smaneck
Baha'i
Is it a coincidence that the Catholics (along with a Cryto-Lutheran) here are the ones best exemplifying the qualities Christ taught?
Others claiming to be Christians sound a lot more like the Muslim extremists they want to condemn. [/QUOTE]
Along this line and in keeping with Steve Bakr's (God bless him) call for dialogue I thought I would post the transcript of a talk I gave before a Methodist woman's organization:
I had a conversation with a man recently. After finding out that I was a specialist in Middle East History, he made the remark, “Those people aren’t like us. They just don’t think the way we do.”
I couldn’t help but think to myself just how much he did have in common with those responsible for 9-11 and just how much of their mentality he shared. You see what this man had done was to ‘other’ Muslims and people in the Middle East. And it is a very short step between this ‘othering’ of fellow human beings and killing them without conscience. For that moral injunction common to all the great religions to treat others as we ourselves would wish to be treated, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves becomes null and void if we define others as not ‘like unto us’ and not our neighbors. And all too often it has been the fanatical impulses generated within these same religions, be it in the form of dividing the world between infidels and believers, saved and unsaved, or the children of God and the children of Satan which has encouraged people to do this. If there is one thing I would like to impress upon you this morning it is the responsibility religious leadership has to work to eradicate this mindset which more than anything else stands in the way of achieving world peace and reconciliation, and beyond that the unity of humanity. For this reason, rather than speak to you this morning on the subject “Understanding Others” as was slated in your program I wish to talk about the dangers of ‘othering.’
It is considered political correct these days to affirm that acts committed by Bin Laden and his followers did not represent Islam and that in fact those that committed them cannot be considered Muslims. Many Muslims have themselves affirmed this to be the case, for they no more wish to be associated with these acts than most Christians would like to be associated with the bombing of abortion clinics. But there is a danger here. In defining Bin Laden and those like him as not really Muslim, they are ironically becoming like him. What do I mean by this? The kind of religiosity represented by Bin Laden and many other similar Muslim terrorists groups grew out of the Islamic revival movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. While there are a number of differences between these groups, one of the things they share in common is the tendency to pronounce *takfir* against their fellow Muslims. This meant that they declared Muslims who believed differently from them as infidels and apostates, objects of holy war, worthy of death. Because of the value most Muslims place upon the unity of the community most rejected this kind of sectarianism and I submit that they were right to do so. But if such a position is to be consistently upheld we cannot then turn around and say that these people are not Muslims. It would be more accurate and honest to acknowledge that evil and sin exists within the Islamic community just as there is within the Christian community, rather than to make judgments as to who is really Muslim or a Christian. We need to acknowledge that the demarcation line between good and evil runs through each of our own communities and our own hearts, it is an axis which exists ‘out there’ apart from us, and dividing us from them.
Because I come to you as an Islamicist, I will concentrate on that evil as it is found in the Muslim community, as Islam itself would define it, but it should not take too much imagination for you to see how it might apply to your own community In Islam the paramount ethical value is unity, tawhid, the unity of God, the unity of religion, the unity of humanity. The worst sin then is to destroy that unity. This can be done in two ways. First is by doing what the Muslims call ‘joining partners with God.” That can mean idolatry in the literal sense; it also includes the more subtle ways in which we make things more important in our lives than God is.
The second type of sin which is destructive to unity is sectarianism, creating divisions within the religion of God and hence giving rise to fanaticism. Much as the Prophet Muhammad decried sectarianism, He recognized that Islam would not be immune to its effects. He is said to have stated, “The Jews have 71 sects, the Christians 72, while my people will have 73 sects.” (He had apparently never visited Jackson, Mississippi.) The point, of course, is that Muhammad could forsee that sectarianism would prove as destructive to the Islamic community as it had to Judaism or the church. I submit to you that this kind of sectarianism is at the very heart of that ‘othering’ process which we have been talking about. The Qur’an states that what causes sectarianism is that each group takes a part of the truth and insists on making it the whole, cleaving to what is their own. And this applies not only to people’s behavior within a religion, it also applies to the way religions relate to one another.
