Last year, at a European meeting of intelligence officials from the US and Europe, a Swiss participant commented on a proposed referendum on minarets. He was sure it would go nowhere since, as he said, Switzerland is a very pluralistic society; its Muslim population is relatively small and there are few mosques with minarets.
Enlightened Switzerland has now become part of an "Enlightened Liberal Europe" that is increasingly not all that liberal.
The stunning Swiss vote - 57 per cent - approving a referendum to ban minarets, should not have been all that surprising, considering the growing power of Islamophobia.
In both Europe and the US, right-wing politicians, political commentators, media personalities, and religious leaders continue to feed a growing suspicion of mainstream Muslims by fuelling a fear that Islam, and not just Muslim extremism, is a threat.
In the aftermath of attacks in the US and Europe, the relevance and viability of multiculturalism as a policy was challenged by those who charged that such an approach contributed to domestic terrorism.
They argued that such a policy helped in retarding Muslim assimilation and civic engagement, perpetuated foreign loyalties, and provided a space for militant radicals.
Integration versus assimilation
Anti-Muslim sentiment has grown in several European countries [AFP]
The process of integration, in which immigrant citizens and residents could retain their religious and ethnic differences, was rejected by many, in particular the far-right in Europe, who demand total assimilation.
Modern-day prophets of doom have predicted that Europe will be overrun by Islam - transformed by the end of the century into "Eurabia".
The media, political leaders, and commentators on the right warn of a "soft terrorism" plot to take over the US and Europe.
Bernard Lewis, a Middle East historian and adviser to the Bush administration on its failed Iraq policy, received widespread coverage when he chided Europeans for losing their loyalties, self-confidence, and respect for their own culture, charging that they have "surrendered" to Islam in a mood of "self-abasement," "political correctness," and "multi-culturalism".
Daniel Pipes, a columnist, political commentator and relentless Muslim critic who wrote an article called "The Muslims are coming. The Muslims are coming", also declared: "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene ... All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most."
European Muslim mosaic
Fortunately, many Muslim and Christian leaders, and major European politicians and human rights experts have condemned the minaret ban, and the Vatican has denounced it as an infringement of religious freedom.
However, the surprising gains made by Geert Wilders' Freedom Party in the Netherlands, the Danish People's Party, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), Hungarian Jobbik, and the British National Party in the recent European parliament elections emboldened many of their leaders to applaud the Swiss vote and encourage similar prohibitions.
Wilders, the leader of the anti-Muslim Freedom Party in the Netherlands, who previously warned that mass deportation of millions of Muslims from Europe may be necessary, called for a vote to stem the "tide of Islamisation" in the Netherlands.
The far-right persistently refuses to face a 21st century reality - to acknowledge and accept the fact that Muslims are part of the mosaic of their nations.
Islam is now a European religion, and, in fact, the second largest religion in many European countries. No longer predominantly first generation immigrants, many are second and third generation citizens.
Despite the acts and continued threat from a very small but dangerous minority of extremists, the majority of Muslims, like their non-Muslim fellow compatriots, are loyal citizens.
The Swiss ban, like some other European countries' policies, highlights a failure of Western liberalism and raises fundamental questions about religious discrimination and freedom of religion.
While there are only four minarets in Switzerland, a country that is home to approximately 400,000 Muslims, supporters of the referendum mindlessly charge that the minaret is a political symbol of militant Islam.
This makes about as much sense as saying that church steeples symbolise militant Christianity.
Dangerous precedent
The Vatican has condemned the ban on minarets in Switzerland [AFP]
So, where do we go from here?
Western political and religious opinion-makers and the media will need to resolutely address the dangers of Islamophobia as aggressively as they do other forms of hate speech and hate crimes, ranging from racial discrimination to anti-Semitism.
European Muslims will need to continue to speak out publicly, demanding their rights as European citizens and residents and also denouncing religious discrimination and violence as well as limits placed on constructing churches in the Muslim world.
Globalisation and an increasingly multicultural and multi-religious West tests the mettle of cherished democratic principles and values.
Islamophobia, which is becoming a social cancer, must be recognised and be as unacceptable as anti-Semitism, a threat to the very fabric of our democratic, pluralistic way of life.
The continued threat and response to global terrorism coupled with the resurgence of xenophobia and cultural racism have contributed to threaten the fundamentals of liberal democracies in the West and their Muslim citizens in particular.
The fine line between distinguishing between the faith of Islam and those who commit violence and terror in the name of Islam, between the majority of mainstream Muslims and the acts of a minority of Muslim extremists and terrorists, must be maintained.
Blurring these distinctions risks the adoption of foreign and domestic policies that promote a clash rather than co-existence of cultures. They play into the hands of preachers of hate (Muslim and non-Muslim), religious and political leaders, and political commentators whose rhetoric incites and demonises, alienates and marginalises.
John L Esposito is a professor of Religion and International Affairs, professor of Islamic Studies and founding director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
He is the editor-in-chief of the six-volume The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, and has written more than 35 books including 'Who Speaks for Islam?', 'What a Billion Muslims Really Think', and 'The Future of Islam'.
Source: Al Jazeera: Europe's waning liberalism
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Friday, 1 August 2008
Bulgarian, Turkish Writers' Unions Agree on Joint Publication of Shorty-Story, Poetry Anthologies
Istanbul, August 1 (BTA exclusive by Nahide Deniz) - The Union of Bulgarian Writers (UBW) and the Union of Turkish Writers have agreed to cooperate during a visit to Istanbul by a UBW delegation headed by the Union's Chairman Nikolai Petev.
The two unions set the beginning of a joint project, the first of its kind, for the publication of an anthology of Bulgarian poetry and short stories in Turkish and of an anothology of Turkish poetry and short stories in Bulgarian. Each Union will select works for inclusion according to its own criteria.
The project will be implemented with the support of the Turkish Embassy in Sofia and of Turkey's Consul General in Bourgas Ismail Sefa Ucer, and the financing will be provided by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Petev told BTA that this project will pave the way for the publication of more works by Bulgarian authors in Turkey and by Turkish authors in Bulgaria.
"Turkey is not the only neighbouring country where Bulgarian literature is unfamiliar. Few Bulgarian books have been published in Macedonia and Serbia, too. In recent years the UBW has been working to fill this gap," Peter said, expressing satisifaction that his Turkish colleagues are sharing this wish. PK/LG
LG1546ES.116
The two unions set the beginning of a joint project, the first of its kind, for the publication of an anthology of Bulgarian poetry and short stories in Turkish and of an anothology of Turkish poetry and short stories in Bulgarian. Each Union will select works for inclusion according to its own criteria.
The project will be implemented with the support of the Turkish Embassy in Sofia and of Turkey's Consul General in Bourgas Ismail Sefa Ucer, and the financing will be provided by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Petev told BTA that this project will pave the way for the publication of more works by Bulgarian authors in Turkey and by Turkish authors in Bulgaria.
"Turkey is not the only neighbouring country where Bulgarian literature is unfamiliar. Few Bulgarian books have been published in Macedonia and Serbia, too. In recent years the UBW has been working to fill this gap," Peter said, expressing satisifaction that his Turkish colleagues are sharing this wish. PK/LG
LG1546ES.116
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Taking music back to its roots EDINBURGH FESTIVAL: Time travel is again a feature of this year's programme, finds Michael Tumelty
WHEN the Edinburgh International Festival's director, Jonathan Mills, launched an early music strand in his first programme last year, he immediately faced a question: if it's a success, what next? It was a success, so what next?
His thinking was informed by two specific ideas. The broad theme he was developing for this year's festival embraced the concept of borders, meeting points and crossroads. That triggered further ideas: of music that might be locked within a chronological border, or frozen in time; of music that was at a crossroads in historical development; and of music of such intrinsic power that it exerted a seminal influence on other music that followed it.
Last year's early music exploration was linear. It followed a timeline; not a rigid line, but one that weaved a course through the seventeenth century, into the eighteenth, turning back on itself to explore some early origins. As a programming device, it would not do for the idea that was fermenting in Mills's mind for this year's programme.
What he's come up with, in the five-concert series entitled Song and Civilisation, to be staged in Greyfriars Kirk on successive evenings of the first full week of the festival, is not so much a set of concerts as an archaeological dig into some of the foundations of vocal, choral and instrumental music.
His proposal is straightforward. "What happens when you excavate deeply into the sources, the wellsprings of European music from ancient times?"
The five events will present curious audiences with a set of performances of the most unfamiliar music to which they will ever be exposed. The programme entitled Chant Wars is the exception, in that the CD recording of the programme, which explores a conflict of musical cultures in the ninth and tenth centuries, has achieved status and acclaim through universal praise and awards. Two specialist choirs, Dialogos and Sequentia, run by Katarina Livljanic and Benjamin Bagby (a husband and wife team) will combine to present a vivid account of the different chant cultures that collided in the different regions of the Carolingian Empire.
The other programmes contain music familiar only to aficionados. "But even then, " asserts Mills, "there won't be aficionados in all of these."
The series will open with the music of Buhurizade Mustafa Itri Efendi, also known as Itri, a composer and performer of Turkish classical music from Istanbul who died in 1711. He was a contemporary of Bach, though that doesn't necessarily mean anything. It is sometimes suggested that the socalled "Turkish music" that pops up in later western classical music (including Mozart's Il Seraglio) can be traced to Itri's style. Mills doesn't agree. "Itri is a much more refined composer than in the classical adaptation of so-called Turkish music. He's not that guy."
The selection of Itri's music that will be played draws from the spectrum of his surviving work:
classical music for the Ottoman court, compositions for hypnotic Whirling Dervishes ceremonies and for the mosques. Performers will be a sextet of instrumentalists and vocalists led by Kudsi Erguner, the master of the ney reed flute (also spelled nay) an incredibly expressive instrument that can be traced back three and a half millenniums before Christ. The music for the instrument, whose ornamented lyrical lines, tonal and microtonal, are breathed as much as blown, is beguiling.
From Turkey, the scene shifts to the Lebanon, with Psalms and Canticles from the Eastern Churches, performed by Sister Marie Keyrouz - nun, musicologist, teacher, peace activist and singer. There might be a bone of contention about this one, depending on what the Lebanese nun sings, and what her band, the Ensemble of Peace, plays.
There is no dispute about the authenticity of her chants, or the reverence with which she delivers them.
But Sister Marie is also a crossover artist, dipping into popular "sacred" classics, from Panis Angelicus to Schubert's Ave Maria which, frankly, neither this series nor the festival needs.
And I don't know what size of band she's bringing to Greyfriars, but when the big band is in full amplified flight, with waves of keyboard arpeggios and a heavy beat, it can sound a bit like Phil Spector meets the populist practice of Catholic musical ecumenism that was rampant three decades ago.
Following the Chant Wars, the series climaxes with a brace of concerts featuring the mighty Corsicans and Georgians of A Cumpagnia and the Anchiskhati Choir.
The music of the Corsicans has an elemental quality. It's meaty stuff that can be tender, but is not intended as balm. Sacred and secular, this is music driven by passion. It is music, as Mills has described it, "frozen in time", and revivified by A Cumpagnia. Musicologists don't know exactly what was happening in Corsica, says Mills. "There are conflicting stories about constant trade and visits from ships. There are stories about shipwrecks of pilgrims who got stuck there and built their choral traditions in that place and outside Time."
