression and marginalization. It's not a Muslim-Christian thing. It's a Gaza-suburban Illinois thing. That kind of propaganda has enormous appeal for people who are living lives of utter desperation.
Austin American-Statesman: Moving on to Hamas, what do you make of the Palestinian elections and the negative response from U.S. leaders and others?
I think we have to understand that the election of Hamas had almost nothing to do with the United States and Israel and everything to do with the internal domestic situation in the Palestinian territories. A vote for Hamas was primarily a vote against Fatah, a group that has dominated Palestinian politics for decades and, despite tens of millions of dollars in aid, has been mired in corruption and ineptitude. On the other hand, Hamas has learned the principle lesson of democracy: You have to actually earn your vote, something that Arab politicians have never bothered doing before.
This could be a really positive sign that this hope for democracy in the Arab world might actually work. But it's going to take two or three cycles of elections before we can find out whether that is the case.
Austin American-Statesman: Will you be addressing political issues in your keynote address at the conference this week? I'm going to be talking about the concept of Islamic reformation . . . and what all great religious reformations grapple with, and that is this fundamental conflict over who has this authority to define faith, whether it is the individual or the institution. This is, of course, the same argument that occurred during the Christian Reformation.
You have individualists like myself who are working toward reform and pluralism and modernist conceptions, and then you have individualists like bin Laden who are working toward the exact opposite. But strangely enough, in many ways, we are both a result of the same reformation. It's just that as individuals we have wildly different perspectives on religious interpretation.
Austin American-Statesman: Who will triumph?
It is going to be the voice of reform that triumphs, not just because it is the inevitable process of the history of religions, but also because it is the majority voice. We have this tendency to think the voice of extremism is the majority voice because it's louder.
Bin Laden's fundamentalism is a reaction to the inevitable movement of reform and modernization that Islam is going through.
It's simple Christians and most of those who live in the judeo-christian world are civilized.
Reformation in what sense? The Protestant Reformation was a demand by radical clericsd for a return to primative Christrianity. It, too, was marked by radical violence on the part of reformers and savage repression by authorities. This cycle continued for more than a hundred years. The Enlightenment was also a kind of reformation, but it too resulted in violent religious conflict. France was torn apart by war between Catholics and liberals. Marx, a product of this reformation defamed relgion and his followers viciously suppressed relgion in Russia and elsewhere. "Modernism" has resulted in toleration in some places but the opposite in others.
I think he has it right. We don't want to risk being seen as "intolerant." Therefore we suffer intolerance to preserve our comfort.
Extinction works for me.
I think you've hit on a important facet of our national psyche.
For reasons I have never understood, I'm constantly amazed at how we have a national sense of inherent guilt. We seem to be ashamed of our success, instead of shouting from the rooftops that our way of life, morality & values are the REASON we work as a melting pot and have become THE SUPERPOWER on the planet.
Tolerance has been an asset of our nation, assimilation has been its true strength, in our current state of "over" tolerance and lack of assimilation we are diluting what once made us great.......borders, language and culture.
I'd like to cast my vote for 'Extinction'.
"The fact is, a Christian in suburban Indiana might be angry at the depiction of Jesus in (the film) "The Last Temptation of Christ," but he is not about to leave the comfort of his middle-class life to do anything about it. These spontaneous acts of violence and protest have primarily taken place in these places in which people are living lives in incredible economic depression and marginalization. It's not a Muslim-Christian thing. It's a Gaza-suburban Illinois thing. That kind of propaganda has enormous appeal for people who are living lives of utter desperation"
Nonsense the rioting takes place in the richest most comfortable nations on earth as well, Denmark, France, Britain etc.. As far as the rioting in Muslim countries, well that too is a long list of diverse countries, it's not as though these are ghettos of a few major cities in one country. The Muslim nations are the culmination of self government by the Islamic peoples, it seems revealing to describe that Muslim culture as in "utter desperation". The solution to Islam isn't extermination it is conversion to Christianity.
The older Muslim generation can't stand to see their kids prefer American rather than Muslim traditions.
We have the same reaction when immigrants refuse to assimilate into the American mainstream.
BUMP
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.