It has been a number of centuries since Westerners have killed one another in the name of religion, at least on the large scale, but I would remind you that this kind of behavior stopped, not because Europeans came to see it as unchristian but because the West became frankly less religious. Yet the secular ideologies which replaced religion, whether they be communism, materialism or nationalism proved to be equally divisive, to give rise to fanaticisms even more destructive than religion. Without the moral compass which religion alone provides, the brutalities of the Twentieth century soon exceeded those of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the 16th century Wars of Religion. Communism has largely died away in recent years, but in its wake virulent strains of nationalism have all to often reared their ugly, usually racists heads.
So we can’t live with religion and we can’t live without it. Is there any solution before us? Karl Baarth once suggested that religion was mankind reaching for God while Christianity was God reaching for humanity. That works so long as one ignores what any religion says about itself. But to do that is simply one more way of othering. Nearly all religions and most especially the Abrahamic ones of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahai Faith are grounded in the claim that God, through His revelation has disclosed Himself to us. The term religion itself, as St. Augustine pointed out so long ago is derived from the word *religio* which means to bind together, in community, in relationship. So the challenge is how to we get religion to play that role rather than driving us apart?
I submit that this can only happen if religious leadership commits itself unreservedly to promoting the unity of humanity. And make no mistake about it, the church cannot provide such leadership so long as 11:00 am Sunday morning remains the most racially segregated hour in America. And as long as it distinguishes between the ‘saved and the unsaved’ it isn’t going to happen either. We must be prepared to recognize the possibility of genuine revelation occurring outside the context of our own religion, our own understanding, that God’s grace has been in operation among all peoples and all times, to accept as the Qur’an states, that ‘there is no people to whom a Prophet has not been sent.’
Among those religion born in the Middle East, one of them is the Bahai Faith. The Bahai Faith was born in Iran in the middle of the 19th century and though small, it bares the same relationship to Islam that Christianity bares to Judaism. I mentioned this because in 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Baha, the son of the Prophet-founder of the Bahai Faith came to this country and He gave a talk which I think very succinctly summed up the point I’m trying to make. I’d like to repeat a part of it to you now:
“Throughout past centuries each system of religious belief has boasted of its own superiority and excellence, abasing and scorning the validity of all others. Each has proclaimed its own belief as the light and all others as darkness. Religionists have considered the world of humanity as two trees: one divine and merciful, the other satanic; they themselves the branches, leaves and fruit of the divine tree and all others who differ from them in belief the product of the tree which is satanic. Therefore, sedition and warfare, bloodshed and strife have been continuous among them. The greatest cause of human alienation has been religion because each party has considered the belief of the other as anathema and deprived of the mercy of God.”
He went on to say:
“God alone is Creator, and all are creatures of His might. Therefore, we must love mankind as His creatures, realizing that all are growing upon the tree of His mercy, servants of His omnipotent will and manifestations of His good pleasure.
Even though we find a defective branch or leaf upon this tree of humanity or an imperfect blossom, it, nevertheless, belongs to this tree and not to another. Therefore, it is our duty to protect and cultivate this tree until it reaches perfection. If we examine its fruit and find it imperfect, we must strive to make it perfect. There are souls in the human world who are ignorant; we must make them knowing. Some growing upon the tree are weak and ailing; we must assist them toward health and recovery. If they are as infants in development, we must minister to them until they attain maturity. We should never detest and shun them as objectionable and unworthy. We must treat them with honor, respect and kindness; for God has created them and not Satan. They are not manifestations of the wrath of God but evidences of His divine favor. God, the Creator, has endowed them with physical, mental and spiritual qualities that they may seek to know and do His will; therefore, they are not objects of His wrath and condemnation. In brief, all humanity must be looked upon with love, kindness and respect; for what we behold in them are none other than the signs and traces of God Himself.”
