In a World of Conflicts

Peace in a world of conflicts Religions/Adyan is an annual and bi-lingual (English and Arabic) publication in interfaith studies published by the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue with an emphasis on interreligious dialogue and the relations between Islam and other faiths.

In a world of religious misunderstandings, violence, and hijacking of religious faiths by political ideologies, Religions/Adyan intends to provide a welcome space of encounter and reflection upon the commonalities and shared goals of the great religions of the world. The title of the journal suggests religious diversity while suggesting the need to explore this diversity in order to develop keys to both a deepening of one’s own faith and a meaningful opening to other creeds. The Qur’ân suggests a commonality of faith and a striving for the Truth within the context of religious diversity:

“To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If God had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to God; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute.” (The Table Spread 5:48, version of Yusuf Ali)

As a refereed international publication published the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue, Religions/Adyan finds its inspiration in the universal message of monotheism broadly understood, while engaging the various religious faiths that share common principles and values within this broadly defined context.

Religions/Adyan encourages comparative studies and interreligious exchanges in a spirit of dialogue and mutual enrichment. Its aim is to promote understanding between religious faithful of various traditions by exploring and studying the rich field of their theological and spiritual common grounds, their mutual and constructive relationships, past, present and potentially future, a better understanding of the causes of their conflicts, and the current challenges of their encounter with atheism, agnosticism and secular societies.

In addition, Religions/Adyan wishes to highlight and revive the universal horizon of Islam by fostering studies in the relationships between Islam and other religions and civilizations in history, the arts, and religious studies. This is also a way to revitalize intellectual discourse in Islam, within the context of an interactive and cross-fertilizing engagement with other faiths.

The essays published in Religions/Adyan exclusively engage the intellectual responsibility of their authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DICID. They are published as part of an ongoing dialogue on religions, and should not be construed as the expression of the positions of any sponsoring organization.

1 Photo courtesy of Kai-Henrik Barth

2 Contents

Editorial 5 by Patrick Laude

Interview with Karen Armstrong 8 Foreword 15 by Renaud Fabbri

Eschatology and Philosophy: the Practice of Dying 18 by Eric Voegelin

The Problem of Peace in the Ecumenic Age 23 by Barry Cooper

Religion and Violence: how symbiotic a relationship? 34 by Olivier Leaman

Islam and Peace: A Preliminary Survey on the Sources of Peace in the Islamic Tradition 45 By Ibrahim Kalin

La paix passe-t-elle par une ère messianique ? 64 by Eric Geoffroy

L’État islamique, entre tradition réinventée et utopie politico-religieuse 74 by Myriam Benraad

Peace as inner transformation: a Buddhist perspective 82 by John Paraskevopoulos

Buddhist Perspective on Conflict Resolution 92 by Daisaku Ikeda

New Reality: Peace and Universal Responsibility, according to the Da- lai Lama 105 byJerusalem, Sofia Stril-Rever City of Peace 117 by Louis Massignon

3 Human Diversity in the Mirror of Religious Pluralism 121 by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos

The Greatest Binding Force 135 by Mahatma Gandhi

Hope for Peace in a Broken World: 1 Chronicles, Exile and Building Walls 136 by Grace Ji-Sun Kim

Integral Pluralism as the Basis for Harmony: The Approach of His High- ness the Aga Khan 147 by Ali Lakhani

Out of the mouths of babes: Comenius and World Peace 163 by Elizabeth Kristofovich Zelensky

Les religions, entre violence et paix 173 by Eric Vinson

Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions (book review) 190 by Akintunde E. Akinade

Karen Armstrong, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence (book review) 192 byBiographies Senad Mrahorović 195

4 Editorial

Both in the past and the pre- and factors. Moreover, even if taken sent religion has given rise to inspi- only metaphorically and spiritually, rations of war as well as to promo- the positive meaning of violence tion of peace. While religious values cannot be all too facilely discarded. entail a desire to promote peace This is brought home, among many both on this earth and in the there- examples taken from religious texts after, religions — including those — and whatever interpretation one which are conventionally deemed may give to it, by the oft-quoted sen- most “peaceful”— often make use of tence from Matthew (11:12 ) : "And warfare symbolism and do engage from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suf- by some of their representatives. fereth violence, and the violent take into conflicts Is there sanctioned a necessary or justifiedconnec- it by force." tion between religion and violence? In examining the question of Before attempting to answer this religious violence in general, it is im- question, it must be stressed that portant to start from the elementary religions, or religious people, have fact that religions are teaching and no exclusive privilege over war and often preaching what they consider violence. The arguably most mur- to be the Truth in an absolute sense, derous and atrocious wars ever took as well as the true way(s) of gaining place in the 20th century — namely access to It. In other words, religions World War I and World War II, and are focused on the Ultimate Reality. their main motivations were not It means, secondly, that any religious religious, but rather political and approach of the Ultimate is claimed ideological. However, there is no to be founded on the Ultimate itself, question that religious principles most often through some revelation and feelings have played an impor- or original spiritual recognition. As tant role not only in wars, but also such, religious truth transcends, sometimes in inordinate violence without necessarily negating it, the of all kinds. It bears specifying, realm of rationality and socially ne- however, that violence can come in gotiated rules and ways. Based on many forms, whether external or this fact, the point is often made internal, and that even outwardly by secular opponents of religions similar violent actions may be mo- that religious truth claims are the tivated by very different intentions primary causes of intolerance and, 5 therefore, violence and war. In other peace among human beings. words, according to these critics, the Thus, the religious mind absoluteness of the religious mes- seems to be characterized by two tendencies that are potentially at admits of no relativization, therefore odds. On the one hand, the truth of nosage compromise. cannot but fuel conflict, since it the Absolute, or the absolute Truth, On the other hand, though, stands as the very condition for a it is widely acknowledged that reli- state of authentic inner and outer gions strive to establish a relation- peace, but this condition or principle ship with what they conceive as the is also potentially a source of con- Principle of the universe. They see this relationship as the chief prin- those aspects of reality and fellow ciple of human integration into the humanflicts, in beings some who circumstances, are considered with order of the universe, and thereby not to be aligned with religious truth the way of reaching a sense of harmony and peace with the whole of the complex relationship between existence. On the human level, this religionclaims. An and objective peace cannot consideration ignore the of sense of connection, proceeding serious questions raised by those from the Principle and therefore vir- two tendencies. tually giving way to all connections, The question of peace, the is deemed to promote and preserve preservation of peace, and the use of 6 violence is necessarily connected, in religious traditions, to the fact that religion involves both ethico-spiritual demands and socio-political realities. In this connection, socio- political peace can provide a context hardly predispose to the latter. Con- versely,for inner in peace, an arguably while outer more conflicts determining way, inner peace fosters the virtues that promote social harmony. Religious perspectives, therefore, recognize in principle the corre- spondence between the legitimacy - der and the spiritual and ethical val- uesand embodiedjustice of thein the socio-political life of individu or- als. However they traditionally tend to place a greater emphasis on the latter, because only the person can exercise discerning intelligence, faith, free will and compassion. Thus even strongly socially oriented religious ethics such as Confucianism place self-cultivation as the ultimate source of social harmony. One of the challenges of modernity come from the fact that our societies tend to lie either on the socially constraining side of politically imposed "religious order", which often result in hypocrisy or oppressive coercion, or on the side of secular neutrality, which result in religious "invisibility" and indifference, if not implicit or ex- plicit hostility toward the religious dimension.

Patrick Laude Editor-in-Chief

7 Interview with Karen Armstrong

Religion and violence developed a new idea of “religion”, one that was entirely alien to all pre- Renaud Fabbri: On the one hand, modern cultures. In the West, during the stated goal of the great world the Enlightenment, as part of West- religions is to establish peace within ern modernization, philosophers, the world, between God and human such as John Locke and statesman, beings and within each person. On such as Thomas Jefferson and James the other hand, today, religion and - sectarian identities fuel many con- sentially private quest that should - beMadison, kept definedseparate “religion” from all as another es ing an author like Richard Dawkins “secular” undertakings. Because toflicts stigmatize throughout religion the world as the(prompt most of Westernization and colonialism important source of violence in our this view has percolated throughout world). As a religious scholar, how the world. But no other culture has do you account for this paradox? anything like this. In the premodern world, religion was not a separate Karen Armstrong: The problem is enterprise but permeated all ac- that in the modern world we have tivities, including government and 8 warfare (which has always been an essential part of statecraft]. This is KA: The modern soul is certainly not because people were too stupid disordered! But this disorder has to distinguish two entirely distinct also taken a purely secular turn. things, but because human beings One could see the French Revolu- have an inbuilt need to imbue their tion, with its cry for liberty, equal- lives with ultimate meaning, with- ity and fraternity, as the beginning out which we fall very easily into of the modern period; it ushered in despair. Furthermore, human suffer- - ing is a matter of sacred import: the ed religion and politics, in Europe. Prophets of Israel had harsh words Butthe firstduring liberal the state,Reign which of Terror, separat the for those who performed the tem- revolutionaries publicly beheaded ple rituals but neglected the plight 17,000 men, women and children. of the poor and oppressed. And the The French Revolution was one of Quran creation of a society in which wealth 19th century, the British historian was shared is a cry fairly for justiceand the and weak for andthe Lordthe first Acton, nation-states; predicted but that in the latena- vulnerable treated with dignity and tionalist emphasis on ethnicity, cul- respect. These are political matters. ture and language would make those But warfare has always been part of human society. Consequently, “reli- extremely vulnerable: in some cir- gion”, which pervaded all human ac- cumstances,who did not he fit said the with national chilling profile activities, has acquired a violent edge. curacy, they could even be enslaved So what we call “religion” is neither or exterminated — and indeed dur- all about peace nor all about war. ing the First World War the atheistic Young Turks exterminated a million RF: Many authors from Plato to Eric Armenians in order to create a purely Voegelin have stressed the connec- Turkic state. The inability to tolerate tion between political disorder and ethnic minorities has been the great the disorder within the human soul. - For you, what madness has taken ing to such crimes as the Nazi Holo- hold of the modern soul so that we caust.flaw ofThe secular two World nationalism, Wars were lead not are faced with an explosion of reli- fought for religion but for secular - nationalism. In the early twentieth sponsible for this state of affairs? century, there was an explosion of Thegious religions conflicts? themselves, What is mostly the mod re- political and Marxist-inspired ter- ern or post-modern context, new rorism. During the 1950, millions types of religious belief and prac- were slaughtered in the Soviet Gu- tices? Do you think that the insights lag. So our modernity has been ex- from the spiritual and even mystical tremely violent — largely because traditions can cure the modern soul? our technology enables us to kill on 9 an unprecedented scale. Human beings are violent creatures. Now we RF: With globalization, religious are simply witnessing another out- principles are being increasingly break of violence and terrorism — challenged both by the rise of a post- this time, religiously articulated. modern relativism and by extremist movements that threaten to destroy RF: When faced with acts of violence religion from within. What role tra- perpetrated in the name of a reli- ditional spirituality and ethics can gion, the understandable reaction play in addressing the currents at- of many believers is simply to claim tempts to derail world religions and that violence has nothing to do with to turn them into totalitarian and their faith or more problematically nihilistic ideologies? What concrete to put the blame on external factors, strategies can be devised in this re- the wrong-doings of others etc.... In spect? Or is it too late? your opinion, what may prompt believers to adopt a more critical and KA: This I have dealt with in the pre- ceding answer. But the point is that faith and the history of their reli- every single religious human being gion?reflexive attitude toward their own has to activate their tradition in a positive way. It is no use waiting for KA: We must all, religious or secular- religious leaders to take the initia- ist, adopt a self-critical attitude. The tive. We all have to do what we can, religious have a particular responsibility to bring to the fore those ourselves, to think creatively, and tendencies that lie at the heart of practically,in whatever — sphere not simply of life weleaving find all religious traditions that speak of this to other people. All too often, re- the imperative of compassion and ligious people are simply concerned respect for all others. Each has de- with their own spirituality. They veloped its own version of the Gold- want — in Christian terms — “to be en Rule: Never treat others as you saved.” They meditate and take part would not wish to be treated your- in yogic meditation in order to feel self and insisted that this is the es- peaceful and tranquil. They want to sence of faith. This is the standard by look after their own families or their which religious people should meas- own countries and do not care about ure themselves day by day. The Gold- the rest of the world. But all the re- en Rule is no longer a nice ethic but ligious traditions insist that you can- an urgent global imperative. Unless not simply indulge a private spiritu- we ensure that all peoples are treat- ality; the religious imperative impels ed as we would wish to be treated us all to heal the suffering we see all ourselves the world will simply not around us — actively and realistical- be a viable place. ly. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 10 did not spend time communing with sit at the same table. After achieving God on Mount Hira; his revelations enlightenment, the Buddha spent impelled him to begin an active the rest of his life travelling through struggle to heal the problems of this the cities of India to help human be- time. Jesus wrestled with Satan in ings live creatively with their suffer- the Wilderness but then embarked ing. The religious enterprise must be on a healing mission to create a new active. world in which rich and poor would 11 come-back. Northern Europe is now looking increasingly old-fashioned

other regions people are turning to religionin its defiant again — secularism; and not always in most in a violent way. Both secularism and “religion” have great ideals as well as great failures. We all have to pool our insights. We can no longer split ourselves into these divisive camps. We are living in a globalized world in which our economies are profoundly interdependent, our histories are intertwined, and we all face the same looming environmental danger. It is now time to work together to save our world. My work has been to try to help secularists understand the religious imperative and religious Post-secularism and the legacy of people to understand that all tradi- the Axial Age tions have their profound insights, all have a distinctive genius — and The German philosopher Jür- RF: all have their particular vulnerabili- gen Habermas recently made the ties. hypothesis of a post-secular turn in contemporary thinking, even envi- RF: Building upon the work of Karl sioning the emergence of “post-secu- Jaspers and others, you wrote a book lar world society” in which religious about what you called the “Great and secular actors would become Transformation” of the Axial Age. equal partners, addressing together Why is it so important for us in the contemporary ethical challenges at present historical moment to turn to the global level. How do you posit the Axial Age and its heritage? What yourself and your work vis-à-vis this can we still learn from the sages and maybe irenic hypothesis formulated prophets of this period? by Habermas? KA: The Axial Age peaked in the As I have said above, secular- KA: sixth century BCE. Two things were ism, a grand new experiment dur- illuminating about the Axial Age — ing the 18th century, has had its when all the great world traditions great failures. But all human ideas we know them came into being — ologies have their moments of de- Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, cline. Religion is certainly making a 12 Daoism, Greek philosophical ration- destroy one another. That has never been truer than it is today. of these was innovation: the great sagesalism, and monotheism.philosophers The first were not afraid to bring Every single one of the Axial Sag- something entirely new to the traditions they had es developed the Golden Rule inherited, to innovate and and insisted that you could not attempt something dras- tically novel. All too often own group. religious people seem to imagine that they have confine your compassion to your to cling to the past, instead of using RF: Do you think that the problem- the great insights of their tradition atic of the Axial Age has some rel- to speak to the circumstances of the evance for a Muslim audience, since present. This is desperately needed the emergence of Islam postdates today. Every religious tradition is the end of the Axial Age by several a dialogue between an unchang- centuries? ing Eternal Absolute and changing conditions on the ground; once a KA: Rabbinic Judaism and Christi- faith tradition is unable to speak to anity were both latter-day devel- its troubled present, it will die — as opments of the original Axial spirit paganism eventually died. The sec- developed by the Prophets of Israel. ond insight was the ethos of com- The Quran too reiterates the essen- passion. Every single one of the Ax- tial aspects of the Axial movement, ial Sages developed the Golden Rule especially in its concern for compas- (See above) and insisted that you sion. Indeed, the Quran insists that it is not teaching anything new but to your own group. You had to have that it is simply a “reminder” to for- could not confine your compassion getful human beings who can easily “concern for everybody.” You could overlook these essential principles. what one Chinese sage called jian ai: your own group or for people you RF: You sometimes suggested that liked.not confine These yoursages benevolencewere not living for we may be entering a “new Axial in peaceful, idyllic circumstances — Age.” The Axial Age was marked by but were living in societies like our the emergence of new faiths and the own, where violence had reached an renewal of older ones, new insights unprecedented crescendo. They said about the self, the world and the di- that unless human beings treated vine Reality. Short of a new revela- other people as they would wish to tion, how this “new Axial Age” could be treated themselves, they would transform the shape of our world 13 and the meaning of our lives?

KA: We don’t need a new “revelation”. By a new Axial Age, I referred to the - tion that has utterly transformed ourscientific world. and But technological this does not revolu mean that we can forget those crucial Axial principles (outlined above). We need them more than ever — to counter some of the dangers of the new technology, not least the dangers to the environment and the dangers of sci- entifically produced weaponry.

Photo courtesy of Archer10, Dennis 14 Foreword

It may sound ironic to devote of Carl Schmitt), that is to say a cul- an issue to the question of peace ture in which religious and political while the world at large is going through a period of turmoil, un- economical problems, has turned precedented by its magnitude since intoconflicts a nightmare. would be It replaced could not by be socio- oth- at least the collapse of the Soviet erwise because the neoliberal utopia Empire. Not only is the Middle East is resting on a faulty anthropology struggling with sectarian violence that ignores the existential thirst for and foreign interventions in the cha- transcendence at the heart of human os left by the Second Iraq War and nature. As René Guénon foresaw, the the Arab Spring but also a haven of “death of God”, the “disenchantment peace such as the European Union of the world” have only managed to prepare the ground for a “great par- political challenges. To many ob- - servers,is facing it major seems securitythat it is asthe well entire as gion and spirituality. international system, built upon the ody” thatIn thedisfigures face of traditionalthe contempo reli- premise that neoliberal globaliza- rary crisis, many authors including tion would open a new area of peace Karen Armstrong but also more re- and prosperity, which is collapsing. cently Jürgen Habermas are inviting Needless to say that the neo- us to draw from the "transcendental liberal vision, now rapidly eroding, visions" that have taken shape dur- is based on the denial of some of the ing the Axial Age, this great spir- fundamental insights brought by the itual and civilizational revolution Axial Age revolution, namely that that swept across Eurasia between no political order can last without the 8th and the 2nd century BC and deep spiritual roots. War and disor- gave birth to the best of the world der on an unprecedented scale not we live in. What the Axial sages dis- only call into question what was left covered was that the Sacred Reality of the "secularization theory" – the was radically transcendent and yet idea that, with progress, religion will accessible through an inner experi- slowly die out – but also create para- ence, through the narrow gate of the doxically the conditions for a return human soul. They also came to real- to the "theologico-political ques- ize that the inner or spiritual order tion". The dream of building a “neu- and the outer or political order were tral” culture (to use the terminology fundamentally in a state of creative 15 tension. On the one hand, religious worship requires a stable political order, which sometimes must be secured through war. On the other hand, the experience of faith frequently - gencies and intrinsic vio- lenceconflicts of political with the life. contin This tension lies at the heart of the Hindu epic called the Mahabharata, which teaches that dharma, the socio-cosmic law, can never be divorced from the prospect of moksha, de- liverance, but sometimes must be defended through the use of immoral political means. A fundamental consequence of this state of tension is that the po- ly characterized as a "post-secular litical order can never be fully secu- turn" at the global level. - In the present issue, along- ways presupposes, if only implicitly, side the contributions of contem- alarized. transcendent The very norm. idea ofAt justicethe same al porary scholars, we have chosen to time, all attempts to build a theo- reprint a text by a religious and po- cratic order (except maybe during litical philosopher, Eric Voegelin. His the enchanted parenthesis of pro- work is still little-known in the Mid- phetic times) have failed, ending in dle-East but can potentially illumi- hypocrisy and sometimes in bloody nate the religious dimension of the nightmares. The truth of a divine contemporary crisis and the rise of Revelation can never be incarnated an apocalyptic and millenarian ide- into a concrete political society. ology that pretends to establish the Some of these perennial in- “city of God” on earth but would de- sights about the human condition stroy religion from within if it were have been partially lost with secular to succeed. In the lineage of Plato - who could declare that “the City is evance today, especially as we are the soul writ Large” (The Republic), witnessingmodernity butwhat may Habermas find a new recent rel- Voegelin believed that political dis- 16 order is always the expression of a deeper spiritual crisis at the level of the individuals who form a particular society. Voegelin himself mostly focused on the religious roots of totalitarian movements of his life time (Nazism, Fascism, Communism etc.) and died in 1985. But his thought remains inspirational for those who seek to understand the relationship between religion and politics in the contemporary world, how religion may contribute to peace but be also a cause of war and violence on a genocidal scale. For Voegelin, at the origin of many bloodthirsty movements, lies the delusion that through the "magic of violence", man could not only free himself from his per- sonnal state of spiritual alienation, but also establish a perfect order in society here and now. The dream of creating paradise on earth, of “imma- nentizing the eschaton” and bringing an end to history looms behind which largely distorts the traditional understandingthe contemporary of jihad jihadist. This ideology, type of delusion is also part of the fabric of the American neoconservative discourse which, breaking with classical American conservatism, with its solid tradition of "common sense", did more than its share in destabi- lizing the contemporary Middle East and the entire world.

