Religion and Politics

Good day everyone, I am Patrick Frost, the FPA blogger for Central Asia, and Karin has been kind enough to let me do a post on this site from time to time. Please feel free to send me comments, critiques, and questions at patfrost1@gmail.com or just post them on this site.

Today, I would like to talk about a book I read about six months ago that challenged the way I saw the West’s political society based on secularization, other societies, civilizations, and political systems throughout the world, especially in Muslim dominated lands, and the current ‘war on terror.’ It is Mark Lilla’s, professor of the Humanities at Columbia University, The Stillborn God; Religion, Politics, and the Modern West. At its most basic, it is a philosophical history of Europe/US advancement from a society ruled by political theology to one ruled by secularization. But the book is about much more, in fact it is a warning against complacency of this type of political/societal system in the West.

Here is Lilla’s dramatic message;
‘Intellectual complacency, nursed by implicit faith in the inevitability of secularization, has blinded us to the persistence of political theology and its manifest power to shape human life at any moment.’

Lilla warns us in the West to not feel so safe and cozy with our secular system, for he argues that we are the ‘exception’, not the rest of the world, and that we are in fact still living in an ‘experiment.’ These are strong words and statements, but they are important for all to ponder. This is a pertinent book because it is based on a question not often asked; ‘Why don’t we understand the ‘enduring attraction of political theology?’ Instead of ‘why don’t they understand our (and copy) our political system and way of life?’

Lilla strongly believes that the argument over politics and religion will not end, and in fact ‘could not end,’ because it concerns the enduring question that all societies must answer and face, whether ‘to order their political affairs in light of a divine revelation, or to make their way alone.’

On Sunday, July 13, the Dalai Lama gave a public talk at Lehigh University as part of a “series of teachings,” which takes place from July 10-15. The public talk, held yesterday (on the topic of “Generating a Good Heart”), also allowed the Dalai Lama to answer questions from the audience, which had been earlier submitted in writing. The Associated Press apparently picked up on the talk because the Dalai Lama answered a question about Islam and then defended it as a peaceful religion. According to the AP, the Dalai Lama said that “it’s totally wrong, unfair” to call Islam a violent religion. Does this make the Dalai Lama’s discussion newsworthy – and why does the AP headline read: “Dalai Lama Defends Islam as Peaceful Religion”? How many people must say publicly that Islam is a non-violent religion before it stops making headlines and we assume it as fact. More interesting for this blogger is that the Dalai Lama also took a question on why so many Americans are depressed and anxious. Other than joking that he’s the wrong person to ask because he’s not an American, he said that the U.S. is too competitive and people always want “something more, something more, something more.” The Associated Press headline should have alerted Americans to the answers behind depression, not the clear reality that Islam (just as all the major religions) are based on peace. Otherwise, no comments were made about the Olympics.

AlJazeera.net continues its coverage of the violent clashes in Indian-administered Kashmir (particularly in Srinagar), which have already lasted more than eight days. It reports that the violence stems from protests over a “controversial plan to transfer land to a Hindu trust organization.” The aim was to provide 99 acres of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, which assists hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to come to the holy site. As the New York Times reported on June 28, 2008, the protestors are accusing the Indian government of planning to build Hindu settlements in “India’s only Muslim-majority state in an effort to change the demographic balance in the region.” This would arguably negatively impact their religious identity, although the Indian government has flatly denied the allegations. The fears of the local Muslim population, however, have not been calmed. Since the announcement of the land allotment on June 23, four people have died and more than 300 injured. Two days ago, Kashmir’s chief minister said the plan was dropped, but it’s not clear in media sources, whether there has been “a formal revocation.”  This news (and the unfortunate violence) directly relates to religious communities, such as Muslims in Kashmir, and their fear of “marginalization.”

(Photo from the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board website)

(Photographed by Karin Esposito, 2004, Tehran)

The organization Search for Common Ground (SFCG), on April 7, 2008, published the results of a second poll that it took of 710 Iranian adults – both in rural and urban areas. The first extensive survey it took of Iranian citizens was published in January 2007. SFCG has complemented the survey of Iranians by asking similar questions to 703 respondents in the United States.

As the U.S. has now successfully managed to get the UN Security Council to support a third round of sanctions against Iran, the timing of this follow-up poll of Iran-U.S. attitudes and perceptions is excellent. Although the survey addressed many specific topics, such as Iran’s nuclear program and Iranian influence in the Persian Gulf, this blog is interested in the poll results related to religion, politics, and tolerance. Here are some of the main findings of SFCG’s poll:

·        “A growing majority of Iranians believe that it is possible for Islam and the West to find common ground.” – “64% percent – now say it is possible to find common ground (up from 58%)”

·        “The United States is widely perceived as seeking not only to assert control over the oil resources of the Middle East, but to weaken and divide the Islamic world and to purposely humiliate Muslims.”

·        “The United States is seen as pursuing goals hostile to Iran and to Islam in general.”

·        “64% saw the United States as purposely seeking to humiliate the Islamic world. Twenty-one percent thought the United States is disrespectful, but out of ignorance, and only 5 percent thought the United States mostly shows respect.”

·        “Seventy-eight percent said the United States is not very (16%) or not at all (62%) committed to the goal of creating an independent and viable Palestinian state.”

·        Only 32% of Americans surveyed (as Americans were also polled) said that it is a US goal to weaken and divide the Islamic world.

·        “Only 14% [of Iranians] wanted Shari’a to play a smaller role” in the way Iran is governed.