Common Ground News Service - May 09-15 2007
Common Ground News Service
Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH)
for constructive & vibrant Muslim-Western relations
09 - 15 May 2007
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Inside this edition
1) What words can mean by Javed Anand
Javed Anand, general secretary of Muslims for Secular Democracy in Mumbai, India, addresses the question “aren’t Muslims, religious leaders particularly, allergic to the very sound of the word secularism?” He describes how escalating religious intolerance, hatred and violence in India have given new meaning to the words “secular” and “religious”.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 8 May 2007)
2) Getting Turkey right by Suat Kiniklioglu
Suat Kiniklioglu, director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Ankara Office, looks at concepts of democracy, secularism and religion in Turkey in the context of the latest presidential elections that were blocked by the secular establishment with the support of the military. Kiniklioglu chronicles Turkey’s drive towards democratisation and considers the internal debate over recent events.
(Source: International Herald Tribune, 2 May 2007)
3) Islam and violence by John Esposito
John Esposito, university professor and founding director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, analyses the pervasive myth that violent extremism and terrorism are inherently connected to Islam. Looking at the history of the three Abrahamic faiths – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – he explains how religion has been (mis)used as a powerful source of political authority and legitimacy by religious extremists.
(Source: On Faith, 26 April 2007)
4) Five centuries of German-Turkish friendship by Ariana Mirza
Ariana Mirza, a Berlin-based writer, reviews Eren Önsöz’s recent documentary “Import-Export” describing Turkish-German relations going back to the Ottoman Empire and the German monarchy. Outlining both the positive and negative impacts of the relationship, her film shows how judgements and opinions change over time.
(Source: Qantara.de, 26 April 2007)
5) A musical dialogue between East and West by Nicole Hamwi
Nicole Hamwi, a Chilean writer living in Beirut, describes a form of East-West dialogue that uses no words. The recently formed ensemble of Spanish and Moroccan musicians explains how music helps different nations get to know each other, blending the sounds of different countries and “creating an atmosphere that transmit[s] a feeling of ‘marriage’ between cultures.”
(Source: Daily Star, 8 May 2007)
1) What words can mean
Javed Anand
Mumbai - On July 11, 2006, terrorists blasted bombs on several suburban trains in Mumbai, the industrial and commercial capital of India. Over 200 commuters were killed while many more were maimed.
Within 48 hours, over two dozen Mumbai-based maulanas, or religious leaders, representing the most prominent Muslim religious bodies in India - Jamiatul ulema-e-Hind, the All India Sunni Jamiatul ulema, Ahl-e-Hadith, Jamaat-e-Islami, Ulema Council, Milli Council, Tanzeem-e-aaimma Masajid, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the All India Qazi Board, among others - came together to collectively declare all terrorist targeting of innocents as “barbaric”, “cowardly”, “inhuman” and “un-Islamic”.
Within the same period, they also had an hour-long, wide-ranging meeting with two politburo members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) visiting Mumbai in the wake of the terrorist atrocity. In the midst of this unusual Maulana-Marxist engagement, Maulana Athar Ali lobbed a remark sure to surprise many: “We have come to the conclusion that communists are the only genuinely secular politicians in this country,” he said. The spontaneous endorsement of his statement from fellow clerics showed that the good maulana was speaking not only for himself.
Maulanas singing the praises of secularism at a meeting with Marxists? It happened, believe you me, for I, an avowed secularist who had something to do with bringing the maulanas together for a collective denunciation of wanton violence in the name of Islam, was present.
But aren’t Muslims, religious leaders particularly, allergic to the very sound of the word secularism? Yes, they were. Until recent years the relationship between those who swore by secularism and those who kept faith was one of mutual antipathy, even animosity. For devout Muslims, secularists spelt anti-God atheists while for the latter all clerics were synonymous with irrationality, obscurantism, bigotry, intolerance and fanaticism. But having lived through the nightmare of escalating religious intolerance, hatred and violence in India, promoted by extremist rightwing Hinduism in the last two decades, both sides have discovered new meanings of the words “secular” and “religious”.