Renaud Fabbri Managing-Editor

17 Eschatology and Philosophy: the Practice of Dying

Eric Voegelin

Once certain structures of re- existential order inasmuch as life ality become differentiated and are has to be conducted in such a man- raised to articulate consciousness, ner that it will lead toward the state they develop a life of their own in his- of imperishability. Not everybody, tory. One of the important insights however, is willing to attune his life gained by philosophers, as well as to this movement. Quite a few dream by the prophets of Israel and by the of a shortcut to perfection right in early Christians, is the movement in this life. The dream of reality trans- reality toward a state beyond its present structure. So far as the individ- in this world, therefore, becomes a ual human being is concerned, this constantfigured into in imperishablehistory as soon perfection as the movement obviously can be con- problem has been differentiated. Al- summated only through his person- ready the Jewish apocalyptic think- al death. The great discovery of the ers expected the misery of the suc- Classic philosophers was that man is cessive empires of which they were not a “mortal,” but a being engaged the victims soon to be superseded in a movement toward immortality. by a divine intervention that would The athanatizein—the activity of im- produce the state of glory and the mortalizing—as the substance of the end of empire. Even Paul expects a philosopher’s existence is a central Second Coming in the time of the liv- experience in both Plato and Aris- ing and revises the dream only un- totle. In the same manner, the great der the impact of the experience of experience and insight of Paul was believers in Christ dying before the the movement of reality beyond its Second Coming. present structure of death into the Metastatic1 expectation of a imperishable state that will succeed new world succeeding the old one in it through the grace of God—i.e., into 1 Metastasis: Change, transformation, revolu- the state of aphtharsia or imperish- tion. The term is introduced by Voegelin, in ing. This movement toward a state his book Israel and Revelation. It is subse- of being beyond the present struc- quently used to refer to any unrealistic expec- tion regarding a possible transformation of human beings or society. (Managing-Editor) ______The following text is chapter 27 from Eric Voegelin's Autobiographical Reflections (University of Mis- turesouri Press, injects 2011). a The further text is reprinted tension with into the permission of the publisher. 18 Photo courtesy of François de Dijon 19 the time of the presently living has establishment of a Communist gov- become a permanent factor of distur- ernment meant in itself no more bance in social and political reality. than the aggravation of the evils of The movement had been suppressed a capitalistic system to their highest by the main church with more or less potential. On the vulgarian level of success; at least the apocalyptic ex- the later Marxist sectarians, and es- pectations were pushed into sectari- pecially of contemporary utopians, an fringe movements. But beginning the understanding of this problem with the Reformation these fringe has disappeared and been replaced movements moved more and more by something like a magic of action. into the center of the stage; and the The eschatological state of perfec- replacement of Christian by secular- tion will be reached through direct ist expectations has not changed the violence. The experience of a move- structure of the problem. ment in reality beyond its structure In the modern period, an im- has been transformed into the magic portant new factor entered the situ- vulgarity of aggressive destruction ation when the expectation of divine of social order. intervention was replaced by the de- Still, though this experience mand for direct human action that is exposed to the vulgarian transfor- will produce the new world. Marx, - for instance, expected the trans- ence is real. Otherwise it could not formation of man into superman havemations this just permanently indicated, themotivating experi from the blood intoxication of a vio- effect that is visible even in the de- lent revolution. When the expected formations. Hence, every philoso- transformation through blood in- phy of history must take cognizance toxication did not occur in 1848, he of the fact that the process of his- settled for a transitional period that tory is not immanent but moves in he called the dictatorship of the pro- the In-Between2 of this-worldly and letariat. But at least Marx still knew other-worldly reality. Moreover, this that external actions alone, like the In-Between character of the process appropriation of the means of indus- is experienced, not as a structure in trial production by the government, did not produce the desired transfor- will eschatologically end in a state mation. On the upper level of Marx- beyondinfinite time,the In-Between but as a movement and beyond that ist thinkers this point is still clear. time. No philosophy of history can The establishment of a Communist be considered to be seriously deal- government is an external event ing with the problems of history un- that is supposed, in due course, to 2 In Voegelin, the expression “In-Between” re- - fers to the human experience of a tension be- tion into superhuman perfection. tween this world and the next, between man Marxproduce knew the perfectly expected well transfigura that the as a mortal being and the Divine. (Managing- Editor) 20 less it acknowledges the fundamen- indicated. They knew that they were tal eschatological character of the engaged in the practice of dying, and process. that the practice of dying meant the practice of immortalizing. The expansion of this ex- In the modern period ... the experience into an under- pectation of divine intervention standing of history makes it, of course, impossible to was replaced by the demand for erect concepts like the na- direct human action that will ture of man into constants produce the new world. in reality. This, however— - culty of understanding The understanding of the es- the problem—doesand there not lies mean the diffithat chatological movement requires a - revision of the deformations that the ured within history. In the process concepts of Classic philosophy have ofthe history, nature ofman’s man nature can be does transfig no suffered at the hands of interpret- more than become luminous3 for its ers who want the nature of man to 3 For Voegelin, consciousness has three aspects. - Consciousness is intentional (i.e. oriented to- phers were quite aware of the prob- reflexive (i.e. conscious of itself be a fixed entity. The Classic philoso and of the process of history) and luminous. Luminosityward objects), refers here to the almost mystical lems of eschatology, as I have just 21 eschatological destiny. The process historical, and to relate them to the of its becoming luminous, however, understanding of existence. That is though it adds to the understanding a considerable labor, considering of human nature and its problems, the mountains of historical materi- does not transmute human nature in als that have become known in our the here-and-now of spatio-tempo- time. ral existence. The consciousness of A new picture of history is the eschatological expectation is an developing. The conceptual penetra- ordering factor in existence; and it tion of the sources is the task of the makes possible the understanding of philosopher today; the results of his man’s existence as that of the viator analysis must be communicated to in the Christian sense—the wander- the general public and, if he happens er, the pilgrim toward eschatological to be a professor in a university, to perfection—but this pilgrimage still the students. These chores—of keep- is a pilgrim’s progress in this world. ing up with the problems, of analyz- This eschatological tension of ing the sources, and of communicat- man’s humanity, in its dimensions of ing the results—are concrete actions person, society, and history, is more through which the philosopher par- than a matter of theoretical insight ticipates in the eschatological move- for the philosopher; it is a practical ment of history and conforms to the question. As I have said, Plato and Platonic-Aristotelian practice of dy- Aristotle were very much aware that ing. the action of philosophizing is a process of immortalizing in this world. This action does not come to its end with Plato and Aristotle; it continues, though, in every concrete situation the philosopher has to cope with, the problems he encounters in his own position concretely. If the Classic philosophers had to cope dying myth and an active Sophistic aggressiveness,with the difficulties the philosopher created by in a the twentieth century has to struggle with the “climate of opinion,” as Whitehead called this phenomenon. Moreover, in his concrete work he has to absorb the enormous advanc- es of the sciences, both natural and experience that consciousness has of being part of reality as a whole. (Managing-Editor) 22 The Problem of Peace in the Ecumenic Age

Barry Cooper Eric Voegelin (1901-85) was absorbed into the German Reich, born in Cologne but received his formative education at the Univer- United States where he taught until sity of Vienna, initially under the 1969;Voegelin he hadthen to moved flee for to his the life Univer to the- supervision of Othmar Spann and sity of Munich where he stayed until Hans Kelsen, who wrote the postwar 1969 and established the Institute of Austrian constitution. He studied in Political Science. He then returned the UK, France, and the United States to America where he was a research with the sponsorship of a Laura fellow at the Hoover Institution, Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fel- Stanford. lowship during the mid-1920s. Ex- During the 1940s he wrote posure to Anglo-American political an eight-volume history of politi- science led him away from the legal- cal ideas which he then extensively istic Staatslehre tradition of Kelsen - and towards a more direct encoun- tion, Order and History. In 1952 he ter with political reality. During the publishedreworked a into kind his of summary major publica in his 1930s, especially after the rise of most famous book, The New Science National Socialism in Germany, he of Politics. Order and History began wrote two books on Nazi race doc- not with the Greeks but with a con- trines and a third on Austrian au- sideration of what he called the “cos- thoritarianism. When Austria was mological” imperial civilizations of 23 Egypt and Mesopotamia and moved many of his readers to refer to him on to the radical break with the cos- as a mystic –a term that he did not mological form, and with the cosmo- repudiate. Unlike so many political logical empires of the Ancient Near scientists, Voegelin combined the East, experienced by the Israelites breadth of knowledge of a historian and the “differentiated” symbolic such as Arnold Toynbee with the form we conventionally call revela- philosophical insight of one such as tion. Two additional volumes, The Henri Bergson. World of the Polis and Plato and Ar- The title of this paper refers to istotle were published in 1957; both the fourth volume of Order and Histo- dealt with the Hellenic differentia- ry. The Ecumenic Age continued the tion of consciousness that came to chronological sequence that ended its fullest expression in philosophy. with volume three. The “ecumenic - age” referred to the period from the umes of Order and History was fol- rise of the Persian around the eighth lowedThe publication by a seventeen-year of the first three silenced vol century BC to the fall of the Roman before volume four, The Ecumenic Empire around the eighth century Age was published. Two years after AD (CW, 12: 98).1 Chronologically at In Search of least there was considerable overlap Order, appeared. with Karl Jaspers’ “axis age.”2 For his death,His awas fifth a volume, remarkable career. Voegelin, however, the “Ecumenic From his earliest discovery of com- Age” constituted an “epoch” because monsense philosophy in the US to these empires overwhelmed the two his late meditative essays, Voege- societies, the Israelite and the Hel- lin was constantly concerned with lenic, that had nourished the differ- clarifying the structures of human 1 CW refers to Voegelin’s Collected Works, 34 participation in reality, from the volumes, available from the University of Mis- physical reality of the cosmos and souri Press. the body to participation in society 2 or axis-age in Vom Ursprung und Zeil der Ge- and its political order to the loving schichteJaspers first (Zurich, developed Artemis, his notion1949). ofAn axis-time English participation of the search for the translation Man in the Modern Age, was pub- ground of being that humans typi- lished by Doubleday in 1957. See also Joseph cally symbolize as divine. He was W. Koterski, Raymond J. Langley, eds., Karl Jaspers on Philosophy of History and History equally concerned with the defor- of Philosophy, (New York, Humanity Books, mation of what he called dogmatic 2003); Johann P. Arnason, S.N. Eisenstadt, and derailments by which symbols that Axial Civilizations and World History, (Leiden, Brill, 2005); Robert express the different dimensions of N.Björn Bellah Wittrock, and Hans eds., Joas, eds., Axial Age and human participation in reality are its Consequences (Cambridge, Harvard Uni- - versity Press, 2012). Voegelin expressed his reservations regarding Jaspers’ concept in the posed to refer to external phenom- “Introduction,” to volume two of Order and flattened into concepts that are sup History, called “Mankind and History,” in CW, 15: 86-90. ena.24 His rejection of dogma has led entiated truth of existence achieved represent the now differentiated by philosophers and prophets –or truth of existence.3 The peace im- as Voegelin said with increasing posed by the ecumenic empires left frequency, through the differentia- untouched the religious search for tion of pneumatic and noetic con- “the peace of God that passeth un- sciousness – beyond that gained in derstanding” as it was expressed by the cosmological empires of Egypt the early Christians (Phil., 4:7). In- and Mesopotamia as discussed in deed, that insight had already been Order and His- gained by what Voegelin called the tory. The fact that “the pragmatic initial “leap in being” achieved by the theorder first of history volume did of not go the way prophets and philosophers. Moreo- of [the] spiritual order” of Israel and ver, the correlate, that universal hu- Hellas raised for him two new ques- manity was distinct from the paro- tions: (1) was the attempt at forming societies in accord with the truth of societies, seemed to imply that a plu- existence, which we conventionally ralitychial humanityof societies of had specific to be included concrete call religious truth, as in Israel and if universal humanity were ever to Hellas, simply crushed by the new achieve its adequate symbolic form. imperial powers, which certainly With that second insight, Voegelin imposed a peace of some sort, or did said, appeared the “faint outlines” the attempt fail for some other rea- of “the fundamental division of spir- son? And (2) did these new imperial itual and temporal order” (CW, 17: powers belong to the same category 168-9). Not until St. Augustine wrote as the earlier Near Eastern cosmo- The City of God - logical empires against which Israel tury, however, “was a symbolism and Hellas distinguished themselves found that integrated in the earlythe pragmatic fifth cen and differentiated the truth of exist- and spiritual orders into a whole ence? In short, was there anything meaning, at least after a fashion, at new about these imperial powers, least for Western civilization, at least and if so, what? for a time” (CW, 17: 202). The weak The short answer to these point in Augustine’s formulation, in- concrete societies organized for ac- in the previous sentence could now tionquestions in pragmatic was: first, history the “insight were that no dicated by the qualifications quoted- proper vessels for the realization of mingling” of the two cities in history transcendent order at all,” was ap- norbe specified.was it his extension It was not of the Plato’s “inter ar- parent both to the prophet Isaiah 3 For a solid commonsensical analysis of Voege- and to the philosopher Plato. Accord- lin’s discussion of ecumenic empire, see, ingly, the new empires were not the Geoffrey Barraclough, “Eric Voegelin and the Theory of Imperialism,” in The Philosophy of agents that brought the realization Order: Essays on History, Consciousness and Politics for Eric Voegelin on his Eightieth Birth- day, (Stuttgart, Klett-Cotta, 1981), 173-89. that no finite society could properly 25 gument regarding Eros, namely the philosopher of history, Vico.4 Even two cities expressing two loves –of in the earlier volumes of Order and self to contempt of God or of God to History, it was clear that the differ- contempt of self. Rather, Augustine’s entiation of Hellas and Israel were limitation was his subordination not connected on a meaningful time- of “these great insights to a histo- line, to say nothing of the contem- riogenetic pattern whose unilinear porary but historically unconnected history came to a meaningful end in Chinese differentiations. the dual ecumenism of the Church The historiogenetic form of a and the Roman empire” (CW, 17: single time-line, that is, was incapa- 230). Historiogenesis was a concept ble of accommodating the enlarged Voegelin developed in the 1960s. In historical knowledge that inevitably his History of Political Ideas, his early accumulated over time. This was studies of modern Gnosticism, and evident to Voegelin in the History of the early volumes of Order and His- Political Ideas, as well as in The New tory all proceeded on the assump- Science of Politics (CW, 5: 154ff, 176f; tion that history was properly con- CW, 19: 206ff), though he used less ceived as “a process of increasingly differentiated insight into the order the limitation of Augustine’s sym- of being in which man participates bolism.specific language there to indicate by his existence” (CW, 17: 45). He As to the second question, largely subscribed to the notion that whether the new empires were of the process of increasing differen- the same type as the older cosmo- tiation and regression from maximal logical empires of the Ancient Near differentiation could be discussed East, the answer was already clear: adequately in terms of historical no, they were not. Conventionally succession. In the development and historians discussed the Persian, elaboration of his argument regard- Macedonian, and Roman empires ing order and history, Voegelin en- as if they were akin to the Egyptian countered two problems. First, the or Babylonian. However, in none of categorization initially envisaged the latter conquests did the victors organize a Persian, Macedonian, or order; but as Voegelin increasingly Roman society. They were all multi- masteredfive historically the empirical connected materials, types of society or multi-civilizational power organizations. Indeed, the Romans many more volumes. But more im- could not even produce a succession portant,the study he grew discovered so it could that easily the em fill- of Italian emperors. Accordingly, pirical types, however many they 4 In Voegelin’s study in the History, he noted were, could not be aligned in any that Vico ran into similar problems. See CW, time sequence or “course,” a term he 24: 136-48. See also my Eric Voegelin and the Foundations of Modern Political Science, (Co- borrowed from the early European lumbia, University of Missouri Press, 1999), 363ff. 26 “the empire as an enterprise of in- organizations, for example– and the stitutional power … had separated imperial organizations embarked on from the organization of a concrete - society and could be imposed as a ence to existing societies. On the one form on the remnants of societies side,indefinite the universality expansion of without spiritual refer or- no longer capable of self-organiza- der seemed to reach out towards the tion” (CW, 17: 170, 271; cf. CW, 19: whole of humanity and on the other, 87-146). Similar problems appeared the new empires seemed to seek to with the Byzantine and the Islamic expand over the whole of humanity. empires. In both cases the meaningfulness Together, these two developments suggested a “curious conver- as Israel or Hellas or many others gence of trends” (CW, 17: 170). On wasof specific eclipsed concrete by the societiesimportance such of the one hand, the spiritual communi- the new spiritual communities such ties that maintained the experiences as Christianity and Islam. In keep- of revelation and philosophy tended ing with the principle that “the self- to separate from the surrounding so- interpretation of a society is part cieties –as “schools” or “prophetic” of the reality or its order” (CW, 17: 27 175), one could properly describe sion a “concupiscential exodus from this convergence of trends as consti- reality” undertaken behind the ap- tuting the new epoch.5 - ic conquest (CW, 17: 188, 240). Such historian of Rome, Polybius, Voege- anparently enterprise realistic could project be ofconducted ecumen lin arguedRelying that chiefly the “ ecumene on the Greek” was only if a concupiscential conqueror was willing to leave home literally. The ecumene therefore advanced or ecumeneconceived was not initially as a subject the inhabited of order diminished according to the expan- world,but as an then object the known to be conquered. world –that The is, sion or contraction of imperial power. to become at the end of Alexander’s The search for spiritual or- an object of exploration, as it tended der did not end with the annihila- neveranabasis– however and a finally “self-organizing it referred so to- conquest nor was it to be found in ciety”the legal so that,jurisdiction while one of Rome. can speak It was of thetion apparentlyof specific societiesmeaningless by imperial acts of an “Ecumenic Age,” referring to the conquest.6 Here Voegelin introduced existence of imperial power organi- the term “ecumenic religions” to de- zations dominating several distinct scribe the new spiritual communi- societies, one cannot speak of an ties established by the evangelism “Ecumenic Society.” The reason was of Paul, Mani, and Mohammed. It obvious enough: conquest was exo- was evidently not enough to ob- dus. In order to conquer one must serve, as did Polybius, the extraordi- - nary large-scale nature of events –a tively. Voegelin, following the Greek sentiment that was strongly felt in leave home, both literally and figura- mulated the problem in terms of the 6 Central here was the evidence of the report of envyhistorian, of the Herodotus, gods, called who such first expan for- Polybius that the victor over Carthage, Scipio Aemilianus, gripped Polybius’ hand in fear 5 Voegelin’s description of the expansion of and said, “a glorious moment Polybius; but ecumenic empires as limitless power organi- I have a dread foreboding that someday the zations bore a remarkable resemblance to same doom will be pronounced on my own Hannah Arendt’s discussion of nineteenth- country” (The Histories, 37: 20). Appian, Pu- century European imperialism, the meaning nica, 132, reported that Scipio wept and “was of which was summarized in Cecil Rhodes’ seen weeping for his enemies.” He recollected remark, “I would annex the planets if I could.” the fate of Troy, the Assyrians, the Medes, Per- See Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, sians, and Macedonians. See Ernest Barker, new ed., (New York, Harcourt Brace and From Alexander to Constantine: Passages and World, 1966), Part II, 121ff. Voegelin noted Documents Illustrating the History of Social the resemblance as well in his 1961 Steven- and Political Ideas, 336 B.C.–A.D. 337, (Oxford, son Memorial Lecture at the Royal Institute of Clarendon, 1956), 121ff. In a similar vein, af- International Affairs; see CW, 11: 140. One of ter marching nearly 12,000 miles over eight the implications, to be discussed at the end of years, Alexander’s army had had enough upon this chapter, is that human beings still exist at reaching the river Beas in northern India. See least in some respects within the epoch con- Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great, (London, stituted by Voegelin’s “Ecumenic Age.” Allen Lane, 1973), 368ff. 28 Herodotus and Thucydides as well.7 in commonsense terms as a futile Those who underwent the events quest to reach the ultimate horizon beyond which was supposed to be own position as participants in the found the divine source of human process.were compelled By Voegelin’s to reflect analysis, on theirPaul, universality.8 In short, you can’t get Mani, and Mohammed, no less than there from here. Anaximander, Plato, Aristotle and The effort was not entirely a Augustine, were concerned with waste of time, however, because the what Voegelin called a “spiritual exo- failure of concupiscential expan- dus” (CW, 17: 188ff). sion was followed by a retraction The relation between con- in alliance with a consciousness of cupiscential expansion and spirit- universal humanity as found in the ual exodus constituted, he said, the aforementioned universal religions. great issue of the Ecumenical Age. Neither ecumenic expansion nor uni- From the side of conquest the prob- versal religions turned out to bring lem was obvious: there were prag- peace to the ecumene. The actual matic limits to the limitless desire to ecumene was still the habitat of hu- conquer. The pretense of unlimited man beings within the horizon of the expansion was contradicted or “em- cosmos. Or again, in commonsensi- barrassed” by actual limits –or what cal terms, if you succeeded in explor- amounted to the same thing, by a ing the ecumene to its end, you end refusal of an army far from home up where you began for the obvious to keep going unto the ends of the reason that the shape of the actual earth. “The experience of this unten- ecumene is a sphere. As a result, the able result,” Voegelin said, “prepares successful concupiscential explorer the situation in which the ecumenic - rulers become ready to associate ments of the age of exploration) was their empire with an ecumenic reli- compelled(or one reflecting to acknowledge on the the achieve mys- gion in order to channel the mean- tery of the distinction between the ing of a spiritual exodus into a con- ecumene and the cosmos.9 Nothing cupiscential expansion that has 8 A modern version was Khrushchev’s remark CW, that Yuri Gagarin went into space but didn’t 17: 258). The nonsensical element see God. 9 In this context, Thomas More’s Utopia - ofbecome the entire flagrantly enterprise nonsensical” was obvious ( - tional wanderer, Raphael Hythlodaeus, reflect whose 7 In “What is History?” an unpublished essay nameed an meant“intermediate one “well-learned situation” wherein nonsense,” his fic written around 1963, Voegelin argued that and who was said to have accompanied the beginning of as Herodotean inquiry (his- Amerigo Vespucci on his last three voyages to toria) that eventually turned into a Thucydid- the New World, explained that he (like More ean write-up (syngraphe) of a historiographic himself) was at much at home in one place text, as with Polybius, was the encounter of a as in another since everywhere was equidis- concrete human being with a disturbance that - the person involved considered worthy of re- ney lay beyond the world and wandering the membrance. See CW, 28: 10ff. worldtant from led notheaven. to any That somewhere is, the end but of to the Utopia, jour 29 der one umbrella of administrative authority with spiritual outbursts that also claimed to represent humanity (CW, 11: 136). Granted, in short, there was something to Jas- pers’ axial age inasmuch as the several world empires existed from At-