The Georgian tradition, as preserved and revivified by the Anchiskhati Choir, is equally distinctive. The drones and the sonorities might seem familiar from later Russian choral music, but the hairraising shifts that occur are unique. At one moment the harmony is full, rich and triadic. Abruptly, the richness will dissolve leaving bare, skeletal harmonies. Then, precipitously, the voices will plunge in a glissando to an unrelated harmonic plane. Harmonic progressions are set in train, then don't resolve, or are starkly juxtaposed with others. It is remarkable music, which occasionally can sound scarily modern.
Jonathan Mills is riveted by it. "It started somewhere in the monasteries of Georgia in the Caucus mountains, and is a fundamental influence on all of the chants that spread from the Middle East to Europe in the early stages of the Christian church.
"There is something raw and unsettling about this music, and I absolutely want the Georgian tradition here. It has been so influential, and you can trace so much back to those extraordinary monasteries."
Song and Civilisation: MondayFriday, August 11-15, Greyfriars Kirk, 5.45pm. Tickets GBP17.
His thinking was informed by two specific ideas. The broad theme he was developing for this year's festival embraced the concept of borders, meeting points and crossroads. That triggered further ideas: of music that might be locked within a chronological border, or frozen in time; of music that was at a crossroads in historical development; and of music of such intrinsic power that it exerted a seminal influence on other music that followed it.
Last year's early music exploration was linear. It followed a timeline; not a rigid line, but one that weaved a course through the seventeenth century, into the eighteenth, turning back on itself to explore some early origins. As a programming device, it would not do for the idea that was fermenting in Mills's mind for this year's programme.
What he's come up with, in the five-concert series entitled Song and Civilisation, to be staged in Greyfriars Kirk on successive evenings of the first full week of the festival, is not so much a set of concerts as an archaeological dig into some of the foundations of vocal, choral and instrumental music.
His proposal is straightforward. "What happens when you excavate deeply into the sources, the wellsprings of European music from ancient times?"
The five events will present curious audiences with a set of performances of the most unfamiliar music to which they will ever be exposed. The programme entitled Chant Wars is the exception, in that the CD recording of the programme, which explores a conflict of musical cultures in the ninth and tenth centuries, has achieved status and acclaim through universal praise and awards. Two specialist choirs, Dialogos and Sequentia, run by Katarina Livljanic and Benjamin Bagby (a husband and wife team) will combine to present a vivid account of the different chant cultures that collided in the different regions of the Carolingian Empire.
The other programmes contain music familiar only to aficionados. "But even then, " asserts Mills, "there won't be aficionados in all of these."
The series will open with the music of Buhurizade Mustafa Itri Efendi, also known as Itri, a composer and performer of Turkish classical music from Istanbul who died in 1711. He was a contemporary of Bach, though that doesn't necessarily mean anything. It is sometimes suggested that the socalled "Turkish music" that pops up in later western classical music (including Mozart's Il Seraglio) can be traced to Itri's style. Mills doesn't agree. "Itri is a much more refined composer than in the classical adaptation of so-called Turkish music. He's not that guy."
The selection of Itri's music that will be played draws from the spectrum of his surviving work:
classical music for the Ottoman court, compositions for hypnotic Whirling Dervishes ceremonies and for the mosques. Performers will be a sextet of instrumentalists and vocalists led by Kudsi Erguner, the master of the ney reed flute (also spelled nay) an incredibly expressive instrument that can be traced back three and a half millenniums before Christ. The music for the instrument, whose ornamented lyrical lines, tonal and microtonal, are breathed as much as blown, is beguiling.
From Turkey, the scene shifts to the Lebanon, with Psalms and Canticles from the Eastern Churches, performed by Sister Marie Keyrouz - nun, musicologist, teacher, peace activist and singer. There might be a bone of contention about this one, depending on what the Lebanese nun sings, and what her band, the Ensemble of Peace, plays.
There is no dispute about the authenticity of her chants, or the reverence with which she delivers them.
But Sister Marie is also a crossover artist, dipping into popular "sacred" classics, from Panis Angelicus to Schubert's Ave Maria which, frankly, neither this series nor the festival needs.
And I don't know what size of band she's bringing to Greyfriars, but when the big band is in full amplified flight, with waves of keyboard arpeggios and a heavy beat, it can sound a bit like Phil Spector meets the populist practice of Catholic musical ecumenism that was rampant three decades ago.
Following the Chant Wars, the series climaxes with a brace of concerts featuring the mighty Corsicans and Georgians of A Cumpagnia and the Anchiskhati Choir.
The music of the Corsicans has an elemental quality. It's meaty stuff that can be tender, but is not intended as balm. Sacred and secular, this is music driven by passion. It is music, as Mills has described it, "frozen in time", and revivified by A Cumpagnia. Musicologists don't know exactly what was happening in Corsica, says Mills. "There are conflicting stories about constant trade and visits from ships. There are stories about shipwrecks of pilgrims who got stuck there and built their choral traditions in that place and outside Time."
The Georgian tradition, as preserved and revivified by the Anchiskhati Choir, is equally distinctive. The drones and the sonorities might seem familiar from later Russian choral music, but the hairraising shifts that occur are unique. At one moment the harmony is full, rich and triadic. Abruptly, the richness will dissolve leaving bare, skeletal harmonies. Then, precipitously, the voices will plunge in a glissando to an unrelated harmonic plane. Harmonic progressions are set in train, then don't resolve, or are starkly juxtaposed with others. It is remarkable music, which occasionally can sound scarily modern.
Jonathan Mills is riveted by it. "It started somewhere in the monasteries of Georgia in the Caucus mountains, and is a fundamental influence on all of the chants that spread from the Middle East to Europe in the early stages of the Christian church.
"There is something raw and unsettling about this music, and I absolutely want the Georgian tradition here. It has been so influential, and you can trace so much back to those extraordinary monasteries."
Song and Civilisation: MondayFriday, August 11-15, Greyfriars Kirk, 5.45pm. Tickets GBP17.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
A Comprehensive Report on the War for the Energy Resources of Southern and Central Europe, the Caspian Region and Central Asia
DUBLIN, Ireland - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/48fa31/war_for_energy_res) has announced the addition of the "War for Energy Resources of Southern and Central Europe, the Caspian Region and Central Asia" report to their offering.
The struggle between the Russian and anti-Russian pipeline projects in the South and Center of Europe becomes more and more intense. A dramatic fighting for hydrocarbons of the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and Iran, as well as the transportation routes has been in progress.
The EU keeps saying about the necessity of finding an alternative to Russia as the main supplier of hydrocarbons to the EU. The countries of the Central Asian Region are proposed to play this role. Russia answers to these moves both by promising to start exporting hydrocarbons to China and by negotiating on new joint gas and oil pipeline projects in the EU with the European companies. “The export wars” become more and more hot.
The new study focuses on the following subjects:
Future development of the gas market in Europe and the forecast of gas demand
- Is it possible to find an alternative to the Russian gas?
- Alleged and actual sources of hydrocarbon supplies to the EU
The place and role of Ukraine and Belarus as the main transit countries of the Russian hydrocarbons to the EU
- The current condition of the gas system, and issues associated with investments, rates and “shadow” export
Fight for Central Asia
- The possibility of the Kazakh oil export into the European market
- The potential expansion of the Caspian pipeline system
- Burgas-Alexandrupolis project as a potential long-term project
- The Baltic export against that of the Black Sea
- Competition for the control of the Turkmen and Uzbek gas
- The role of the EU, China and the US
Russian and anti-Russian projects of oil and gas supply to the EU
- Economic and political prospects of the new pipelines:
the South Stream
the Blue Stream
the White Stream
Nabucco
Future short- and mid-term scenarios
- The possible Russia’s moves on diversification of its risks in natural gas and oil transit to the EU
Key Topics Covered:
- How much gas Europe needs?
- Condition of the Pipeline System in Ukraine and Belarus
- Russia’s Projects for the Transport of Gas to Southern and Central Europe Round Ukraine and Belarus
- Fight for Gas from Central Asia: New Risks for Russia
- Problems of Oil Export to Southern and Central Europe
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/48fa31/war_for_energy_res.
Research and Markets Laura Wood Senior Manager Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 press@researchandmarkets.com
The struggle between the Russian and anti-Russian pipeline projects in the South and Center of Europe becomes more and more intense. A dramatic fighting for hydrocarbons of the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and Iran, as well as the transportation routes has been in progress.
The EU keeps saying about the necessity of finding an alternative to Russia as the main supplier of hydrocarbons to the EU. The countries of the Central Asian Region are proposed to play this role. Russia answers to these moves both by promising to start exporting hydrocarbons to China and by negotiating on new joint gas and oil pipeline projects in the EU with the European companies. “The export wars” become more and more hot.
The new study focuses on the following subjects:
Future development of the gas market in Europe and the forecast of gas demand
- Is it possible to find an alternative to the Russian gas?
- Alleged and actual sources of hydrocarbon supplies to the EU
The place and role of Ukraine and Belarus as the main transit countries of the Russian hydrocarbons to the EU
- The current condition of the gas system, and issues associated with investments, rates and “shadow” export
Fight for Central Asia
- The possibility of the Kazakh oil export into the European market
- The potential expansion of the Caspian pipeline system
- Burgas-Alexandrupolis project as a potential long-term project
- The Baltic export against that of the Black Sea
- Competition for the control of the Turkmen and Uzbek gas
- The role of the EU, China and the US
Russian and anti-Russian projects of oil and gas supply to the EU
- Economic and political prospects of the new pipelines:
the South Stream
the Blue Stream
the White Stream
Nabucco
Future short- and mid-term scenarios
- The possible Russia’s moves on diversification of its risks in natural gas and oil transit to the EU
Key Topics Covered:
- How much gas Europe needs?
- Condition of the Pipeline System in Ukraine and Belarus
- Russia’s Projects for the Transport of Gas to Southern and Central Europe Round Ukraine and Belarus
- Fight for Gas from Central Asia: New Risks for Russia
- Problems of Oil Export to Southern and Central Europe
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/48fa31/war_for_energy_res.
Research and Markets Laura Wood Senior Manager Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 press@researchandmarkets.com
Monday, 21 July 2008
The Power of Fiction - a Philosophical Critique of Religion [opinion]
Jul 21, 2008 (Vanguard/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- TRADITIONAL African religion, incidentally, has assisted in the preservation of the environment. There are forests, shrines, groves, caves, sacred plants and animals, etc., that are dedicated to the propitiation of indigenous deities. In his work, Igbo Philosophy, Uzodinma Nwala affirms that most mountains and hills, caves and valleys, rivers and streams are the dwelling places of deities and spirits.
They are usually the scenes of sacrifices, locations of shrines and supernatural occurrences. All these, because of their connection with the supernatural, were exempted from human exploitation, thereby contributing to the preservation of nature over the centuries.
Thus, certain ideas contained in traditional African religion can be usefully modified to promote the current drive towards environmentally sustainable development. Yet, religion has done a great deal of harm to the growth of human civilization in all its complex manifestations.