Muslims in most Western countries today might worry about increasing Islamophobia, racial profiling and selective violation of human rights. But especially after the bloody violence against Muslims in India, first in the city of Mumbai in 1992-1993 and then state-wide in Gujarat in 2002, for the 150 million battered, brutalised and traumatised Indian Muslims, lack of security is the prime concern. What better time to learn who your friends are?
In Mumbai and in Gujarat, when Hindu mobs went on an orgy of killing, looting, arson, gang rape, and desecration and destruction of Muslim religious symbols, policemen chose to look the other way. Often, they did worse, conniving with the perpetrators of mass crime. In their hour of greatest need, Muslims discovered that they shared common ground with that very circle of secular activists, journalists and political leaders whom they had hitherto dismissed as anti-religion secularists and atheists.
And those who held that religion itself was the root of all problems had to contend with numerous instances of devout Hindus and Muslims alike giving protection to their neighbour from the other religion, risking the wrath of their co-religionists in the process. They have also had to factor in the example of compassionate Christian priests who, though vulnerable themselves, threw open the gates of their parishes to offer refuge to Muslims fleeing from mobs and an uncaring police force.
It is this shared, lived experience that spoke when the maulanas met up with the Marxists. Experience has taught them that whatever their personal belief, genuine secular democrats, atheists included, can be the believers’ best friends; and that a devout person can simultaneously subscribe to the idea of a non-theocratic, secular state, based on the view that in multi-religious, multi-cultural societies matters of faith are perhaps best not mixed up with affairs of State.
Meanwhile, non-believers among the secularists have had the humility to draw the appropriate lesson from the examples of those who risked their lives to save people from a different faith. “It’s no big deal, we did what we did because that’s what our religion teaches us to do,” said the oft-unsung heroes.
In short, experience has taught both sides that in so far as there are borders, those who have learnt to respect differences, be they believers or atheists, belong on the same side. And it is those who interpret or manipulate religion to legitimise violence in pursuit of power or ideology who belong to the other.
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* Javed Anand is the general secretary of Muslims for Secular Democracy, based in Mumbai. This article is part of a series on secularism and Muslim-Western dialogue distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 8 May 2007, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
2) Getting Turkey right
Suat Kiniklioglu
Ankara - The Turkish Constitutional Court’s decision to block the election of a new president was an unfortunate and unnecessary intervention in Turkey’s political process by the powerful secular elite.
The secular establishment - which has the powerful support of the military - claims that the election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a member of the moderately Islamic governing AK (Justice and Development) Party - would challenge the secularism that is at the heart of the modern Turkish state.
But if the record of the last five years under AK Party rule is any indication, those fears are misplaced. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his government have shown themselves to be shrewd pragmatists willing to operate within Turkey’s secular democracy. In fact, the very popularity of the AK Party is due to its success in distancing itself from the Islamist Virtue Party.
The governing party’s moderation and success have become an inspiration for a wide range of moderate Muslim elites in the Middle East.
Those outside Turkey who view the recent mass rallies in Turkey in support of secularism as an expression of Western values should think twice. Most militant Turkish “secularists” are in fact suspicious of Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union, often strongly anti-American and generally uncomfortable with globalisation.
By contrast, the AK Party has led one of the most impressive pro-democracy drives in Turkish history and has brought the country into accession negotiations with the European Union. The Turkish economy has grown on an average of 7 percent over the last five years, and has attracted close to $50 billion in foreign direct investment in three years.
Not surprisingly, polls indicate strong support for the AK Party while a weak opposition is struggling to pass the 10 percent threshold quota.
By blocking the election of Gul, a politician who has kept Islam largely out of public policy, the secularists are denying Turkey a critical opportunity to further moderate the AK Party. What is lost on the militant secularists is that the AK Party will eventually transform into a German-type Christian Democratic Party if it is allowed to do so.
The Turkish establishment must understand that it cannot intervene in the political process forever. It must allow Turkey’s Muslim democrats to moderate themselves by learning and experiencing power and responsibility within the democratic process. This is the only way Turkey will find its elusive domestic political consensus.