the spiritual outbursts.10 Not that therelantic towas Pacific a causal at the connection same time be as- tween these phenomena (CW, 17: 204), but that, taken together, they constituted what Voegelin called a CW, 12: 95ff; 28: 37-42). Voegelin was quite clear“configuration” about what of was history involved ( on the imperial side: “a power organization, informed by the pathos of representative humanity, and therefore representative of mankind – that would be the core, as it emerged from the historical phenomena, of a CW, 11: 136-7). could be changed by exploring space definitionTo ofachieve world-empire” a similar ( preci- and annexing the planets (see also sion from the side of the spiritual CW, 11: 140). This commonsensical outbursts or “religion,” required a insight was gained in the absence of more detailed analysis. The problem any equivalent “religious” limitation centered on the meaning of the term to conquest. “world,” which “presents extraor- Even when ecumenic rulers succeeded in associating their pow- analysis” (CW, 11: 142). In both an- er organization with an ecumenic cientdinary and difficulties modern usage to philosophical “world” in- religious movement, there were cluded the element of territory and problems with the complex synthe- persons living on it, but also the notion of an all-pervading order. In the of meaning” that connected empires classical sense the emphasis, as we claimingsis. Granted, to organize there was humanity an “affinity un- 10 See Peter Wagner, “Palomar’s Questions: The which is to say, to Nowhere. See CW, 17: 141; Axial Age, Hypothesis, European Modernity 22: 109ff. See also St. Thomas More, Utopia, and Historical Contingency,” in Arnason, Ei- ed. Edward Surtz and J.H. Hexter, (New Haven, senstadt, and Wittrock, eds., Axial Civiliza- Yale University Press, 1965), xviii, 301-03. tions and World History, 87-106. 30 have seen, was on the visible and Polybius, while it was true that he external cosmic order. In later Chris- wrote the history of a Rome that tian and Muslim usage the accent aimed at the rule of the ecumene, the lay more on the internal order of the story of Scipio at Carthage indicated person. The differences in meaning, that even the telos of empire was actual historical process in which theVoegelin experience said, “apparently of human reflectexistence the onsenseless. the one Scipio’shand he difficultyrecollected could the under a world-transcendent God cosmictherefore rhythms be specified of rise more and fall,closely: but has differentiated from the primary, - more compact existence in a cosmos logical rhythms in favor of a telos that includes both gods and men” that,on the so other to speak, he rejected cut across the cosmo them (CW, 11: 144). That is, the spiritual (CW, 17: 230). Such a position was outbursts involve the differentiation necessarily inconclusive, not to say of consciousness.11 The implication for a world- this context, the Gospel of Matthew empire was that the element of a (24:conflicted 14) provided and even a incoherent.solution: “And In “world” implied more than the im- this gospel of the kingdom shall be perial dominion over territory and preached in all the world [ecumene] human beings. Here Voegelin closely for a witness to all nations; and then paraphrased the opening words of the end [telos] shall come.” This new his History of Political Ideas, written missionary order, Voegelin said, in 1940: “To establish an empire is “sounds like a deliberate literary anan essay in world creation, reaching swer (although it hardly can be one) through all the levels of the hierar- to Polybius” (CW, 11: 151). That is, chy of being” (CW, 11: 145; cf. 19: Saint Matthew declared that the 225). The essay in world creation telos of the ecumene was that it be was always related to the invisible order of the cosmos and so to “reli- the telos of human action again lay gion,” insofar as it was also an evo- beyondfilled with the the world. Gospel, In commonsensiwhich is to say- cation of true existence within the cal language, one might say that the world. “The character of an evoca- Ecumenic Age witnessed the disso- tion attuned to the ‘unseen measure’ ciation of the primary experience of makes a human imperial creation the cosmos into the opacity of con- analogically commensurate with cupiscential expansion and the lumi- the world, [and] endows it with the nosity of spiritual outbursts. Howev- sense of a ‘world’” (CW, 11: 145). er, there would always be those who Returning to the example of would wonder if the dissociation was complete. Once the Gospel had 11 I have discussed this problem in chapter three of Consciousness and Politics: From Analysis to ecumene, what then? The Meditation in the Late Work of Eric Voegelin, same problem arises within Islam in (Notre Dame, St. Augustine Press, 2016). filled the 31 terms of an ecumenical caliphate. In Unity of Mankind” (1962), Voege- neither spiritual community can one lin summarized his enquiry as fol- - menic peace. as attempts to represent humanity find a With definitive Matthew, resolution the immediate in ecu beganlows: first,with the imperial cosmological organizations impe- reference to the apocalyptic expectations of Daniel (24: 15ff) indicated that expectations of a new Any intramundane apocalyptic world were entirely in efforts to transform the ecumene order. Voegelin said that into a world were doomed be- Matthew’s expectations amounted to “a metas- fore they commenced. tasis, a new disposition in which there will be no problems of world-empires” (CW, rial organizations of Mesopotamia 17: 151). Like all metastatic expec- and Egypt. In the cosmological em- tations, it bought its own problems pires, the universal order was ex- when the future ecumene did not pressed by the myth of the cosmos. show up on time –or, to date, not at The second form, the ecumenic em- all. In some of the passages of Saint pire, gained a new truth of human Paul, for example, the penetration existence but imperial order tended of the ecumene by the Gospel was to become ecumenically expansive quickly to be followed by the return and only tentatively connected to of Christ and the elevation of ecu- an ecumenic religion that endowed menical humanity to the Kingdom the empire with the characteristics of God. As these expectations faded of a world insofar as the religion with time, the ecumene tended to evoked the participation of human become more purely spiritual and order in transcendent being. Ecu- signify a humanity that received menic empires, furthermore, have the Word. In other passages the ec- been succeeded by “orthodox” em- umene tended to signify the insti- pires where the association of im- tutionalized Church that continued perial power and a religious world its worldly existence under the pro- was “understood as a necessity” tection of an empire (CW, 11: 115). and became “stabilized over long Such a compromise was inevitable periods” (CW, 11: 154). In turn, the inasmuch as metastatic faith invari- orthodox empires, by which were ably was eventually contradicted by meant the Western European Latin the nonapocalyptic structure of his- Christian empire, the Eastern Greek tory. Christian empire, the Islamic empire In “World Empire and the and the Far-Eastern Neo-Confucian 32 empire, have been succeeded by the same time. Mankind is the society of several national empires, starting man in history, extending in time from in the eleventh century in the West, its unknown origin toward its unknown leading to such splendid power or- future. Moreover, no crosscut at any ganizations as the Hapsburg Em- time represents mankind by virtue of pire, a French, a Dutch, and a British a common power organization. For the Empire as well as such oddities as living can represent mankind universal- a post-imperial empire founded by ly only by their representative human- Bokassa I in the Central African Re- ity; and their humanity is representa- public. In turn these imperial enti- tive only when it is oriented toward the ties, following the “global revolution eschatological telos. Organization, to of modernity” that also originated be sure, is necessary to the existence in the West and that has derailed on of man and society in this world, but the one hand into the Gnostic libido no organization can organize mankind dominandi and on the other into an –even global ecumenicity of organiza- “intramundane apocalypse,” have re- tion is not universality. The dream of sulted in ideological empires along representing universal order through the lines of liberal gradualist and the world of empire has come to its end revolutionary Marxist imaginary or when the meaning of universal order second realities (CW, 33: 314). as the order of history under God has The futility of the Gnostic en- come into view (CW, 11: 155). terprise like the futility of an intramundane apocalypse, which pro- Voegelin’s conclusion was hibited participation in the order that a 5000-year effort at trying to of world-transcendent Being, was - self-evident. Any intramundane nite organization in the present was apocalyptic efforts to transform the overrepresent (see alsohumanity CW, 17: by 272-3).means ofGiven a fi ecumene into a world were doomed the continued presence of various before they commenced. “What can liberal, conservative, Marxist and be achieved is only the apocalyp- Islamist intramundane apocalyps- tic concentration camp,” which was es, one might conclude that Voege- obviously not a world either (CW, lin was over-sanguine. Yet even the 11: 154-5). About all that can be most bloodthirst of modern intra- said of the “lethal stupidity” of such mundane apocalypses still are con- developments was that they may nected, however tenuously, to the have a cathartic function insofar as permanent quest of human beings they made abundantly clear to non- for peace. philosophers what philosophers already knew: That mankind is more than the global collective of human beings living at the 33 Religion and Violence: how symbiotic a relationship?

Oliver Leaman

There are a variety of ways of time encourage it will be perplex- looking at the relationship between ing. The idea that religion is really religion and violence. One view is all about either peace or violence that the Abrahamic religions at least is too simplistic to pass muster, and prioritize peace and develop ways of yet this is often stated, as though it living and acting which promote it. were a discovery of immense nov- Another view is that those religions elty. Clearly whatever links there are are in fact very violent, if not in word must be much more complex than but in deed, and often in both. There is generally acknowledged. When is also an approach which sees re- we are told “God is the name of this ligion and violence as intrinsically pure violence” (Derrida, 2002, 293) linked and so inseparable. It is worth we appreciate that for many mod- accepting right from the start the ex- - istence of a wide spectrum of opinions here since otherwise the fact takesern thinkers place within such asthe Benjamin, rubric of Derreli- that religions sometimes seem to gionrida andis not Ž�ižek, an anomaly the fact .that1 violence challenge violence and at the same 1 Derrida, J. (2002). ‘Force of Law: The Mystical 34 cite appropriate hadith and Qur'anic we must examine is what sorts of be- ayat in defense of what they do, and havior Thecount first as religious. aspect of A thegangster topic there is a school of thought in Islam who extorts money from someone which accepts the intellectual un- might say he is on a religious task, derpinnings for many of their ac- and he may be, but we need more tions. I remember many years ago - in the German Federal Republic that derstand the nature of the event as when it came to naming the German religious.than just hisPeople self-description involved in to terun- Democratic Republic, East Germany, rorism often have criminal back- the address was to the “sogennante grounds, and it is sometimes sug- Deutsche Demokratische Republik”, gested that this means they cannot so called because it was neither be religious at the same time, which German nor democratic in the view of many. Over the years though the them blankly as criminals seems to beis misleading, surely just although wrong. it Describing is a very entity in the east did come to ac- popular strategy for those seeking to quirequalification in reality was at leastdropped some since aspects the defend particular religions.2 of its description. Although ultimate There is an interesting dis- authority lay with the Russians, the cussion nowadays about the appro- population was German and there priate title for the organization that existed a form of representation of calls itself "Islamic State" with many the public will in government. The media outlets prefacing the title with state was a bit German and a bit dem- "so-called" to deny them the right to ocratic. Similarly, we might want to identify themselves with a religion it is carried out by people who claim such a description. On the other tocall share behavior a particular religious religion just because and re- hand,that has that many is what members they want who toreject call ligious motivation for their behavior. themselves, and clearly they have If they use their interpretation of the close links with what they take to be a form of Islam, since they often seems to be part at least of their mo- religion to justify what they do, and it separate them from the label. One is Acts of Religion (pp. 228-298). New York, NY: Foundation of Authority’. In G. Anidjar (Ed.) tivation, it becomes more difficult to violence. In E. Jephcott (Trans.), Reflections has to do with the violence that is (pp.Routledge 277-300). ; Benjamin, New York: W. (1978). Schocken Critique Books of ; sometimesleft wondering committed just how in much its name. Islam It Violence: Six Sideways Reflec- tions, New York: Picador often seems to be the case that radi- 2 SeeŽ�ižek, many S. (2008) of the essays in Esposito, J. (2016) cal Islam merely provides a conduit, Religion and Violence (http://www.mdpi. giving legitimacy and a higher mean- - gionViolence) and especially the views of the ing to violent impulses that had their editorcom/journal/religions/special_issues/Reli on this topic here and in many other roots in the frustrations and resent- places. 35 ments and dysfunction that are so though. Much of the Old Testament typical of life for many Muslims, and law was abrogated or completed, de- others today. On the other hand, it pending on one's perspective, by Je- seems wrong to deny the actors the sus. "Eye for an eye" was replaced by right to identify with a religion as "turn the other cheek." Totally lov- their motive if they wish to do this. It ing God and one's neighbor became - the supreme law (Matt. 22:38-40.) ly the causes of behavior, and surely Furthermore, Jesus is generally in religionis always is difficult a feasible to identify motive precisein some favor of passivity and altruism. The contexts. New Testament contains absolutely no exhortations to violence. There is Violence and Religions the verse "I come not to bring peace but a sword."(Matt. 10:34) but this Religions do often say very seems from the context to make it violent things, as when the Jews are clear that Jesus was not command- told to wipe out whole communities ing violence against non-Christians (Deut 20: 16-18) and sometimes all but rather predicting that strife will life (Josh 10.40). On the other hand, exist between Christians and those in the messianic age "they shall beat around them. The Gospels make their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: na- violence in society and it needs to be tion shall not lift up sword against resolvedclear that in there an acceptable will be conflict way, and and it nation nor shall they learn war any sets out strategies to this end. Simi- more" (Isaiah 2.4). There is a He- larly in the Qur’an, although there brew expression which is adopted as are passages that are certainly vio- the name of many synagogues in the lent, this is a form of behavior that United States, rodef shalom, which requires regulation and direction, means a seeker after peace but the and the Book attempts to provide it. word rodef actually is much more Where the religions tend to active than is implied by the English agree is on this point, that violence word “seeker”, it means someone will occur and needs managing. who aggressively pursues an end. There are always going to be situa- Christian Europe was hardly tions in which violence is the right a good example of non-violence, course of action. Even Jesus physi- often destroying other Christians cally attacked those involved in who were seen as having heterodox commercial activities in the Temple. views. At various times Christians Although Gandhi generally adheres have been extraordinarily violent in to a policy of ahimsa, no harm, he their dealings with other religions. does raise the issue of what to do The Gospels are not fruitful places when a rabid dog enters a village, or a tiger a cowshed. The response to36 look for justifications of violence, people but for a purpose that is sup- happen as they would naturally. In posed to be religiously valid. So for thehe suggestsstories of is the not Buddha just to helet isthings said example the recent attack in Tunisia to have been confronted by a hungry on foreign tourists is designed to re- to provide milk for her children. He forces in other parts of the Middle offeredtiger in theher jungle his arm. who From needed the to con eat- Easttaliate by against hurting those and fightingkilling their radical ci- text this is probably supposed to be vilians. It may help motivate those a supererogatory act, but it suggests countries to change their policies. Normally it would not be thought to be right to at- Where the religions tend to agree tack innocent civilians, is on this point, that violence will but if the consequences occur and needs managing. suggest it might be effective in bringing about a greater good, then it is on in any case that some compromise the table as a legitimate action. The with violence needs to be struck. Re- - ligions are profoundly realistic insti- count of acceptable uses of violence tutions and the reason some of them arguesShiʿite thinkerthat 2: 251:Mutahhari “and if in God his had ac have survived so long is that they not repelled some men by others, often provide ideas and examples the earth would have been cor- which people can use to make sense rupted,” can be taken with 22:40: of their own lives. “for had it not been for God's repel- ling some men by means of others, Islam and Violence cloisters and churches and orato- ries would have been pulled down.” In many ways this sort of real- Mainly concerned with the rules ism seems to be the position of those of initiating jihad, discussion of the movements in the Islamic world that rules of war tend to point to the are enthusiastic about the use of violence. They argue that the Qur'an oppressed, whether or not such in- itself points to the importance of terventionmajor moral is motivesrequested. as helping According the frightening the enemy and the sira of to Mutahhari this was the nature of the Prophet refers to many instanc- most of the early Islamic wars, and es of violence that were apparently another legitimate cause is the re- sanctioned by him and his followers, moval of political obstacles to the such as beheading and making fun propagation and spread of Islam. of the dead body of an enemy. What is often called terrorism by its op- of the people that are otherwise con- ponents is action that kills innocent demnedThis can tobe isolation seen as fightingfrom the in call favor of 37 truth and against regimes that sup- suggest that God created different press freedom of speech. Defensive communities, and so it is pointless wars like the defense of life, wealth, to try to make everyone believe in property, and land, of independ- the same things. The Grand Mufti of ence and of principles are all legiti- Egypt uses this passage to criticize mate. However, the defense of hu- those radical groups that kill others man rights Mutahhari places above of a different religious background, the defense of individuals. The last quoting also 5: 32: “If anyone kills a of Mutahhari's legitimate causes of person it is as if he kills all human- war goes beyond any notion of deity, and if anyone saves a life it is as fense; he supports a policy of moral if he saves the life of all humanity.” expansionism. That is, when deal- Yet he surely did not mean that Is- ing with corrupt societies, whether lam condemns all killing or advo- democratic or otherwise, the Islamic cates all saving of life, since there state should seek to challenge the are many other passages which cer- false ideas that persist there and it tainly seem to go in a very different may be necessary to invade them or direction. Certainly there is nothing at the very least confront them mili- in the Qur’an which suggests kill- tarily in order to convey the proper principles as to how they are to live. 3 Muslims. On the other hand, that is Clearly such principles would legiti- noting peoplewhat radical just because groups they tend are to notdo, mate extensive violence in a whole range of circumstances. The response of those op- they find some reason for killing- posed to such policies is often that priatepeople andand trydifferent to justify authoritative that reason this contravenes such verses as those sources.in religious They terms may by well finding be approwrong which compare killing someone to and certainly casuistic in their ap- killing everyone. That means that proach to texts, but refuting them there are absolute principles such as the proscribing of murder that can the way in which God created differ- never be contravened, whatever the entrequires communities more than in thejust world. referring Some to consequences. Shaykh Allam of al- Muslims believe anyway that the Azhar recently produced a Qur’anic diversity of faith should be seen as argument against ISIS and its sup- a temporary stage of humanity, un- porters4. He starts by using 49:13 to til everyone comes to accept Islam. Whatever the verse suggesting that 3 Mutahhari, Murtaza (1989). “Jihad”. Holy War of Islam and its legitimacy in the Qur’an, trans. killing one person is like destroy- M. Tawhidi. Tehran: Islamic Propagation Or- ing all of humanity means, it cannot ganization. See the discussion in Leaman, O. mean that killing is completely ruled (2016) The Qur’an, a Philosophical Guide, Lon- don: Bloomsbury, p.76 4 Allam, Shawki. Terrorists and their Quranic the Qur’an Delusions, Wall Street Journal April 10, 2015 out. It would be very difficult to give 38 a pacifist interpretation. When we look at more sources of being that in particular circumstanc- authority in Islam like the hadith es necessity demands that things are and the sira of the Prophet, and for done which otherwise would not be acceptable. This seems to accord we get yet more material advocat- with the principle that what is im- ingthe killing, Shiʿa the in certain sayings circumstances. of the imams, portant morally are the consequenc- Surely that is in principle right, there es of action, not so much the action are always circumstances which look itself. How this works is quite clear. like exceptions to the rule and it then In a violent confrontation which is looks overly rigid to stick to the rule. legitimate on religious grounds one has the ultimate aim of overcom- Violence and general moral prin- ing the enemy, and there are things ciples one is allowed to do to achieve this end. It may be, though, that in the This suggests that we have to particular circumstances it is nec- consider the consequences of action essary to put aside these principles as the crucial determining factor in if victory is to be likely, and in that morality. There is much to support case such a suspension of the prin- this position in Islam. Joseph Alagha ciples is permitted. This could mean shows how two very different groups treating the civilian population in a of Muslims, Hezbollah in Lebanon particularly harsh way, or it could and the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, even affect how one behaves one- use the principle of considering the self. There is evidence, for example, consequences to countenance danc- that those engaging on surreptitious ing if it is directed to the appropri- violent missions are sometimes in- ate political ends.5 They recognize structed to blend in by shaving off that while in itself dancing and other their beards, drinking alcohol, go- forms of culture that involve behav- ing to clubs and so on, all activities - which they should avoid otherwise, tionable on religious grounds specif- icallyior that because might ofbe itsregarded implications as objec for effective in realizing their goals. It modesty, it can nonetheless be pro- mightbut in alsothe circumstancesof course be taken might to find be vided with a positive role in promot- a lot of fun. Observers would assume ing the message of resistance and they were “normal” and so not dan- encouraging solidarity among those gerous, and this could provide effec- in the movements concerned. Simi- tive cover for the mission. larly, when it comes to violence the This view, which looks like principle of darura or necessity is of- the ethical position of those often called Islamists or extremists, 5 Alagha, Joseph, G. Banna’s and A. Fadlallah’s could be argued to be in line what tenViews regarded on Dancing, as Insignificant, Sociology of Islam, the 2014,idea 2, pp. 60-85 we know of the political flexibility39 of the Prophet Muhammad and also you over them, and heal the hearts the phenomenon of abrogation. The of the believers.” The Qur’an advises idea that later verses can overrule believers to deal harshly with the and replace earlier ones is evidence enemies of Islam. To understand the role that changing circumstances the rest of the verses in the Qur’an, haveof the for significance what is required of considering of Muslims. the itsignificance is very helpful of this to look verse, at asthe withsira The methodology of asbab al-nuzul, and hadith of the Prophet. As with a of considering the context of revela- variety of religions, there are plenty tion, is clearly important here, since of bloodthirsty accounts of the past it helps us know which verses pre- that can be used to legitimate acting cede which others, and in any case in similarly direct ways in the pre- once we know the situation that led sent and future. For example, there is to a verse, its context, we are often - in a position to understand it better. gan Arab chieftain originally known Also, the whole process of using the asthe "Abu death Hakim" of ʿAmr (Father bin Hisham, of Wisdom) a pa hadith to help work out what Mus- until Muhammad renamed him "Abu - Jahl" (Father of Stupidity) for his de- ibility, since there are so many had- termined opposition to Islam. After limsith, and are differentto do is an opinions exercise on in theirflex strengths and weaknesses as genu- convert to Islam during the Battle of ine reports of what was said in the ʿAmr was mortally wounded by a new - Muhammad,Badr, it is reported saw the that chieftain ʿAbdullah col- betweenpast, that a coming range of to sources, a judgment as is nec the lapsedibn Masʿud, on the aground. close companionHe went up to of caseessarily in all involves religions a finethat areadjudication based on him and started abusing him. Among texts. So decisions about how to act - on general principles that remain in- ingother triumphantly things, ʿAbdullah on the grabbed dying man's and violablein conflict throughout. and peace cannotThe whole be based pro- chest.pulled ThisʿAmr's has beard led to and a good stood deal gloat of cess of theology is based on the idea similar actions among some groups of balance, of considering a range of of Muslims when dealing with their sources of authority and making a enemies of cutting off their heads and humiliating their bodies, per- are certainly important and enter haps to make a reference to healing intosophisticated the decision-making judgement. Principlesbut they the hearts of the victors in the above aya. Although this may be distaste- nothing else can be said. - are not9: the14 suggests: final step “Fight after whichthem, cient way of bringing about an end God will torment them with your worthful to some,achieving, if this are is there the mostreally effiany hands, humiliate them, empower 40 significant ethical objections to it? At 8: 16 we are told: “And whoever turns his back on them, except as a of Muslims at war, or even their dis- inclinationdoes not do to justicego to war, to the and practice this is will certainly attract the wrath of not to criticize it, but it is to ques- strategy or to join another group, tion how widely it was accepted and a wretched destination that is.” The used as a basis to behavior. In any God, his abode will be fire, And what case, to say war is the lesser jihad the unbelievers. There are plenty of does not mean it is not important versesprevious which verse talk refers of the toadvantages fighting nor that the rules for pursuing it are of violence, but of course there are not important. It suggests that there