Professor Omoregbe in A Philosophical Look at Religion, writes that, "Religion has been the source of a lot of intolerance, feud, discrimination and devastating wars in different parts of the world, both in the past and at present."
Think of the caste system in India and some parts of Africa, the religious wars in Europe, the Jihads of Islam, the Inquisition and the general belligerence and intolerance among adherents of Christianity and Islam.
The root cause of all these, according to Omoregbe, is ignorance and narrow-mindedness, resulting in the claim by each religion - especially the Abrahamic religions, viz: Judaism, Christianity and Islam- that it is the only true religion revealed and sanctioned by God, the only divinely approved religion for all human beings.
Christianity and Islam are particularly guilty of this charge.
In John chapter 3 verse 18, for example, we are told that all those who reject the belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the son of God will be condemned by God. Jesus himself said that He was the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.
The Koran in chapter 3 verse 85, stipulates that Allah will not accept any other religion except Islam. It also alleges, in chapter 35 verse 33, that the fire of hell awaits all those who refuse to embrace Islam. Both the Bible and the Koran claim to be holy scriptures revealed by God to humankind. It follows that the scriptures of both Christians and Muslims contain explicit texts that encourage fanaticism, bigotry, intolerance and destructiveness.
The two texts are redolent with ambiguities, vagueness and contradictions. In this connection, if a Christian or Muslim decides to live peacefully with the neighbours, the person would find biblical or koranic texts that support peaceful co-existence with others. On the other hand, a believer in either religion who prefers intolerance, hate, war and destructiveness can cite portions of either scripture that supports intolerance, hate, war and destructiveness.
Therefore, to an unbiased observer, it is not surprising that the Abrahamic religions, both in the past and at present, account for the most ferocious and extended religion-motivated wars since the dawn of history.
This sobering fact cannot be explained away by pointing accusing fingers at "bigots," "fanatics" or "religious extremists" who "misunderstand" the teachings of the prophets. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, by their exclusivist, proselytizing and missionary orientation, are inherently belligerent, or, more precisely, contain doctrines inimical to peace.
Everlasting hell-fire
As a corollary, religion has fostered ideas which promoted cruelty, envy and wickedness. Of these, the most loathsome is the idea of eternal torment in hell fire. The notion of everlasting hell fire for sinners negates the very idea of God as a loving father, and is patently unjust and completely irrational.
Equally repugnant to humane sensibilities is the concept of original sin, with its associated self-abnegating and denigrating psychology. The twin conceptions of vindictive punishment in hell fire and original sin are extremely cruel doctrines which have inflicted wholly unnecessary fear and anguish on untold number of people around the world.
The idea of eternal damnation tends to justify vindictive punishment vastly disproportionate to the offence committed, while the belief in original sin obscures the fact that humans are, at all stages in their lives, products of "nature and nurture". Epistemologically speaking, religion has done more harm than good in man's quest for scientific understanding of phenomena. Religion is a haven for superstitious beliefs, and clearly discourages the spirit of free critical inquiry which is the lynch-pin of science.
As already indicated, religion sometimes encourages scientific research as an act of piety. However, there are explicit texts in several religions which suggest that certain things are "no go areas" for humans because they are secrets only known to God.
Also, the history of science contains irrefutable accounts of how hard and long religious bigots fought to stultify the progress of science. Galileo's epic confrontations with the Inquisition in the seventeenth century epitomize the various battles between science and religious orthodoxy.
It is instructive to note that in all these battles religion lost, because, as Omoregbe correctly observed, religion deals with belief not with knowledge. Paul Tillich, in his book, Systematic Theology, remarked that religion does not add anything to the totality of our ordinary knowledge of reality.
Innumerable unscientific, cruel and ineffective practices in medicine, agriculture, education, and in all aspects of daily life which are sanctioned by religion would have continued to wreak havoc on humanity had science succumbed to religion. Religion has encouraged racism and male chauvinism. This is definitely true about the Abrahamic religions.
Most times racism in religion appears in the belief that a particular race- the Jews, Arabs, Aryans etc- has been specifically chosen by God for a special purpose on earth. Russell asserts, in his work referred to earlier, and I fully agree, that beliefs of this kind do infinite harm, and it should be one of the aims of education to eradicate them.
Once a group of people believe themselves to be specially chosen by a duty for a particular reason, there is no limit to the cruelty they would unhesitatingly inflict on others, especially on unbelievers, since they consider themselves special instrument which God uses to put the divine plan into effect. In the Old Testament of The Bible, the Jews committed hideous atrocities against other nations on the basis of this kind of belief.
Islamic jihadists and fundamentalists maim, kill and destroy without remorse because they see themselves as Allah's instrument for executing his will.
That religion has served as an avenue for gender inequality cannot be denied. Apart from the fact that the highest deities in most religions are conceived in the image of a man, there are clear statements in religious scriptures which directly subordinate women to men.
In his illuminating work on the subject entitled Sex, Ideology and Religion, Kelvin Harris quoted extensively from scripture to argue the case that The Bible is consistently derogatory, condescending, patronizing and, on many occasions, insulting in its attitude to women.
He demonstrates that women are regularly portrayed as inferior to men- as chattels, sex objects, domestic slaves; in character silly, cowardly seductive and unfaithful- and ultimately as the temptress and source of evil. Islam also considers women inferior to men.
That is why traditionally women in Islamic countries can never be imams, and a man can legitimately marry four wives. Of course, there are texts in the Bible and Koran where women are portrayed in a good light. Still, the major impression created by the two scriptures is that fundamentally women are subordinate to men, because that is the way God ordained it.
For good reasons feminists have rejected this, because there is really no good a priori reason for believing that men are superior to women. The grievous harm and injustice done to women on the basis of uncritical belief in male superiority is simply incalculable.
The Christian belief in the incarnation of Jesus Christ predated Christianity by thousands of years. The noted British historian, Arnold Toynbee, claimed in Mankind and Mother Earth that the doctrine of the incarnation of God in man can be traced to ancient Egypt. It is one of the "pagan" ideas annexed by Christianity.
They are usually the scenes of sacrifices, locations of shrines and supernatural occurrences. All these, because of their connection with the supernatural, were exempted from human exploitation, thereby contributing to the preservation of nature over the centuries.
Thus, certain ideas contained in traditional African religion can be usefully modified to promote the current drive towards environmentally sustainable development. Yet, religion has done a great deal of harm to the growth of human civilization in all its complex manifestations.
Professor Omoregbe in A Philosophical Look at Religion, writes that, "Religion has been the source of a lot of intolerance, feud, discrimination and devastating wars in different parts of the world, both in the past and at present."
Think of the caste system in India and some parts of Africa, the religious wars in Europe, the Jihads of Islam, the Inquisition and the general belligerence and intolerance among adherents of Christianity and Islam.
The root cause of all these, according to Omoregbe, is ignorance and narrow-mindedness, resulting in the claim by each religion - especially the Abrahamic religions, viz: Judaism, Christianity and Islam- that it is the only true religion revealed and sanctioned by God, the only divinely approved religion for all human beings.
Christianity and Islam are particularly guilty of this charge.
In John chapter 3 verse 18, for example, we are told that all those who reject the belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the son of God will be condemned by God. Jesus himself said that He was the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.
The Koran in chapter 3 verse 85, stipulates that Allah will not accept any other religion except Islam. It also alleges, in chapter 35 verse 33, that the fire of hell awaits all those who refuse to embrace Islam. Both the Bible and the Koran claim to be holy scriptures revealed by God to humankind. It follows that the scriptures of both Christians and Muslims contain explicit texts that encourage fanaticism, bigotry, intolerance and destructiveness.
The two texts are redolent with ambiguities, vagueness and contradictions. In this connection, if a Christian or Muslim decides to live peacefully with the neighbours, the person would find biblical or koranic texts that support peaceful co-existence with others. On the other hand, a believer in either religion who prefers intolerance, hate, war and destructiveness can cite portions of either scripture that supports intolerance, hate, war and destructiveness.
Therefore, to an unbiased observer, it is not surprising that the Abrahamic religions, both in the past and at present, account for the most ferocious and extended religion-motivated wars since the dawn of history.
This sobering fact cannot be explained away by pointing accusing fingers at "bigots," "fanatics" or "religious extremists" who "misunderstand" the teachings of the prophets. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, by their exclusivist, proselytizing and missionary orientation, are inherently belligerent, or, more precisely, contain doctrines inimical to peace.
Everlasting hell-fire
As a corollary, religion has fostered ideas which promoted cruelty, envy and wickedness. Of these, the most loathsome is the idea of eternal torment in hell fire. The notion of everlasting hell fire for sinners negates the very idea of God as a loving father, and is patently unjust and completely irrational.
Equally repugnant to humane sensibilities is the concept of original sin, with its associated self-abnegating and denigrating psychology. The twin conceptions of vindictive punishment in hell fire and original sin are extremely cruel doctrines which have inflicted wholly unnecessary fear and anguish on untold number of people around the world.
The idea of eternal damnation tends to justify vindictive punishment vastly disproportionate to the offence committed, while the belief in original sin obscures the fact that humans are, at all stages in their lives, products of "nature and nurture". Epistemologically speaking, religion has done more harm than good in man's quest for scientific understanding of phenomena. Religion is a haven for superstitious beliefs, and clearly discourages the spirit of free critical inquiry which is the lynch-pin of science.
As already indicated, religion sometimes encourages scientific research as an act of piety. However, there are explicit texts in several religions which suggest that certain things are "no go areas" for humans because they are secrets only known to God.
Also, the history of science contains irrefutable accounts of how hard and long religious bigots fought to stultify the progress of science. Galileo's epic confrontations with the Inquisition in the seventeenth century epitomize the various battles between science and religious orthodoxy.
It is instructive to note that in all these battles religion lost, because, as Omoregbe correctly observed, religion deals with belief not with knowledge. Paul Tillich, in his book, Systematic Theology, remarked that religion does not add anything to the totality of our ordinary knowledge of reality.
Innumerable unscientific, cruel and ineffective practices in medicine, agriculture, education, and in all aspects of daily life which are sanctioned by religion would have continued to wreak havoc on humanity had science succumbed to religion. Religion has encouraged racism and male chauvinism. This is definitely true about the Abrahamic religions.
Most times racism in religion appears in the belief that a particular race- the Jews, Arabs, Aryans etc- has been specifically chosen by God for a special purpose on earth. Russell asserts, in his work referred to earlier, and I fully agree, that beliefs of this kind do infinite harm, and it should be one of the aims of education to eradicate them.
Once a group of people believe themselves to be specially chosen by a duty for a particular reason, there is no limit to the cruelty they would unhesitatingly inflict on others, especially on unbelievers, since they consider themselves special instrument which God uses to put the divine plan into effect. In the Old Testament of The Bible, the Jews committed hideous atrocities against other nations on the basis of this kind of belief.
Islamic jihadists and fundamentalists maim, kill and destroy without remorse because they see themselves as Allah's instrument for executing his will.
