Internet and Philosophy

The Internet is truly miraculous. The other day I ran into an essay by Croatian philosopher Mario Kopić whom I met years ago in Dubrovnik. It immediately brought to mind our last meeting, at a wine bar in Dubrovnik's Old Port that served the loveliest mellow red wine from a small barrel on top of the counter. Over the years, I lost Mario's e-mail so when his essay reminded me of that meeting, I attempted to find him on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites that have helped me find other friends - alas to no avail.

Mario does not seem to write a blog, does not post his philosophical essays online and does not tweet. As he said in a rare interview to a Dubrovnik magazine, he clearly "lives apart." What little of his work can be found online is posted by others. It's not hard to guess why. Few of his essays - profound contemplations on cultural and existential themes - can be skimmed through quickly and superficially as we do most of our online reading. One that I found, titled Church and Nihilism would probably resonate with any online reader if they could understand it. It's not an easy read even for a Croatian native speaker and it's nearly impossible to translate. I will try my best to convey what it says.

The basis of the Christian ethos is love, which is also in the core of the Christian belief, says Kopić. This essence of Christianity has been obscured by the Church's efforts to achieve and maintain power and domination.  Mind you, this is a simplified, unauthorized interpretation of the original text. The author is much more sophisticated and nuanced. 

While he talks about Christianity in general, it seems clear to me that Kopić refers mostly to the Catholic and the Eastern-Orthodox Church. He says the Church has deviated from the Christian ethos of love for the divine to hatred of everything it perceives as contrary to its preaching. The Church also has taken away from man the right to act according to his own conscience. That right, Kopić asserts citing the Bible, was God-given to mankind through Adam, making the original sin, the birth of Christ and the Resurrection possible. By denying individuals their freedom of conscience, the Church assumes the role of lawmaker and law-enforcer, not unlike the state. In fact, the philosopher notes, the Church has, whenever possible, used the state to help impose its will on the people. By placing the church law above love, it has changed man's status from that of an autonomous God's creation to that of a church member. In this and many other ways, the Church annihilates man's God-given autonomy as much as the secular state does.

Furthermore, instead of promoting the sanctity of life except by banning abortion, Kopić notes, the Church even today tolerates death penalty and blesses armed forces, in some cases even war criminals. 

Kopić further states that no law or religion should replace individual conscience, but stipulates that conscience is not possible without awareness, i.e. understanding of one's own self and the rest of the world.  Human dignity, he argues in an elaborate fashion, results from a person's ability to contain his/her own desires out of love or deference for others. The ability to control oneself cannot be enforced by Agents or Supervisors appointed by the Church or the State, says Kopić and concludes that without love, neither God nor people have much of a future. 

The essay is about Christianity, but its basic ideas can apply to any religion. And Kopić is not the only one to promote them. Years ago, I asked a renowned Muslim scholar, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Professor of Law at the University of California, how God judges a person who has been instructed by his imam to go and kill in the name of religion. Here is what he replied: “The Quran is very explicit about the individual accountability of each person, fully and completely, for their own actions and that they will not be allowed to say in the final day that ‘this person told me’ or ‘that person convinced me.’ That message of individual responsibility and individual accountability is critical [to Islam].” 

Fadl also said a Muslim has to make efforts to understand the Quran and he has to go out of his way to befriend non-Muslims. "God created different people because only through the understanding of human race in all its diversity can people gain true understanding of the Creator," he said.

Interviewed for the same story, late Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California said that Judaism, Islam and Christianity can be compared to different languages teaching the same basic things. The role of religious teachers is to facilitate communication among groups that use these different languages.

“All of us believe that God created the individual in his own image, regardless of race or gender or religion. We are invested with an inviolability - with a divine potentiality. We all come from Adam. And Adam, we must remember, was not a Jew. He was not a Christian. He was not a Muslim.”

Rabbi Schulweis said all men and women, regardless of their religion, are  created by God.  So "to love God, but to hate his creation, is not only a contradiction, it is the uttermost blasphemy.” 

Jewish or Muslim?

There is now near universal agreement among scholars that most world religions, especially the monotheistic ones, share common ethics, although the rites and traditions differ.  A Muslim might be surprised to learn that Christianity's New Testament requires women's subservience and invisibility, not unlike the strictest Islamic law. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul said that women must be veiled, and you can still see Catholic women in many countries covering their hair when they enter a church. It is believed that St. Paul also wrote  (Corinthians I, 14:33-35 ) "the women should keep silence in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home." Ultra-Orthodox Jews also require that women cover their hair and submit to the husband's rule. (On that topic I highly recommend the Israeli movie Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem).