struggle and that is worth empha- thejust asimportance many and ofperhaps not prolonging more that sizing.is more Thereto conflict is an than English just physical saying talk of the significance of peace and- that sticks and stones may hurt my essary. The important point is that bones but words can never harm thereconflict are any a varietylonger thanof verses, strictly and nec it me, but the reverse is often the case. is for the sophisticated follower of a The damage due to sticks and stones religion to work out in a particular may only be temporary, yet the hurt situation which really apply. that words can cause may last a life- time, and even lead to death. This Different kinds of violence is certainly true of cultures that are based on tribalism and shame, A good example of this is the which according to al-Jabri is most popularity nowadays for distin- Arab societies since the Ummayads. guishing between the greater and He refers to the phrase: Those who the lesser jihad, where the former is listen to their Lord, in Qur’an 42:38. the spiritual struggle over the nega- - tive aspects of the self, while the lat- litical period in early Islam of shura ter is physical struggle. This serves orHe consultation, used this verse since to it define goes on a po to to emphasize the defensive nature mention “consult each other in their of jihad and tries to dissociate Islam affairs”. In the time of the Prophet from those aspects of the account of the state was based on the Islamic jihad in the Qur’an which really go in creed or ‘aqīda. Muhammad’s Medi- a different and rather more aggres- nese community was a real political of representing this hadith as a cru- “Islamic state”. This was not to last cialsive direction.aspect of Aunderstanding significant problem jihad long,community the Ummayads and can be distinguisheddefined as an and peace is that it is often used in in the person of their ruler the func- a very vague manner, as a corrective tion of religious scholar (‘alim) and to the negative image of Islam as a leader of the state. Mu‘awiya’s mulk violent religion. The hadith certainly or kingdom was continued by his 41 successors, replacing ‘aqida with human beings. But before we come qabila or tribalism, and an authori- to the conclusion that physical war- tarian government resulted, since fare is not that important we need to one tribe had to dominate the rest see the next verse, 2:191: "And kill if stability was to be preserved.6 The them wherever you overtake them subsequent domineering regimes and expel them from wherever they were based on tribalism, and its nox- ious heritage, in his view, continues to this day. It also encourages the have expelled you, and fitna is worse growth of a form of authoritarian- than killing. And do not fight them at ism in the family, a patriarchy based killal-Masjid them. Such al-Haram is the until recompense they fight of on the analogy with the ruler and theyou disbelievers."there. But if they This fight is a robust you, then ac- the ruled, and levels of physical and count of how Muslims ought to act psychological violence to maintain those levels of authority. idea that Islam represents a critique At 2: 190 we read: “And with ofin conflict,physical evenviolence in Mecca is far itself. from Thethe truth. There will obviously be situations where violence is necessary, thinkersthose who adopted fight to esoteric kill you, interpre fight in- and religion then sets out the rules tationsthe way of ofthe God.” Qur'anic Many verses early treat Sufi- for carrying it out. test comes from within. The reasons Extremism and violence whying conflict. the Prophet The realstressed challenge that andthe greater jihad must be against the At the beginning of this dis- carnal soul (nafs) is that physical cussion the problem of how to de- but the battle against the self is fre- to violence was raised, and it was quent,wars against indeed infidels constant. are occasionalThere are fine religious extremists who resort ways to avoid the visible weapons with calling them religious and also of the military foe, but less chance insaid avoiding that there the label. are difficulties An alternative both to escape the invisible weapons of would be to accept that they are re- the temptations of the soul; and al- ligious but with a poor grasp of their though we can achieve martyrdom religion. This actually is a character- in war with the enemy, there are no istic of many such violent individu- rewards if one is defeated by our in- als, they have a simplistic and inac- ner enemy7. On the contrary, that curate view of their religion. They defeat is the normal condition of are inspired by a scriptural quota- tion or two, its interpretation by 6 al-Jabri, Muhammad, al-‘Aql al-siyasi al-‘arabi, someone they respect, and then they 1990 go off and commit the evil deed. If 7 Leaman,Casablanca: Oliver, Al-Markaz Islamic Philosophy: al-Thaqafi An al-‘arabi, Intro- we see religion as rather similar to duction, Oxford: Polity Press, 2009, pp. 133-7 42 a technique, on the Aristotelian ap- is in the way. The Abrahamic reli- proach advocated by some many gions all use analogies and stories, philosophers in the Abrahamic re- and these are very effective at con- ligions, we can easily see what is necting with an audience and mak- wrong with this strategy. It is like ing something that might otherwise driving through a green light despite seem to be abstract to become quite the fact that a pedestrian is crossing personal. The thing about examples the road in front of you. There is a - simple rule that green means go, but ticular case but they often more or one also has to look to see if anyone is that they never entirely fit a par

less fit, and they do of course 43make a personal connection which oth- Christians seem to have had little erwise may be entirely lost with a - much more general claim. They en- gious basis for violence on occasion, courage us to be subtle in our ap- andcompunction it might even about be argued finding that a reli the proach to how to act since we al- relative lack of material on violence ways have to play them off against in the Gospels leaves greater scope each other in order to work out what for its followers to be violent than is implications they have for action. the case for Jews and Muslims. The Someone who adheres to a dogmatic relative lack of discussion gives followers more license to do what they one eye (i.e. only one view of things) want. The problem with religions is whobelief at is the the end Dajjal, of days the becomes person withvery that they often invite simple solu- powerful until he is destroyed by the tions. Yet those who claim they are Mahdi. Only having one view makes carrying out divine commands are life very simple and yet too simple, making very bold assertions indeed. and that is why there is such a prolif- The demand that we discuss what eration of stories in religions, in the we think is the right way to act and aggadah and Talmud, in the Gospels defer before the opinions of others and in the hadith. They are there for is an important part of being patient a purpose and that is to encourage and thoughtful in behavior, some- us to think through how we should thing stressed as a virtue in all the act from a variety of perspectives, may be wrong, but the process of be- ignores this really has a highly inac- ingAbrahamic cautious religions. and balanced The in majority work- curatenot from view just of one,what and religion anyone is. who ing out what to do cannot be wrong. It is often argued that those They accept that violence exists and who see violence as an important needs to be controlled, and suggest a part of the Abrahamic religions are variety of ways of doing so. grasp of those systems of thought. In reality,just wrong. those They religions have anare inaccurate all about peace, or perhaps some of them are by contrast with others. For example, Christianity looks like a more peaceful system than does Judaism, and it is often argued that Christian- ity has a similar relationship with Islam. After all, the Prophet played an important role as a military commander, in marked contrast with Jesus. Despite these observations 44 Islam and Peace: A Preliminary Survey on the Sources of Peace in the Islamic Tradition

Ibrahim Kalin

Peace as a Substantive Value enduring state of harmony, integrity, contentment, equilibrium, repose, Peace as a substantive and and moderation. This can be con- positive concept entails the presence trasted with negative peace that de- of certain conditions that make it an - ______The following excerpts are part of Islam and Peace: A Preliminary Survey on the Sources of Peace in the Islamic Tradition, published by The Royal Aal Al-Baytnotes Institute the absence for Islamic of Thought conflict (2012). and These dis excerpts are published with the permission of the author. 45 cord. Even though negative peace is indispensable to prevent communal and its prevention runs the risk of violence, border disputes or interna- neglectingdiscourse ofthe peace individual, to social which conflict is the sine qua non of collective and peace calls for a comprehensive out- communal peace. This is where the looktional to conflicts, address substantive-positive the deeper causes ‘spiritual individualism’ of Islam versus its social collectivism enters brutality, and violence. As Lee states, the picture: the individual must be itof also conflict, provides hate, a strife, genuine destruction, measure endowed with the necessary quali- and set of values by which peace and ties that make peace an enduring reality not only in the public sphere the short-term interests of individ- but also in the private domain of the ual,justice communities can be established or states.1 beyondThis is individual. The Qur’anic ideal of cre- critical for the construction of peace ating a beautiful soul that is at peace - with itself and the larger reality of ing peace as the privation of violence which it is a part brings ethics and as a substantive value because defin spirituality right into the heart of the that is instrumental and accidental discourse of positive peace. Peace as atand best, conflict and turnsrelative it intoand airrelevant concept a substantive value thus extends to at worst. In addition, the positive- the domain of both ethics and aes- substantive notion of peace shifts thetics for it is one of the conditions that bring about peace in the soul violence, and strife to a willingness and resists the temptations of dis- the focus from preventing conflict,- cord, restlessness, ugliness, petti- eration, dialogue, and coexistence ness, and vulgarity. At this point, we asto the generate primary balance, terms of justice, a discourse coop may remember that the key Qur’anic term ihsan carries the meanings of with what it is not and force com- virtue, beauty, goodness, comport- monof peace. sense Instead logic to of its defining limit, we peace may ment, proportion, comeliness, and well opt for generating a philosophi- ‘doing what is beautiful’ all at once. cal ground based on the presence The active particle muhsin denotes and endurance, rather than absence, the person who does what is good, of certain qualities and conditions desired, and beautiful.3 that make peace a substantive real- In this regard, peace is not a ity of human life.2 mere state of passivity. On the con- Furthermore, relegating the trary, it is being fully active against 1 Cf. Steven Lee, “A Positive Concept of Peace” in 3 The celebrated hadith Peter Caws (ed.), The Causes of Quarrel: Essays Qur’anic usage: “Ihsan is to worship God as if on Peace, War, and Thomas Hobbes (Boston: you were to see Him; even jibril if confirms you see theHim same not, Beacon Press, 1989), pp. 183-4. he sees you”. For an extensive analysis of ihsan 2 Gray Cox, “The Light at the End of the Tunnel as articulated in the Islamic tradition, see Sa- and the Light in Which We May Walk: Two chiko Murata and William Chittick, The Vision Concepts of Peace” in Caws, ibid., pp. 162-3. of Islam (Paragon House, 1998), pp. 265-317 46 the menace of evil, destruction, takes on a substantive importance and turmoil that may come from in view of its central role in Islamic within or from without. As Colling- theology as well as law. Peace can wood points out, peace is a ‘dynamic be conceived as an enduring state of thing’,4 and requires consciousness harmony, trust, and coexistence only and vigilance, a constant state of when coupled and supported with awareness that one must engage in spiritual and intellectual jihad to en- secure from all that is morally evil andjustice destructive. because it6 alsoThus means the Qur’an being within and across the collective tra- ihsan when it ditionssure that do differencesnot become and grounds conflicts for commands its followers to act with violence and oppression. Further- combines justice with bi’l-‘adl more, positive peace involves the wa’l-ihsan) (16:90).7 analysis of various forms of aggres- “justice and good manner” ( sion including individual, institu- The Spiritual-Metaphysical Con- tional and structural violence. text: God as Peace (al-Salam) Peace as a substantive con- adl) for The conditions that are con- peace is predicated upon the avail- ducive to a state of peace mentioned abilitycept is alsoof equal based rightson justice and (‘ oppor- above are primarily spiritual and tunities for all to realize their goals have larger implications for the and potentials. One of the mean- cosmos, the individual, and society. Here I shall focus on three premises to be ‘straight’ and ‘equitable’, i.e., that are directly relevant to our dis- toings be of straightforward, the word justice trustworthy, in Arabic is and fair in one’s dealings with oth- as a Divine name (al-Salam) (Qur’an, ers.5 Such an attitude brings about cussion. The first pertains to peace a state of balance, accord, and trust, 6 Cf. Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’an, p. 179, n. 46 commenting on the and goes beyond the limits of for- Qur’an 6:54: “And when those who believe - in Our messages come unto thee, say: “Peace be upon you. Your Sustainer has willed upon mal justice dispensed by the juridi Himself the law of grace and mercy so that if any of you does a bad deed out of ignorance, domaincal system. of Definedrelations in andthe broadestinterac- and thereafter repents and lives righteously, tionsterms, from justice taking encompasses care of one’s a body vast He shall be [found] much-forgiving, a dispens- - er of grace”. 7 On the basis of this verse, the 10th century tice is one of the Divine names and philologist Abu Hilal al-‘Askari considers to international law. Like peace, jus ihsan as synonyms. Cf. his al-Fu- 4 R. G. Collingwood, The New Leviathan (New ruq allughawiyyah, p. 194, quoted in Franz York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1971), p. 334. justiceRosenthal, and “Political Justice and the Just Rul- 5 Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-‘arab, XIII, pp. 457-8, er” in Joel Kraemer and Ilai Alon (eds.), Re- and al-Tahanawi, Kashshaf istilahat al-funun ligion and Government in the World of Islam (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1998), III, (Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University, 1983), p. 97, n. pp. 288-9. 20. 47 59:23). The Quranic concept of God peace, God transcends all opposites is founded upon a robust mono- and tensions, is the permanent state theism, and God’s transcendence of repose and tranquility, and calls (tanzih) is emphasized in both the His servants to the “abode of peace” canonical sources and in the intel- (dar al-salam) (Qur’an, 10:25). “It is lectual tradition. To this absolutely He who from high on has sent [sends] one and transcendent God belong down inner peace and repose (saki- “all the beautiful names” (Qur’an, nah) upon the hearts of the believ- 7:180, 59:24), i.e., the names of ers”, says the Qur’an (48:4). The beauty (jamal jalal), and proper abode of peace is the hearts perfection (kamal). It is these names (qulub that prevent ),God majesty from ( becoming by the remembrance of God (dhikr an utterly unreachable and “wholly Allah)”), (Qur’an which , are13:28). “satisfied By linking only other” deity. Divine names represent the heart, man’s center, to God’s re- God’s face turned towards the world membrance, the Qur’an establishes a strong link between theology and and through His creation. The names spiritual psychology. ofand beauty are the take vessels precedence of finding over God the in In addition to the Qur’anic that “my mercy has encompassed fond of explaining the ‘mystery of everything”names of majesty (Qur’an because, 7: 156) God saysand creation’exegetes, theby referringSufis in particular to a ‘sacred are “God has written mercy upon Him- saying’ (hadith qudsi) attributed to self” (Qur’an, 6:12, 54). This is also the Prophet of Islam: “I was a hid- supported by a famous hadith of the den treasure. I wanted (lit. ‘loved’) to Prophet according to which “God is be known and created the universe beautiful and loves beauty”. In this (lit. ‘creation’9)”. The key words sense, God is as much transcend- ‘love’ (hubb, mahabbah) and ‘know’ ent, incomparable and beyond as He (ma’rifah) underlie a fundamen- is immanent, comparable (tashbih) and close.8 As the ultimate source of of creation: Divine love and desire 8 - total be aspect known of is the the Sufi raison metaphysics d’etre of tion of what Ibn al- ‘Arabi would later call the all existence. Ibn al-‘Arabi says that “possessorLike other Sufis, of the Ghazali two eyes” subscribes (dhu’l-‘aynayn to the no), viz., seeing God with the two eyes of tran- God’s “love for His servants is identi- scendence (tanzih) and immanence (tashbih). cal with the origination of their en- Cf. Fadlou Shehadi, Ghazali’s Unique Unknow- gendered existence … the relation able God (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1964), pp. 8-10 and 51-5. For Ibn al-‘Arabi’s expression of pension’). Cf. Michel Allard, Le problème des the “possessor of the two eyes”, see William attributes divins dans la doctrine d’al-Aš’ari et Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge (Albany, des ses premiers grands disciples (Beyrouth: State University of New York Press, 1989), Editions De L’Impirimerie Catholique, 1965), pp.361-2. The Mutazilite and Ash’arite theolo- pp. 354-364. gians have a long history of controversy over 9 ‘Ali b.Sultan Muhammad al-Harawi al-Qari, al-Masnu’ fi Ma’rifat alhadith al-Mawdu’ (Al- qualities, i.e., tanzih, tashbih, and ta’til (‘sus- Riyad: Maktabat al-Rushd, 1404 AH), 1:141. 48the three major views of Divine names and of God’s love to them is the same as derives its sustenance from the Cre- the fact that He is with them wher- ator. The natural world is in a con- ever they are [Qur’an, 57:4], wheth- stant state of peace because accord- er in the state of their nonexistence ing to the Qur’an it is ‘muslim’ (with a small m) in that it surrenders (ta- slim) itself to the will of God and thus Heor thewitnesses state of them their and wujud loves … them they rises above all tension and discord never-endingly”.are the objects 10of Commenting His knowledge. on (3:83, 9:53, 13:15, 41:11). In its nor- the above saying, Dawud al-Qaysari, mative depiction of natural phenom- - ena, the Qur’an talks about stars and - versitythe 14th president century Turkishof the Sufi-phi newlylosopher established and the first Otto uni- The conditions that are condu- man State, says that “God cive to a state of peace ... are pri- has written love upon Himself. There is no doubt marily spiritual and have larger that the kind of love that implications for the cosmos, the is related to the manifes- individual, and society. tation of [His] perfections follows from the love of His Essence, which is the source of trees as “prostrating before God” the love of [His Names and] Quali- (55:6) and says that “all that is in ties that have become the reason for the heavens and on earth extols His the unveiling of all existents and the glory” (59:24). By acknowledging connection of the species of spiritual God’s unity and praising His name, and corporeal bodies”.11 The second premise is related substantive way – a process that un- to what traditional philosophy calls derscoresman joins the the essential natural link world between in a ‘the great chain of being’ (da’irat al- the anthropos and the cosmos or wujud). In the cosmic scale of things, the microcosm and the macrocosm. the universe is the ‘best of all pos- The intrinsic commonality and unity - tual, which implies completion and plenitudesible worlds’ over because, and against first, potentiit is ac- calledbetween the the “anthropocosmic human as ‘subject’ vision”. and12 ality, and, second, its built-in order the universe as ‘object’ has been 12 10 Quoted in William Chittick, The Self-Disclosure and adopted by Tu Weiming to describe the of God: Principles of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Cosmology philosophicalThe term has firstoutlook been ofused the by Chinese Mircea Eliadetradi- (Albany: State University of New York Press, tions. For an application of the term to Islamic 1998), p. 22. thought, see William Chittick, “The Anthro- 11 Dawud al-Qaysari, Risalah fi ma’rifat al-ma- pocosmic Vision in Islamic Thought” in Ted habbat al-haqiqiyyah in al- Rasa’il ed. by Me- Peters, Muzaffar Iqbal, Syed Nomanul Haq hmet Bayraktar (Kayseri: Kayseri Metropoli- (eds.), God, Life, and the Cosmos (Aldershot: tan Municipality, 1997), p. 138. Ashgate, 2002). pp. 125-152 49 The thrust of this view is that the tween heaven and earth.18 The fit- anthropos and the cosmos cannot be rah (Qur’an, 30:30), the primordial nature according to which God has the man-versus-nature dichotomy is created all humanity, is essentially a adisjoined false one. from Moreover, one another the world and thathas moral and spiritual substance drawn been given to the children of Adam to the good and “God-consciousness” as a ‘trust’ (amanah) as they are (taqwa’) whereas its imperfections charged with the responsibility of and “excessiveness” (fujur) (Qur’an, standing witness to God’s creation, 91:8) are ‘accidental’ qualities to be - subsumed under the soul’s struggle ceiving nature in terms of harmony, to do good (al-birr) and transcend measure,mercy, and order, justice and onbalance earth. points Con its subliminal desires through his in- to a common and persistent attitude telligence and moral will.14 towards the non-human world in Islamic thought, and has profound (...) implications for the construction of peace as a principle of the cosmos.13 The Political-Legal Context: Law The third principle pertains and Its Vicissitudes to man’s natural state and his place within the larger context of exist- The Shari’ah rules concerning ence. Even though the Qur’an occa- war, peace, jihad, religious minori- sionally describes the fallen nature ties, and the religio-political divi- of man in gruesome terms and pre- sions of dar al-islam, dar alsulh/’ahd, sents man as weak, forgetful, treach- and dar al-harb constitute an impor- erous, hasty, ignorant, ungrateful, tant component of the Islamic law of hostile, and egotistic (cf., inter alia, nations. Their contextual and histor- 14:34, 17:11, 18:54, 22:66, 33:72, - 43:15, and 100:6), these qualities cant challenge to the modern schol- are eventually considered devia- arsical ofinterpretation Islam on the presentsone hand, a and signifi the tions from man’s essential nature Muslims themselves, on the other. (fitrah), who has been created in the “most beautiful form” (ahsan on these issues from the 2nd Islamic taqwim) (Qur’an, 95:4), both physi- centuryIn analyzing onward, the viewsan extremely of the jurists com- cally and spiritually. This metaphysi- as “God’s vicegerent on earth” (khal- 14mon The classical tendency Quran is commentaries to fixate are specific almost unanimous on interpreting this ‘khalifah’ ifatcal optimismAllah fi’l-ard defines) as the human Qur’an beings says, as Adam, i.e., humans in the generic sense. or, to use a metaphor from Christian- Cf. Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli and Jalal al-Din ality, as the “pontifex”, the bridge be- Suyuti, Tafsir al-Jalalayn (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 1995), p. 6 and Ibn al-‘Arabi, al- 13 Cf. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Religion and the Futuhat al-makkiyyah, ed. by M. ‘Abd al-Rah- Order of Nature (Oxford: Oxford University man al-Mar‘ashli, (Beirut: Dar Ihya’al-Turath Press, 1996), pp. 60-63. al-‘Arabi, 1997), Vol. I, p. 169. 50 to the oft-repeated conclusion that ‘orthodox’ view of Islam applicable the teachings of the Shari’ah and, by tolegal all rulings times byand certain places. jurists While as it the is derivation, Islam itself do not war- granted that Islamic law is based on rant a substantive notion of peace the ultimate authority of the Qur’an and a culture of coexistence. 15 and the Sunnah, the Shari’ah as le- To analyze the legal-political gal code is structured in such a way aspects of traditional Shari’ah rul- as to allow considerable freedom ings concerning war and peace, I and leeway for Muslim scholars and shall limit myself to three interre- to different times and circumstanc- community’s right to defend itself es.communities The early generations to adjust themselves of Muslim againstlated issues. internal The or first external is the Muslimaggres- fuqaha), Qur’anic commentators (mufassirun), tradi- Muslim community from the overt tionistsscholars, ( muhaddithun jurists ( ), and histo- sion and the transition of the first rians have made extensive use of of Madinah. This issue necessarily this simple fact, paving the way for raises‘pacifism’ the ofquestion Mecca ofto jihadthe ‘activism’ as an of- fensive or defensive war and its rela- schools of law and legal opinions in tion to what is called jus ad bellum in Islam.the rise This and ‘adoptionist’ flourishing ofand various resil- the Western tradition. The second is ient nature of the Shari’ah, however, 15 This is what Tibi claims in his essentialist gen- has been grossly overlooked and un- derstated not only in Western schol- Islamic pathos of peace and war. Cf. Bassam eralizations and oversimplifications about the arship but also in the Islamic world. Tibi, “War and Peace in Islam” in The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspec- In the present context, this has led tives, ed. by Terry Nardin (Princeton: Prince- ton University Press, 1996), pp. 128-145.