That religion has served as an avenue for gender inequality cannot be denied. Apart from the fact that the highest deities in most religions are conceived in the image of a man, there are clear statements in religious scriptures which directly subordinate women to men.
In his illuminating work on the subject entitled Sex, Ideology and Religion, Kelvin Harris quoted extensively from scripture to argue the case that The Bible is consistently derogatory, condescending, patronizing and, on many occasions, insulting in its attitude to women.
He demonstrates that women are regularly portrayed as inferior to men- as chattels, sex objects, domestic slaves; in character silly, cowardly seductive and unfaithful- and ultimately as the temptress and source of evil. Islam also considers women inferior to men.
That is why traditionally women in Islamic countries can never be imams, and a man can legitimately marry four wives. Of course, there are texts in the Bible and Koran where women are portrayed in a good light. Still, the major impression created by the two scriptures is that fundamentally women are subordinate to men, because that is the way God ordained it.
For good reasons feminists have rejected this, because there is really no good a priori reason for believing that men are superior to women. The grievous harm and injustice done to women on the basis of uncritical belief in male superiority is simply incalculable.
The Christian belief in the incarnation of Jesus Christ predated Christianity by thousands of years. The noted British historian, Arnold Toynbee, claimed in Mankind and Mother Earth that the doctrine of the incarnation of God in man can be traced to ancient Egypt. It is one of the "pagan" ideas annexed by Christianity.
UK court to rule on Islamic law case
LONDON (AP) - Britain's highest appeals court is scheduled to decide this week whether a divorced woman and her son should be deported to Lebanon, where she claims her abusive husband will gain custody under Sharia law.
The case will address the issue of Islamic law and the extent to which Britain is obliged to provide asylum to those wishing to flee countries that practice it.
Lawyers acting for the 34-year-old woman are expected to tell the House of Lords on Monday that her human rights would be violated if she were forced to return to Lebanon. They plan to argue that she has a right to a family life that will be lost in Lebanon.
According to Sharia, or Islamic law, that operates in Lebanon, a divorced mother can only have custody of her children until their seventh birthday. After that, the father can claim custody, and the mother will only be awarded visitation rights.
The woman, known only as EM, sought asylum after she came to Britain with false papers in December 2004 with her 8-year-old son. She told immigration officials she had divorced her violent husband in an Islamic court in Lebanon and came to Britain to retain custody of her child.
Her name has not been disclosed because she fears she may be in danger if she is forced to return to Lebanon.
Her asylum application was rejected in 2005. Judges who presided over her two consequent appeals agreed that she would lose custody of her child and possibly face prison for kidnapping charges if she returned to Lebanon. But they argued that she is obliged to live under the laws of her own country.
Judge William Gage, who rejected her appeal in November 2006, said she would still have some visitation rights in Lebanon, so her rights to family life "cannot be said to be completely nullified."
He said in his ruling that he has "not found this an easy case."
Civil rights group Liberty has since helped EM take her case to the House of Lords.
"We cannot deny this child the right to be with his mother," Liberty legal officer Alex Gask said. "How can the same government which champions equal treatment under British law now deport mother and child to face certain separation under Sharia?"
The House of Lords will hear the case Monday and Tuesday, and will reveal their judgment within a few weeks. Britain's Home Office, responsible for the country's borders and immigration, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the case.
The case will address the issue of Islamic law and the extent to which Britain is obliged to provide asylum to those wishing to flee countries that practice it.
Lawyers acting for the 34-year-old woman are expected to tell the House of Lords on Monday that her human rights would be violated if she were forced to return to Lebanon. They plan to argue that she has a right to a family life that will be lost in Lebanon.
According to Sharia, or Islamic law, that operates in Lebanon, a divorced mother can only have custody of her children until their seventh birthday. After that, the father can claim custody, and the mother will only be awarded visitation rights.
The woman, known only as EM, sought asylum after she came to Britain with false papers in December 2004 with her 8-year-old son. She told immigration officials she had divorced her violent husband in an Islamic court in Lebanon and came to Britain to retain custody of her child.
Her name has not been disclosed because she fears she may be in danger if she is forced to return to Lebanon.
Her asylum application was rejected in 2005. Judges who presided over her two consequent appeals agreed that she would lose custody of her child and possibly face prison for kidnapping charges if she returned to Lebanon. But they argued that she is obliged to live under the laws of her own country.
Judge William Gage, who rejected her appeal in November 2006, said she would still have some visitation rights in Lebanon, so her rights to family life "cannot be said to be completely nullified."
He said in his ruling that he has "not found this an easy case."
Civil rights group Liberty has since helped EM take her case to the House of Lords.
"We cannot deny this child the right to be with his mother," Liberty legal officer Alex Gask said. "How can the same government which champions equal treatment under British law now deport mother and child to face certain separation under Sharia?"
The House of Lords will hear the case Monday and Tuesday, and will reveal their judgment within a few weeks. Britain's Home Office, responsible for the country's borders and immigration, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the case.
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Saudi Host Renounces Extremism At Spain Summit
And I’m Steve Inskeep. A speech at a religious conference captured attention less for what was said than for who said it. The speech came from the king of Saudi Arabia. His country invited representatives of the world’s major faiths to a conference. Christians, Jews, Muslims and others came to the meeting in Spain, and in that setting, Saudi king urged a rejection of extremism. Jerome Socolovsky has the story.
JEROME SOCOLOVSKY: Clerics, theologians and scholars gathered in the colonnaded atrium of El Pardo Palace. There were Hindus wearing white turbans, imams in flowing kaftans, rabbis with black yarmulkes and a Buddhist monk in a saffron silk robe. They listened respectfully as the Saudi King Abdullah gave the opening speech through an interpreter.
King ABDULLAH (Saudi Arabia): (Through translator) I talk to you from the place dearest to the heart of all Muslims, the land of the two holy mosques, bearing with me a message from the Islamic world.
SOCOLOVSKY: The message was unlike any before, from the custodian of Islam’s holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina. The world’s religions should not fight, the king said, but unite to face common problems. He proffered a list: terrorism, racism, the proliferation of crime, youth drug abuse, the breakdown of the family.
King ABDULLAH: (Through translator) All this is consequence of the spiritual void that people suffer once they forget God.
SOCOLOVSKY: Critics say the conference should have been held in Saudi Arabia, because religious freedom is restricted there. They say the meeting is only meant to make Saudi Arabia look good in the West. In fact, Western countries are disproportionately represented.
British-born Rabbi David Rosen was the only Israeli invited to attend, and he was listed as an American.
Rabbi DAVID ROSEN: Of course, I lament it greatly, and I think that if there’s to be a serious engagement with the Jewish people, then it has to involve Israeli religious leadership substantially and centrally.
SOCOLOVSKY: But there were also no Palestinians on the list, and Rosen says the meeting should be seen as a first step towards interfaith dialogue by the Saudis.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, participant, agrees.
Mr. TONY BLAIR (Former Prime Minister, Great Britain): The king as a reformer, in Saudi terms. He wants to change things in his country, but he’s got to proceed with care because he’s got his own culture and his own society to be concerned about. And there are all sorts of issues that will arise in the future.
SOCOLOVSKY: The participants are holding three days of meetings, but already, many welcome a new ecumenical front against the godlessness that the king spoke of. Abdul Wahid Pederson represents the Muslim Council of Denmark.
Mr. ABDUL WAHID PEDERSON (Representative, Muslim Council of Denmark): It’s a question of the world facing a struggle between the religious people and secularist people. And right now, the secularist people have the upper hand in many spheres, and they want to have the right to step on anything that anybody else holds holy or sacred.
SOCOLOVSKY: He’s referring to the violent protests that broke out in the Muslim world three years ago over a Danish newspaper’s cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Saudis say they chose Spain as a venue for this meeting because Muslims, Jews and Christians lived here in harmony in the Middle Ages. But it’s no secret that Muslim leaders and the Vatican are worried about secularization in Europe, and in particular, here in Spain. For NPR News, I’m Jerome Socolovsky in Madrid.
JEROME SOCOLOVSKY: Clerics, theologians and scholars gathered in the colonnaded atrium of El Pardo Palace. There were Hindus wearing white turbans, imams in flowing kaftans, rabbis with black yarmulkes and a Buddhist monk in a saffron silk robe. They listened respectfully as the Saudi King Abdullah gave the opening speech through an interpreter.
King ABDULLAH (Saudi Arabia): (Through translator) I talk to you from the place dearest to the heart of all Muslims, the land of the two holy mosques, bearing with me a message from the Islamic world.
SOCOLOVSKY: The message was unlike any before, from the custodian of Islam’s holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina. The world’s religions should not fight, the king said, but unite to face common problems. He proffered a list: terrorism, racism, the proliferation of crime, youth drug abuse, the breakdown of the family.
King ABDULLAH: (Through translator) All this is consequence of the spiritual void that people suffer once they forget God.
SOCOLOVSKY: Critics say the conference should have been held in Saudi Arabia, because religious freedom is restricted there. They say the meeting is only meant to make Saudi Arabia look good in the West. In fact, Western countries are disproportionately represented.
British-born Rabbi David Rosen was the only Israeli invited to attend, and he was listed as an American.
Rabbi DAVID ROSEN: Of course, I lament it greatly, and I think that if there’s to be a serious engagement with the Jewish people, then it has to involve Israeli religious leadership substantially and centrally.
SOCOLOVSKY: But there were also no Palestinians on the list, and Rosen says the meeting should be seen as a first step towards interfaith dialogue by the Saudis.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, participant, agrees.
Mr. TONY BLAIR (Former Prime Minister, Great Britain): The king as a reformer, in Saudi terms. He wants to change things in his country, but he’s got to proceed with care because he’s got his own culture and his own society to be concerned about. And there are all sorts of issues that will arise in the future.
SOCOLOVSKY: The participants are holding three days of meetings, but already, many welcome a new ecumenical front against the godlessness that the king spoke of. Abdul Wahid Pederson represents the Muslim Council of Denmark.
Mr. ABDUL WAHID PEDERSON (Representative, Muslim Council of Denmark): It’s a question of the world facing a struggle between the religious people and secularist people. And right now, the secularist people have the upper hand in many spheres, and they want to have the right to step on anything that anybody else holds holy or sacred.
SOCOLOVSKY: He’s referring to the violent protests that broke out in the Muslim world three years ago over a Danish newspaper’s cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Saudis say they chose Spain as a venue for this meeting because Muslims, Jews and Christians lived here in harmony in the Middle Ages. But it’s no secret that Muslim leaders and the Vatican are worried about secularization in Europe, and in particular, here in Spain. For NPR News, I’m Jerome Socolovsky in Madrid.
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Day of jackals as Paris marks the overthrow of a monarch
The Caliph of Damascus celebrated the overthrow of the French king yesterday. Bashar al-Assad looked quite at home, standing in his pale blue suit, wearing those inevitable Baathist sunglasses, occasionally clapping the precision drill of the French regiments in front of him, some of whom spent decades repressing Arab nations.
The 1st Regiment of Spahis must surely have been of interest. Was it not this same French army which overthrew the first independent Arab government of Syria in 1920, coldly executing the minister of defence every bit as brutally as their predecessors chopped off Louis XVI's head? But Bashar looked every inch the self-confident President of Syria. As well he might.