This then is the challenge I see facing the religious leadership of today. I hope
you may all arise to meet it.
Others claiming to be Christians sound a lot more like the Muslim extremists they want to condemn. [/QUOTE]
Along this line and in keeping with Steve Bakr's (God bless him) call for dialogue I thought I would post the transcript of a talk I gave before a Methodist woman's organization:
I had a conversation with a man recently. After finding out that I was a specialist in Middle East History, he made the remark, “Those people aren’t like us. They just don’t think the way we do.”
I couldn’t help but think to myself just how much he did have in common with those responsible for 9-11 and just how much of their mentality he shared. You see what this man had done was to ‘other’ Muslims and people in the Middle East. And it is a very short step between this ‘othering’ of fellow human beings and killing them without conscience. For that moral injunction common to all the great religions to treat others as we ourselves would wish to be treated, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves becomes null and void if we define others as not ‘like unto us’ and not our neighbors. And all too often it has been the fanatical impulses generated within these same religions, be it in the form of dividing the world between infidels and believers, saved and unsaved, or the children of God and the children of Satan which has encouraged people to do this. If there is one thing I would like to impress upon you this morning it is the responsibility religious leadership has to work to eradicate this mindset which more than anything else stands in the way of achieving world peace and reconciliation, and beyond that the unity of humanity. For this reason, rather than speak to you this morning on the subject “Understanding Others” as was slated in your program I wish to talk about the dangers of ‘othering.’
It is considered political correct these days to affirm that acts committed by Bin Laden and his followers did not represent Islam and that in fact those that committed them cannot be considered Muslims. Many Muslims have themselves affirmed this to be the case, for they no more wish to be associated with these acts than most Christians would like to be associated with the bombing of abortion clinics. But there is a danger here. In defining Bin Laden and those like him as not really Muslim, they are ironically becoming like him. What do I mean by this? The kind of religiosity represented by Bin Laden and many other similar Muslim terrorists groups grew out of the Islamic revival movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. While there are a number of differences between these groups, one of the things they share in common is the tendency to pronounce *takfir* against their fellow Muslims. This meant that they declared Muslims who believed differently from them as infidels and apostates, objects of holy war, worthy of death. Because of the value most Muslims place upon the unity of the community most rejected this kind of sectarianism and I submit that they were right to do so. But if such a position is to be consistently upheld we cannot then turn around and say that these people are not Muslims. It would be more accurate and honest to acknowledge that evil and sin exists within the Islamic community just as there is within the Christian community, rather than to make judgments as to who is really Muslim or a Christian. We need to acknowledge that the demarcation line between good and evil runs through each of our own communities and our own hearts, it is an axis which exists ‘out there’ apart from us, and dividing us from them.
Because I come to you as an Islamicist, I will concentrate on that evil as it is found in the Muslim community, as Islam itself would define it, but it should not take too much imagination for you to see how it might apply to your own community In Islam the paramount ethical value is unity, tawhid, the unity of God, the unity of religion, the unity of humanity. The worst sin then is to destroy that unity. This can be done in two ways. First is by doing what the Muslims call ‘joining partners with God.” That can mean idolatry in the literal sense; it also includes the more subtle ways in which we make things more important in our lives than God is.
The second type of sin which is destructive to unity is sectarianism, creating divisions within the religion of God and hence giving rise to fanaticism. Much as the Prophet Muhammad decried sectarianism, He recognized that Islam would not be immune to its effects. He is said to have stated, “The Jews have 71 sects, the Christians 72, while my people will have 73 sects.” (He had apparently never visited Jackson, Mississippi.) The point, of course, is that Muhammad could forsee that sectarianism would prove as destructive to the Islamic community as it had to Judaism or the church. I submit to you that this kind of sectarianism is at the very heart of that ‘othering’ process which we have been talking about. The Qur’an states that what causes sectarianism is that each group takes a part of the truth and insists on making it the whole, cleaving to what is their own. And this applies not only to people’s behavior within a religion, it also applies to the way religions relate to one another.