It is the outward demonstrations of diversity rather than true religious differences that provoke tensions between religious groups. Catholic theologian James Wiseman, professor at The Catholic University of America, said there is something in the human nature that compels us to differentiate between "us" and "them". But he said religions do evolve with time and so in the 1960s, the Vatican affirmed for the first time the sanctity of non-Christian religions. “The Church has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines which, although different in many ways from her own teaching, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all people,” said Wiseman.

The Internet could make inter-religious communication easier than ever. It even has translation engines to lower down, if not diminish, language barriers. But when did you last see a civilized intellectual discussion on any topic on the Internet? Most online exchanges, religious or secular, are controlled by "Agents" and "Supervisors," including anonymous commentators who revile in the crudest language anyone who disagrees with them, powerful groups that control the thinking of their members, purveyors of hatred and authors of clever and catchy phrases that promise to stick. Philosophers like Kopić reserve their thoughts for readers who would make more effort.

Zoroastrianism: First Monotheistic Religion?

As Jews observe their Festival of Lights, or Channukah, and Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, members of an ancient faith that inspired other monotheistic religions will hardly be mentioned.  Still, traditionally in December, Zoroastrians meet for regional or international celebrations of their culture and tradition.  

Zoroastrian Symbol, Temple of Yazd, Central Iran

The opening bars of Richard Strauss’ composition Thus Spoke Zarathustra became famous as the theme for Stanle Kubrick’s 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. But apart from academics and some 300,000 believers, few people know much about ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra and his teaching. 

“Yet only one thousand years ago, millions, millions espoused Zarathustra’s monotheistic percepts in nations which stretched from the ancient Chinese city of Sian in western China to the eastern China across central Asia, northern India, Iran, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia up Greece in the west and Arabia, north Africa and Ethiopia in the south” said Adi Davar, a board member of the World Zoroastrian Organization in 2003. He was addressing an international audience at the seminar titled Zarathustra's Contributions to Humanity at the Library of Congress in Washington. 

Zarathustra, or Zoroaster in Greek, taught that the world and everything in it was created by a Wise Lord, or Ahura Mazda. Before him, Persians believed in multiple deities, as did most nomadic tribes at the time.

Stanley Isler, chairman of Iranian studies at Yale University, said Zarathustra was very impressed with nature and its ability for cyclical renewal. He believed repetition was the basis of knowledge, and that people could learn everything from nature. 
 
“Surely, only a being of great power and wisdom was capable of fashioning the element of the cosmos and equally capable of creating the principles of truth that maintain their eternal design and rhythms,” said Isler.

Creator Ahura Mazda is symbolized by light and fire, nature’s sources of life and energy. That is why Zoroastrians usually pray before a source of light, and an urn containing fire is a prominent feature of their place of worship. The good and wise lord Ahura Mazda is opposed by dark forces of evil. Zoroastrians believe that truth is the source of all good and must be pursued in order to fight deceit, the source of evil. Since humans are created by a wise lord, they have an innate ability to discern good from evil. Zarathustra preaches three basic virtues: good thoughts, good words and good deeds. He says: "Happiness unto him who gives happiness unto others.” Thus Zoroastrians value education and philanthropy. Lying, or deceit, represents a violation of basic Zoroastrian beliefs. 

 Zoroastrian ritual in Mumbai, India

Cleanliness of the body as well as of the spirit is also very important. Dead and decaying bodies are considered extremely impure and so they must not contaminate water, air or earth, which are sources of life. Traditionally, Zoroastrians do not bury or burn dead bodies or throw them into water, but expose them to vultures. However, there is less emphasis on religious rites than there is on lifestyle choices. Marriage is a lifelong commitment, often postponed for the sake of education. Inter-faith marriages and conversions have long been avoided, contributing to the decline in population. The conquest of Persia and spread of Islam, which started in the 7th century, dealt the first serious blow to Zoroastrians. 

No one knows exactly when Zarathustra lived, but his origins are traditionally placed in the 6th century B.C. in the area of what is today north-eastern Iran. This would make him a contemporary of the Persians kings Cyrus or Darius. Many scholars think he lived earlier than that.

Jehan Bagli, president of the North American Zoroastrian Council, said Zarathustra’s teachings were already widespread by that time.

“Nowhere in these records do we find the mention of prophet Zarathustra. If the prophet was born 569 BCE and lived, as we know from the tradition a little over 77 years, he would be contemporary with Darius the Great," said Bagli. "It is inconceivable that the founder of the first monotheistic faith, who lived during the same time as these renowned monarchs, whose religion was spread across their vast empire and who was a mentor of the father of Darius, be so trivially overlooked. These circumstances certainly invalidate this traditional date."