Who could have imagined, just six months ago, that the man accused of Rafiq Hariri's murder – now hated by ex-president Jacques Chirac – would be standing a few metres from President Sarkozy of France, basking in the warmth of Parisian hospitality. Were there not a few soldiers in the Bastille Day parade who remembered the murder of 58 of their comrades at the French military headquarters in Lebanon in 1983 and that the French, at the time, blamed Bashar's father, Hafez, for his supposed complicity? But there were no end of cruel Arab regimes represented on the podium yesterday.
There was Sarkozy's co-host at the Mediterranean summit, President Hosni Mubarak, whose secret police regularly use electricity on their prisoners and whose prison guards force inmates to rape each other.
And there were the representatives of Algeria, whose policemen used to pump water into their prisoners till they burst; and Tunisia, where about a third of the population are paid spies for the secret police. And Morocco, where journalists are locked up for offending our latest plucky little king; and Israel, whose gentle treatment of all Palestinian prisoners has to be seen to be believed.
No wonder the French flics and "force de renseignement" and the Arab "mukhabarat" and any number of other dark figures littered the pavements around the Place de la Concorde yesterday. No one, it seems, can forget The Day of the Jackal, although tens of thousands of Arabs might have concluded that there were jackals enough on the podium alongside M. Sarkozy.
The French commentariat had bought the presidential line, prison hook and definitely sinker. "A winning gamble," one of Le Figaro's grovelling writers called it. The French admired Bashar's wife, Asma – a woman whose intelligence and elegance far surpass that of Madame La Presidente Carla, whose purple and red outfit matched the uniforms of the Foreign Legionaires. But the French still haven't learned the secret of Syrian foreign policy. Like the visa hunters in Casablanca, the Syrians wait. And wait. And wait. And in the end, there comes, inevitably, an invitation to Bastille Day.
The 1st Regiment of Spahis must surely have been of interest. Was it not this same French army which overthrew the first independent Arab government of Syria in 1920, coldly executing the minister of defence every bit as brutally as their predecessors chopped off Louis XVI's head? But Bashar looked every inch the self-confident President of Syria. As well he might.
Who could have imagined, just six months ago, that the man accused of Rafiq Hariri's murder – now hated by ex-president Jacques Chirac – would be standing a few metres from President Sarkozy of France, basking in the warmth of Parisian hospitality. Were there not a few soldiers in the Bastille Day parade who remembered the murder of 58 of their comrades at the French military headquarters in Lebanon in 1983 and that the French, at the time, blamed Bashar's father, Hafez, for his supposed complicity? But there were no end of cruel Arab regimes represented on the podium yesterday.
There was Sarkozy's co-host at the Mediterranean summit, President Hosni Mubarak, whose secret police regularly use electricity on their prisoners and whose prison guards force inmates to rape each other.
And there were the representatives of Algeria, whose policemen used to pump water into their prisoners till they burst; and Tunisia, where about a third of the population are paid spies for the secret police. And Morocco, where journalists are locked up for offending our latest plucky little king; and Israel, whose gentle treatment of all Palestinian prisoners has to be seen to be believed.
No wonder the French flics and "force de renseignement" and the Arab "mukhabarat" and any number of other dark figures littered the pavements around the Place de la Concorde yesterday. No one, it seems, can forget The Day of the Jackal, although tens of thousands of Arabs might have concluded that there were jackals enough on the podium alongside M. Sarkozy.
The French commentariat had bought the presidential line, prison hook and definitely sinker. "A winning gamble," one of Le Figaro's grovelling writers called it. The French admired Bashar's wife, Asma – a woman whose intelligence and elegance far surpass that of Madame La Presidente Carla, whose purple and red outfit matched the uniforms of the Foreign Legionaires. But the French still haven't learned the secret of Syrian foreign policy. Like the visa hunters in Casablanca, the Syrians wait. And wait. And wait. And in the end, there comes, inevitably, an invitation to Bastille Day.
Sunday, 13 July 2008
An audience for all things Arabic
Coal, Frankincense and Myrrh: Yemen and British Yemenis, an exhibition by the British photographer Tim Smith is one of the highlights of the sixth Arabic Arts Festival. Neil Jones for The National
Think of Liverpool, the port city on the north-west coast of Britain, and the first thing that springs to mind might be The Beatles. Or maybe football. But it’s safe to assume that it probably isn’t Arabic culture and heritage. But, as the sixth Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, which is currently underway, demonstrates, not only is the north-west’s Arabic-speaking community thriving, but it is serving as a model for integration and social and cultural exchange. Since its launch in 2002, the annual festival has blossomed into the UK’s sole major celebration of Arabic life. A citywide celebration, it sees colourful displays of music, art, film, theatre, dance, fashion and food from across the Arab world, drawing consistently large crowds and brightening up this bustling city. This month, Liverpudlians can enjoy a smorgasbord of treats, from the sounds of modern Rai, as performed by the massively-popular Algerian singer Khaled to the Palestinian singer Reem Kelani’s cool jazz. From Arabic food tasting sessions and cookery demonstrations to theatre, a major film cycle and cutting-edge contemporary art exhibitions, the festival sets out to present all aspects of Arab culture, in an accessible, fun and informative way. It also actively seeks to counter negative media stereotypes of Arabs.
This year, the festival is set to be even bigger than usual as its host city is currently in the midst of a renaissance, occasioned by its status as the 2008 European Capital of Culture. The past six months have flown by in a whirl of activity, from gigs by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to myriad grassroots projects celebrating the unique blend of inhabitants and traditions found in the area. Organisers point out that one of the UK’s oldest settlements of Arabic immigrants is still here, a community that has grown from the small groups of Yemeni sailors who originally settled here in the 19th century.
The festival revolves around the region’s pre-eminent arts centre, the Bluecoat. The Bluecoat is a notable entity, a multifaceted cultural hub which has just emerged from a major overhaul and relaunch earlier this year (marking yet another phase in its remarkable 290-year history). It is housed in a Unesco-listed building and is, for the next few weeks, the epicentre of all things Arabic. The festival’s manager, Ngozi Ikoku, is based at the Bluecoat, and is at the centre of this dynamic series of happenings.
“How did it all start?” he asks. “Well, the Bluecoat and the Liverpool Arabic Centre started working together around 1999 to programme one-off events and they soon realised there was an audience for them. Then they moved on to doing a weekend event. In 2002, there was an official festival and that’s been the case since.”
The event brings together a variety of nationalities, but it is Yemeni culture that dominates proceedings.
“The Yemenis came to Liverpool in the 19th century,” explains Ikoku. “They were working on the merchant ships, and when the shipping industry died off, they moved to the steelworks. That was really when you get the critical mass of the Yemeni community moving over. So, we are the largest Yemeni community here [in the UK] and we have the first mosque that was built in this country.”
Amid the impressive film programme (co-curated by BAFTA and taking place at the FACT cinema), a weekend of Yemeni films is planned to highlight the country’s tiny but rapidly growing film industry. Largely sourced from last December’s First Yemen Film Festival in London, screenings include the poignant Last of the Dictionary Men, a documentary looking at the first wave of Yemeni settlers to establish a community in South Shields, in the north-east. (This was recently presented at the Newcastle Baltic Gallery, along with photography by the Third Line Gallery’s Youssef Nabil.) There is also a showing of Bader Ben Hirsi’s 2005 drama, A New Day in Old Sana’a, which is frequently taken as being the first bona fide Yemeni feature film.
Meanwhile, the other elements of the season offer up a number of highlights: the Syrian director Abdullatif Abdulhamid’s 2007 melodrama Out of Coverage is a Bergman-esque study of love, loyalty and betrayal, while the Lebanese director Phillipe Aractangi’s Under the Bombs is a raw story of a mother trying to find her son amid the chaos of war and destruction in the 2006 Lebanon war. The film schedule is capped with a gala screening of Lawrence Of Arabia at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall to commemorate the centenary of the director David Lean’s birth. An impressive line-up, and one that deserves as wide an audience as possible.
An impressive array of visual arts complements the films at the festival. Again, Yemeni themes abound, predominantly in Coal, Frankincense and Myrrh: Yemen and British Yemenis, an exhibition by the British photographer Tim Smith, who has spent much of the past 25 years documenting the lives of Yemenis both in the UK and at home. In his images, Smith documents the remnants of the country’s tradition as a trading post and pivotal hub of the British Empire in years gone by. “It’s a wonderful exhibition,” enthuses Ikoku. “His photographs are just stunning.”
Meanwhile, contemporary art from the rest of the Middle East and North Africa is represented by an expansive exhibition,New Ends, Old Beginnings, which takes work by over 11 Arab artists, ranging from Egypt’s Lara Baladi and the UAE’s Tarek al Ghossein to the Turkish artist Can Alkay. The exhibition covers diverse topics such as the chaos of war-torn Baghdad, the booming tourism and prosperity of the UAE, the conflicting senses of identity felt by many Egyptians and the cultural ramifications of post-conflict reconstruction work taking place in Beirut. An exhibition such as this is invaluable in giving a broad sense of the issues and questions facing Arab citizens and reflects perfectly the festival’s commitment to generating understanding and empathy among visitors.The work ranges from the enigmatic to the abruptly outspoken.
The curator November Paynter say: “It investigates the Arab region through artistic responses to many layers of local and everyday culture, which is a perspective that the world’s media often overlooks or avoids. They prefer instead to present images that shock and manipulate viewers.”
The highlight of the festival, according to the pre-event buzz, however, is a play, RIOT, a critically lauded production based on real events which tells the story of an uprising by Yemeni sailors in 1930s northern England. Using the clandestine relationship between a young Yemeni seaman and a local girl as a perspective point, a charged narrative unfolds during which a police officer is stabbed, leading to the deportation of over 20 Yemenis. An eerily prescient tone is set, placing the troubles and conflicts faced by today’s immigrants and host communities into a historical context.
Using a blend of fact, drama, satire and black humour, the play has been lauded for its tight, focused approach to a sensitive and polarising issue. “The Arabs were blamed for high levels of unemployment at the time,” says the playwright Peter Mortimer. “They were [made] scapegoats. The play tries to understand what caused this riot.”
Ultimately, the purpose of the event is to benefit local society as a whole, both Arab and non-Arab. During the month, thousands of visitors of all backgrounds are expected to attend and as in previous years, organisers hope they will leave with a refreshed and engaged approach to Arab culture. And this has very much been the case in previous years: Ikoku has seen substantial positive benefits from the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival since its launch. “We’ve seen an empowerment within the local Arabic community since the festival has grown; the sense of pride and self-esteem among the community about where they come from and who they are. And then for non-Arab visitors, the feedback we get, we get people coming back every year, learning more about, say, the music or cuisine – then at the other end of the spectrum we have the people who say, ‘Well, I just didn’t know that the Arab world was made up of these countries and what rich cultural heritage they had’.”
The Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival runs until July 27, various venues, Liverpool, UK. Check www.arabicartsfestival.co.uk for full details and updated information.