It has been a number of centuries since Westerners have killed one another in the name of religion, at least on the large scale, but I would remind you that this kind of behavior stopped, not because Europeans came to see it as unchristian but because the West became frankly less religious. Yet the secular ideologies which replaced religion, whether they be communism, materialism or nationalism proved to be equally divisive, to give rise to fanaticisms even more destructive than religion. Without the moral compass which religion alone provides, the brutalities of the Twentieth century soon exceeded those of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the 16th century Wars of Religion. Communism has largely died away in recent years, but in its wake virulent strains of nationalism have all to often reared their ugly, usually racists heads.
So we can’t live with religion and we can’t live without it. Is there any solution before us? Karl Baarth once suggested that religion was mankind reaching for God while Christianity was God reaching for humanity. That works so long as one ignores what any religion says about itself. But to do that is simply one more way of othering. Nearly all religions and most especially the Abrahamic ones of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahai Faith are grounded in the claim that God, through His revelation has disclosed Himself to us. The term religion itself, as St. Augustine pointed out so long ago is derived from the word *religio* which means to bind together, in community, in relationship. So the challenge is how to we get religion to play that role rather than driving us apart?
I submit that this can only happen if religious leadership commits itself unreservedly to promoting the unity of humanity. And make no mistake about it, the church cannot provide such leadership so long as 11:00 am Sunday morning remains the most racially segregated hour in America. And as long as it distinguishes between the ‘saved and the unsaved’ it isn’t going to happen either. We must be prepared to recognize the possibility of genuine revelation occurring outside the context of our own religion, our own understanding, that God’s grace has been in operation among all peoples and all times, to accept as the Qur’an states, that ‘there is no people to whom a Prophet has not been sent.’
Among those religion born in the Middle East, one of them is the Bahai Faith. The Bahai Faith was born in Iran in the middle of the 19th century and though small, it bares the same relationship to Islam that Christianity bares to Judaism. I mentioned this because in 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Baha, the son of the Prophet-founder of the Bahai Faith came to this country and He gave a talk which I think very succinctly summed up the point I’m trying to make. I’d like to repeat a part of it to you now:
“Throughout past centuries each system of religious belief has boasted of its own superiority and excellence, abasing and scorning the validity of all others. Each has proclaimed its own belief as the light and all others as darkness. Religionists have considered the world of humanity as two trees: one divine and merciful, the other satanic; they themselves the branches, leaves and fruit of the divine tree and all others who differ from them in belief the product of the tree which is satanic. Therefore, sedition and warfare, bloodshed and strife have been continuous among them. The greatest cause of human alienation has been religion because each party has considered the belief of the other as anathema and deprived of the mercy of God.”
He went on to say:
“God alone is Creator, and all are creatures of His might. Therefore, we must love mankind as His creatures, realizing that all are growing upon the tree of His mercy, servants of His omnipotent will and manifestations of His good pleasure.
Even though we find a defective branch or leaf upon this tree of humanity or an imperfect blossom, it, nevertheless, belongs to this tree and not to another. Therefore, it is our duty to protect and cultivate this tree until it reaches perfection. If we examine its fruit and find it imperfect, we must strive to make it perfect. There are souls in the human world who are ignorant; we must make them knowing. Some growing upon the tree are weak and ailing; we must assist them toward health and recovery. If they are as infants in development, we must minister to them until they attain maturity. We should never detest and shun them as objectionable and unworthy. We must treat them with honor, respect and kindness; for God has created them and not Satan. They are not manifestations of the wrath of God but evidences of His divine favor. God, the Creator, has endowed them with physical, mental and spiritual qualities that they may seek to know and do His will; therefore, they are not objects of His wrath and condemnation. In brief, all humanity must be looked upon with love, kindness and respect; for what we behold in them are none other than the signs and traces of God Himself.”
This then is the challenge I see facing the religious leadership of today. I hope
you may all arise to meet it.
Last edited:
Upvote
0