Scholars say that historic records of Zarathustra’s life may have been destroyed during two major invasions of Persia: one by Alexander the Great in 4th century B.C. and the other by Islamic tribes in the 7th century A.D. On both occasions fire temples and religious texts were burnt and many priests killed.

But there is evidence that the Avesta, the Zoroastrian equivalent of the Bible, contains Zarathustra’s original thoughts.  Isler believes that the prophet’s hymns to God, or “gathas,” reveal much about his life and time. 

“He tells us that he was a priest and a master of sacred words, a manthran – someone who has power over the mantras, a word that’s familiar to many. Yet, Zarathustra goes on to say he was rejected from his tribe and his community and driven from his land, forcing him to wander far and wide under great hardship and despair until finally he was accepted by a noble prince named Vishtaspa who became his patron and ally.” 

Isler noted that the hymns also explain why the prophet’s own tribe exiled him. It was not only because he preached monotheism, according to Isler.

“He bitterly complains that evil rulers attacked just and innocent people, that the rich robbed the poor, that judges produced false decisions in order to aid their benefactors. And Zarathustra goes on to say that fury and violence terrorized the peoples on all fronts and that everywhere deceit and deception seemed to hold the upper hand.”

The Zoroastrian holy book also contains prayers, rules of law and rituals. Until the 9th century A.D., the Avesta was probably transmitted orally and modified along the way.  Isler said this makes it hard to discern truth from myth about the prophet. 

The 10th century persecution of Zoroastrians in Persia forced many either to convert or seek another place to live. A significant group settled in north-western India where they became known as Parsis, meaning Persians. 

For a while, Parsis were growing in number and power. The city of Bombay became the center of Zoroastrianism, somewhat like Rome in the Catholic Church. But in the second half of the 20th century, the population of the Parsi-Zoroastrians fell by one third, from a peak of 114,000 in 1941 to 76,000 in 1991. In recent decades, Zoroastrians worldwide began forming local and international organizations and events to help fight their extinction. Davar helped form one of these in 1980.

“The World Zoroastrian Organization is an international organization of the global community of some 300-thousand Zoroastrians. Some 40-thousand of them live in North America and about a thousand in this (Washington) metropolitan area,” said Davar
 
 Zoroastrian organizations prevailed upon UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to proclaim the year 2003 as the 3000th Anniversary of Zoroastrianism. Since then, more attention is being paid to young people who may be able to pass on their religion and culture to following generations.  The Zoroastrian Association of California is hosting the North American Zoroastrian Congress December 29-31 this year. 

Conversion, once rejected by the Zoroastrian faith, is now believed to be legitimate and indeed necessary by some adherents, who also approve marriage with members of other faiths.  A campaign urging Parsis in Mumbai, India to get married earlier and make more babies has raised eyebrows, as well as awareness that with birth-to-death ratio of 1 to 4, the community of 40,000 is dwindling.  

Scholars have acknowledged the contribution of the ancient Persian faith to the world’s religions. Zoroastrians say their prophet’s teachings are just as relevant as any religion today because deceit, violence and oppression are as prevalent as they were thousands of years ago. 

Muslim Communities: U.S. vs. Europe

Islamic State militants are waging a war of terror in an effort to create a state stretching from northern Syria into Iraq.  According to the latest CIA estimate there could now be more than 31,000 of them.  A growing number of foreign fighters from Europe, the United States and elsewhere are joining IS ranks. 

The Soufan group, an international security consulting firm, estimates that about 700 are from France, 800 from Russia, almost 300 from Britain and about 100 from the United States.  According to these figures, the number of American Muslims answering the call to jihad seems relatively small.  Some analysts say this is because American Muslims are generally more integrated in local society than their counterparts in Europe.

Two recent studies, one funded by the German government, found that the majority of Muslims believe that Islamic Sharia law should take precedence over the secular constitutions and laws of their European host countries.

“There is a new wall rising in the city of Berlin,” wrote German author and sociologist Peter Schneider a few years ago in reaction to the murder of a young Turkish girl by her own brother. The girl had "shamed" her family by leaving a husband they forced her to marry. Schneider said that the majority of Berliners have not crossed the invisible barrier separating the affluent central and northern districts of the city from the suburbs housing some 300-thousand Muslims.

Germany has more than three-and-a-half million Muslims, 70 percent of whom are Turks and Kurds. They started arriving in the 1950s and helped fuel the country’s post-war economic boom. They were called “Gastarbeiter”, or guest workers, because they were expected to eventually return to their home countries. But most of them stayed and were joined by their families. Their children and often grandchildren were born in Germany. France, Italy and Scandinavian countries also have growing Muslim populations. 

