[ppi] [ppiindia] Messages of hope from Iran

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC28Ak01.html


Mar 28, 2006 


THE ROVING EYE 
Messages of hope from Iran 
By Pepe Escobar



ISFAHAN - From Cairo to Qom, from Jerusalem to Peshawar, there is a widespread 
perception among 1.3 billion Muslims, Sunni or Shi'ite, that Islam is under 
siege.

Persians pride themselves on molding Islam from the Arabs into a much more 
refined - and pure - faith. While Arab governments are basically mum, the 
Iranian government has taken the initiative to counteract what is perceived as 
Islam and religion under fire.

The setting could not be more appropriate: fabled Isfahan, "half the world" 
when it blossomed under the Safavid dynasty, and the cultural capital of Islam 
since January, as voted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The "International Conference on Constructive Interaction Among Religions", 
discussing legal-political, cultural-historical and religious-ethical topics, 
was billed as the first international attempt in the world of Islam to unite 
religious leaders and thinkers from basically four monotheistic religions - 
Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian - so they could study the "problems and 
obstacles in the way of the growing trend of religious spirituality in the 
world".

Timing was of the essence, scholars and clerics agreed, especially in the 
aftermath of the Danish cartoon controversy over caricatures of the Prophet 
Mohammed and the bombing of the Golden Dome in Samarra in Iraq.

The conference adopted a final declaration which, among other topics, called 
for a broader role for religious leaders in the near future, regretted "the 
silence of some political leaders towards the unfair sacrilege of religious 
sanctities, particularly the affront to the Holy Prophet of Islam", and 
supported "the anti-war movements protesting the war against Iraq". The wars on 
Afghanistan and Iraq, in much of the Arab/Muslim world, have been interpreted 
as a concerted attack on Islam.

The conference, set up by the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, which 
is directly linked to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was definitely a 
political gesture; it meant the Iranian government making a public stand 
against attacks on Islam ahead of any OIC-member state. But this was not only 
about Islam.

In many aspects, it was an extraordinary sight. Right at the heart of the 
Islamic Republic, one could see Rabbi Moshe Friedman, the hyperactive chief 
rabbi of the Orthodox anti-Zionist community in Vienna, lashing out at Zionist 
control of the world economy and media. New Delhi-based Swami Agnivesh, a 
proponent of "applied spirituality", in full sartorial orange splendor, was 
denouncing that "conventional weapons kill more people than the so-called 
weapons of mass destruction". And Dr Bawa Jain, the New York-based secretary 
general of the World Council of Religious Leaders, was dreaming of politicians 
really having to pay attention to religious feelings.

A few technical glitches were inevitable. Not all of the expected 120 leaders 
and scholars from 38 countries could come to Isfahan because of visa problems. 
There were no Buddhists. There were no Wahhabi clerics - but they are not in 
favor of inter-faith dialogue anyway. The Iranian ayatollahs, of course, placed 
their criticism in terms of Islam - and not religion as a whole - under siege.

For instance, widely revered Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, a member of the 
Council of Experts who was very close to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, said that 
"if the divine prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ and Prophet 
Mohammed are blasphemed by the Salman Rushdies, the Danish cartoonists and the 
demolishers of the shrines of Imam Hadi and Imam Askari over the centuries, it 
is because they are entrapped in the embryo of nature and consider the outside 
free atmosphere opium and spell". Iranian scholar Hamid Moulana stressed that 
"if we fail to offer our definition of science, we will become vulnerable".

Bring down the Zionists 
In the maze of expert sessions held in the Abbasi Hotel - a fabulous converted 
early 18th-century caravanserai built in the reign of the last Safavid king, 
Shah Sultan Hossein - there was no shortage of Westerners, from Spanish 
specialists in Islam to an Argentine lady converted to Shi'ism and fighting a 
lone battle for the right to wear the scarf. Westerners stressed that 
inter-religious dialogue must be "philosophical, anthropological, with no 
dogmas, in the framework of a dialogue of civilizations", as a Greek scholar 
put it. 

US researcher Muhammad Legenhouzen is heavily involved in Catholic-Shi'ite 
dialogue. He's been teaching in Qom on and off for 10 years, studying the 
Crusades and dissecting the thoughts of Carl Schmidt, the chief ideologue of 
the American neo-conservatives. His suggestion is to push for more 
cosmopolitanism. Easier said than done. Legenhouzen has also worked with a 
Filipino Catholic bishop in his theological school in Qom. But he has to admit 
that "only 20% of the Filipino bishops are in favor of inter-faith dialogue".

Considering the recent outbursts of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Israel and 
the Holocaust, Vienna-based Rabbi Friedman was definitely the star of the show. 
An avid proponent of inter-faith dialogue, he can lash out for hours against 
"Bolshevik/Stalinist perpetrators" and "messianic sects like Zionism" bent on 
"exterminating the faith in God".

