Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
Saturday, May 23, 2009
But no religion is inherently violent or peaceful; people are violent or peaceful.
Excerpts from How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the End of the War on Terror by the brilliant, articulate, and really quite good-looking Reza Aslan.
To the extent that the War on Terror has, from the start, been posited as a war of ideology—a clash of civilizations—it is a rhetorical war indeed, one fought more constructively with words and ideas than with guns and bombs. The problem with the ideological War on Terror is that ‘terrorist’ is a wastebasket term that often conveys as much about the person using it as it does about the person being described….
It is easy to blame religion for acts of violence carried out in religion’s name, easier still to comb through scripture for bits of savagery and assume a simple causality between the text and the deed. But no religion is inherently violent or peaceful; people are violent or peaceful.
This book is, above all else, a proclamation: the War on Terror, conceived by the previous American administration as a cosmic contest between the forces of good and evil for the future of civilization, is over. It is time to strip this ideological conflict of its religious connotations, to reject the religiously polarizing rhetoric of our leaders and theirs, to focus on the material matters at stake, and to address the earthly issues that always lie behind the cosmic impulse. For although the grievances of the hijackers may have been symbolic, though they may have been merely causes to rally around, to the hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world who watched the towers fall—who were, in fact, the intended audience of that theatrical display of violence—they are nonetheless legitimate grievances and must be addressed as such. The Palestinians really are suffering under Israeli occupation. Arab dictators are in fact being propped up by US policies. The Muslim world truly does have a reason to feel under attack by a ‘crusading’ West. Addressing these grievances may not satisfy Osama bin Ladin and his fellow cosmic warriors, who sights are set beyond this world. But it will bring their cosmic war back down to earth, where it can be confronted more constructively. It will take away the appeal of the Global Jihadist movement and loosen the ties that have bound so many young, disaffected Muslims together under a master narrative of oppression and injustice. Most of all, it will deny Jihadist ideologues their principal argument that the War on Terror is, in fact, a war against Islam. Because in the end, there is only one way to win a cosmic war: refuse to fight in it.
To the extent that the War on Terror has, from the start, been posited as a war of ideology—a clash of civilizations—it is a rhetorical war indeed, one fought more constructively with words and ideas than with guns and bombs. The problem with the ideological War on Terror is that ‘terrorist’ is a wastebasket term that often conveys as much about the person using it as it does about the person being described….
It is easy to blame religion for acts of violence carried out in religion’s name, easier still to comb through scripture for bits of savagery and assume a simple causality between the text and the deed. But no religion is inherently violent or peaceful; people are violent or peaceful.
This book is, above all else, a proclamation: the War on Terror, conceived by the previous American administration as a cosmic contest between the forces of good and evil for the future of civilization, is over. It is time to strip this ideological conflict of its religious connotations, to reject the religiously polarizing rhetoric of our leaders and theirs, to focus on the material matters at stake, and to address the earthly issues that always lie behind the cosmic impulse. For although the grievances of the hijackers may have been symbolic, though they may have been merely causes to rally around, to the hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world who watched the towers fall—who were, in fact, the intended audience of that theatrical display of violence—they are nonetheless legitimate grievances and must be addressed as such. The Palestinians really are suffering under Israeli occupation. Arab dictators are in fact being propped up by US policies. The Muslim world truly does have a reason to feel under attack by a ‘crusading’ West. Addressing these grievances may not satisfy Osama bin Ladin and his fellow cosmic warriors, who sights are set beyond this world. But it will bring their cosmic war back down to earth, where it can be confronted more constructively. It will take away the appeal of the Global Jihadist movement and loosen the ties that have bound so many young, disaffected Muslims together under a master narrative of oppression and injustice. Most of all, it will deny Jihadist ideologues their principal argument that the War on Terror is, in fact, a war against Islam. Because in the end, there is only one way to win a cosmic war: refuse to fight in it.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Dust.
My brother Adam and I attended an Ash Wednesday service tonight. I love Lenten music—all the sharps—and the ashes. You are dust and to dust you shall return. Some people find our impermanence unsettling, but I find it reassuring. For everything that happens to us in this life, however wonderful or terrible, our entire lives are just the briefest flicker. We return to dust.
Sitting in Church, I was also thinking about one of my main hopes/fears about organized religion. If God turns out to be just an invention of the human mind, I hope that we can say that everything we did in the name of religion was also in the service of humanity and our planet. It saddens and sickens me to see people fall back on religion to wage war, defend intolerance and inhumanity, excuse hateful attitudes and behaviors, and justify the exploitation of our natural resources. So often religion seems to turn people cruel and rigid. I wish that we could say—God or no god—that our religious beliefs make us kinder to one another and more mindful stewards of our planet.
Sitting in Church, I was also thinking about one of my main hopes/fears about organized religion. If God turns out to be just an invention of the human mind, I hope that we can say that everything we did in the name of religion was also in the service of humanity and our planet. It saddens and sickens me to see people fall back on religion to wage war, defend intolerance and inhumanity, excuse hateful attitudes and behaviors, and justify the exploitation of our natural resources. So often religion seems to turn people cruel and rigid. I wish that we could say—God or no god—that our religious beliefs make us kinder to one another and more mindful stewards of our planet.
Monday, October 20, 2008
But the really right answer is: What if he is?
"I'm also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said such things as: "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is: he is not a Muslim. He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is: No, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she can be president?"
Finally, someone said it. Thank you, Mr. Powell.
Finally, someone said it. Thank you, Mr. Powell.
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