James Zogby

James Zogby, President of the Arab-American Institute in Washington, says Germany and many other European societies still consider generations of immigrants as temporary laborers.

“They may have come as guest workers, but today they are stake holders, " said Zogby. "They are fundamentally tied to the countries they are in. There is no way that they are not going to be there. The host countries need them. They have sunk roots deep into the country, but they have been alienated.”

Since World War II, Muslims have settled in many parts of Western Europe -- some in search of a better living, others to flee the post-colonial disorder or ethnic violence in their home countries. Although circumstances vary from country to country, European societies for years have been reluctant to embrace newcomers from different cultures.

According to Zogby, it is much easier for Muslims to become Americans.

“The process of naturalization is much more accessible to immigrants, but also the process of becoming American means more than just getting citizenship. It means that you also get a new identity. You also get an attachment to a new culture. You also get a new sense of who you are and, in the process, the idea of being American changes because all of us become different. We are today a different America than we were a hundred years ago.”

An American today can be portrayed as Hispanic, African-American, Asian-American, or a woman wearing a head scarf. "This was not a case a century ago," noted Zogby. "But images of French, German or Italian citizens have changed little to reflect growing immigrant populations."

Leena El-Ali, program director for the non-profit conflict resolution group Search for Common Ground, said many Muslim immigrants have come to the United States in search of higher education. And many of them came independently, she said.

“In other words, a son would come and soon afterwards perhaps a sister would follow, then a father, than a mother, etc. But the point of entry, to a large extent, was education. [They came] in a search of higher education, a better education. And then they would stay. In Europe, perhaps because it’s a lot closer to the Middle East in particular, they [i.e., the Muslims] tend to be entire families who emigrated. So you find in France that you have entire North African families. You have in the UK entire families, Middle Eastern, but particularly Indian subcontinent Asians: Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis. In Germany you find entire Turkish families, and so on.”

Observers note that most American Muslims, especially those born in the United States, are successful businessmen, scholars, professionals or highly skilled workers. And most are integrated into mainstream society. In contrast, few Turks in Germany, Moroccans in France or Pakistanis in Britain, for example, have progressed beyond low-skilled jobs. When unemployment rises, it does so at a higher rate for immigrants and their children who often live in, what many observers call, immigrant ghettos.

Young Muslims without prospects for the future are easy pray to radicals offering a religious explanation for their misery and jihad as a way out of it.  Some of them end up performing atrocities for Islamic State. 

Islam is the third largest religion in the United States. The exact number of adherents is a matter of debate because the U.S. Census does not include a question about religious affiliation.  Estimated figures range between about 4 million and 8 million.  About half a million of these Muslims are of foreign origin.  

Sulayman Nyang, Professor of Islam and African studies at Howard University in Washington, warns that new waves of poor and uneducated Muslim refugees in some U.S. cities are beginning to live in similar circumstances as their counterparts in Europe. 

 “One thing that is happening to the American-Muslim community is that the gradual increase in the number of refugees from Afghanistan, Somalia and other places, is beginning to dilute the solidity of the Muslim economic presence in America,” said Nyang.

Sociologists warn that poor education, poverty, unemployment and a sense of alienation could turn some Muslims in the United States away from mainstream society, and efforts must be made to prevent that from happening. 

*  *  *

Further reading:

Peter Morici: Terrorism is inspired and financed by the failings of the global economy

http://www.theglobalist.com/isis-blame-germany-and-china/

Islamic Revival in Egypt

November 5, 2002

Authoritarian regimes worldwide are finding it increasingly difficult to silence the voices of their citizens seeking a democratic reform. Egypt is no exception. Even though Egypt is a secular state, a growing number of its reformists call for a political system based on Islam.

In the past few decades, western observers have noticed increased religious observance in Egypt.

Carrie Rosefky Wickham, professor of comparative politics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, wrote about it in her new book titled Mobilizing Islam.

"Since the 1970-s and continuing through today, we see a trend toward increasing levels of private religious observance, which can take the form of praying on a regular basis, fasting both during the holy month of Ramadan and during other appropriate times, high levels of attendance at religious lessons at private mosques and, perhaps most conspicuous of all to a western observer, a trend toward women wearing Islamic dress," said Wickham.

At the same time, Islamists have been gaining political power. Egyptian-born Naiem Sherbiny, a visiting research professor at Georgetown University said "two years ago, in October of 2000, there was the election ofthe National Assembly in Egypt, and the Islamists won about one third [of the seats]. They did not go in as a party. They did not go in as organized groups. They actually went in as "independents."