Think of Liverpool, the port city on the north-west coast of Britain, and the first thing that springs to mind might be The Beatles. Or maybe football. But it’s safe to assume that it probably isn’t Arabic culture and heritage. But, as the sixth Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, which is currently underway, demonstrates, not only is the north-west’s Arabic-speaking community thriving, but it is serving as a model for integration and social and cultural exchange. Since its launch in 2002, the annual festival has blossomed into the UK’s sole major celebration of Arabic life. A citywide celebration, it sees colourful displays of music, art, film, theatre, dance, fashion and food from across the Arab world, drawing consistently large crowds and brightening up this bustling city. This month, Liverpudlians can enjoy a smorgasbord of treats, from the sounds of modern Rai, as performed by the massively-popular Algerian singer Khaled to the Palestinian singer Reem Kelani’s cool jazz. From Arabic food tasting sessions and cookery demonstrations to theatre, a major film cycle and cutting-edge contemporary art exhibitions, the festival sets out to present all aspects of Arab culture, in an accessible, fun and informative way. It also actively seeks to counter negative media stereotypes of Arabs.
This year, the festival is set to be even bigger than usual as its host city is currently in the midst of a renaissance, occasioned by its status as the 2008 European Capital of Culture. The past six months have flown by in a whirl of activity, from gigs by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to myriad grassroots projects celebrating the unique blend of inhabitants and traditions found in the area. Organisers point out that one of the UK’s oldest settlements of Arabic immigrants is still here, a community that has grown from the small groups of Yemeni sailors who originally settled here in the 19th century.
The festival revolves around the region’s pre-eminent arts centre, the Bluecoat. The Bluecoat is a notable entity, a multifaceted cultural hub which has just emerged from a major overhaul and relaunch earlier this year (marking yet another phase in its remarkable 290-year history). It is housed in a Unesco-listed building and is, for the next few weeks, the epicentre of all things Arabic. The festival’s manager, Ngozi Ikoku, is based at the Bluecoat, and is at the centre of this dynamic series of happenings.
“How did it all start?” he asks. “Well, the Bluecoat and the Liverpool Arabic Centre started working together around 1999 to programme one-off events and they soon realised there was an audience for them. Then they moved on to doing a weekend event. In 2002, there was an official festival and that’s been the case since.”
The event brings together a variety of nationalities, but it is Yemeni culture that dominates proceedings.
“The Yemenis came to Liverpool in the 19th century,” explains Ikoku. “They were working on the merchant ships, and when the shipping industry died off, they moved to the steelworks. That was really when you get the critical mass of the Yemeni community moving over. So, we are the largest Yemeni community here [in the UK] and we have the first mosque that was built in this country.”
Amid the impressive film programme (co-curated by BAFTA and taking place at the FACT cinema), a weekend of Yemeni films is planned to highlight the country’s tiny but rapidly growing film industry. Largely sourced from last December’s First Yemen Film Festival in London, screenings include the poignant Last of the Dictionary Men, a documentary looking at the first wave of Yemeni settlers to establish a community in South Shields, in the north-east. (This was recently presented at the Newcastle Baltic Gallery, along with photography by the Third Line Gallery’s Youssef Nabil.) There is also a showing of Bader Ben Hirsi’s 2005 drama, A New Day in Old Sana’a, which is frequently taken as being the first bona fide Yemeni feature film.
Meanwhile, the other elements of the season offer up a number of highlights: the Syrian director Abdullatif Abdulhamid’s 2007 melodrama Out of Coverage is a Bergman-esque study of love, loyalty and betrayal, while the Lebanese director Phillipe Aractangi’s Under the Bombs is a raw story of a mother trying to find her son amid the chaos of war and destruction in the 2006 Lebanon war. The film schedule is capped with a gala screening of Lawrence Of Arabia at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall to commemorate the centenary of the director David Lean’s birth. An impressive line-up, and one that deserves as wide an audience as possible.
An impressive array of visual arts complements the films at the festival. Again, Yemeni themes abound, predominantly in Coal, Frankincense and Myrrh: Yemen and British Yemenis, an exhibition by the British photographer Tim Smith, who has spent much of the past 25 years documenting the lives of Yemenis both in the UK and at home. In his images, Smith documents the remnants of the country’s tradition as a trading post and pivotal hub of the British Empire in years gone by. “It’s a wonderful exhibition,” enthuses Ikoku. “His photographs are just stunning.”
Meanwhile, contemporary art from the rest of the Middle East and North Africa is represented by an expansive exhibition,New Ends, Old Beginnings, which takes work by over 11 Arab artists, ranging from Egypt’s Lara Baladi and the UAE’s Tarek al Ghossein to the Turkish artist Can Alkay. The exhibition covers diverse topics such as the chaos of war-torn Baghdad, the booming tourism and prosperity of the UAE, the conflicting senses of identity felt by many Egyptians and the cultural ramifications of post-conflict reconstruction work taking place in Beirut. An exhibition such as this is invaluable in giving a broad sense of the issues and questions facing Arab citizens and reflects perfectly the festival’s commitment to generating understanding and empathy among visitors.The work ranges from the enigmatic to the abruptly outspoken.
The curator November Paynter say: “It investigates the Arab region through artistic responses to many layers of local and everyday culture, which is a perspective that the world’s media often overlooks or avoids. They prefer instead to present images that shock and manipulate viewers.”
The highlight of the festival, according to the pre-event buzz, however, is a play, RIOT, a critically lauded production based on real events which tells the story of an uprising by Yemeni sailors in 1930s northern England. Using the clandestine relationship between a young Yemeni seaman and a local girl as a perspective point, a charged narrative unfolds during which a police officer is stabbed, leading to the deportation of over 20 Yemenis. An eerily prescient tone is set, placing the troubles and conflicts faced by today’s immigrants and host communities into a historical context.
Using a blend of fact, drama, satire and black humour, the play has been lauded for its tight, focused approach to a sensitive and polarising issue. “The Arabs were blamed for high levels of unemployment at the time,” says the playwright Peter Mortimer. “They were [made] scapegoats. The play tries to understand what caused this riot.”
Ultimately, the purpose of the event is to benefit local society as a whole, both Arab and non-Arab. During the month, thousands of visitors of all backgrounds are expected to attend and as in previous years, organisers hope they will leave with a refreshed and engaged approach to Arab culture. And this has very much been the case in previous years: Ikoku has seen substantial positive benefits from the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival since its launch. “We’ve seen an empowerment within the local Arabic community since the festival has grown; the sense of pride and self-esteem among the community about where they come from and who they are. And then for non-Arab visitors, the feedback we get, we get people coming back every year, learning more about, say, the music or cuisine – then at the other end of the spectrum we have the people who say, ‘Well, I just didn’t know that the Arab world was made up of these countries and what rich cultural heritage they had’.”
The Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival runs until July 27, various venues, Liverpool, UK. Check www.arabicartsfestival.co.uk for full details and updated information.
Friday, 4 July 2008
Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe' : Minister's shock warning on rise of anti-Islamic prejudice
Mr Malik said that many British Muslims now felt like 'aliens in their own country'
Britain's first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like "the Jews of Europe".
Shahid Malik, who was appointed as a minister in the Department for International Development (Dfid) by Gordon Brown last summer, said it has become legitimate to target Muslims in the media and society at large in a way that would be unacceptable for any other minority.
Mr Malik made clear that he was not equating the situation with the Holocaust but warned that many British Muslims now felt like "aliens in their own country". He said he himself had been the target of a string of racist incidents, including the firebombing of his family car and an attempt to run him down at a petrol station.
"I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he said. "I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost – and still is in some parts – to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way.
"Somehow there's a message out there that it's OK to target people as long as it's Muslims. And you don't have to worry about the facts, and people will turn a blind eye."
The claims are made in an interview to be broadcast on Monday in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to coincide with the third anniversary of the London bombings of 7 July.
A poll to accompany the documentary highlights the growing polarisation of opinion among Britain's 1.6 million Muslims, who say they have suffered a marked increase in hostility since the London bombings.
The ICM survey found that 51 per cent of Britons blame Islam to some degree for the 2005 attacks while more than a quarter of Muslims now believe Islamic values are not compatible with British values. While 90 per cent of Muslims said they felt attached to Britain, eight out of 10 said they felt there was more religious prejudice against their faith since the July bombings.
The Dispatches film, "It Shouldn't Happen to a Muslim", presented by the writer and broadcaster Peter Oborne, examines claims that negative attitudes to Muslims have become legitimised by think-tanks and newspaper commentators, who use language that is now being parroted by the far right.
Mr Malik, who narrowly escaped serious injury when a car was driven at him at a petrol station in his home town of Burnley in 2002, said he regularly receives anti-Muslim hate mail at his constituency office in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, which has the highest BNP vote in the country and was home to Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the suicide attackers who killed 52 people in London in 2005.
The MP said the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media, including a story run by several national newspapers in December last year wrongly stating that staff in the Dewsbury and District Hospital had been ordered to turn the beds of Muslim patients towards Mecca five times a day, was a key example of how his co-religionists were being alienated from the mainstream.
He said: "It's almost as if you don't have to check your facts when it comes to certain people, and you can just run with those stories. It makes Muslims feel like aliens in their own country. At a time when we want to engage with Muslims, actually the opposite happens."
The Dispatches programme also speaks to Andy Hayman, the former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner who was Britain's most senior anti-terrorism officer until he resigned last December. Mr Hayman, who was criticised for failing to tell senior Scotland Yard officers that an innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes, had been shot dead after being mistaken for a suicide bomber, is asked why he thinks it is important to engage with Muslims expressing extreme views.
Mr Hayman said: "Because we're tackling head on the people that we feel are at the heartbeat of this whole complex agenda. Not to have a dialogue with them would seem that we are apprehensive, we're scared, we're frightened... So even if it's appeasement in some quarters, that is still a conversation that is not being had and needs to be had."
Mr Malik's comments were backed by Simon Woolley, a member of the Government's task force on race equality, and co-founder of Operation Black Vote. He said: "On an almost daily basis, there is rampant Islamophobia in this country, the effect of which is not for our Muslim community to get closer to a sense of Britishness but to feel further away from a feeling of belonging in British society."
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Orientalism, 30 years--Exhibition at the Tate Modern
Edward Said’s controversial book is now thirty years old. A new exhibition of Orientalist paintings at Tate Britain provides a timely opportunity to revisit its argument, says Kamran Rastegar.
A young academic who teaches at a university in Marvdasht, a small provincial city in central Iran, knowing of my interest in the work of the Palestinian-American literary scholar and public intellectual Edward W. Said (1935-2003), recently contacted me by email. He is the organizer of a reading group made up of students of geography who were beginning to read Said’s Orientalism (1978) and wished to engage with scholars based outside Iran to gain other perspectives on the work. Would I, he asked, agree to an email correspondence, writing responses to their questions? I was delighted, but also surprised – a reading group of geography students in a rather remote town in central Iran discussing the works of Edward Said? To paraphrase the title of a popular recent work of non-fiction, I had no idea that Iranian students were reading Orientalism in Marvdasht.