51 the political context of the legal inof Mecca to the political activism of Madinatransition took from place the when robust the pacifismpermis- junctions of certain jurists, namely- - ingImam the Shafi’i legitimacy (d. 820) of andthe theterritorial Hanafi es 22:38-40: expansionjurist Sarakhsi of Muslim (d. 1090), states concern on reli- sion to fight was given with the vers Verily, God will ward off [all evil] from gious grounds. Some contemporary those who attain to faith: [and] ver- scholars have disproportionately ily, God does not love anyone who be- - trays his trust and is bereft of gratitude. marks about launching jihad against non-Muslimoverstated Shafi’i’s territories justificatory on the basis re against whom war is being wrongfully of their belief system. The third is- Permission [to fight] is given to those waged – and, verily, God has indeed sue is the treatment of religious mi- the power to succor them--: those who norities, i.e., the under the dhimmis have been driven from their homelands Islamic law and its relevance for re- against all right or no other reason than ligious diversity and cultural plural- their saying, “Our Sustainer is God!” For, ism in the Islamic tradition. if God had not enabled people to defend - themselves against one another, [all] monasteries and churches and syna- in MeccaTo wasbegin to with ensure the the first, security a ma gogues and mosques – in [all of] which andjor concern integrity of ofthe the Prophet nascent of IslamMus- God’s name is abundantly extolled— lim community as a religio-political would surely have been destroyed” (M. unit. This concern eventually led to Asad’s translation). the historic migration of the Prophet and his followers to Madina in 622 This and other verses (2:190- after a decade of pressure, sanctions, - persecution, torture, and a foiled ating up arms to defend religious free- tempt to kill the Prophet himself. 3) define clearly the reasons for tak During this period, the community’s war (jus ad bellum) in self-defense. right to defend itself against the Mec- dom and set the conditions of just can polytheists was mostly exercised year of the Hijrah, refers to the grave wrongdoingThat the verse, against revealed Muslims in the firstand and non-violent means of resistance. their eviction from their homeland Evenin what though we would the callProphet today waspacifist in close contact with the Meccan lead- that the migration of the Prophet ers to spread his message as well as wasfor professing the last thestage new of faith the confirmsforceful to protect his small yet highly dedi- expulsion of the Muslim commu- cated group of followers, his tireless nity from Mecca. This was a turning negotiations did not mitigate the ag- point for the attitudes and ensuing gressive policies of Meccans against tactics of the Prophet and his fol- the growing Muslim community. The lowers to protect themselves against 52 the Meccans. The subsequent battles 10th centuries. Among those, we fought between the Meccans and the Madinans from Badr to Handak un- who interpreted jihad as the duty til the Prophet’s triumphant return can mention Shafi’i and Sarakhsi to Mecca were based on the same principles of religious freedom, col- of the Muslim ruler to fight against- lective solidarity, and political unity. pansionistthe lands definedtheory of as jihad the ‘territoryas a reli- In addition to enunciating the con- giousof war’. duty Shafi’i at a formulatedtime when Muslim his ex states were engaged in prolonged - versalditions cause of just for war, all thethe abovethree Abraverse- territories and had become mostly hamicdefines faiths. religious Like freedomany other as political a uni successfulmilitary conflicts in extending with non-Muslim their bor- unit, communities tied with a bond - of faith have the right and, in fact, the responsibility of securing their onders. account While of these their jurists disbelief had ( justikufr) existence and integrity against the ratherfied fighting than self-defense, against non-Muslims they were threats of persecution and eventual also adamant on the observation of extinction. As I shall discuss below, jus in bello norms, i.e., avoiding ex- this ecumenical attitude towards the cessiveness, accepting truce, sparing religious freedom of all faith com- the lives of noncombatants, women, children, etc.17 In spite of these con- Prophet’s signing of a number of treatisesmunities waswith athe major Jews, factor Christians in the followers represent a shift from the and Zoroastrians of the Arabian Qur’anicditions, thenotion views of of self-defense Shafi’i and histo Peninsula as well as the treatment armed struggle to bring about the of religious minorities under the conversion of non-Muslims. Hav- Shari’ah.16 ing said that, two points need to be The construction of jihad as mentioned. First of all, the views of armed struggle to expand the borders of dar al-islam and, by derivation, subsume all dar al-harb under Shafi’i and Sarakhsi do not represent the Islamic dominion is found in tendencythe majority, to letpresent alone thisthe ‘orthodox’,particular stance of thejihad jurists. as the The mainstream common 16 Concerning the Zoroastrians and Sabeans and position of Islam not only disregards sometheir being of the part jurists of the People of theof the 9th Book, and Abu thedefinition views of Abu Hanifah, Malik ibn Yusuf narrates a number of traditions of the Anas, Abu Yusuf, Shaybani, Awzai, Prophet to show that they should be treated - 17 Some of these stipulations can be followed mis. The inclusion of the Zoroastrians among from Shaybani’s Siyar; English translation by withthe dhimmis justice andis inferred equality from as thethe otherfact that dhim the The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani’s Siyar (Baltimore: The John Hop- Taxation in Islam: Abu Yusuf’s Kitab Majidkins University Khadduri, Press, 1966), pp. 75-94; also al-kharajProphet had, tr. bycollected A. Ben jizyaShemesh from (Leiden:the Majus E. of J. Muhammad Hamidullah, The Muslim Conduct Brill,Hajar. 1969), Cf. pp. 88-9. of State (Lahore:S. Ashraf, 1961), pp. 205-8. 53 Ibn Rushd, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qayy- resounding victories. This change im al-Jawziyyah18 and others but also in tone and emphasis, however, was ignores the historical and contextual not a completely novel phenomenon for the concept of dar al-sulh can be same holds true for Muslim political traced back to the treaty that the philosophersnature of such and juridical theologians rulings. whoThe Prophet had signed with the Chris- take a different position on the bifur- cationist framework of dar al-islam was in Madina.20 As I shall discuss versus dar al-harb.19 Moreover, these below,tian population this treaty, of Najranwhose whentext has he been preserved, lays the founda- response to the de facto situation tions of making peace with non- ofrulings the weremilitary by andconquests large the of jurists’ Mus- Muslim communities. In addition, lim states rather than their cause. the policy of giving aman (safe-conduct), i.e., contractual protection for reconciliatory terms as dar al-‘ahd non-Muslims residing or traveling in (“theCertain land jurists of the begin covenant”) to stress and such dar Muslim territories, was a common al-sulh (“the land of peace”) during practice. Such people were known and after the 11th and 12th centu- as musta’min, and to grant them this ries when the Muslim states were status was not only the prerogative confronted with political realities of head of state or ulama but also in- other than unabated conquest and dividuals, both men and women.21 Secondly, the idea of bringing 18 Cf. “Sulh”, Encyclopedia of Islam (EI2), IX, 845a. the world under the reign of dar al- 19 As a representative text of the Ash’arite kal- islam by military means and territo- am, see Sa’d al-Din al- Taftazani, Sharh al- rial expansion should be seen within maqasid, Vol. 5, pp. 232-320 where the long the context of the geo-political con- discussion of the imamate contains no references to jihad as conquering non-Muslim ter- ditions of the classical Islamic world. ritories. See also Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, The medieval imperial world order, translated by Franz Rosenthal, abridged by of which Muslim states were a part, N. J. Dawood (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 158-160 and Fakhr al-Din was based on the idea of continuous- al-Razi, al-Arba’in fi usul al-din, Vol. 2, pp. 255- ly expanding one’s borders because 270. The Muslim philosophers, especially al- ‘conquest’ (fath) provided economic, jihad political and demographic stability. virtues of the ‘city’ (madinah) or the human habitat.Farabi, define Cf. Joel L. Kraemer, as just war “The and Jihad stress of the In this sense, as Hitti points out, “the Falasifa”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Is- Islam that conquered the northern lam, 10 (1987), p. 293 and 312. Butterworth regions was not the Islamic religion holds the same view about al-Farabi’s notion of warfare in his “Al-Farabi’s Statecraft: War but the Islamic state … it was Ara- and the Well-Ordered Regime” in Cross, Cres- bianism and not Muhammadanism cent, and Sword: The Justification and Limita- tion of War in Western and Islamic Tradition, ed. by James Turner Johnson and John Kelsay 20 Cf. “Dar al-sulh”, EI2, II, 131a. (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990), pp. 79- 21 Shaybani, Siyar, pp. 158-194; also “Aman”, EI2, 100. I, 429a. 54 55 22 In a world in lamic law. The considerably protean which one was either a ‘conqueror’ concept of the dhimmi allowed re- orthat ‘conquered’, triumphed the first”. triumphant Mus- ligious minorities to maintain their lim states depended heavily on the traditions and resist any attempts expansion of their territories against at forceful conversion. Since Islam both their Muslim rivals and non- does not ordain a missionary estab- Muslim enemies. The historic march lishment, the agents of conversion of Muslim armies into territories responsible for the enormously suc- once under non-Muslim rule was cessful and unprecedented spread of not jihad in the religious sense of the Islam were multifarious and extend- term but an outcome of the power ed from the Arab traders and the struggle to which all political estab- lishments, Muslim or non-Muslim, communal institutions.23 Otherwise Sufiswe cannot to the explain development the en masse of Islamic con- This is further made clear by version of various ethnic, religious thewere fact subject. that territorial expansion and cultural communities to Islam and military conquest did not al- by the military prowess of a handful ways and necessarily mean conver- of Muslim groups in Anatolia, Iran, sion. Beginning with the early his- Africa or India. tory of Islam, conversion through Paradoxically, the policies of persuasion and ‘calling’ (da’wah) religious tolerance secured both the was encouraged, and a multitude rights of religious minorities and the of methods were put in place to fa- loyalties of new converts. In a man- cilitate the conversion of individu- ner that was simply unimaginable in als and masses through peaceful the Christian kingdoms of Europe at means. Conversion by force, which the time, Jews, Christians, Sabeans, would make Islam a proselytizing and Hindus had access to consider- religion, however, was not imposed ably high state posts from the time as a policy either by the ulama or of Mu’awiyah (661-680) to the dis- the rulers. Furthermore, conversion solution of the Ottoman Empire at was not a condition to become part the beginning of the 20th century. of the Muslim community to gain re- Jewish and Christian scientists, phy- ligious freedom, receive protection, sicians, accountants, counselors and and posses property under the Is- statesmen were employed at Um- 22 Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs (New York, mayad courts. St. John the Dama- St. Martin’s Press, 1970), p. 145. Dozy makes a similar point when he says that “the holy war is never imposed except only when the ene- 23 Cf. Richard Bulliet, “Conversion to Islam and mies of Islam are the aggressors. Otherwise, scene,the Emergence one of of thea Muslim most Society influential in Iran” in Nehemia Levtzion (ed.), Conversion to Islam Qur’an, it is nothing but an interpretation of (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, someif we taketheologians”. into account R. Dozy, the Essaiinjunctions sur l’histoire of the Inc., 1979), pp. 30-51. See also the introduc- de l’Islamisme (Leiden: Brill, 1879), p. 152. tion by the editor, p. 9. 56 Christian communities under the and the author of the earliest anti- Ottoman rule. Although Sokollu em- Islamicfigures ofpolemics, Eastern and Orthodox his father Church Ibn braced Islam and became one of the Mansur held positions under the ca- most powerful men of his time, he liph Abd al-Malik (685-705).24 Dur- kept close contact with his brother ing the Buwayhid era in Persia, the - vizier of the powerful Persian king ure in Bosnia and helped him with Adud al-Dawlah (949-982), Nasr ibn hiswho status was anas theimportant grand vizier. religious fig Harun was a Christian.25 - In the light of these points, we ilar cases in India and the Ottoman have to make a distinction between Empire where the vertical We findmobility sim jihad jihad as “holy of religious minorities in state affairs war”27, which brings us to our third was a common phenomenon. Even issue. as Just “just war war” refers and to a commu- the devshirme system of the Otto- nity’s right to defend itself against mans, which has been criticized and aggression and oppression. It is de- labeled as a form of forced conver- fensive in nature whereas “holy war” sion, provided religious minorities entails converting everybody into with unfettered access to the highest one’s religion by force, armed strug- government positions. Three grand gle, territorial expansion, and other jihad is an the most powerful Ottoman sultan, extension of the jus ad bellum tradi- wereviziers of of Christian Suleiman origin: the Magnificent, Ibrahim Pa- means.tion and In can the be first seen sense, as a necessity to sha was a Greek and an able diplo- mat and commander; Rustem Pasha In this regard, the position taken by was a Bulgarian and had handled the theprotect Qur’an justice, and the freedom Prophet and concern order.- treasury with utmost competence; ing the use of force against oppres- and the celebrated Sokollu Mehmet sion by Muslims and non-Muslims Pasha was a Slav from Bosnia and alike28 is essentially a realist one and had served in his youth as an acolyte aims at putting strict conditions for in a Serbian church.26 Among these, 27 Abdulaziz A. Sachedina, “The Development the case of Sokollu is probably the of Jihad in Islamic Revelation and History”, in most interesting for it shows the ex- Cross, Crescent, and Sword, p. 36. tent to which the devshirme system 28 On the question of rebellion and irregular warfare (ahkam al-bughat) in Islamic law, see Khaled Abou el Fadl, Rebellion and Violence in 24 Cf. Daniel J. Sahas, John of Damascus on Islam: Islamic Law (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- eventuallyThe “Heresy worked of the Ishmaelites” to the benefit(Ledien: E. of J. sity Press, 2001). For a shorter synoptic ac- Brill, 1972). count, see ibidem, “Ahkam al-Bughat: Irregu- 25 T. W. Arnold, The Preaching of Islam (Delhi: lar Warfare and the Law of Rebellion in Islam” Renaissance Publishing House, 1984; origi- in Cross, Crescent, and Sword: The Justification nally published in 1913), pp. 63-4. and Limitation of War in Western and Islamic 26 Cf. Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries: The Tradition, ed. by James Turner Johnson and Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (New York: John Kelsay (New York: Greenwood Press, Morrow Quill, 1977), p. 259. 1990), pp. 149-176. 57 regulating war and using force. The children, and the elderly.29 - Contrary to what Khadduri ing against aggression, which is “to claims30, the global bifurcation of dar guiding principle is that of fight 29 Imam Shawkani, Fath al-qadir, abridged by be the aggressors: “Fight (qatilu, Sulayman ‘Abd Allah al- Ashqar (Kuwait: lit.fight “kill”) in the in waythe wayof God”, of God and against not to Shirkat Dhat al-Salasal, 1988), p. 37; Le Co- ran: “Viola le Livre…” French translation and commentary by Yahya ‘Alawi and Javad Hadidi not transgress the limits. Verily, God (Qom: Centre pour la traduction du Saint Co- doesthose not who love fight aggressors” against you, (2:190; but doCf. ran, 2000), pp. 318-9; Muhamad Asad, The also 4:91 and 9:36). Both the classi- Message of the Qur’an (Maktaba Jawahar ul cal and modern commentators have uloom: Lahore, n.d.), p.41; Shaykh Muham- mad al-Ghazali, A Thematic Commentary on interpreted the command not to the Qur’an, tr. by A. Shamis (Herndon: Inter- “transgress” (la ta’dadu) as avoiding national Institute of Islamic Thought, 2000), pp. 18-9. 30 In his War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Bal- resorting to armed struggle only to timore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, defendwar and one’shostilities freedom, in the and,first place,once - late jihad as ‘warfare’ (p. 55) and ‘permanent noncombatants that include women, war’1955) (p. Majid 62), Khadduriand claims goes that so “thefar as universal to trans- ism of Islam, in its all-embracing creed, is im- forced to fight, sparing the lives of posed on the believers as a continuous pro- 58 al-islam and dar al-harb does not of disbelief (kufr)”. 32 translate into a “holy war” nor a ‘per- This extended meaning of manent state of war’ between Mus- jihad as jus ad bellum, i.e., armed struggle in self-defense can also be illustrate this point better than Ibn seen in the anticolonialist resist- Taymiyyahlims and non-Muslims. (d. 1327) whoseNo figure views can ance movements of the modern pe- have been widely distorted and ex- riod. In the 18th and 19th centuries, ploited to lend legitimacy to extrem- calls for jihad were issued across ist interpretations of the classical Islamic law of nations. Even though colonialism. For the anticolonialist Ibn Taymiyyah lived through the de- resistancethe Islamic movements world to fightof this against pe- struction wrought upon the Islamic riod, jihad world by the Mongols and could have been expected to take a more colonialism functioned,and, second, first,as a power as the- - religious basis of fighting against dels’, he was unequivocal in stating the resistance forces. Among others, thatbelligerent Muslims stance could against wage war the ‘infionly theful wayBarelvi of mobilizing family in peopleIndia, Shaykhto join against those who attacked them. Shamil in Chechenya, Shaykh ‘Abd al- The idea of initiating unprovoked Qadir al-Jazairi in Algeria, the Mahdi war to convert people to Islam, family in the Sudan, Ahmad ‘Urabi in namely to engage in ‘holy war’, belies Egypt, and the Sanusiyyah order in the religion itself because, according Libya fought against European co- to Ibn Taymiyyah, “if the unbeliever lonial powers.33 It was during this were to be killed unless he becomes period of resistance that jihad took a Muslim, such an action would con- a cultural tone in the sense that the stitute the greatest compulsion in religion”, which would be contrary to seen as both a military and religio- the Qur’anic principle that “there is culturalfight against struggle. colonial Despite powers the enor was- no compulsion in religion” (2:256).31 Ibn Taymiyyah’s famous student Ibn scholars, leaders, merchants, and Qayyim al-Jawziyyah reiterates the villagersmous difficulties in Egypt, facedAfrica, by India Muslim and same principle when he says that other places, the jihad calls against qatl) is permitted on ac- the European armies did not lead count of war (harb), not on account to an all-out war against local non- “fighting ( Muslim communities. Even in cases cess of warfare, psychological and political if where the Muslim population had not strictly military” (p. 64). This belligerent view of jihad 32 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Ahkam ahl al-dhim- both the legal and cultural traditions of Islam mah, ed. by Subhi al- Salih (Beirut: Dar al-‘Ilm discussed below. is hard to justify in the light of li’l-alamin, 1983, 3rd edition), Vol. I, p. 17. 31 Ibn Taymiyyah, “Qa’idah fi qital al-kuffar”, 33 Cf. John Voll, “Renewal and Reform” in John from Majmu’at rasa’il, Esposito (ed.), The Oxford History of Islam Khadduri, The Islamic Law of Nations, p. 59. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). p. 123, quoted in Majid 59 to bear the full brunt of colonialism, “French are also faithful Muslims”.35 extreme care was taken not to label For Jabarti and his generation, this local non-Muslims as the enemy because of their religious and cultural necessity of launching jihad against thewas ‘ afranjyet another’ (the French, fact confirming i.e., Europe the- powers. When, for instance, the Sa- ans). This sense of jihad as anti-co- nusiaffiliation call for with ‘jihad European against all colonial unbe- lonialist struggle has not completely lievers’ caused a sense of urgency disappeared from the minds of some among the Christians in Egypt, Mus- Muslims in the postcolonial period. lim scholars responded by saying In fact, the modern calls for jihad as that jihad in Libya was directed at ‘holy war’ by such Muslim extrem- the Italian aggressors, not all West- erners or Christians.34 the celebrated al-Faridat al-ghai’bah Since jihad as armed strug- (“Theists as AbdNeglected al-Salam Duty”) Faraj 36who presum wrote- gle was fought against the invasion of European powers, it was not dif- Anwar Sadat in 1981, and Osama - binably Laden justifying are as the much assassination the product of tural tones. Napoleon’s attempt to of their strict and a-historical read- paintficult himselffor it to astake a ‘defender religious ofand Islam’ cul ing of the classical Shari’ah sources when he invaded Egypt in 1798, for as the legacy of colonialism. instance, was seen by the celebrated Lastly, I would like to turn Egyptian historian Abd al-Rahman - al-Jabarti (1754-1825) as no more norities under Islamic law. As men- than outright lies expected only from tionedbriefly tobefore, the status the ofdhimmi religious status mi kafir). In his letter to local granted the religious minorities and Egyptian leaders, imams and schol- especially Jews and Christians un- ars,an ‘infidel’ Napoleon ( said that he “more der Muslim rule some measure of than the Mamluks, serve[s] God – economic and political protection, may He be praised and exalted – and freedom of worship, right to own revere[s] His Prophet Muhammad property, and, in some cases, access and the glorious Qur’an” and that the to high government positions. The religious-legal basis of the notion of the goes back to the time 34 Rudolph Peters, Islam and Colonialism: The dhimmi Doctrine of Jihad in Modern History (The of the Prophet. While the status of Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1979), p. 86. Pe- dhimmi was initially given to Jews, ters’ work presents an excellent survey of how jihad was reformulated as an anticoloni- 35 Al-Jabarti’s Chronicle of the French Occupa- alist resistance idea in the modern period. See tion, tr. by Shmuel Moreh (Princeton: Markus also Allan Christelow, Muslim Law Courts and Wiener Publishers, 1997), p. 26. the French Colonial State in Algeria (Prince- 36 - ton: Princeton University Press, 1985) for the hannes J. G. Jansen, The Neglected Duty: The - Faraj’sCreed of treatise Sadat’s hasAssassins been and translated Islamic byResur Jo- dition of Islamic law under the French colo- gence in the Middle East (New York: Macmil- nialstruggle system. of Muslim jurists to continue the tra lan Publishing Company, 1986), pp. 160-230. 60 Christians, Sabians and Zoroastri- al-madina), for instance, recognizes ans, its scope was later extended to include all non-Muslims living under Banu Tha’laba and others as a dis- Islam.37 A similar course of action tinctthe Jews community of Banu ‘Awf, with Banu “their al-Najar, own was followed in India when Muham- religion”.39 Another treatise signed with the People of the Book of Na- commander to set foot on Indian soil inmad the b.8th al-Qasim, century, compared the first MuslimHindus They [People of the Book] shall have to Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians jran reads as follows: the protection of Allah and the prom- and declared them as part of the ahl ise of Muhammad, the Apostle of Allah, .38 This decision, which al-dhimma that they shall be secured their lives, property, lands, creed, those absent and those present, their families, their thewas development later sanctioned of the by Muslim the Hanafi at- churches, and all that they possess. No titudejurists, towards was a momentous the religions event of In in- bishop or monk shall be displaced from dia. This politico-legal ruling could his parish or monastery no priest shall be seen as laying the foundations of be forced to abandon his priestly life. the Hindu-Muslim mode of cultural No hardships or humiliation shall be coexistence, which I shall discuss be- imposed on them nor shall their land low. be occupied by [our] army. Those who That the Prophet and his companions were lenient towards no oppressors nor oppressed.40 the People of the Book is attested seek justice, shall have it: there will be not only by the communal relationships that developed between Mus- The privileges given to the lims and non-Muslims in Madina dhimmis included things that were but also recorded in a number of prohibited for Muslims such as treatises signed by the Prophet. The breeding pork and producing alco- “Madinan Constitution” (wathiqat hol, which were not outlawed for Christians. The religious tax called 37 There is a consensus on this point among - as some Hanbali scholars. For references in sponsibility of the dhimmis under Arabic,the Hanafi see and Yohanan Maliki schoolsFriedmann, of law Tolerance as well thejizya Shari’ah was the. Contrary main economicto a common re and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge 39 The text of the Madinan treatise is preserved University Press, 2003), pp. 85-86. For the inin Ibn Hisham’s Sirah. It is also published in clusion of Zoroastrians among the People of Muhammad Hamidullah, Documents sur la the Book, see Friedmann, Tolerance and Coer- Diplomatie a l’Epoque du Prophete et des Khal- cion ifes Orthodoxes (Paris, 1935), pp. 9-14. For an a community mentioned in the Qur’an, as a English translation, see Khadduri, War and Christians, pp. 72-76. group. Shafi’i Cf. Ibn considers Qayyim, the Ahkam Sabeans,, Vol. Peace, pp. 206-9. I, p. 92. 40 Quoted in Khadduri, War and Peace in the 38 The incident is recorded in Baladhuri’s Futuh Law of Islam, p. 179. The original text of the al-buldan. Cf. Friedmann, Tolerance and Coer- Kitab cion, p. 85. al-kharaj and Baladhuri, Futuh al-buldan. Najran treatise is quoted in Abu Yusuf,61 edge, the jizya - tax was not the ‘humiliation’ of the cant source of income for the state46, Peoplebelief, theof the primary Book. Whilegoal of many the jizyacon- and it exempted tax the was dhimmis not a signifi from temporary translations of the Qur’an military service. In some cases, the translate the words wa hum al- jizya was postponed or abandoned saghirun as “so that they will be hu- altogether by the head of the state miliated”, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, as we see in India under the reigns who has written the most extensive of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.47 work on the People of the Book, The jizya was a compensation for understands it as securing the alle- the protection of the dhimmis by the giance of the People of the Book to state against any type of aggression laws pertaining to them (ahkam al- from Muslims or non-Muslims. This millah). Instead, wa hum al-saghirun is attested by the fact that the poll- should be understood, says Ibn taxes were returned to the dhimmis when the Muslim state had been un- state obey the law and, in the case of able to provide the security of its theQayyim, People as of making the Book, all subjects pay the jizya of the.41 non-Muslim minorities.48 In most According to Abu Yusuf, one cases, the jizya was imposed not as of the foremost authorities of the individualtax like the kharaj but as jizya was “48 collective tribute on eligible dhim- dirhams on the wealthy, 24 on the mis.49 Hanafimiddle schoolclass and of law,12 dirhams on the While Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzi- poor ploughman-peasant and man- yya’s famous work on the dhimmis contains many rulings that present a jizya is one dinar for the poor and condescending view of non-Muslims fourual worker. dinars Accordingfor the rich. to 42Shafi’i, It is colthe- and advocate policies of humilia- lected once a year and may be paid 46 This is not to deny that there were examples in kind, i.e., as “goods and similar to the contrary. When one of the governors property which is accepted accord- of ‘Umar ‘Abd al-‘Aziz asked permission to 43 “collect huge amounts of jizya owed by Jews, ing to its value”. Those who can- - not afford to pay it are not forced to cepted Islam”, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz responded by say- do so.44 The exempted also include ingChrsitans that “God and Majushas sent of al-Hirathe Prophet before Muham they ac- women, children, the elderly and mad to invite people to Islam and not as a tax collector”. This letter is quoted in Abu Yusuf, 45 the sick. To the best of our knowl- Kitab al-kharaj, p. 90. 41 Ibn Qayyim, Ahkam ahl al-dhimmah, Vol. I, p. 47 Cf. Aziz Ahmad, Studies in Islamic Culture in 24. the Indian Environment (Oxford: Oxford Uni- 42 Ibn Qayyim, Ahkam ahl al-dhimmah, Vol. I, p. versity Press, 1964), pp. 80-1. 26. 48 Abu Yusuf mentions the case of Abu ‘Ubaydah 43 Abu Yusuf, Kitab al-kharaj, p. 84. Cf. Shaybani, returning the jizya to the dhimmis of Hims Siyar, in Khadduri, War and Peace, p. 143. when he was not able to provide protection 44 Ibn Qayyim, Ahkam ahl al-dhimmah, Vol. I., p. for them against the Roman emperor Hera- 32ff. clius. Cf. the letter by Abu ‘Ubayadah men- 45 Ibn Qayyim, Ahkam ahl al-dhimmah, p. 42 and tioned by Abu Yusuf, Kitab al-kharaj, p. 150. 49. 49 Cf. Khadduri, War and Peace, pp. 188-9. 62 tion against them50 - sponse to this incident, the Prophet rists were insistent on treating the has said that “it is most appropriate , many other ju that I live up fully to my (promise of) As people “under the protection of protection”.52 thedhimmis Prophet”, with Jews, equity Christians and justice. and These and other rules con- other religious minorities were not cerning the dhimmis show that Islam to be forced to pay more than they accepts the reality of the ‘religious could afford nor to be intimidated and oppressed because of their re- rather than as a matter of political exigency.other’ in termsThe underlying of a de jure principle reality al- Rashid (d. 803), the famous Ab- behind this attitude of accommoda- basidligious caliph, affiliations. on the treatment Advising Harunof the tion is that the interests of human dhimmis, Abu Yusuf exhorts him to beings are served better in peace “treat with leniency those under the protection of our Prophet Muham- mad, and not allow that more than than in conflict. what is due to be taken from them or more that they are able to pay, - cated from their properties without and that nothing should51 In making be confis this strong advice to the Caliph, Abu Yu- suflegal narrates justification”. a tradition of the Proph- et in which the Prophet says that “he who robs a dhimmi or imposes on him more than he can bear will have me as his opponent”. Another well-known case is the execution on the order of the Prophet of a Mus- lim who had killed a dhimmi. In re-