In any case, the primary reason behind the intervention of the secular establishment was not fear that Turkey would become Islamic. Their fear was that the democratisation drive, led in part by hopes of entering the European Union, will erode their power.
In this respect, Gul’s nomination touched a key nerve of Turkey’s fragile democracy - relations between the civilian government and the military, which perceives itself as a guardian of secularism and has ousted four elected governments since 1960.
The Turkish president not only appoints all judges and university rectors, but is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, with the authority to appoint the uniformed chief of the army.
Erdogan has now declared that he will seek early elections, as well as sweeping constitutional changes that would make the president popularly elected, rather than elected by the Parliament.
Thus the real question behind the crisis is what sort of democracy will prevail in Turkey - one under a secular elite with an authoritarian flavour, or an open and transparent democracy under Muslim democrats.
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* Suat Kiniklioglu is director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Ankara Office. His views are his own and do not represent the views of the German Marshall Fund. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: International Herald Tribune, 2 May 2007, www.iht.com
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
3) Islam and violence
John Esposito
Washington, DC - While the atrocities and acts of terrorism committed by violent extremists have connected Islam with terrorism, the Islamic tradition places limits on the use of violence and rejects terrorism, hijackings and hostage taking. As with other faiths, mainstream and normative doctrines and laws are ignored, distorted, or hijacked and misinterpreted by a radical fringe.
Islam, like all world religions, neither supports nor requires illegitimate violence. The Qur’an does not advocate or condone terrorism. The God of the Qur’an is consistently portrayed as a God of mercy and compassion as well as a just judge. 113 of 114 chapters start with a reference to God’s mercy and compassion; throughout the Qur’an in many contexts, Muslims are reminded to be merciful and just. However, Islam does permit, indeed at times requires, Muslims to defend themselves and their families, religion and community from aggression.
Like all scriptures, Islamic sacred texts must be read within the social and political contexts in which they were revealed. It is not surprising that the Qur’an, like the Hebrew scriptures or Old Testament, has verses that address fighting and the conduct of war. Arabia and the city of Mecca, in which Muhammad lived and received God’s revelation, were beset by tribal raids and cycles of vengeance and vendetta. The broader Near East, in which Arabia was located, was itself divided between two warring superpowers, the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) and the Sassanian (Persian) empires.
However, Qur’anic verses also underscore that peace, not violence and warfare, is the norm. Permission to fight the enemy is balanced by a strong mandate for making peace: “If your enemy inclines toward peace, then you too should seek peace and put your trust in God” (8:61) and “Had God wished, He would have made them dominate you, and so if they leave you alone and do not fight you and offer you peace, then God allows you no way against them” (4:90). From the earliest times, it was forbidden in Islam to kill non-combatants as well as women and children and monks and rabbis, who were given the promise of immunity unless they took part in the fighting.
But what of those verses, sometimes referred to as the “sword verses”, that call for killing unbelievers, such as, “When the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush” (9:5)? This is one of a number of Qur’anic verses that are cited by critics to demonstrate the inherently violent nature of Islam and its scripture.
During the period of expansion and conquest, many of the ulama (religious scholars) enjoyed royal patronage and provided a rationale for caliphs to pursue their imperial dreams and extend the boundaries of their empires. They said that the “sword verses” abrogated or overrode the earlier Qur’anic verses that limited physical jihad (as opposed to spiritual and moral jihad) to defensive war. In fact, however, the full intent of “When the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them” is missed or distorted when quoted in isolation, for it is followed and qualified by: “But if they repent and fulfil their devotional obligations and pay the zakat [the charitable tax on Muslims], then let them go their way, for God is forgiving and kind”And if one of the idolaters should seek refuge with you, give him refuge so that he may hear the Word of God; then convey him to his place of security. (9:5-6).
The same is true of another often quoted verse: “Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor hold the religion of truth [even if they are] of the People of the Book,” which is often cited without the line that follows, “Until they pay the tax with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (9:29).
