Re: Letter to NPR re Duncan Moon's 9/18 piece on Islamic reaction to the 911 attacks

From: E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@extropy.org)
Date: Tue Sep 18 2001 - 11:23:21 MDT


Greg Burch wrote:

>We will not as a nation come to understand how and why the
>events of September 11 occurred until we take the time to study Islam and
>develop an understanding of how a large number of people in the world use
>religion to justify violence.

Greg, I hope I am not missing your point here, but it seems clear to me
that the justification of violence via religious text is true of most
religions...not the least of which being Christianity. You know as well as
I do that the general focus of a religion is determined by how such text is
interpreted by those who preach it, and the following allusions to text in
the Koran apply equally to text in the Bible.

> The simple and undisputable fact is that
>there is clear and explicit language in the Koran that:
>
> <> endorses the use of violence against "unbelievers"
>
> <> requires that Islamic countries institute legal discrimination against
>non-Muslims
>
> <> demands unequal treatment of women
>
>How do we, as a free people, come to terms with these facts? How do
>moderate Muslims rationalize their calls for peace and tolerance in light of
>the clear and unambiguous text of their scripture to the contrary?

In the same way the average Westerner does: by finding passages that can be
appropriately interpreted to mean the opposite of others. Any culture
--Western, Muslim or otherwise-- that bases its beliefs almost solely on
the writings of a single book can not make *any* rational justifications
whatsoever, so long as they are guided by religion. The primary difference
I have detected between the way Western civilization conducts itself and
the way Muslim etc. conducts itself is that the former claims to have
religious imperative but seems to make the most rational choice regardless
of that claim. Eastern religions tend to have much more of a narrow focus
which their proponents adhere to more strictly. I don't see this as a
problem with the books (Bible vs. Koran, Bhagavad Gita etc.) so much as a
problem with the narrowness of interpretation...and such interpretation, as
you mention, has formed some Eastern cultural law.

> How can
>democracy flourish in cultures where a religion based on that scripture is
>enshrined in law? These are the hard questions that our contemporary
>cultural relativism apparently makes it impossible to ask.

I don't think that democracy *can* flourish in those countries without
widespread cultural assimilation. It brings up the more difficult question
of whether people are more willing to quell culture for the sake of
politics or quell politics for the preservation of culture.

________________________________________________________
E. Shaun Russell Operations Officer, Extropy Institute
e_shaun@extropy.org http://www.extropy.org
                                             Director, Kryos Biomedical
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          Hear my music at: http://www.mp3.com/eshaunrussell
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