50 These include some restrictive rulings on what the People of the Book could wear and what religious symbols they could display. Cf. A. S. Tritton, The Caliphs and Their Non- Muslim Subjects (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), Chapters VII and VIII. As Trit- ton notes, however, such rulings were not implemented strictly and displayed considerable variety across the Islamic world. A case in point, which Tritton mentions (p. 121), is Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi who had some Chris- - ing any strict dress code. 52 Quoted in Friedmann, Tolerance and Coercion, 51 Khadduri,tian officers War working and Peace for ,him p. 85. without follow p. 40. 63 Photo courtesy of Bernard Gagnon

La paix passe-t-elle par une ère messianique ?

Eric Geoffroy

Since 9/11 and the Second Iraq War, the Muslim Middle East has witnessed an outburst of millenarian expectations. Prof. Eric Geoffroy analyzes how contemporary fundamentalist movements are distorting traditional Islamic eschatology in order to fuel sectarian violence and regional conflicts. (Managing-Editor)

Pour un nombre croissant par de nombreux textes des diffé- d’humains ou de groupes humains, rentes religions, en particulier les il n’y aura de paix possible sur terre, religions monothéistes. Face au con- à l’échelle collective, que dans la grande Paix messianique annoncée civilisation humaine présente et à ve- stat d’un manque de projet pour la 64 nir, face aux désordres et déséquili- façon positive, dans une perspective bres globaux, beaucoup considèrent messianique radieuse… que l’humanité va devoir traverser une période de bouleversements L’essence eschatologique de l’islam « le loup habitera avec l’agneau » (majeursÉsaïe 11:6). avant Certains de connaî�tre tentent l’ère même où Nous savons que la propa- d’accentuer le chaos ambiant pour gande des gens de Daesh prospère précipiter la survenue de cette ère. sur la confusion psychologique Du nihilisme contemporain et de la et morale qui touche nos villes et confusion généralisée sortirait donc nos campagnes. Pour recruter, ils creusent en effet les sillons du nihilisme, ce vide que produirait notre parla véritable les chrétiens et définitive évangélistes paix. amé C’est- civilisation, alors qu’eux propose- ricainsla logique new jusqu’au-boutisteborn, dont l’ex-président suivie des Etats-Unis George W. Bush, par un nombre croissant d’Israéliens fontraient d’autant du ‘‘sens’’, plus en facilement jouant du désir/que la qui préparent matériellement le traditionangoisse islamique de la fin desest très temps. riche Ils en le troisième Temple qui devrait pren- enseignements eschatologiques. dre place sur l’Esplanade des Mos- L’islam, en effet, se présente quées de Jérusalem, et même par comme le dernier message divin Daesh, parce pour cette humanité, le message que cette entité, à leurs yeux, précip- ultime qui doit récapituler et syn- itedes précisément juifs qui ont lerejoint chaos qui va faire thétiser ce qui a été dit au premier venir le Messiah… homme et premier prophète, Adam. Logiquement, le personnage Message ultime pour cette humani- attendu, devrait être le même pour té, en fait, car même si l'expression tous les humains, ce qui susciterait bien, à la lecture des textes islam- vers la paix : le bouddha Maitreya, arabe dit fin du temps, on voit très- une tension positive et unifiante manité. Le Prophète ne disait-il pas àiques, ses qu'ilcompagnons s'agit de quela fin cent d'une mille hu le Messie chrétien, le Messiah juif,- Adam se sont succédé, chiffre assu- Jésus (‘Aï�sâ) pour l’islam, etc. Mais rément symbolique ? Mais ce chiffre pourmondial l’instant imams-rabbins il n’en est rien. de UnSéville maî� suggère la succession de différentes entre 2006 soufi me qui disait participait que les au uns congrès et les modalités de la présence humaine autres étaient très pessimistes face dans le cosmos. D’après une autre à l’échéance d’une troisième guerre parole du Prophète, cette human- mondiale. Ce cheikh leur a alors dit ité aura connu 124000 prophètes, que la tension eschatologique qu’ils donc seulement 27 sont mention- sentaient devait être transmuée de nés dans le Coran... Il y a eu autant 65 de prophètes parce qu'à chaque fois déroulé], les étoiles obscurcies, lor- les hommes ont dévié. Les sources sque les montagnes se mettront en scripturaires de l'islam délivrent marche… lorsque les mers seront en ainsi indéniablement un enseigne- ébullition… ». A propos du passage ment eschatologique, et la « science français Louis Massignon (m. 1962) science islamique à part entière. faisaitoù le soleille lien s’enroule,avec les apparitions l’orientaliste de de la fin des temps » constitue une la Vierge en 1917 à Fatima, au Portu- - Dans le Coran : Il y a eu deux grandes péri- des circonvolutions dans le ciel. odes dans la révélation islamique, gal, où Dansles gens la trèsont vucourte le soleil et ellipfaire- laquelle s’étend sur vingt-trois ans: tique sourate 103, al-‘Asr, la dégé- celle de la Mecque et celle de Mé- nérescence du temps est annoncée : dine. La tension eschatologique est « Par l’époque ! Oui, l’homme est en patente dans les premières révéla- perdition, à l’exception de ceux qui tions mecquoises, lesquelles ont croient et font le bien… ». L’humanité visiblement pour but de secouer et avertir l’humanité. Ces sourates, les plus courtes, sont proférées dans chemine- Dans : elles les a parolesun début du et Prophète une fin. un style très fulgurant. En témoigne (hadîth) : par exemple la sourate al-Qamar De tout temps, une des fonc- (« la Lune », n° 54). On y lit à plus- tions de la prophétie a été de pré- ieurs reprises ce verset, qui revient dire mais – René Guénon le formule de manière lancinante : « Oui, Nous bien dans Le règne de la quantité avons facilité la compréhension du et les signes des temps – il ne s’agit Coran en vue du rappel. Mais y a-t-il pas pour autant de divination : lor- quelqu’un pour s’en souvenir ? ». La sque le Prophète évoque des évé- crise écologique que nous vivons ac- nements à venir, ce n’est pas par tuellement serait annoncée notam- catastrophisme, mais sur le mode ment par la sourate n° 99, al-Zalzala, de l’enseignement préventif, en « Le tremblement de terre » : « Lor- quelque sorte. sque la Terre sera secouée par son On trouve dans le hadîth - beaucoup de paroles apocalyptiques, tera ses fardeaux, lorsque l’homme même si certaines sont visiblement demanderatremblement, : ‘‘que lorsque lui arrive-t-il,la Terre rejet à la apocryphes : quatre cents environ chez les sunnites, et six mille si on propre histoire d’après ce que son additionne les traditions sunnites et Seigneurterre ?’’, ce lui jour-là, aura révélé elle racontera! » sa chiites. Le Prophète disait : « J’ai été Citons encore la sourate 81, envoyé comme prophète, alors que le al-Takwîr, « L’enroulement » : « Lor- moment qui nous sépare de l’Heure sque le soleil sera enroulé [ou bien est comparable à l’espace qui sé- 66 pare ces deux doigts », et il montrait de « signes mineurs ». - - Les « signes mineurs » : àl’index ses compagnons et le majeur. : «Entre Nous autres sommes pa roles sur ce sujet, il disait clairement les désordres cosmiques, et en par- De façon schématique, trois ticulierParmi la contraction ces signes, du temps figurent ou typesune communauté de signes apparaissent de la fin ». dans la du moins de notre perception du bouche du Prophète, et ils sont par- temps. Beaucoup de hadîths en parfois extrêmement explicites et pré- lent clairement. Ainsi cette parole du cis : Prophète : « L’heure n’aura pas lieu tant que le temps ne se sera pas con- - Les prédictions qui se sont tracté, au point que l’année passera déjà réalisées, telles que les inva- comme un mois, le mois comme une sions des Mongols au XIIIe siècle, la et l’avènement de celle des Turcs, la s’écoulerasemaine, la aussisemaine vite comme qu’un un tison jour, prisefin de de la Constantinopledomination politique par les arabe Otto- le jour comme une heure, et l’heure- mans en 1453, etc. Ensuite, il y a les signes inter- furenflammé et à mesure met de qu’on temps approche à se con de médiaires, plus connus sous le nom sumer ». René Guénon affirme qu’au

la fin du cycle, cette accélération67 du terre – et c’est vrai qu’il y en a eu beaucoup ces dernières années en Al- gérie, Iran, Indonésie, Turquie, etc. Des hadiths mentionnent égale- ment l’augmentation des tempêtes et des cyclones, un dérèglement clima- tique qui produirait des « saisons trompeuses ». Qu’en est-il, main- tenant, du désordre social ? Le ton général indique une inversion totale des valeurs. Une parole connue mentionne comme un des signes de l’Heure : « Quand tu verras la servante en-

». D’autres hadiths évo- quentgendrer clairement, sa maî�tresse… dans l’esprit des musulmans,

Unis d’Amérique : « Lor- lasque destinée tu verras des les va-nu-É� tats- Photo courtesy of Jean-Pierre Dalbéra pieds, les miséreux et les bergers temps est comparable à celle des rivaliser dans la construction de corps physiques qui chutent, tel un maisons de plus en plus hautes », mobile lancé sur une pente et qui va et surtout : « Lorsque tu verras les d’autant plus vite qu’il s’approche gardiens de bestiaux rivaliser dans du bas.1 la construction de maisons hautes ». Un autre de ces signes serait Les « gardiens de bestiaux » ont bien la multiplication des tremblements cow-boys… de terre et des phénomènes sism- Sur le plan des mœurs, les sûr été identifiés aux iques en général. Selon un hadith, hadiths réfèrent à une indifférencia- les musulmans seraient éprouvés en tion de plus en plus prononcée entre les hommes et les femmes, lesquels se ressembleront au point qu’on ne fin1 Le de règne cycle de la par quantité les tremblements et les signes des temps de, pourra parfois plus distinguer entre Paris, 1945, p. 64. 68 l’un et l’autre sexes. Ils mentionnent ants les plus solides, en accomplis- également le développement de sant des prodiges et des miracles. l’homosexualité, surtout féminine. S’agit-il d’un personnage, de plus- La licence sexuelle sera totale : « Lor- ieurs personnes, d’une entité col- sque les gens copuleront au bord lective, d’un état d’esprit qu’il se des routes… » ; « Parmi les signes répandrait dans le monde ? Des au- teurs parlent à cet égard de tadjîl, terme issu de la même racine arabe déséquilibrede l’Heure, figure numérique la généralisation entre les hommesde l’adultère et les». À � femmes,cela s’ajouterait lesquelles un l’inversion séditieuse des valeurs. devraient être beaucoup plus nom- Diversesque Dajjâl interprétations, : il désigne la subversion,bien sûr, en sont faites : puisqu’il est décrit par le Dans le domaine géopolitique, Prophète comme étant « borgne », lebreuses désordre en fin est de cycle.également décrit certains y voient l’écran d’Internet comme généralisé. Les guerres fer- par exemple, ou la vision unidimen- ont beaucoup de morts, mais il sem- sionnelle, matérialiste, dans laquelle ble qu’il ne s’agisse pas tant de guerres armée Jusqu'à ces dernières années, et contre armée que de mas- sacres, ce qui peut être en tout cas avant le 11 septembre interprété dans le sens 2001, la doctrine messianique de de génocides. L’accent est l'islam prenait la forme d'un en- mis sur le grand nombre de morts. On peut bien sûr seignement ésotérique, restreint penser aux deux guerres à quelques milieux. Désormais, mondiales du XXe siècle, c'est devenu un état d'esprit as- aux victimes du nazisme, sez généralisé. du fascisme et du sovié- tisme. vit l’humanité actuelle, etc. Ce qui est - Les « signes majeurs » : - Selon beaucoup de savants talliser, la contre-initiation. Certains sûr,avancent c’est que qu’il la va mouvance personnifier, New crisAge, - et soufis musulmans, nous aurions- aussi parfois manipulée par cer- déjà pénétré dans les « signes ma très syncrétiste, un peu naï�ve, mais s’entremêlent.jeurs », lesquels Les dressent acteurs un seraient vérita contre-initiation. Ainsi, cette mou- schématiquementble scénario où la lesguerre suivants et la : paix vancetaines instances,vous fait croirevéhicule que déjà la cettespir- , itualité c’est tout beau et tout doux, alors que dans toutes les traditions l’Imposteura) l’Antéchrist » : il va séduire : al-Dajjâlles croy- spirituelles la spiritualité passe par terme qui signifie en arabe « 69 - ici que Jésus, selon l’islam, n’est pas tant, René Guénon assure qu’en fait mort sur la croix ; il est aux cieux et l’Antéchristl’épreuve et sera la purification. le plus illusionné Pour au de va redescendre physiquement sur tous, face à la seule et vraie Réalité. terre à Damas… Dans l’économie re- C’est ce qu’il appelle la « grande par- ligieuse de l’islam, Jésus a donc un odie ».2 c’est un descendant du Prophète et sceaurôle eschatologique universel de la majeur,sainteté et ». ilPour est il lui b)ressemblera le Mahdî�, le «physiquement. bien-guidé » : désigné dans le soufisme comme le «- scendu’, mais il resterait invisible au selon une parole du Prophète, il ne communcertains, des son hommes. esprit serait Qu’il déjà s’agisse ‘de Pour beaucoup, il est déjà vivant et, - lendemain. Sa mission est ou sera de ditions convergent vers le fait que le connaî�tra sa mission que du jour au- du Mahdî� ou de Jésus, toutes les tra parer le retour sur terre de Jésus. Proche-Orient. De nombreuses pa- lutter contrec) Jésus-Christ l'Antéchrist : afinrappelons de pré rolesscénario du Prophète déterminant évoquent se jouera de fait au la Syrie comme terre des événements 2 Le règne de la quantité et les signes des temps, messianiques. Selon les sources, la op. cit., p. 370. 70 fonction terrestre de Jésus passera nique, partant de la vie terrestre de au moins un moment par les armes, - et il est permis de faire le lien avec ment terrestre - de Jésus. Cependant, la situation géopolitique actuelle et Muhammad jusqu’au retour – égale à venir du Proche-Orient. tout cas avant le 11 septembre 2001, lajusqu'à doctrine ces dernièresmessianique années, de l'islam et en La fonction eschatologique prenait la forme d'un enseignement de Jésus est exprimée ici sur un ton ésotérique, restreint à quelques mi- prophétique par l’émir Abdelkader lieux. Désormais, c'est devenu un en 1852, dans un texte qui a été tra- état d'esprit assez généralisé. Il avait duit en français sous le nom de Let- tre aux Français : aussi divers que Nation of Islam, aux USA,déjà envahiet les wahhabitesdes milieux littéralistes.musulmans « Si les musulmans et les chrétiens Ben Laden a d’évidence agi dans une perspective messianique, et les évé- leurs querelles : ils seraient alors dev- m’avaient écouté, j’aurais fait cesser nements du 11–09 –2001 ont suscité enus, extérieurement et intérieure- un traumatisme dans la conscience ment, des frères. Mais ils n’ont pas prêté américaine. Comme on le sait, celle- attention à mes avertissements : la sa- ci a répondu par une équipe dirigée gesse divine a décidé qu’ils ne seraient par le George W. Bush – pas réunis en une même foi. Ne fera new-born cesser leurs divergences que le Messie lorsqu’il reviendra. Mais il ne les ré- deux fois président des É� tats-Unis unira pas seulement par la parole, bien étéd’Amérique. engagée Seà cette joue période, donc d’ores même et qu’il ressuscite les morts et guérisse sidéjà elle une ne dit guerre pas son messianique nom : en quieffet, a l’aveugle et le lépreux. Il les réunira par l’épée et le meurtre… ».3 la conscience européenne, par trop elle ne signifie quasiment rien pour S’agit-il bien ici du Christ, sécularisée. Guerre messianique à - la fois en interne entre les préten- dus sunnites de Daesh et les chiites, personnagesJésus, ou du Mahdî�; dans ? lesUne autres, seule pails et en externe entre les messianistes constituentrole du Prophète des entités identifie bien les distin deux- des trois religions abrahamiques. guées. Chaque courant au sein de l'islam a sa propre version des faits. La tension messianique de l’islam l'attente messianique comme une contemporain, et son dévoiement Sommairement, les soufis vivent L’islam peut ainsi être présen- de mieux accueillir Jésus, prophète façon de spiritualiser l'islam afin té comme une communauté messia- spirituel par excellence. Cette orientation peut s'accompagner de la 3 Lettre aux Français, édition bilingue de l’ANEP, tentation de voir éclore une reli- Alger, 2005, p. 46 du texte arabe. 71 gion universelle, ou au moins d'une volonté d'ouverture aux autres re- - entretour de l’Occident Jésus sur et terre le monde signifie musul pour- sianisme se présente plutôt comme les djihadistes : précipiter le conflit unligions. processus Chez lesapocalyptique salafistes, ledevant mes ambiante pour attiser les haines, et aboutir à l'instauration sur terre ainsiman. provoquer Ils profitent un choc de la des confusion civilisa- des principes moraux de l'islam, en tions qui n’existe pas. Le soi-disant prenant comme références les men- tors du wahhabisme saoudien, tels une formidable caisse de résonance qu’Ibn Baz (m. 1999). deÉ� tat la Islamique théorie de constitue Samuel Huntington. à cet égard Si, traditionnellement, Le produit qui nous est présenté ac- - tuellement –Daesh – ne constitue à tre de la foi sunnite, les chiites, quant cet égard qu’un des symptômes, un l’attente du Mahdî� n’était pas au cen des abcès, du nihilisme global, et des grandes incertitudes et menaces qui à eux, ont toujours identifié le Mahdî� pèsent sur l’avenir de l’humanité. à leur douzième imâm, dont Jésus- DepuisChrist sera la l’auxiliairegrande occultation lors du jihâd de La quête de la paix ne vise final contre les forces de l’Imposteur.- pas seulement les membres de tour comme Sauveur eschatologique l’humanité actuelle, mais à pré- estl’imâm, au cœur en 941,de la l’attente foi chiite. de son re parer éventuellement l’avènement La guerre messianique se cris- d’une nouvelle humanité, une sorte tallise bien souvent dans une guerre de « développement durable » en d’interprétation, et d’assignation quelque sorte. Le Prophète disait en entre parties opposées, des had- ce sens : « Lorsque l’Heure arrivera, iths du Prophète. Certains hadiths si l’un d’entre vous a dans sa main décrivent de façon très négative une bouture, qu’il la plante autant que possible ! » morale, des gens de Daesh. D’autres sontjusqu’à asservis l’allure parphysique, ces même et bien gens sûr en étant retournés à leur avantage : voitparmi donc eux que se les trouverait données lescriptur Mahdî�,- airesou le peuventcalife de aisémentla fin des êtretemps… traves On- ties et exploitées pour devenir un moyen de pression psychologique et même une inversion préméditée des enseignements de l’islam. Ac- centuer le chaos qui va susciter la - venue72 du Mahdî� et préparer le re 73 L’État islamique, entre tradition réinventée et utopie politico-religieuse

Myriam Benraad

In 2014, many saw in the establishment of the Islamic State over parts of Iraq and Syria and in the subsequent “restoration” of the Caliphate by Emir Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi a "return" to the foundations of Islam as well as the fulfilment of the dream of an Islamic "renewal". The Is- lamic State was thus depicted by its supporters as a political entity that was supposed to have existed since the beginning of Islamic political history and as being an intrinsic part of traditional Islamic jurisprudence. In fact, however, the Islamic State belongs largely to an “invent- ed tradition” and is better interpreted as a politico-religious utopia, with little connection to the past.