Throughout history, the sacred scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been used and abused, interpreted and misinterpreted, to justify resistance and liberation struggles, extremism and terrorism, holy and unholy wars. Religion does provide a powerful source of authority, meaning and legitimacy. Religiously motivated or legitimated violence and terror adds the dimensions of divine or absolute authority (buttressing the authority of terrorist leaders), religious symbolism, moral justification, motivation and obligation, certitude, and heavenly reward that enhance recruitment and a willingness to fight and die in a “sacred struggle.”
In the same way that the militant (as distinguished from mainstream) Christian Right of a Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell must be distinguished from violent forms of the Christian Right, so must Wahhabi Islam be distinguished from violent forms of Wahhabi Islam similarly infused with a theology of hate. The former do follow exclusivist, non-pluralistic theologies as well as alternative theological interpretations or orientations within their own faith tradition, but do not advocate violence and terror. However, their theological worldviews can be appropriated by militants to justify blowing up abortion clinics, government buildings or the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, assassinating “the enemies of God,” and radicalism in Israel/Palestine and Iraq. Christians and Muslims share a common task of addressing exclusivist theologies which are anti-pluralistic and weak on tolerance for they contribute to beliefs, attitudes and values which feed religious extremism and terrorism.
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* John L Esposito is university professor and founding director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. This abridged article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org . The full text can be found at http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith .
Source: On Faith, 26 April 2007, http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
4) Five centuries of German-Turkish friendship
Ariana Mirza
Berlin - Döner kebab and guest workers – that is often all that many Germans know about Turkish culture. But there’s more to it than that. Turkey and Germany have had a close cultural exchange for centuries. The film director Eren Önsöz has been searching for evidence beyond the clichés, and has found out surprising pieces of information.
For example, when people shout “Türken Hopp” (”Turkish jump”) during carnival in Limburg in the Saarland in southwest Germany, they are referring back to the fact that for centuries the people of the region used to travel to the Ottoman Empire as guest workers. Odd? No, just something which scarcely anyone in Germany knows about.
In her documentary film “Import-Export” Eren Önsöz confronts us with historical facts which cast a new light on the German-Turkish relationship. One aspect is the close alliance between the Ottoman Empire and the German monarchy, and another is the issue of asylum in Turkey.
In Ankara and Istanbul Önsöz follows the traces of the German intellectuals who fled to Turkey from National Socialism. Among the most prominent emigrants was the future Mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter.
The camera follows Reuter’s son Edzard through the streets of Ankara, where he talks about his childhood in the secular, modern state. Eren Önsöz lets many such witnesses tell their tales, and the picture they offer is very different from the usual picture of Turkey as a backward country.
“It’s important that so many Germans say positive things about Turkey in my film,” says Eren Önsöz. “Germans are far more inclined to accept a truth told by another German.”
The football trainer Christoph Daum, who lives in Istanbul, seems not quite to trust his own ability to convince others. He sounds like he’s almost given up as he tells of his difficulties in trying to get dual citizenship, as well as about the deep prejudice of his fellow-Germans – “as if we would all go around here in Turkey on flying carpets,” he says.
Önsöz’s look at history shows that judgements and opinions can certainly change. From the mid-nineteenth century until the Weimar Republic Germany was gripped by a wave of enthusiasm for everything Ottoman.
This fascination led to such creations as the “oriental” design of cigarette packets and other items of daily use, as well as in the design of buildings. Waterworks and factories which looked like mosques were all the rage.
In addition, there’s a whole gallery of German monarchs who all shared a passion for the Ottoman Empire.
One of the most amusing passages in the film is the section about the turcophile King Ludwig of Bavaria. The prince, who was inclined to live in a fairy-tale, required his retainers to smoke hookahs and lie around on cushions, so that he could create the convincing illusion that he was an Ottoman ruler.
About thirty years after Ludwig’s death, another monarch promoted German-Turkish cultural exchange. Önsöz has done the detective work and found out that, in the time of Kaiser Wilhelm, the two countries even had joint vocational training projects.