Thirty years have passed since the publication of Orientalism, Edward Said’s most influential work. To understand its impact, we need only to reflect on the fact that the students of Marvdasht have joined a worldwide community of humanities students for whom this particular text is considered essential reading. Said’s study still plays an important role in diverse contexts on both sides of what has been termed the ‘divide’ between ‘East’ and ‘West’, and his critique of representational activity around the ‘Orient’ continues to generate debates in societies seen as falling on both sides of this divide.
In fact, Said’s oeuvre fundamentally aimed to challenge the validity of such a division, and so in one sense Orientalism is a study addressing the history of the emergence of this conceptual divide. It does so by chronicling the entanglement of the concept of an immutable or essential division between East and West with ideological imperatives from the perspective of what the twentieth-century French philosopher Michel Foucault called ‘the power/ knowledge axis’ – or, more simply, the relationship of knowledge to power. With power comes the need to generate a kind of knowledge that reinforces this power, and so the academic field of Orientalism (and other representations of the parts of the world known as the Orient) is implicated in the power relations between West and East. This, Said argued, began with the advent of colonialism and was carried over in the global geopolitical power arrangements after the end of colonialism – arrangements that have certainly changed in the last thirty years, but arguably only in ways that underscore the importance of Orientalism’s critique.
Just as the students in Marvdasht continue to grapple with Said’s writing in an effort to map out an understanding of their world, so readers in the UK and other parts of the world find a continuing relevance for the debates raised in Orientalism. It is true that in the weeks after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, certain commentators boldly proclaimed the end to the kind of critical approach represented by Said, but it now appears that, rather than be doomed to obsolescence, Orientalism is being revisited anew. Although Said’s critics have by no means retreated – as in, for example, the recent work by Robert Irwin, Lust for Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies (2007) – even the profusion of critiques of the work in recent years only serves to illustrate the continuing timeliness of the debates that were refracted within its prism.
As interest in issues relating to the Middle East and the Islamic faith expands both among the public and in the universities, it is unsurprising to find Orientalism being frequently cited and consulted. Indeed, with the Western countries involved in ongoing military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ever-inflamed wound that is the question of Palestine, and the dangerous prospects of a major conflagration over Iran’s nuclear programme, the issues debated around Orientalism may seem much less abstract than they did in 1978, when the book first appeared.
The thirtieth anniversary of its publication is a fitting moment for cultural institutions to revisit the debates raised by Orientalism. Tate Britain’s forthcoming exhibition ‘The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting’ does just that by bringing together some of the foremost British contributions in the field of visual arts to the European Orientalist imagination. The exhibition, a collaboration with the Yale Museum of British Art and Tate Britain, has been curated by Nicholas Tromans and Emily M. Weeks, who explicitly cite Said’s book as a touchstone. In a beautiful and very well-conceived exhibition catalogue they not only bring to the fore the complex aesthetic imperatives to the construction of a British Orientalist aesthetic within the field of the visual arts, but also attempt to revisit the ideological genealogies for the production of such works of art, linking these discussions directly to Orientalism. The catalogue includes a set of critical essays along with mesmerizing reproductions of the paintings and drawings that make up the core of the exhibition.
In his introductory essay, Nicholas Tromans links a range of social and material considerations to the aesthetic questions more often dwelt upon in curatorial work, insisting that it is necessary ‘to ask afresh the question of what the Orient had to offer the professional painter’. Tromans goes on to note that while Said’s Orientalism offers little by way of a direct contribution to art historical debates, the text nonetheless opens up a number of useful critical approaches to the study of the aesthetics of Orientalist painting. He questions the coincidence of the coalescence of Orientalist painting and the nineteenth-century Ottoman reformist tanzimat policies and suggests that the relationship of East and West – while largely defined by the demands of colonialism and imperialism – may be more interactive than sometimes understood in scholarship influenced by Said. His introduction ends by looking at instances where nineteenth-century Orientalist painting has been brought into contemporary contexts, for example citing the use of G. F. Watts’ painting ‘Hope’ ‘as an emblem of national perseverance’ by the Egyptian army after their defeat by Israel in 1967.
Co-curator Emily Weeks takes a more critical approach, arguing that ‘art history has been singularly reluctant to work through the faults of Said’s Orientalism and develop more nuanced lenses through which to view the Orientalist paintings that are, by an unfortunate coincidence of terminology, believed to reflect its tenets’. She presents an overview of the works of John Frederick Lewis, several of whose paintings are included in the exhibition, in order to raise questions about what she sees to be the reductive conclusions presented by Orientalism. However, at times this critique seems slightly misdirected – surely Said himself is not responsible for the widespread conflation of Orientalist painting with the academic discipline of Orientalism. While some scholars no doubt may have reductively applied the critiques in Orientalism to contexts deserving a more nuanced approach, any fair reader of Said’s scholarly corpus – including the related texts Culture and Imperialism and Humanism and Democratic Criticism – would not find that his own approach to cultural issues suffers from the kind of simplicity indicated by Weeks.
Further essays by Rana Kabbani, Fatema Mernissi and Christine Riding cover different aspects of the same general debate, whose central questions may be summarized as: How valid are the critiques of Orientalism for understanding visual representations of the ‘Orient’ carried out by British artists? What are the reasons for wishing to continue to revisit the period of high ‘Orientalism’ and its cultural dimensions? Do the works of Orientalist painters reflect the ways in which the Middle East, the Arab world and the Islamic world are perceived in the West?
The diversity of viewpoints on these and similar topics discussed in the exhibition catalogue go some way towards illuminating the extent to which the debates raised by Orientalism remain far from being settled. Said’s work, while subjected to a variety of cogent critiques over the years, has remained a vital marker of how we understand the relationship of ‘East’ to ‘West’. As this relationship continues to evolve, cultural institutions may play a very important role in exploring the interactions between the Middle East and Europe from a historical perspective. It is most valuable when these efforts link the past to current predicaments, as is the intention of the current exhibition.
In viewing anew these extraordinary works of art, we come to a better appreciation of the constellation of interests – material, aesthetic, ideological – that have come to frame the way in which the Orient, including the later permutations of this notion, has been imagined and represented in the West. It is a testament to Orientalism the book that even now, thirty years on, it continues to play a central role in outlining these debates. It is perhaps not so surprising, then, that in a small city in central Iran, university students are reading Said’s work in order to make better sense of their world.
Orientalism in Istanbul
The huge print of ‘Leila’ by Frank Dicksee which hangs, with prints of other nineteenth-century Orientalist paintings, in an Istanbul coffee house, reassures us that the girl dressed in brightly coloured silk and reclining languorously on a tiger skin does not offend Eastern sensibilities. (It also adorns the front cover of this magazine.) The Orientalist collection ‘Portraits from the Empire’ at the city’s Pera Museum (where the ‘Lure of the East’ exhbition will show after Tate Britain in London) suggests an acceptance of this fanciful Western view of a mysterious foreign world which few had ever seen.
Most British Orientalists painted their pictures back in England after a brief sketching tour around Turkey, Palestine or North Africa. They were often posed by models, sometimes even the artists themselves, in Ottoman dress purchased on the tour, and they showed Europeans the artificial, clichéed world they expected to encounter. In particular, paintings of the harem, an area forbidden to these male artists, presented a popular fantasy of sexual promiscuity.
This enduring fascination of the West with the East raises the question of how the East saw itself. The only Eastern artist in this exhibition is Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910), who was born and died in Constantinople, and as director of the Archaeological Museum there, was instrumental in preventing historical artefacts from being smuggled out of the country. He was heavily influenced by European Orientalism, having studied art for a number of years in Paris. So are his paintings different from those of European artists? Are they more authentic? Superficially they do not appear so, but they are less overtly erotic, showing a creative and elegant harem resonant with allegorical meanings. By contrast, photographs show him and his daughter in full Western dress. A pioneer in many fields, Hamdi Bey engaged with the modernisation of Turkey whilst portraying the Orientalist myth of a static world.
Thirty years have passed since the publication of Orientalism, Edward Said’s most influential work. To understand its impact, we need only to reflect on the fact that the students of Marvdasht have joined a worldwide community of humanities students for whom this particular text is considered essential reading. Said’s study still plays an important role in diverse contexts on both sides of what has been termed the ‘divide’ between ‘East’ and ‘West’, and his critique of representational activity around the ‘Orient’ continues to generate debates in societies seen as falling on both sides of this divide.
In fact, Said’s oeuvre fundamentally aimed to challenge the validity of such a division, and so in one sense Orientalism is a study addressing the history of the emergence of this conceptual divide. It does so by chronicling the entanglement of the concept of an immutable or essential division between East and West with ideological imperatives from the perspective of what the twentieth-century French philosopher Michel Foucault called ‘the power/ knowledge axis’ – or, more simply, the relationship of knowledge to power. With power comes the need to generate a kind of knowledge that reinforces this power, and so the academic field of Orientalism (and other representations of the parts of the world known as the Orient) is implicated in the power relations between West and East. This, Said argued, began with the advent of colonialism and was carried over in the global geopolitical power arrangements after the end of colonialism – arrangements that have certainly changed in the last thirty years, but arguably only in ways that underscore the importance of Orientalism’s critique.
Just as the students in Marvdasht continue to grapple with Said’s writing in an effort to map out an understanding of their world, so readers in the UK and other parts of the world find a continuing relevance for the debates raised in Orientalism. It is true that in the weeks after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, certain commentators boldly proclaimed the end to the kind of critical approach represented by Said, but it now appears that, rather than be doomed to obsolescence, Orientalism is being revisited anew. Although Said’s critics have by no means retreated – as in, for example, the recent work by Robert Irwin, Lust for Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies (2007) – even the profusion of critiques of the work in recent years only serves to illustrate the continuing timeliness of the debates that were refracted within its prism.
As interest in issues relating to the Middle East and the Islamic faith expands both among the public and in the universities, it is unsurprising to find Orientalism being frequently cited and consulted. Indeed, with the Western countries involved in ongoing military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ever-inflamed wound that is the question of Palestine, and the dangerous prospects of a major conflagration over Iran’s nuclear programme, the issues debated around Orientalism may seem much less abstract than they did in 1978, when the book first appeared.
The thirtieth anniversary of its publication is a fitting moment for cultural institutions to revisit the debates raised by Orientalism. Tate Britain’s forthcoming exhibition ‘The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting’ does just that by bringing together some of the foremost British contributions in the field of visual arts to the European Orientalist imagination. The exhibition, a collaboration with the Yale Museum of British Art and Tate Britain, has been curated by Nicholas Tromans and Emily M. Weeks, who explicitly cite Said’s book as a touchstone. In a beautiful and very well-conceived exhibition catalogue they not only bring to the fore the complex aesthetic imperatives to the construction of a British Orientalist aesthetic within the field of the visual arts, but also attempt to revisit the ideological genealogies for the production of such works of art, linking these discussions directly to Orientalism. The catalogue includes a set of critical essays along with mesmerizing reproductions of the paintings and drawings that make up the core of the exhibition.
