The Paula Gordon Show |
Islamic history deals with the exact same conflicts and issues of faith and reason as Christianity and Judaism do, Reza Aslan tells Paula Gordon and Bill Russell, providing examples. |
Ms. Aslan gives Christian, Judaic and Islamic examples of evolutionary changes that occur in all great religious traditions, including "reformation" and fundamental conflicts over who has authority to define the faith -- institutions or individuals? He revisits colonialism devastating affect on the worldπs Muslims, 90 percent of whom lived under colonial rule until 50 years ago. Prophets donπt invent religions, he says, they are above all reformers, pointing out differences between "religion" and "faith". |
All scriptures are powerful because they can be adapted to justify a host of ideologies, Mr. Aslan demonstrates. He describes the cultural context in which the Koran arose and outlines the revolutionary egalitarian ideas of the Prophet Mohammed, then addresses misogyny. Honoring powerful women scholars who are becoming authoritative, Mr. Aslan reports that the Koran has been translated into more languages in the last half-century than in all of the previous fourteen. Women, excluded from the clerical institutions for 14 centuries, read the Koran and find Muslim men, not Islam, misogynistic. |
Whether called reformation, re-awakening or renaissance, the fundamental shift of authority moving from traditional institutions to new institutions of individuals is widely recognized, Mr. Aslan says. Interpreting the global movement of Islamic terrorism, he describes what is genuinely innovative about bin Laden. Mr. Aslan notes the importance of reformations' technologies, then reiterates that it's only been 50-some years that Muslims have had to stop thinking of themselves as members of a world-wide community of faith, start thinking of themselves as citizens of arbitrarily fabricated nation state, like Iraq. Democracy is rooted in religious and ethnic pluralism (not "secularism"), says Mr. Aslan, who reports this pluralism very much part of Islamic history. |
For 5 decades, U.S. allies in the Middle East have been dictatorships in every case except one, all but Saudi Arabia secular dictatorships, Mr. Aslan notes. He demonstrates how dictators cripple social, political and even religious development and feed Western paranoia. He considers Iran, where 3/4 of the population is under 30, thereπs 90% literacy, and flourishing, robust democratic and womenπs rights movements. He questions the US policy that for 26 years has only strengthened Iran's clerical regime. |
Iran and Iraq are in every way separate entities and the U.S. needs to treat them accordingly, Mr. Aslan summarizes. He describes those fomenting civil war between Shiåah and Sunni in Iraq and everywhere as puritanical Arab fundamentalists intent on the massacre of Shiåism and Sufism. Nothing has changed regarding Israel, he concludes, no fundamental political or religious reform is possible in the region until the dramatically oppressive Palestinian situation is rectified. |
Acknowledgements Every faith tradition springs from a "prophetic voice" calling to our better selves in the face of destructive hatreds. Those founding voices offer a powerful and cleansing antidote to today's poisonous fundamentalisms -- religious, political and economic. If democracy is to prevail, ordinary people who adhere to those traditions must hear the voice anew, heed its call to action. Re-Form. Reject fundamentalism's violence and injustices, whether life's sweetness is stolen by a suicidal Muslim extremist or the theft originates in Washington, DC. We thank Reza Aslan for giving us access to our better selves -- distinguishing "faith" from "religion," the prophets' voices from those who view religion as the end not the means -- and for providing knowledge with which to challenge authoritarians, the fundamentalist and puritanical, the fear-mongers and self-righteous of every nation. |
Additional Links: No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam is published by Random House. Reza Alsan's website offers additional information. Geneive Abdo is the author of a book also entitled No God, But God. Her subtitle is Egypt and the Triumph of Islam. She examines how democracy might work among peoples who overtly refuse to separate religion from government. Bruce Feiler links Iran (along with other Middle Eastern societies) to the Hebrew Bible in Where God Was Born. Mia Bloom has examined the origins and motivations of terrorism in Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror. Richard Ben Cramer asserts, in How Israel Lost, that what most of us think we know about the Middle East is just plain wrong and that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands are corrupting Israel. Sandra Mackey says that one on the most challenging problems is the rise of fundamentalism among all of the participants ... Jews, Muslims, AND Christians. As Mr. Cramer suggests, some of our problems in the Middle East are traceable to failures of our news media to adequately cover the region and the politics that affect it. Bonnie Anderson is a former CNN correspondent and author of Newsflash: Journalism, Infotainment, and the Bottom-Line Business of Broadcast News. Tom Johnson is the former president of CNN. In a 50 year career, Haynes Johnson has been a reporter, editor, columnist, television commentator and author. The late David Halberstam was a Pulitizer Prize winning journalist and author. He was particularly concerned that America had become an "entertainment society" and lost interest in substance and authenticity with a conseqent loss in understanding of events in the real world. Neal Gabler shares that view. |
© 2007 The Paula Gordon Show.
All materials contained on this website are copyrighted by The Paula Gordon Show and may not be used for any commercial purpose without the express, written consent of Paula Gordon. Non-commercial use is permitted and encouraged provided that credit is given to The Paula Gordon Show, appropriate urls cited, links are provided where possible and meaning is not altered by editing.