She has researched the lives of those Turks who came as apprentices to Berlin in 1917. The young Ahmed Talib stayed in Germany, and settled in the Brandenburg village of Fürstenwalde. In the film, Talib’s son tells what happened to his father during the Imperial period, under the National Socialists and in the communist GDR.
But “Import-Export” does not just tell interesting biographies and present historical facts. Eren Önsöz repeatedly brings us to the present. At the very beginning of the film she speaks to young Turks who are helping create cultural life in Berlin with their ideas, and who struggle energetically against the negative image of the Turks.
Later in the film, she listens to the scathing comments of young Turks in Istanbul and Ankara, who react to German Turcophobia with a mixture of disbelief and amusement.
With her road movie, which reveals unknown facts and recalls repressed experience, the 34-year-old film director was fulfilling a long-held ambition.
For years she’s been researching into the individual stories which she links in a sympathetic unconventional way. “I wanted to prove that the cultural import and export has been going for centuries and that it is an enrichment for both countries,” she says.
So far the film, which was made on a tiny budget, has only been shown at festivals. But Eren Önsöz hopes that “Import-Export” will meet with interest from both German as well as Turkish television stations. It is to be hoped that it does, since Önsöz’s voyage of discovery offers an entertaining contribution to the debate on Turkey’s EU accession.
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* Ariana Mirza is a Berlin-based writer. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Qantara.de, 26 April 2007, www.qantara.de
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
Translated from the German by Michael Lawton.
5) A musical dialogue between East and West
Nicole Hamwi
Beirut - Spanish guitar and oud may seem an unlikely combination for some. Before they commence a tune, oud player Suhail Serghini and guitarist Cesar Lopez habitually look at how each has placed his hands on the neck of his instrument, assessing one another’s chords.
“We always begin this way to establish dialogue,” says Suhail just before performing “Dame la Libertad” (”Give Me the Liberty”). “We always look for the point of dialogue. It’s difficult to talk sometimes.”
It’s good practice. In the hands of Lopez and Serghini - both members of Al-Kassida, the Spanish-Moroccan ensemble that performed at St. Joseph’s University Friday evening - Spanish guitar and oud mingle perfectly.
Entitled “Living Together,” the concert, sponsored by the Cervantes Institute, was dedicated to establishing a dialogue of civilizations through music by combining the sounds of oud and qanun with the rhythms of flamenco. The dialogue was well received by the audience.
A recently constituted ensemble, Al-Kassida (”The Poem” in Arabic) is made up of two Spaniards and two Moroccans who aspire to cultural understanding between West and East through their tunes, all composed and sung by Serghini, the founder of the group, in Spanish and Moroccan Arabic.
Singing to the magical mixture of the qanun, oud and Spanish guitar, Serghini - a native of Tetuan in Morocco - interpreted both the Arabic and Spanish pieces with equal facility, creating an atmosphere that transmitted a feeling of “marriage” between cultures.
“The Spanish culture has inherited a lot from the Arabic culture,” the singer said, “especially in the south” due to 750 years of Moorish and Arab presence.
The crowd was unusually attentive to the musicians but the concert’s most euphoric moment came when Flamenco dancer Javier Perez - in a traditional black suit with a black-and-white neck scarf - took the stage. Evidently inspired by the fusion of instruments, he gave a fine performance along the knuckle percussion made by his clicking feet, finger snapping and hand clapping. The joyful public of some 300 people hung on his every move, applauding and yelling “Ole!”
Though only together for a brief time, Serghini’s ensemble has had great success while touring through Europe and the Middle East - from France though Slovenia, Italy and Egypt to Syria and Palestine.
“We have had very good reception by our audiences everywhere we have been,” said the vocalist with a satisfied smile.
Serghini said he “strongly believes that the mixture of music and culture could be helpful to have a better world, through which at least citizens from different nations could know each other better.”
Al-Kassida ended the show by dedicating their song “Marrakech” to the public. The crowd, obviously thrilled by the performance, responded with a standing ovation.
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* Nicole Hamwi is a Chilean writer living in Beirut. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Daily Star, 8 May 2007, www.dailystar.com.lb
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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