Sherbiny said that Egyptian Islamists have been active and influential since the 1920-s, although for many years they had to work underground. "They've made such strides under an extremely restrictive system," he said.

President Mubarak allowed Muslims to form professional organizations, publish newspapers, sponsor speeches and promote social welfare and financial institutions, but he did not allow them to form political parties. In spite of the suppression, or maybe because of it, the Islamic political movement has grown. Sherbiny said that sooner or later, the Islamists would come to power in Egypt.

"The reason is that every time the government deals them a blow, they take a blow and make adjustments. I believe that the ones that assassinated [President] Sadat in 1981, were essentially the next generation of those who were dealt a fatal blow back in 1954 and 1964. So every time the government deals a blow to the Islamists, they take it and they adjust and then reemerge a decade or two later a lot stronger, a lot more clever than the generation before, a lot more lethal than the generation before."

What has attracted so many Egyptians to the Islamic movement? Wickham said one reason is popular discontent with slow economic development, and social injustice.

"So you have a situation where chemists are working as plumbers, engineers are installing air-conditioners and many of them consider this type of work what they would say is beneath their station. And if you add to this an acute housing shortage, low wages in government jobs, which are conditions which have caused many young people to postpone marriage for many years, sometimes a decade or more, you have a situation where you have high levels of frustration among would-be members of the middle class, who cannot attain middle-class lifestyles and incomes."

Wickham said the Islamist groups have tapped into people's discontent by promising an accountable and responsive government.

Diane Singerman, professor of political science at American University in Washington, says it is not surprising that leading political groups are religion-based, because the mosque is the only place where people have been allowed to meet and raise funds without government approval.

"They started having [Islamic] educational lessons and soccer clubs and places for people to get married and medical services, at a time when the state was not providing all those services, and the state was withdrawing all those services because of structural adjustment and pressure on Egypt to reduce its public subsidies of everything."

According to many analysts, Israel has been a factor in the Islamic rise. Journalist Caryle Murphy, the author of a new book Passion for Islam, says "most commentators and most analysts I spoke to in Egypt cited the military defeat in 1967 by Israel of the Arab countries. This was a terrible psychic shock to the Arab countries -- that this tiny little Jewish state could defeat all these mighty Arab governments and armies, or so they were considered, as mighty. And this was an intellectual, it was a psychic and it was theological shock," said Murphy.

"And many people, in Egypt, for example, came to the conclusion that one of the reasons that 'we were defeated was because we don't hold fast enough to our religion.' And many of them even pointed to the Israeli state as one founded on religious identity."

Murphy says the majority of Islamist groups in Egypt are currently looking for peaceful solutions to the Middle-East conflict. But militant Islam with its terrorism, she adds, will keep emerging until a permanent settlement is in place.

"It is not a secret what such a settlement would take. The outlines of it are already there. Israel and the Palestinians came close to such an agreement in Taba [Jan. 2001] The second thing is that the United States, should be more in support of human rights, more condemning of human rights violations openly in all Arab states and it should be more supportive of efforts to open up the political systems in these states, even if the beneficiary of opening up are Islamist parties."

Western governments, anxious about the resurgence of Islam in formerly secular Arab nations, have lent support to monarchies and some authoritarian regimes. Murphy said a failure to support moderate Islamists strengthens the extremists who are responsible for the violence that everyone condemns. The author cites the Algerian elections of 1992.

"America was seen as very hypocritical when it said very little and did very little when the military aborted the elections in Algeria, because they felt that Islam party FIS was going to win. They [the military] aborted the elections, they banned FIS, they put tens of thousand of people in detention and this led to that incredibly horrible civil war that's been going on in Algeria."

Experts seem to agree that the majority of Islamists in Egypt are currently peaceful-minded, and their parties should be viewed as portends of fledgling democracy.

Sherbiny said the United States should support their movements because their victory would help dispel the growing frustration among Egyptian people that leads to violence. He said Washington can foster democratic change in Egypt through its foreign aid.

"We are talking here about two-billion dollars worth of foreign aid from the United States to Egypt every year and until now, most of this aid has gone to building up the physical infrastructure of the country, which of course was necessary. But now we are at a point where it is politically more astute to put the money where it can absorb the anger of people - put it in social sectors, put it in educational reform in helping with the health care, put it in helping improve the small business environment."

Strictly on their own, moderate Islamists may move too slowly along their democratic path, said Sherbiny.  Some US assistance may help them and ultimately Egypt.