Introduction tique supposée, à un instant déter- miné, avoir parcouru l’histoire poli- Depuis son auto-proclama- tique des sociétés musulmanes et, tion dans la ville irakienne de Mos- par extension, comme une théorie politique propre à l’Islam. Indiscuta- - blement, cette perception s’est vue tionnellesoul à l’aube somme de de l’été commentaires 2014, l’É� tat renforcée par l’invocation réitérée médiatiquesislamique a fait et l’objetd’analyses d’une à excepchaud dont le caractère immédiat, certes de partis islamistes des textes sacrés par une majorité de mouvementsfiqh), mais et aussi brûlante, n’a souvent eu d’égal aussi des structures pré-modernes queéclairé son parindigence une actualité interprétative toujours et deet gouvernance de la jurisprudence dans la région, ( pour historique. Certains ont pu entrevoir appuyer la notion d’inévitabilité de - lamique » et la supposée « restaura- impératif à la restitution d’une tiondans » l’établissement du califat par deson cet émir « É � tatAbou is «l’ Égrandeur� tat islamique, de l’Islam voire » son en largecaractère part Bakr al-Baghdadi un « retour » aux fantasmée. fondements de l’Islam, ainsi que Il importe, au regard de l’apogée des tentatives modernes d’un « renouveau » islamique. Dans desl’attrait pans toujours entiers aussi du considérablemonde sun- été dépeint comme une entité poli- nite,exercé de par se l’pencherÉ� tat islamique sur les parmiorigi- cet74 ordre d’idées, l’É� tat islamique a Photo courtesy of James Gordon 75 nes de cet argumentaire, ainsi que mort du prophète Mahomet en 632 ses précédents et soubassements conceptuels. En effet, un tel exer- premiers musulmans durent, à ce titre,fut précisément innover et improviser celle de l’É �quant tat. Les à la forme et à la nature de leur gou- largementcice permet l’islam de jeter dit la« lumièrepolitique sur », vernement ; sans surprise, c’est nele faitforment que l’enÉ� tat rien islamique, un « retour et plus en aussi le politique qui se trouva au arrière », une situation passée qui cœur de leurs premiers désaccords aurait en quelque sorte préexisté ; théologiques et de leurs scissions ils incarnent une « réinvention » idéologiques (entre sunnites et chi- de la tradition, une subversion, et ites notamment). L’appréhension sont par conséquent porteurs d’une formalisée de la chose politique fut utopie politico-religieuse moderne néanmoins tardive, la théorie is- - lamique en la matière s’étant façon- lamique. Certes, le lien coutumier née alors que les institutions sur établiincarnée, entre entre les champsautres, par politique l’É� tat iset lesquelles celle-ci se penchait en- religieux, a été conservé par les is- traient dans une phase de déclin2. La - théorisation du califat dans la tradi- actère traditionnellement formel et tion sunnite ne remonte ainsi qu’à la symboliquelamistes et jihadistes, s’est vu transformé mais son car en période de son délitement, sous la - dynastie abbasside, et à l’apparition lamique renverse la relation entre d’autres dirigeants musulmans dans assiseces deux réelle. champs, De surcroî�t, de telle l’manièreÉ� tat is d’autres contrées. Elle consista plus en une réfutation des dissidences non l’opposé comme cela fut le cas à montantes, à l’époque, qu’en une de- traversà assujettir l’Histoire. le premier au second, et scription « positive » ; elle fut davantage une quête d’idéal qu’une resti- Une tradition réinventée 3 . - Au-delà du discours brandi tution objective des réalités - Ajoutons que la majeure par prime abord que les sources islam- tie de cette jurisprudence fut pro iquespar l’ originellesÉ� tat islamique, – le Coran rappelons aussi bien de phénomèneduite « à l’ombre ayant desanctionné l’É� tat », des par que les hadiths1 – n’abordent en fait règlesune élite méthodologiques officiellement fondées mandatée, sur que très peu les affaires politiques. Or, la première problématique qui 2 Erwin I. J. Rosenthal, Political Thought in Medieval Islam, Cambridge, Presses s’est imposée à la communauté des universitaires de Cambridge, 1958 ; Jo- croyants (umma) au lendemain de la seph Schacht, An Introduction to Islam- ic Law, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1964. 1 Ensemble des traditions orales relatives aux 3 Ann K. S. Lambton, State and Government in actes et paroles de Mahomet et de ses compag- Medieval Islam: An Introduction to the Study nons. Elles sont considérées comme des princ- of Islamic Political Theory: The Jurists, Ox- ipes de conduite personnelle et collective. ford, Presses universitaires d’Oxford, 1981. 76 duisant plus tard les courants les plus rigor- - ment) à se réclamer istes (salafistes notam

dufinalement Coran lui-même, davantage ce dansde la unjurisprudence environnement que - dence fut systématique- mentoù cette extraite même jurisprude son cadre historique et politique, et par conséquent « essentialisée ». Absorbés par leur entreprise tantôt idéologique, tantôt mé- diatique, nombreux sont ceux qui semblent donc avoir oublié que - lamique des premiers sièclesla jurisprudence n’était, en pre is- mier lieu, qu’une im- provisation « humaine » visant à répondre aux

relevant d’une fonction l’explicitation linguistique (bayan), politique deenjeux légitimation de son d’un temps gou et- le consensus (ijma’) et le raisonne- vernement qui s’était très souvent ment par analogie (qiyas). En résu- imposé par la force ou l’intrigue, et lta un corpus écrit à la fois élégant et ne répondait que peu, dans sa pra- élaboré, ainsi qu’une théorie califale tique du pouvoir, à un idéal propre- qui, par effets de monopole et de ment musulman. répétition, s’ancra dans les esprits En réalité, les mouvements durablement et résista à l’œuvre du et partis « islamistes » ont induit des changements non seulement dernière allait rendre laborieuse inédits mais aussi radicaux dans temps. Au fil des générations, cette toute différenciation entre « de- l’appréhension de cette tradition scription » et « prescription ». Ce politique. Ainsi, alors qu’ils enten- corpus s’est donc vu élevé au rang daient préserver un rapport étroit de quasi loi islamique (chari‘a), con- 77 entre les sphères politique et reli- l’Islam est, par essence, une religion - « politique », assertion admise à la prudence classique, ils n’ont fait, fois dans un certain nombre de mi- gieuse, tel qu’énoncé par la juris ce dernier. De fait, les savants mu- islamiste, en l’Islam comme « reli- sulmansen définitive, sunnites qu’inverser avaient l’ordre forgé dece lieux musulmansdin – wa où dawla la croyance,) a fait son chemin – et non-musulmans religieuse au pouvoir. Les islamistes, gion– qui et eux É� tat alimentent » ( la vision d’un pourrapport leur afin part, d’assurer maintiennent une légitimité que Islam ontologiquement militaris- politique et religion ne peuvent être te. Pareille représentation traduit séparés. Or, placés dans une position à l’évidence un profond et double - écueil « fondamentaliste » et « ori- erne, et non de légitimation, ils n’ont entaliste » dont les dangers ne sont defait résistanceque « politiser à l’É� tat» une arabe certaine mod malheureusement plus à démontrer. acception de l’Islam. Pour atteindre Quel « État islamique » ? révélés plus innovateurs encore et moinsleurs objectifs, « littéraux ils » sedans sont leur d’ailleurs lecture Si l’Islam est fermement an- des textes, invoquant certes le Coran cré dans l’idée d’une morale col- à la source, mais de façon spectacu- lective, il ne prête en revanche lairement sélective. que peu d’attention au politique, Aussi la « précédence » poli- comme l’illustrent ses sources qui tique n’est-elle d’aucun intérêt vé- n’explicitent aucune des modalités ritable à leurs yeux, de même que - duite d’un gouvernement. Certes, son entier4 , à l’exception de réfé- deles formationpremiers califes d’un É �commandaient tat ou de con rencesle corpus qui jurisprudentielleur sont chères pris comme dans spirituellement leur communauté, - mais pas parce que la religion en elle- consulte hanbalite du XIIIe siècle. même l’exigeait. C’est même plutôt IbnQuelles Taymiyya, sont ainsi théologien les causes et de juriscette le contraire : l’Islam s’est propagé fusion opérée, à travers l’Histoire, - tradition étatique, perse et byzan- tinedans endes particulier, régions déjà dont dotées il a hérité. d’une entreréponse Islam couramment et É� tat, et apportée qui a accou à ce- Le seul fait d’être un musulman ché de l’idée d’É� tat islamique ? Une dans les territoires conquis était très valorisant sur le plan politique, 4 Tout en se revendiquant d’un Islam « des tte question consiste à affirmer que- cun mal à emprunter des concepts et pra- administratives et militaires de pre- tiquesorigines à »,d’autres islamistes dogmes, et jihadistes y compris n’ont chiite au assurant aux fidèles des positions – comme sur la problématique de la taqiyya, rapide et massif de musulmans en et désigne la dissimulation de sa foi sous provenancemier choix. Ced’Arabie n’est quequ’avec les frustra l’afflux- lapar contrainte exemple, et/ou qui signifie dans un la milieu « prudence hostile. » 78 tions s’accrurent et qu’émergèrent verte aux courants islamistes pour s’approprier l’Islam comme arme - dentsdes courants attachés d’opposition à une pratique à l’É purit� tat, à- l’Islam (sauf comme instrument de ainel’instar et rigoristedes Khawarij, de l’Islam secte auxquelsde dissi défensepolitique. à L’l’égardÉ� tat n’embrassant du monde exté pas-

ses opposants d’hérétiques comme les membresDans ces de l’momentsÉ� tat islamique de remise sont lesrieur), gouvernements il lui était difficile musulmans de qualifier tra- enaujourd’hui cause de comparés.la légitimité du pouvoir ditionnels l’avaient fait par le passé. politique en place sur des fonde- En renversant la dynamique histo- - rique évoquée ci-dessus et en se ré- manièrements religieux, plus « rationnelle la jurisprudence » (dawlat of al-‘aqlficielle) s’employa pour contrer à théoriser ces dissidences l’É� tat de clamant d’une religion « purifiée », et sauvegarder un gouvernement proprel’islamisme lecture laissa de l’Islam à l’É� tat au la niveau tâche à la fois centralisé et unitaire. La politique.ardue de qualifier et de justifier sa Quels sont, de ce point de vue, légitimer, dans des termes religieux, les aspects historiques, théoriques lesthéorie nécessités se devait de l’exercice de justifier du etpou deet pratiques susceptibles d’éclairer voir dans l’ensemble de ses aspects, y compris en matière d’imposition de nouveau, que le Coran ne précise des populations. La convergence l’idée d’É� tat islamique ? Soulignons, historique entre les sphères reli- ou le gouvernement, que le Prophète gieuse et politique s’effectua à cet pasn’a nommé de forme aucun particulière successeur, pour et l’ qu’ilÉ� tat instant. Il s’agissait d’une réponse s’agissait cependant d’éléments fon- dans l’urgence à une crise qui deve- damentaux sur lesquels la société nait des plus menaçantes. Islam et arabo-musulmane a dû se pencher tardivement. L’Islam s’épanouit dans des idées par une appropriation du premierÉ� tat furent par ainsi le second, « reliés »aux sur antipo le plan- Mahomet réforma en communauté unepolitico-religieuse société tribale «fondée sans É �sur tat »,la que foi - comme critère d’appartenance et rectementdes de l’expérience dans la res européenne publica. où soumise à son autorité. Aucune cor- l’É� glise,Certes, quant ce à elle,processus s’immisça fut aisé di respondance relative à l’ère prophé- - tique n’a été enregistrée, la seule lit- navant institutionnalisé et le sécu- térature politique existante étant la dans la mesure où l’Islam était doré fameuse « Constitution de Médine », tirée du livre d’Ibn Ishaq et qui, à larisme de l’É� tat moderne « émulé ». l’époque de l’Hégire (hijra), évoque Cette spécificité a enveloppé l’islam- contemporain : dans la mesure où- chargée d’agir pour le respect de l’É� tat arabe postcolonial se récla déjà l’umma comme la communauté mait de la laï�cité, la voie était ou 79 l’ordre, de la sécurité et la protection comme tel, entendu à la fois comme des musulmans face à leurs ennemis. réalité et abstraction. Ceci s’explique par le fait que la chose politique, islamique, tourné vers une uni- dans la tradition, repose sur une formisationContrairement dans la violence à l’actuel la plusÉ� tat extrême, la première communauté non sur une typologie des formes de Médine était à la fois islamique classification des hommes d’É� tat et- et diverse : elle regroupait tribus, cation de ces dernières n’est apparu associations et autres communau- qu’aud’É� tat. XIXe Le premier siècle et essai succinctement de classifi tés religieuses (milal) ; c’est elle qui dans les écrits de Jamal al-Din al-Af- a inspiré la tradition des siècles à ghani. Le thème prit plus de poids au venir, fondée sur une construction XXe siècle. Ordinairement, la théorie califes « bien guidés » (al-khulafa ar-rashidun« pragmatique), puis » de sous l’É� tatles sous dynas les- autour de deux propositions. Celle ties omeyyade, abbasside et otto- deislamique la légitimité, de l’É� tat,d’une s’est part, articulée dont l’importance avait été soulignée par au sens moderne et occidental du les deux premiers califes Abou Bakr mane.terme, Ilrendant ne s’agissait caduques pas d’unnombre É� tat and Omar, et associée au principe de tentatives comparatistes. La pen- tripartite et nomadique de consul- sée islamique pré-moderne est très tation (shura), contrat (‘aqd) et allégeance (bay‘a). Ce dernier fut politique ; abordée avec minutie, elle graduellement abandonné par les nousriche apportedu point une de vue vision de laclaire réflexion de la Omeyyades – qui soutenaient la no- - tion de volonté divine pour se légi- - timer – puis se délita sous le poids tégoriemanière pratique dont la etjurisprudence conceptuelle. clas des rivalités entre dynasties concur- sique a appréhendé l’É� tat comme ca- rentes. Celle du commandement, socié, en Europe, des concepts d’autre part, dont la centralité fut d’individualisme,L’É� tat ne de peut liberté être et disde contrainte par le développement loi ; au contraire, l’idée islamique et l’institutionnalisation du phé- de « corps politique » ne peut être nomène étatique. Le calife Omar comprise isolément des concepts de groupe (jama‘a ‘adala) et il n’est d’Islam sans groupe, et de commandement (imama). Lorsque avaitgroupe ainsi sans déclaré commandement, : « Ô� Arabes et de : les intellectuels ),contemporains, justice ( mu- commandement sans obéissance »5. sulmans ou non, s’intéressèrent à Dès lors, l’autorité spirituelle était - transposée en autorité politique coup se concentrèrent davantage (mulk) pure et entièrement per- la théorie islamique de l’É� tat, beau sur la question du gouvernement et 5 Ahmad K. Khalil, Al-‘Arab wa al-qiya- da [Les Arabes et le commandement], Beyrouth, Dar al-Hadatha, 1985, p. 51. de80 sa conduite que sur celle de l’É� tat sonnalisée dans le califat, et l’idée assimilée par beaucoup au moment tawhid) transmuée en d’affaiblissement et d’humiliation pouvoir unique et suprême. absolus du monde musulman. d’unification ( Les événements les plus ré- Conclusion cents, de même que le soutien tou-

L’appréhension islamique de jours aussi significatif d’un grand politique et fut toute entière ab- nombreenvers et demalgré fidèles tout, sunnites que la sur au- l’É� tat émergea en temps deumma crise groupevivance Éde� tat cet islamique idéal-type démontrent, est bien d’un destin funeste ; ce faisant, elle réelle, même sous une forme viru- surinvestitsorbée par l’enjeuson caractère de sauver religieux. l’ lente. Toutefois, le plus intéressant

chari‘a, En incorporant artificiellement la premiersici reste sans clercs doute de l’Islam,le souffle extraites que les utopienotion d’etÉ �non tat au une cœur réalité. de la Distillée, deélaborations leur cadre jurisprudentielles sociohistorique, desont la jurisprudence envisagea une - - pour ne pas dire systématisée au fil pu fournir aux islamistes et aux jiha dedes générationsiècles, cette en fiction génération, s’est « solid plus acharnéedistes, nostalgiques n’a d’égal qued’un l’inexistence « âge d’or » particulièrementifiée » comme aspiration après la transmise pénétra- saisissante.politique mythifié dont la quête tion coloniale européenne qui reste

