Devastating and loathesome though the Paris shootings were, with implications that will extend far into the future I fear (just as their roots lie some way in the past), the aspect that has struck me is the one which effects me personally.
My chief sources of news and opinion are Radio 4 and Facebook. Facebook has been full of (a) pious quotes from the Quran, and people saying, yet again, that Islam is a religion of peace and (b) The posts saying all religions are equally wicked and the cause of all human misery, and the #PrayforParis thing is rubbish because prayers are just nonsense.
I agree with the (a) because belief systems were created, inter alia, to ensure stable societies and promote harmonious co-existence. All religions would probably make that claim. Sometimes they did this by excluding dangerous elements (foreigners, infidels, homosexuals, adulterous women for example) which they felt would disrupt their societies. I disagree with (b) the "Christianity is just as bad" idea that often accompanies these posts. I don't recall organised Christian terrorists massacring lots of people (no, the crusades don't count, they were 800 years ago, I'm talking about now). A lot of the people who are promoting the "Islam is a religion of peace" idea on FB are not themselves Muslim, but actually secularists. It seems that no one on the left in the UK either likes, or, more significantly, knows much about, Christianity, especially its history and development.
My politics are informed by my Christianity and vice versa. Religions are formed by cultures and cultures are shaped by religions, they are interdependent, and I am sure there has been plenty of better-informed stuff written on this topic.
I personally believe we would not have had the Enlightenment without the teaching of Jesus and St Paul saying "In Christ there is neither slave nor free, neither male nor female" or words to that effect - i.e. that we were all equal, indistinguishable in value and significance. The much derided and seldom read Bible, provided a great deal of the intellectual underpinning of the beginnings of the Enlightenment. Its translation into the vernacular brought about immense intellectual changes for ordinary people.
Christianity was about 16-1700 years old when its Enlightenment began. We had to do it ourselves, intellectually, creating new thinking about human relationships, economics, religion etc. We did not have anyone else's ideas to work on (obviously erratic classical philosophers had come up with one or two ideas that were recognised anew during this period). Nevertheless, we created a Europe (and, subsequently, to a lesser extent, a "Western World") where these values became dominant as we gradually trudged towards where we are now. It was not, and is not, all onwards and upwards. In the UK for example we have had a terrible regression in the last 30 years (which is nothing to do with religion!).
Islam - which like Christianity - is made up of diverse sects with differing beliefs, is only about 1300 years old now. If it were starting from scratch we might not expect an Enlightenment in the immediate future. However, the example of Western Enlightenment could offer some pointers, even if a lot of Islam doesn't want to accept the whole package. Unfortunately, in many Muslim countries, a wholehearted desire for liberal democracy is something of a minority interest. In addition, there is the fundamentalism of certain groups such as the Wahabi, which is encouraging people to stay in their boxes, not to get out and look around and see what the world has to offer, to see how their religion could be enriched and enhanced by adopting more liberal attitudes. The phrase "live and let live" doesn't seem to be widespread in this worldview. This form of intolerant Islam is spreading through Africa and Asia. It is a form only supported by tiny minorities in Western Europe, but like all extreme forms of thinking it is often seen as having more integrity or authenticity by idealistic young people. It seems to me that not enough commentary has focused on the very recognisable tendency of some young people to search for "truth" - to want something to believe in that is pure and uncompromising, and that just as some of us find it on the far left/anarchism/evangelical or charismatic religious practice/far right-racial purity etc. others will find it in extreme Islamism . It is probably not going to stand the test of time. Any young Islamist who doesn't die for the cause will probably grow up have a family and settle down... just as most "teenage delinquents" turn into good citizens. A lot of the moral panic about British teenagers fighting for Daesh is exaggerated. At the same time, elsewhere there is definite evidence of an Islamic Enlightenment getting underway - and perhaps this is why the extremists are fighting so hard, they need to win before the whole thing slips out of their fingers
I have written elsewhere about the idea of a caliphate, as a Golden Age, a utopian world where people lived according to the Quran. But it seems that Daesh are not just wanting to bring in this Golden Age, but also to ensure the destruction of everyone else in the process. In fact some of them are behaving like a Doomsday cult. Like the Jonestown people, they kill themselves when they are in danger of capture. A good many of them are not even devout Muslims - any more than the UVF were probably keen churchgoers either. It is chilling because a lot of this stuff is happening in the area where the Book of Revelation prophesied Armageddon (well, a couple of 100 miles away). I do not take that seriously as a prophecy... nevertheless, it is hard to escape from the resonance.
For all sorts of reasons it looks as if there will be some sort of war with Daesh. It will not be easy to pick them off, the collateral damage will be appalling, so many innocent people will be killed, and yet, part of me wants us to go and duff them up as quickly and effectively as possible. Not because I support the idea of war, but simply out of desperation, they are so appalling, they are intellectually enslaving and imprisoning people, denying them any sort of free will (a theological concept!), that most Europeans feel "they must be stopped!". It's hard to see what else we can do, yes, arm the Kurds, get in more training, advice and whatever else will help. Bombing probably not the best thing, but let's find what works. In the words of the archetypal taxi driver "it's the only language these people understand!"
