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Education vs. Nationalism
Education can play a key role in defeating nationalism in the Middle East. The education that is needed is not so much in non-Muslims learning about Islam, but in Muslims learning about Christianity and Judaism. Muslims are, as a rule, woefully ignorant of the Bible, relying instead on the Cliff Note's version of Scripture and Gospel which Muhammad presents in the Qu'ran.
I would not be surprised, given Muhammad's diatribes against Jews and Christians in the Qu'ran, if most Muslims think that churches and synagogues are responding in kind. And they would be surpised to learn that Islam is virtually never mentioned there and , then, only in a commentary on some recent event involving Muslims. In my experience, when the event is horrific, the word from the pulpit is uniformly to forgive and understand, and when laudable, it is applauded. Muslims in the Middle East do not know this, but if they did, they would question Muhammad's depictions of Christians and Jews, would question those parts of the Qu'ran and help to advance Islam as a faith from its long arrested development.
posted by
cpklapper
on March 30, 2011 at 8:52 AM
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Re: fear
In this case, I would disagree about the primacy of fear. Rather, I regard fear as an ancillary to the main cause, nationalism. To put it more bluntly, Muslims are not so much afraid of criticizing atrocities by other Muslims as hesitant to criticize anyone on their side of the national divide. Only by closing that divide can we end both the fear and the apathy.
posted by
cpklapper
on March 30, 2011 at 8:30 AM
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Re:
The concept of "national self-determination" was frequently invoked by Hitler, for the Anschluss and the Sudeten crisis in particular. That should give any Jew pause before using it to justify Zionism, as well as underlying the plain fact that national self-determination IS a quest for power.
Also, Zionism was and is a secular Jewish movement that has been used by Anti-Semites, as you pointed out, to attack all Jews. What is remarkable is not that the secular Jews were targeted, but rather that the religious Jews were. The injustice is seen in the fact that the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox religious Jews) were opposed to Zionism as being a form of nationalism, see Haredim and Zionism, and have had an uneasy relationship with the State of Israel, whose establishment they opposed, on account of Zionism and national self-determination.
As for our illustrious former President, I have always thought he was a bonehead and his latest pronouncements has not changed my opinion. Regionally, he is as dangerously half-right as the conservatives here in the United States are. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel are Apartheid States. I do not mean to be exclusive about Saudi Arabia; the other Arab states practice apartheid, but Saudi Arabia is the linchpin of Arabian nationalism and home to its nationalist cult, Islam.
Therefore, as I said in my previous note, the path to peace in the Middle East is for all countries in that region to eschew nationalism. For the Jews, it is the relatively simpler matter of denouncing Zionism and granting all residents of Israel full democratic rights, including the right to worship. For the Arabs, it is a bit harder, in that they need to denounce the nationalist sections of the Qu'ran and support a Reformed Islam where Rumi is as much a prophet as Muhammad, as well as completing the path to full democracy that they have so lately started, including the right to worship for all residents in the Arab states.
posted by
cpklapper
on March 30, 2011 at 8:09 AM
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Thanks for elaborating on this, Naut. I suppose fear is the most likely reason you hear little objection on the part of non-committed Muslims. I would like to address some concerns expressed by others here, though. First, Zionism has never been a quest for power, but a fierce last resort effort to achieve self-determination, and the desire to be free from the destruction caused one's own culture and faith by hatred from others does not constitute Apartheid. Jimmy was a cool guy at one time, he can fly a kite today as far as I'm concerned. Second, while Zionism has been recently used as an excuse to blame Israel for the hatred of Jews, it couldn't have been so in 1939, or any time before the Balfour Declaration of 1917, but then there were other justifications for Jew hatred, and I suspect there always will be, as long as there are Jews. Religious observance doesn't matter either - secular Jews are equally targeted. There are many things Israeli leaders could be doing to accelerate peace, but they do understand anti-Semitism and do not underestimate it. Oh, look, I've taken up all this space. Sorry, Naut.
Be back tomorrow.
posted by
juliah
on March 30, 2011 at 12:43 AM
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Nautikos
Rw It’s not so much the content of the education but the practicality in society Naut. BC-A, Bill’s R®st
posted by
BC-A
on March 29, 2011 at 7:39 PM
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I think it is about fear, too! I have my own challenges with fear and it can be paralyzing! So, it makes sense that people will not speak out! But it doesn't make it right, either! For the life of me I cannot fathom why factions, groups, other religions seek to obliterate the Jews from the face of the earth! I am aware that the place they choose to reside has a lot to do with it, but it's seems world wide over the course of time they have been told to "GET OUT" no matter where they reside! I lack the education to truly make an informed comment! Therefore, I read and try to understand through your posts! Shelly
posted by
sam444
on March 29, 2011 at 1:22 PM
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I look forward to your response to Juliah.
posted by
Amanda__
on March 29, 2011 at 12:42 PM
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The silence continues to amaze me. I wonder what it's going to take to change things.
posted by
FormerStudentIntern
on March 29, 2011 at 12:03 PM
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The lust for power is the root of all evil,
which is how I would paraphrase "the love of mammon is the root of all evil" from I Timothy, is the key to understanding the role of nationalist movements such as Nazism, Islam (as Arab nationalism) and Zionism. Nothing will ever get solved in the Middle East, or the world for that matter, as long as nationalism is given any sort of legitimacy. The Muslims are fond of saying, in perhaps unguarded moments, "Israel has no right to exist". They are right, but incomplete. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Qatar, Pakistan and Afghanistan have no right to exist either. No nation is legitimate.
Only by recognizing the fundamental illegitimacy of nations, only by removing the very clear error of nationalism, can we get to a recognition of the fundamental legitimacy of all people. Where the Qu'ran puffs up with pride the name of Arab, corrupting the scriptures of the Hebrews, diverting its criticism of all nations from the Arabs and concentrating it on the Israelis, it is committing a very clear error for which the embarrassment of the Arabs is the very clear result. The only part of the Qu'ran that not in error are the poems Muhammad clomposed early on and which are hidden in the higher numbered surahs. The Sufis, as in Rumi et al, have thus chosen the true part of Islam. Among the Muslims, only the Sufis can live in peace with others and God. The Sunnis, the Shiites, the Wahabbis and the rest are not at rest, drunk on power when not envious of others who possess it. They think they are submitting themselves, but they are instead boastful and arrogant for their nationality.
For the Muslims, their part is clear: remove the corrupting first surahs of the Qu'ran, establish a revised Qu'ran which removes all Arab pride and adds verse from Rumi and other Muslim poets that proclaim the unity of Man through Love.
For the World, our part is also clear: establish the legitimacy of each country on the freedoms they preserve for their citizens and the love they show to others, especially their enemies. We should refuse to recognize any country which would keep immigrants and non-nationals away or limit their freedoms or the practice of their faiths. Saudi Arabia must allow Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims into Mecca as Israel does with Jerusalem, or face ostracism and boycotts.
And somebody needs to set the record straight: "infidel" is a Latin word which referred to non-Christians long before Muhammad co-opted it. At the beginning of Islam, the phrase "infidel Muslim hordes" was applied to the armies of Islam.
posted by
cpklapper
on March 29, 2011 at 12:02 PM
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History's experience tells us that
fear, in each case, is eventually overcome. Unfortunately, it also shows many casualties of the innocent while waiting on something, or someone, to instigate the beginning of the end of those fears.
posted by
adnohr
on March 29, 2011 at 9:57 AM
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