Well known to major newspaper editors in Europe, Friedman condemns the 
"worldwide Zionist-dominated media. And in this regard the situation in the 
United States media is even worse than in Europe." He constantly refers to "the 
Holocaust used to give moral legitimization for the atrocities against the 
Palestinians, displace them and rob their land and their homes, without the 
international community protecting them. The Holocaust was even exploited for 
financial contributions to Israel."

Friedman praises what he considers "honest statements" by Ahmadinejad regarding 
Israel - in the sense of the Holocaust being politicized. As he sees it, "the 
term 'anti-Semite' is substantially wrong and stupid as all Arabs are genuine 
Semites while many of the Zionists in reality do not have Jewish forefathers. I 
am proud to be a fundamentalist who stretches his arms out for peace and is 
willing also to risk his head for peace." Friedman would not be exactly safe 
walking in the streets of Manhattan.

His overall battle plan is "to do everything possible in practical terms to 
bring Zionist world domination in the media, economy, etc, to an end as it can 
have even worse effects than a mere military occupation".

The disenchanted and the engaged 
Marcel Gauchet, director of studies at the prestigious School of High Studies 
in Social Sciences in Paris, was not at the conference. He should have been. In 
1985, Gauchet published a remarkable political history of religion in French. 
His thoughts remain more than relevant. Gauchet now says that "the problem with 
Europeans is that they cannot understand what religion means anymore, in 
societies where it still remains a strong structuring factor. They have 
forgotten their own past."

Gauchet saw in the cartoon jihad "the immense resentment of populations who 
feel themselves scorned, in the trash bin of history, in a situation of 
perpetual failure in relation to a Western world which does not measure up how 
the penetration of its ways of thinking and doing is destructive to the social 
relations in place, especially in this Islam which, more than a faith, is a 
rule of life. The West is blind over the effects of this globalization of the 
economy and social customs, in terms of the fragmentation of the traditional 
family, of the violent changes in the relations between men and women, and 
between generations. We are facing an existential rebellion."

But how come what is regarded as humiliation in the Islamic world is a source 
of exhilaration in India and China? Gauchet says, "the nationalist resentment 
is not weaker, but these countries can count on a collective cohesion and 
political structures which allow them to appropriate themselves, like Japan 
did, of Western techniques and ways of economic thinking. They can nourish the 
ambition of beating the Westerners in their own game, even while they remain 
themselves in the process. There's nothing similar in the Arab-Muslim world. 
States are at the same time fragile and tyrannical. There are no tools for 
modernization. Under these circumstances, one endures the ravages of rampant 
Westernization without collecting any benefits."

The onslaught of materialism 
New Delhi-based Swami Agnivesh amplifies this critique - emphasizing the 
conflict between Western materialism and Eastern religions. He says that "more 
than in any other field of knowledge, reductive Western ontology resulted in 
spreading deep-seated anxiety and hostility towards Eastern religions. In this 
the Western world, for some strange reason, overlooked the fact that all 
religions were of Eastern origin and that the only religion, or quasi-religion, 
crafted in the West was materialism. That being the case, it was inevitable 
that the spirit of distrust directed against Eastern religions spread, 
eventually, to Christianity also."

Agnivesh warns that "religions should not be allowed to infect the emerging 
world order with the poison of alienation and hostility. The post-September 11 
Afghan scenario needs to be seen as an early warning of the shape of things to 
come."

Under these circumstances, it's no wonder that Bawa Jain, a Jain from India, 
and the secretary general of the World Council of Religious Leaders, is on a 
mission. The council was established in 2002 in Thailand; its headquarters is 
in New York and the secretariat in Bangkok. Jain sees a conference like the 
Isfahan one as just the beginning of a long and winding road: setting up a 
truly powerful global body, "not within the framework of the UN", probably in 
the Middle East; and provoke worldwide awareness so the council will be 
powerful enough to be seriously taken into account by the political leaders of 
the big powers.

As Jain put it, "I'm an Indian-American, but my ancestors are from Persia. I'm 
a follower of [Mahatma] Gandhi. I think what's happening now is a fundamental 
lack of education. Political leaders need to be sensitized. Not a single 
political leader asked for forgiveness when 20% to 25% of the world's 
population's faith is Islam, and they feel insulted. Hindus and Buddhists also 
comprise 20% to 25% of the world's population. Their feelings are also not 
taken into account." Jain mentions how "a lot of people asked me why I was 
going to Iran, a dangerous country".

More than 30,000 Jews live in Iran with no problems, go to their synagogues and 
are represented in the majlis (parliament). Jain sees it all as basically a 
public relations problem, from the point of view of Islam not managing to put 
its message across to the West.

Who in this case has to be responsible for a global change of perception? Jain 
points to "religious leaders, wherever they are; they must be heavily involved 
in social issues. They must be passionate, articulate - much more so than 
politicians."

This might be the message of hope coming from the cultural capital of Islam. 

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us 
about sales, syndication and republishing .)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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