Transgender equiv to transnational stuff - if you are brought up French but live in England all your adult life - what are you?
My chief sources of news and opinion are Radio 4 and Facebook. Facebook has been full of (a) pious quotes from the Quran, and people saying, yet again, that Islam is a religion of peace and (b) The posts saying all religions are equally wicked and the cause of all human misery, and the #PrayforParis thing is rubbish because prayers are just nonsense.
I agree with the (a) because belief systems were created, inter alia, to ensure stable societies and promote harmonious co-existence. All religions would probably make that claim. Sometimes they did this by excluding dangerous elements (foreigners, infidels, homosexuals, adulterous women for example) which they felt would disrupt their societies. I disagree with (b) the "Christianity is just as bad" idea that often accompanies these posts. I don't recall organised Christian terrorists massacring lots of people (no, the crusades don't count, they were 800 years ago, I'm talking about now). A lot of the people who are promoting the "Islam is a religion of peace" idea on FB are not themselves Muslim, but actually secularists. It seems that no one on the left in the UK either likes, or, more significantly, knows much about, Christianity, especially its history and development.
My politics are informed by my Christianity and vice versa. Religions are formed by cultures and cultures are shaped by religions, they are interdependent, and I am sure there has been plenty of better-informed stuff written on this topic.
I personally believe we would not have had the Enlightenment without the teaching of Jesus and St Paul saying "In Christ there is neither slave nor free, neither male nor female" or words to that effect - i.e. that we were all equal, indistinguishable in value and significance. The much derided and seldom read Bible, provided a great deal of the intellectual underpinning of the beginnings of the Enlightenment. Its translation into the vernacular brought about immense intellectual changes for ordinary people.
Christianity was about 16-1700 years old when its Enlightenment began. We had to do it ourselves, intellectually, creating new thinking about human relationships, economics, religion etc. We did not have anyone else's ideas to work on (obviously erratic classical philosophers had come up with one or two ideas that were recognised anew during this period). Nevertheless, we created a Europe (and, subsequently, to a lesser extent, a "Western World") where these values became dominant as we gradually trudged towards where we are now. It was not, and is not, all onwards and upwards. In the UK for example we have had a terrible regression in the last 30 years (which is nothing to do with religion!).
Islam - which like Christianity - is made up of diverse sects with differing beliefs, is only about 1300 years old now. If it were starting from scratch we might not expect an Enlightenment in the immediate future. However, the example of Western Enlightenment could offer some pointers, even if a lot of Islam doesn't want to accept the whole package. Unfortunately, in many Muslim countries, a wholehearted desire for liberal democracy is something of a minority interest. In addition, there is the fundamentalism of certain groups such as the Wahabi, which is encouraging people to stay in their boxes, not to get out and look around and see what the world has to offer, to see how their religion could be enriched and enhanced by adopting more liberal attitudes. The phrase "live and let live" doesn't seem to be widespread in this worldview. This form of intolerant Islam is spreading through Africa and Asia. It is a form only supported by tiny minorities in Western Europe, but like all extreme forms of thinking it is often seen as having more integrity or authenticity by idealistic young people. It seems to me that not enough commentary has focused on the very recognisable tendency of some young people to search for "truth" - to want something to believe in that is pure and uncompromising, and that just as some of us find it on the far left/anarchism/evangelical or charismatic religious practice/far right-racial purity etc. others will find it in extreme Islamism . It is probably not going to stand the test of time. Any young Islamist who doesn't die for the cause will probably grow up have a family and settle down... just as most "teenage delinquents" turn into good citizens. A lot of the moral panic about British teenagers fighting for Daesh is exaggerated. At the same time, elsewhere there is definite evidence of an Islamic Enlightenment getting underway - and perhaps this is why the extremists are fighting so hard, they need to win before the whole thing slips out of their fingers
I have written elsewhere about the idea of a caliphate, as a Golden Age, a utopian world where people lived according to the Quran. But it seems that Daesh are not just wanting to bring in this Golden Age, but also to ensure the destruction of everyone else in the process. In fact some of them are behaving like a Doomsday cult. Like the Jonestown people, they kill themselves when they are in danger of capture. A good many of them are not even devout Muslims - any more than the UVF were probably keen churchgoers either. It is chilling because a lot of this stuff is happening in the area where the Book of Revelation prophesied Armageddon (well, a couple of 100 miles away). I do not take that seriously as a prophecy... nevertheless, it is hard to escape from the resonance.
For all sorts of reasons it looks as if there will be some sort of war with Daesh. It will not be easy to pick them off, the collateral damage will be appalling, so many innocent people will be killed, and yet, part of me wants us to go and duff them up as quickly and effectively as possible. Not because I support the idea of war, but simply out of desperation, they are so appalling, they are intellectually enslaving and imprisoning people, denying them any sort of free will (a theological concept!), that most Europeans feel "they must be stopped!". It's hard to see what else we can do, yes, arm the Kurds, get in more training, advice and whatever else will help. Bombing probably not the best thing, but let's find what works. In the words of the archetypal taxi driver "it's the only language these people understand!"
Transgender equiv to transnational stuff - if you are brought up French but live in England all your adult life - what are you?
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