In his introductory essay, Nicholas Tromans links a range of social and material considerations to the aesthetic questions more often dwelt upon in curatorial work, insisting that it is necessary ‘to ask afresh the question of what the Orient had to offer the professional painter’. Tromans goes on to note that while Said’s Orientalism offers little by way of a direct contribution to art historical debates, the text nonetheless opens up a number of useful critical approaches to the study of the aesthetics of Orientalist painting. He questions the coincidence of the coalescence of Orientalist painting and the nineteenth-century Ottoman reformist tanzimat policies and suggests that the relationship of East and West – while largely defined by the demands of colonialism and imperialism – may be more interactive than sometimes understood in scholarship influenced by Said. His introduction ends by looking at instances where nineteenth-century Orientalist painting has been brought into contemporary contexts, for example citing the use of G. F. Watts’ painting ‘Hope’ ‘as an emblem of national perseverance’ by the Egyptian army after their defeat by Israel in 1967. Co-curator Emily Weeks takes a more critical approach, arguing that ‘art history has been singularly reluctant to work through the faults of Said’s Orientalism and develop more nuanced lenses through which to view the Orientalist paintings that are, by an unfortunate coincidence of terminology, believed to reflect its tenets’. She presents an overview of the works of John Frederick Lewis, several of whose paintings are included in the exhibition, in order to raise questions about what she sees to be the reductive conclusions presented by Orientalism. However, at times this critique seems slightly misdirected – surely Said himself is not responsible for the widespread conflation of Orientalist painting with the academic discipline of Orientalism. While some scholars no doubt may have reductively applied the critiques in Orientalism to contexts deserving a more nuanced approach, any fair reader of Said’s scholarly corpus – including the related texts Culture and Imperialism and Humanism and Democratic Criticism – would not find that his own approach to cultural issues suffers from the kind of simplicity indicated by Weeks.
Further essays by Rana Kabbani, Fatema Mernissi and Christine Riding cover different aspects of the same general debate, whose central questions may be summarized as: How valid are the critiques of Orientalism for understanding visual representations of the ‘Orient’ carried out by British artists? What are the reasons for wishing to continue to revisit the period of high ‘Orientalism’ and its cultural dimensions? Do the works of Orientalist painters reflect the ways in which the Middle East, the Arab world and the Islamic world are perceived in the West?
The diversity of viewpoints on these and similar topics discussed in the exhibition catalogue go some way towards illuminating the extent to which the debates raised by Orientalism remain far from being settled. Said’s work, while subjected to a variety of cogent critiques over the years, has remained a vital marker of how we understand the relationship of ‘East’ to ‘West’. As this relationship continues to evolve, cultural institutions may play a very important role in exploring the interactions between the Middle East and Europe from a historical perspective. It is most valuable when these efforts link the past to current predicaments, as is the intention of the current exhibition.
In viewing anew these extraordinary works of art, we come to a better appreciation of the constellation of interests – material, aesthetic, ideological – that have come to frame the way in which the Orient, including the later permutations of this notion, has been imagined and represented in the West. It is a testament to Orientalism the book that even now, thirty years on, it continues to play a central role in outlining these debates. It is perhaps not so surprising, then, that in a small city in central Iran, university students are reading Said’s work in order to make better sense of their world.
- Kamran Rastegar is lecturer in Arabic and Persian at the University of Edinburgh.
Orientalism in Istanbul
The huge print of ‘Leila’ by Frank Dicksee which hangs, with prints of other nineteenth-century Orientalist paintings, in an Istanbul coffee house, reassures us that the girl dressed in brightly coloured silk and reclining languorously on a tiger skin does not offend Eastern sensibilities. (It also adorns the front cover of this magazine.) The Orientalist collection ‘Portraits from the Empire’ at the city’s Pera Museum (where the ‘Lure of the East’ exhbition will show after Tate Britain in London) suggests an acceptance of this fanciful Western view of a mysterious foreign world which few had ever seen.
Most British Orientalists painted their pictures back in England after a brief sketching tour around Turkey, Palestine or North Africa. They were often posed by models, sometimes even the artists themselves, in Ottoman dress purchased on the tour, and they showed Europeans the artificial, clichéed world they expected to encounter. In particular, paintings of the harem, an area forbidden to these male artists, presented a popular fantasy of sexual promiscuity.
This enduring fascination of the West with the East raises the question of how the East saw itself. The only Eastern artist in this exhibition is Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910), who was born and died in Constantinople, and as director of the Archaeological Museum there, was instrumental in preventing historical artefacts from being smuggled out of the country. He was heavily influenced by European Orientalism, having studied art for a number of years in Paris. So are his paintings different from those of European artists? Are they more authentic? Superficially they do not appear so, but they are less overtly erotic, showing a creative and elegant harem resonant with allegorical meanings. By contrast, photographs show him and his daughter in full Western dress. A pioneer in many fields, Hamdi Bey engaged with the modernisation of Turkey whilst portraying the Orientalist myth of a static world.
Friday, 30 May 2008
Britain and censorship--The Guardian
The Guardian
A masters student researching terrorist tactics who was arrested and
detained for six days after his university informed police about
al-Qaida-related material he downloaded has spoken of the "psychological
torture"
he endured in custody. Despite his Nottingham University supervisors insisting
the materials were directly relevant to his research, Rizwaan Sabir, 22,
was held for nearly a week under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading
the materials for illegal use. The student had obtained a copy of the
al-Qaida training manual from a US government website for his research
into terrorist tactics.
The case highlights what lecturers are claiming is a direct assault on
academic freedom led by the government which, in its attempt to establish
a "prevent agenda" against terrorist activity, is putting pressure on
academics to become police informers.
Sabir was arrested on May 14 after the document was found by a university
staff member on an administrator's computer. The administrator, Hisham Yezza,
an acquaintance of Sabir, had been asked by the student to print the
1,500-page document because Sabir could not afford the printing fees.
The pair were arrested under the Terrorism Act, Sabir's family home was
searched and their computer and mobile phones seized. They were released
uncharged six days later but Yezza, who is Algerian, was immediately
rearrested on unrelated immigration charges and now faces deportation.
Dr Alf Nilsen, a research fellow at the university's school of politics
and international relations, said that Yezza is being held at Colnbrook
immigration removal centre, due to be deported on Tuesday.
"If he is taken to Algeria, he may be subjected to severe human rights
violations after his involvement in this case. He has been in the UK for
13 years. His work is here, his friends are here, his life is here."
Of his detention, Sabir said: "I was absolutely broken. I didn't sleep.
I'd close my eyes then hear the keys clanking and I would be up again. As
I realised the severity I thought I'd end up in Belmarsh with the nutcases.
It was psychological torture.
"On Tuesday they read me a statement confirming it was an illegal document
which shouldn't be used for research purposes. To this day no one has ever
clarified that point. They released me. I was shaking violently, I fell
against the wall, then on the floor and I just cried."
Bettina Rentz, a lecturer in international security and Sabir's personal tutor,
said: "He's a serious student, who works very hard and wants a career in
academia. This is a great concern for our academic freedom but also for the
climate on campus."
Students have begun a petition calling on the university to acknowledge
the "disproportionate nature of [its] response to the possession of
legitimate research materials".
A spokesman for Nottingham University said it had a duty to inform police
of "material of this nature". The spokesman said it was "not legitimate
research material", but later amended that view, saying: "If you're an
academic or a registered student then you have very good cause to access
whatever material your scholarship requires. But there is an expectation
that you will act sensibly within current UK law and wouldn't send it on
to any Tom, Dick or Harry."
At its annual conference next week the University and College Union will
debate a motion on "assaults on academic freedom by the DIUS [Department for
Innovation, Universities and Skills]". Sally Hunt, general secretary of the
UCU, said: "If we really want to tackle problems like extremism and terrorism,
then we need to be safe to explore the issues and get a better understanding.
The last thing we need is people too frightened to discuss an issue or
research a subject because they fear being arrested or reported."
The higher education minister, Bill Rammell, said: "The government does not
want to or has never asked for staff or students to spy on their colleagues
or friends. We want universities to work with staff and students on campus to
isolate and challenge the very small minority who promote violent extremism."
Sabir's solicitor, Tayab Ali, said: "This could have been dealt with sensibly if
the university had discussed the issue with Rizwaan and his tutors. This is the
worrying aspect of the extension of detention [under the Terrorism Act]. They
can use hugely powerful arrest powers before investigating."
:-
>From a group of Nottingham residents, concerned student and academics at
the University of Nottingham.
For immediate use, 24/05/08 SATURDAY
Notts Uni detainee innocent but still facing deportation
Hicham Yezza, a popular, respected and valued former PhD student and
current employee of the University of Nottingham faces deportation
to Algeria on Sunday 1st June. This follows his unjust arrest under
the Terrorism Act 2000 on Wednesday 14th May alongside Rizwaan Sabir
and their release without charge six days later.
It has subsequently become clear that these arrests, which the police
had claimed related to so-called "radical materials" involved an Al Qaeda
manual downloaded by Sabir as part of his research into political Islam
and emailed to Yezza for printing because Sabir couldn't afford to get it
printed himself.
There has been a vocal response from lecturers and students. A petition
is being circulated, letters have been sent by academics across the world
and a demo is being planned for Wednesday. 28th May. This has clearly been
deeply embarrassing to a government currently advocating an expansion of
anti-terror powers.
On his release Hicham was re-arrested under immigration legislation and,
due to confusion over his visa documentation, charged with offences
relating to his immigration status. He sought legal advice and
representation over these matters whilst in custody. On Friday 23rd May,
he was suddenly served with a deportation notice and moved to an
immigration detention centre. The deportation is being urgently appealed.
Hicham has been resident in the U.K. for 13 years, during which time he
has studied for both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Nottingham.
He is an active member of debating societies, a prominent member of
an arts and theatre group, and has written for, and edited, Ceasefire,
the Nottingham Student Peace Movement magazine for the last five years.
He is well known and popular on campus amongst the university community
and has established himself as a voracious reader and an authority on
literature and music. An application for British citizenship was underway,
and he had been planning to make his yearly trip to Wales for the Hay
Festival when he was suddenly arrested.
The authorities are clearly trying to circumvent the criminal justice
system and force Hicham out of the country. Normally they would have to
wait for criminal proceedings to finish, but here they have managed to
convince the prosecution to drop the charges in an attempt to remove him
in a quick, covert manner. The desire for justice is clearly not the
driving force behind this, as Hicham was happy to stand trial and prove
his innocence.
Hicham had a large social network and many of his friends are mobilising
to prevent his release. Matthew Butcher, 20, a student at the University
of Nottingham and member of the 2008-9 Students Union Executive, said,
"This is an abhorrent abuse of due process, pursued by a government
currently seeking to expand anti-terror powers. Following the debacle
of the initial 'terror' arrests they now want to brush the whole affair
under the carpet by deporting Hicham."
Supporters have been able to talk with Hicham and he said, "The Home
Office operates with a Gestapo mentality. They have no respect for human
dignity and human life. They treat foreign nationals as disposable goods -
the recklessness and the cavalier approach they have belongs to a
totalitarian state. I thank everyone for their support - it's been
extremely heartening and humbling. I'm grateful to everyone who has
come to my aid and stood with me in solidarity, from students to Members
of Parliament. I think this really reflects the spirit of the generous,
inclusive Britain we know - and not the faceless, brutal, draconian
tactics of the Home Office."
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