81 Peace as inner transformation: a Buddhist perspective

John Paraskevopoulos

Overcome anger by peacefulness; over- this can be made possible, it must come evil by good. Overcome the mean initially become the fruit of spir- by generosity; and the person who lies itual realisation. This means that, by truth. in effect, any talk of peace ought to The Dhammapada1 be grounded in a vision of the spirit marked by wisdom, compassion and In considering peace from a equanimity. Buddhist perspective, it is important Our original Buddha-nature is … omni- to remember that it is, primarily, an present, silent and pure; it is a glorious inner disposition prior to its effective embodiment in the world as a par- Huang Po2 ticular course of action. Even before and mysteriously peaceful joy. 1 Juan Mascaro (tr.) The Dhammapada: The Path of Perfection, tr. (Harmondsworth: Pen- 2 John Blofeld (tr.) The Zen teaching of Huang Po guin Books, 1983), p. 68. (New York: Grove Press, 1959). p.35. 82 This, in turn, naturally en- the myriad ‘blind passions’ that af- tails the recognition and practice of ahimsa, a notion common to the and inimical to any genuinely com- Jains, Hindus and Buddhists which munalflict it; welfare: passions that are corrosive prohibits the harming of sentient ‘Blind passion’ is a comprehensive term beings. This has always been re- descriptive of all the forces, conscious garded as the cornerstone of any and unconscious, that propel the un- attempts to establish peace in the enlightened person to think, feel, act world among these traditions. With- and speak in such a way as to cause out such a foundation, any practical uneasiness, frustration, torment and initiatives aimed at curtailing vio- pain (mentally, emotionally, spiritually lence and upheaval in the world will and even physically) for themselves and others. While Buddhism makes a de- unstable nature of unregenerate hu- tailed and subtle analysis of blind pas- waver, in keeping with the fickle and sion, employing such terms as craving, that it is perfectly possible to aim for anger, delusion, arrogance, doubt and peacemanity. on Of self-evident course, it may and be purely objected hu- wrong views, fundamentally it is rooted manitarian grounds without having self that constitutes the basis of our ex- Indeed there are numerous worthy in the fierce, stubborn clinging to the … istence. When we realise the full impli- secularrecourse endeavours to religious that justifications. seek to re- cations of this truth about ourselves, we store peace in our world, albeit with see that the human condition is itself limited success. Many such initiatives often involve a mix of political live, or wanting to live, as an unenlight- strategies or appeals to self-inter- nothing but blind passion. Thus, just to ened being is to manifest blind passion est in order to curtail the suffering at all times, regardless of what we may that is wrought on countless lives appear to be. One comes to know this, through the absence of peaceful so- however, only through the illumination of great compassion .3 Peace on such terms is sure lutions to conflicts around the globe. - Considering the matter from formed by deeper principles that in- - to be precarious if insufficiently in volve metanoia, or a radical change dent enough that true peace must Buddhist first principles,Nirvāna it is evi as achieve, even for those who profess true reality, devoid of anger, hatred of heart. Now this is very difficult to to be adherents of religion (itself andreflect ignorance. the serenity of which demonstrates, precisely, why Nirvāna is called extinction of passions, peacethe cause is so ofelusive many in bitter our world. conflicts) This 3 The Collected Works of Shinran, tr. Dennis Hi- rota, Hisao Inagaki, Michio Tokunaga and Ry- constitution as human beings and - difficulty also points to our troubled ushin Uryuzu (Kyoto: Jōdo Shinshū Hongwan ji-ha, 1997), Vol.II, p.172 83 the uncreated, peaceful happiness, eter- means of a far-reaching revolution nal bliss, true reality ... Oneness and in our ordinary consciousness that comes about when we encounter the minds of all beings .4 light of the Buddha. Buddha-nature ... it fills the hearts and Shinran In this day and age, when attaining Buddhahood is considered It might seem an inordinate largely impossible for ordinary peo- expectation to have peace in the ple, it is left to us to simply take ref- world be contingent on the reali- uge in the Dharma and allow its lib- sation of such an exalted state but, erating graces to lessen the hold that ‘blind passions’ have over - us in our lives. This does renity of Nirvāna as true reality, not, of course, lead to any kind of personal perfec- devoidTrue peace of anger, must hatred reflect and the igno se- tion but it can attenuate rance. the grip of illusion and discontent that are so of- should this be a universal possibility ten the harbinger of disorder in the for us, then the lasting peace which world. we so ardently seek would be se- Because they are deeply troubled and cured by mere virtue of having at- confused, people indulge their pas- tained perfect enlightenment which sions. Everyone is restlessly busy, hav- conquers all opposition, division and ing nothing on which to rely … They entertain venomous thoughts, creating Buddhism sees humanity as being a widespread and dismal atmosphere of conflict. However, in an age when- malevolence … People are deluded by tion, it must seem that the prospects their passionate attachments, unaware forsubject lasting to defilementpeace look andvery corrup bleak. of the Way, misguided and trapped by ‘Everything is burning’ said the Bud- anger and enmity, and intent on gaining wealth and gratifying their desires like wolves. ofdha, delusion’ ‘burning ( with the fire of greed,). The Samyutta Nikāya 5 with the fire of hatred, with the fire- Sūtra sible through a profound spiritual The ontranscendent the Buddha of perspective Infinite Life . transformationquenching of this involving fire is the only irrup pos- afforded by our contact with nirva- tion of wisdom and compassion into nic reality can, through contempla- our lives – not through mere social tion and faith, steep us in the Bud- service or political activism but by dhist virtues. This is none other than 4 The Collected Works of Shinran, tr. Dennis Hi- our encounter with the Absolute: rota, Hisao Inagaki, Michio Tokunaga and Ry- - 5 Hisao Inagaki (tr.), The Three Pure Land Sūtras (Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 2000), p.286. ushin Uryuzu (Kyoto: Jōdo Shinshū Hongwan 84ji-ha, 1997), Vol.I, p.461 We are told that Nirvana is permanent, set appear to lack an adequate unstable, imperishable, immovable, age- derstanding of the basic tenets of less, deathless and unborn; that it is their faith or willfully ignore them power, bliss and happiness, the secure for ideological reasons. This can only refuge, the shelter and the place of unbe addressed effectively by a proper assailable safety; that it is the real Truth presentation of the teachings in a and the supreme Reality; that it is the balanced and nuanced manner. The Good, the supreme goal and the one and contradictions and betrayals one of- only consummation of our life — the eternal, hidden and incomprehensible Peace. depthten finds and in sophistication fundamentalist or thought an in- often reflect a lack of intellectual Edward Conze6 sistence on simplistic solutions in the face of complex problems. This In a sense, we need to become might be understandable if the mo- channels for this spiritual force in tive was compassion or ahimsa but, order that our hearts may be trans- almost always, these aberrations are formed. Without this, no lasting impelled by a disturbed religious peace of any kind is possible seeing psyche and therefore quite perni- as the outer world of human affairs cious. The Buddhist faith has some- taking place within us. times been criticised for being too can onlyIn the be aabsence reflection of a of revealed what is religious law in Buddhism — such as pronouncements; a fact which has - seemedflexible when to spawn it comes a plethora to its doctrinal of dif- tions — the Mahāyāna, for example, ferent schools and teachings which advocateswe find in observancesome of the of Semitic the ‘Six tradi Per- often appear to contradict each oth- fections’, or pāramitās, as the basis er. While this bewildering variety of of spiritual and ethical endeavour. perspectives can seem confusing to These comprise: dāna (generosity, newcomers, it may also be consid- giving of oneself); śīla (virtue, mo- ered as one of its hidden strengths rality, discipline, proper conduct); and the reason why Buddhism has kṣānti (patience, tolerance, forbear- ance, acceptance, endurance); vīrya on the scale seen in some other tra- (energy, diligence, vigour, effort); ditions.largely 7 avoidedTraditionally, religious the Buddha conflicts is dhyāna (contemplation, concentra- 7 Nevertheless, one cannot overlook the seri- tion) and; prajñā (wisdom, insight). ous episodes of violent behaviour that have Many of those who adhere to Recent examples include the attacks against a religiously fundamentalist mind- Muslimsafflicted undertaken Buddhism at throughout the behest of its national history.- ist monks in Thailand (2004), Burma (2013) 6 Edward Conze, Buddhism: Its Essence and De- and Sri Lanka (2014). In 1998, thousands of velopment (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), monks of the Chogye Buddhist order in South p.40. Korea fought each other in protracted pitched 85 said to have given ‘84,000’ different adequate as a vehicle for emancipa- teachings in response to the almost tion. In this way, the range of teach- limitless variety of human needs, ings available in Buddhism can be temperaments and understanding viewed as complementary rather than competing, thus removing the in mind: yet with always the same objective sclerotic tendency to form fixed and beings by giving them … a great realm of The Buddha aspires to benefit sentient definitiveThis views means on thatspiritual we ought matters to ultimate purity, peace and sustenance. –acknowledge a major source that of any religious doctrinal conflict. for- Zonkaku8 mulation is only an approximation of a reality that transcends it and This diversity does not sug- which must always remain an inef- gest that there is no ‘bedrock’ in fable experience of the spirit. Doing its teachings but, rather, that there so does not belittle the teachings as are a core set of key insights which being only ‘half-true’, so to speak, subtly tie together the variegated threads of the Dharma. Adherence the contrary, this is assured by their to them is not necessarily insisted havingsuch as emerged to vitiate from their the efficacy. realm Onof upon as a dogmatic requirement but truth and light which were revealed to the Buddha in his enlightenment the truths of human existence. This experience. latitudeis a natural in belief outcome acts ofas reflecting a foil to fun on- damentalism in that it points to the The Buddha regards universal existence incompleteness or relativity of any with detached Wisdom and impartial single doctrinal viewpoint, while Compassion. The aim of his teaching stressing that each one is perfectly and method is liberation from all par- tial and illusory viewpoints, coloured battles, vying for control of the order’s considerable wealth and property. In the 1970s, by desire and aversion, into a state of ethnic Lao Buddhist monks actively sup- peace and well-being. ported militant violence directed against the 9 country’s communists. One can also point to Harold Stewart the support given by a number of prominent Buddhist authorities for Japan’s militarisa- When awakened to Nirvāna, tion during the second world war as well as the assassination plot, known as ‘The League the Buddha recognised the truth of Blood’ incident in 1932, which was led by of human existence coupled with a Buddhist monk. Numerous violent episodes a liberating awareness granted by have also been documented in the history of such truth. Any articulation of this Tibetan Buddhism where competing sects have engaged in brutal clashes and summary sublime vision is, inevitably, a de- executions over hundreds of years. 8 Alfred Bloom (ed.), The Shin Buddhist Classi- 9 Harold Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto: A cal Tradition: A Reader in Pure Land Teaching Year’s Cycle of Landscape Poems with Prose (Volume 1) (Bloomington: World Wisdom, Commentaries (New York: Weatherhill, 1981), 2013), p.119. p.152. 86 scent from a perfect apprehension nous; something that still captures of a non-verbal wholeness to a more the profoundest insights of a spir- fragmentary and imperfect recourse itual tradition but which, nonethe- to everyday language; language which, nevertheless, points to the source of its meaning and – if rightly usless, to doessee the not symbolic fix them and into allegori a rigid- apprehended – to the same unitive calor nature inflexible of sacred posture. texts This rather enables than experience that forms the fount of being bound by a suffocating literal- all doctrine. ism that confuses truth with a ‘dead Accordingly, the Buddhist so- letter’. Such an approach admittedly lution to the problem of fundamen- contains risks for those to whom talism, from which other traditions such a balance is either too elusive may gain a useful perspective, is to or an outright threat to ‘black and see dogma as supple and diapha- white’ doctrinairism. This, in turn, 87 can provoke either an arrogant and central part of it, are a manifestation overly self-assured fundamentalism of the highest reality considered as that is fatal to the spiritual life or to either Nirvāna or the Dharma-Body. a type of vague sentimentalism lack- In light of the above, this re- ing in both insight and rigour; both ality and the world must stand in of which may lead to a loss of be- a relationship of non-duality. As a lief altogether through having been further consequence, this entails starved of genuine contact with the that each manifested entity (natural, living sources of religion. animal or human) is strictly inter- Given the irreconcilable posi- dependent with all others, regard- tions of the secular and religious out- less of how evident this may be to our ordinary perception. Therefore, of harmony at a spiritual level. How- ever,looks, there it is difficultare insights to effect furnished any kind by - some Eastern traditions that ought ingin causing pain and harm suffering to others, on thewe wholeinjure to lend themselves to universal ac- whichourselves then as recoils we are upon thereby us as inflict an in- ceptance; for example, the notion of tegral part of that whole. Similarly ahimsa, as has already been men- – though less obviously – any harm tioned. Non-believers would argue we do to ourselves can also be corre- that religions do not have a monop- spondingly detrimental to other be- oly on this concept (which, indeed, ings. Such a scission in the fabric of - the world – while unavoidable given ertheless, it is an important point its imperfection and impermanence ofthey convergence have often given flouted) that but,the most nev - egregious manifestations of reli- ence of Nirvāna which aims to unify gious intolerance have been wide- all– can beings deny and us thesave beneficent them from influ the spread violence and harm done to acute perils of pain and ignorance. others. Both from a secular point of May I, and other aspirants, behold the - to dispute the primacy of as ahimsa ment, be born in the Land of Peace and aview preliminary and a spiritual step in one, securing it is difficult a unit- Buddha, acquire the eye of non-defile Bliss, and realise the supreme enlight- ed response against the destructive enment. forces of terrorism and nihilism. It is important to explain why Shan-tao10 the truth of ahimsa goes to the heart of the difference between a sacred This account of the meta- and a profane attitude to reality. In physical basis for compassion and Mahāyāna Buddhism (and of course the accompanying attitude of ahim- one sees this in other traditions as 10 Alfred Bloom (ed.), The Shin Buddhist Classi- well), the empirical world around us, cal Tradition: A Reader in Pure Land Teaching and the sentient beings that form a (Volume 2) (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2014), p.24. 88 sa, to which it gives rise, is evidently be attenuated through a penetrat- a deeper explanation than what a ing awareness of the twin Buddhist merely secular view is able to pro- virtues of wisdom and compassion vide. This does not mean that the - the only true and enduring remedy latter cannot be deeply felt and pas- sionately defended but it does sug- In suggesting the above, one gest that a more profound under- mustfor conflict not be borne carried of ‘blindaway passion’.by a false standing of why ahimsa must be true sense of optimism. While some of is usually absent. To be fair, however, these suggested solutions are cor- many religious defenders of this rect in principle, their effective re- perspective themselves often fail to comprehend it properly or, worse, well out of reach. Many religions pervert it for less than spiritual mo- prescribealisation appears to the idea to bethat an we objective are liv- tives. ing in a period of spiritual degrada- That said, common ground is tion the likes of which are arguably still possible based on a shared un- unprecedented. For the Hindus, we derstanding of ahimsa as an indis- are in the midst of the ‘Age of Kali’ pensible principle of peace-building and many Buddhists consider that in our broken world. While the reasons for accepting the imperative Age of the Dharma’: to avoid harming others may not we find ourselves in the ‘Decadent At the horrible time of the end, men will always be the same, a unanimous be malevolent, false, wicked and obtuse agreement as to the necessity of and they will imagine that they have such a principle is surely possible reached perfection when it will be noth- among people of good will, discerning of the sort. ment and sensitivity, regardless of religious belief. Lotus Sutra11 It remains a challenge for religions to be a catalyst in the promotion of peace and harmony when as an inherent aspect of such an age they have often been responsible and, asConflict distressing and asturmoil such developare seen- ments are, they are to be expected already mentioned, concepts such and one ought not to anticipate dra- asfor themuch harmony hatred ofand all conflict. beings Yet,in the as matic improvements any time soon. Absolute and the interconnected- While our ability to collectively re- ness of reality can serve as a means dress this crisis may be seriously to have traditional spirituality and limited, we can at least aim at work- ethics contribute to a deeper grasp ing on our own inner spiritual dispo- of our existential plight. They also sition (and helping others to do so) suggest ways in which the many hor- 11 John Paraskevopoulos (ed.) The Fragrance of rors of fundamentalist violence can Light: A Journey Into Buddhist Wisdom (So- phia Perennis, 2015), p.32. 89 without which nothing positive can emerge in world affairs. The state of While the secular world may disorder that we see around us eve- not accept this diagnosis, it needs rywhere is a refection of a toxic or to keep an open mind as to the va- damaged consciousness which only lidity of this truth, especially given a spiritual form of awakening can the worsening deterioration in our ameliorate. Failing such a possibil- moral and social ambience. The so- ity in this life, Buddhism and other lution to this impasse can never be faiths exhort us to seek solace in the a political one alone – ultimately, it prospect of an eschatological reso- must be buttressed by a spiritual lution to the evils that can never be dimension. Politics can certainly de- fully overcome in our fractured ex- liver on compromises or half-meas- istence. ures but the underlying impetus has to be an ethical orientation that This world is a place full of disagree- is illumined through an encounter able affairs, stealing, war, anger, hunger, with a transcendent order of real- desire. But the other shore is Nirvāna, ity, on which every genuine value is beyond karma; it is true peace, freedom based. Even at this level, sectarian and happiness so, naturally, we look differences should not preclude the for the Other Shore … In this world, we attempt to seek an essential shared cannot obtain true freedom — there understanding. It is therefore im- are always obstructions. Our life is tem- portant to look beyond certain doc- porary, not permanent, and we do not trinal differences to a vision that is have true peace. truly communal and to which all the Hozen Seki12 York: American Buddhist Academy, 1976), 12 Hozen Seki, The Great Natural Way (New p.73. 90 - thatgreat is faiths none canother assent than a – peace a joint that at tempt to affirm peace in the world beatitude of Nirvāna that lies at the heartreflects, of forreality Buddhists and which at least, seeks the to bring all beings to the highest good. Whether we can ascend to such an exalted realisation remains highly uncertain. If we prove that we are unable to do so, what can be assured is the slow but inevitable disintegration of human dignity and the abandonment of its most noble ideals. Wherever the Buddha comes to stay, there is no state, town or village that is not blessed by his virtues. The whole country reposes in peace and harmony. The sun and the moon shine with pure brilliance; winds rise and rains fall at the right time. There is no calamity or epidemic and so the country becomes - diers and weapons become useless; and wealthy, and its people enjoy peace. Sol people esteem virtue, practice benevolence and diligently cultivate courteous modesty.’ . . . The Buddha continued, ‘But after I have departed from this world, my teaching will gradually decline and - ceit, and commit various evils.’ people will fall prey to flattery and de Sūtra on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life13

13 Hisao Inagaki (tr.), The Three Pure Land Sūtras (Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 2000), p.304. 91 Buddhist Perspective on Conflict Resolution

Daisaku Ikeda

Arnold J. Toynbee, one of the creative dynamism generated by the most highly respected histori- the encounter of different civiliza- ans of the twentieth century, once tions, something that was the focus observed that “glimpses of the real of Prof. Toynbee’s attention. There world are gleanings of priceless are many instances, in different ages value.”1 and settings, where we can sense When we review the record of the ethos and wisdom that support human history from the ancient past and make possible such peaceful in- to the present, although it is true teractions and coexistence. that all too many of the events on the It was more than forty years ago that Prof. Toynbee and I en- the same time we cannot overlook gaged in an extended dialogue timeline involve conflict and war, at 1 Toynbee, Arnold. 1958. East to West: A Jour- ney Round the World. New York and London: historical realities while exploring Oxford University Press. 221. thethrough prospects which for we the reflected human onfuture. such 92 Even as he expressed his have embraced a deepening sense of opinion that war was “one of the this inherent human capacity. congenital diseases of civilization,”2 This is not, of course, to suggest that there are simple solutions historical experience, the proposi- to any of the problems facing our tionProf. thatToynbee war isrejected, a part inof thethe lightfate of world: from the unprecedented human nature. I can never forget the number of refugees driven from this view. highest level since the aftermath of firmnessOur with dialogue which hewas expressed under- Worldtheir homes War II—to by armed acts conflict—theof terrorism taken at a time of intense Cold War and xenophobia. tensions. People’s attention was fo- But, as demonstrated by the cused on how to prevent a repetition restoration last summer of diplo- of the horrors of world war. Dur- matic ties between the United States ing the two years of 1972–73, I met and Cuba—long frozen in a stance of with Prof. Toynbee for a total of for- Cold War confrontation—no aspect ty hours. In 1974, I visited both the of human history is truly inevitable. People’s Republic of China and the In September last year, the United Nations, which was marking 1975 traveled to the United States. its seventieth anniversary, adopted InSoviet these Union travels, for theI met first with time the and top in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable De- leadership of these countries and velopment, which sets out the Sus- sought to hear and understand their tainable Development Goals (SDGs). respective concerns in order to pave In the Preamble, the principle that the way to a reduction of tensions. permeates all the goals is expressed I was motivated throughout by the as the commitment to “ensure that determination to make every effort no one will be left behind.” to forestall the possibility of global The overarching challenge that confronts us today is how to Buddhism teaches that hu- break free from the cycles of vio- manconflict. beings are endowed with the lence and hatred that have become ability to resist the lures and pull entrenched in societies around the of hatred and violence and to work world; how to build momentum for with others to advance the horizons the realization of a more peaceful, of peace. Over the past nearly half- humane world in which no one is left century of engaging in dialogue and behind. This challenge is not limited fostering friendship with political to a rethinking of international po- and intellectual leaders from diverse litical relations or diplomatic policy, cultural and religious backgrounds, I but is deeply intertwined with such 2 Toynbee, Arnold and Ikeda, Daisaku. 2008. quintessentially human questions Choose Life: A Dialogue. London and New as how we engage with people who York: I.B. Tauris. 196. 93 differ from us, people who we may others, must be recognized, regard- regard as “other.” less of their target, as impermissible In this paper, I wish to explore violations of human rights. these themes and offer a Buddhist When such aggression is di- perspective on how we can contrib- rected at groups other than those to which one belongs, many people— even if they don’t actively support Empatheticute to peace inengagement a world of conflict. this—are quick to decide that there is some fault on the part of the vic- stress is the importance of empa- Such passivity and disengagement thetic engagementThe first point with I would others. like to oftentims thathas the justifies effect suchof only treatment. making While we as humans may be the situation worse. adept at understanding the feelings When I consider, from a Bud- of those with whom we have a close dhist perspective, the dangers of this relationship, geographical and cul- kind of collective consciousness, the tural distances can result in psycho- phrase “an invisible arrow” comes to logical distancing. The accelerating mind. processes of globalization seem to Shakyamuni, the founder of exacerbate this, with modern means Buddhism, lived in an era of Indian of communication sometimes acting to amplify the impulse to stereotyp- such as intercommunal struggles for ing and hatred. As a result, people accesshistory tomarked water by or frequent power struggles conflicts end up avoiding interaction with between states. Once, when Shakya- those who are different, including muni was asked to mediate such a even those living in the same com- dispute, he explained the essence of munity, instead viewing individuals the issue in this way: “I perceived a and groups through the lens of ste- single, invisible arrow piercing the reotypes. We appear to be losing our hearts of the people.”3 This “arrow” capacity to appreciate others as they could be termed the arrow of a dis- are and for who they are. criminatory consciousness, an un- In particular, xenophobia reasoning emphasis on difference, seems to be becoming increasingly that penetrates deeply into people’s virulent, taking the form of hate hearts, poisoning them without their speech and hate crimes targeting being aware of it. As he continued his efforts at identities. Most recently, this has mediation, Shakyamuni character- beenpeople directed of specific at ethnicrefugees, or religious people ized the two groups, armed and con- fronting each other, as being “like search of safety. Acts such as this, 3 Buddha whichwho have harm fled or incite the flames people of to war harm in no kotoba [Words of the Buddha]. Tokyo: Iwa- namiTrans. Shoten. from Nakamura, 203. Hajime. 1984. 94 4 One ment, are equally dear to us all. This of these groups was the one to which natural, immovable sense, rooted in fish,he had writhing belonged in shallow prior to water.” entering a life itself, can form the basis for the religious way of life, but Shakyamuni realization that these sentiments, was not caught up in the logic of eth- which we experience with such real- nic identity. Rather, he focused his ity, must likewise be felt with similar attention and directed his words at intensity by others. If we can develop the habit of beings. putting ourselves in the place of oth- the sufferingTheir mindsthat afflicts clouded all humanby ex- ers, we can learn to feel and sense cessive attachment to difference, their pain. This can further help members of each group were unable clear the obscuring clouds that arise to recognize in the other the expe- in our minds from an excessive at- rience of suffering and pain—that tachment to difference. This was the they also were struggling with inad- way of life that Shakyamuni encour- equate water supplies or the fear of aged humankind to adopt. being invaded and overwhelmed by How to counter the cycles of neighboring states. violence and hatred that arise from Becoming aware of the “invis- and are aggravated by the logic of ible arrow” that pierces and poisons collective identity—this remains our consciousness, and then making one of the most pressing challenges the effort to remove it, is a task of of our times. - It is, of course, crucial to ble. This is because the key to doing strengthen international legal thisgreat is difficulty. also to be But found it is in not the impossi human frameworks for the prevention of heart. As Shakyamuni expressed it: “All tremble at violence; life is dear rights. But at the same time, situa- to all. Putting oneself in the place conflict and the protection of human of another, one should not kill nor met with an effort to see the world cause another to kill.”5 throughtions of conflictothers’ and eyes, tension to apprecimust be- The key here is the spirit of ate the fact that the concerns and empathy expressed in the words, threats that we feel may also be felt “Putting oneself in the place of an- by our opponents. Such efforts can - crimination or violence unendurably early stages, before they escalate un- painful.other.” We Likewise, all find theour woundslives, the of path dis controllably.contain and defuse conflicts in their in life we have followed to this mo- When I traveled to the Soviet Union in 1974, I met with then pre- 4 Saddhatissa, trans. 1994. The Sutta-nipāta. mier Alexei Kosygin. I took the op- Richmond: Curzon Press. 4:2:936. 5 Buddharakkhita, trans. 1996. The Dhamma- portunity to share with him what pada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom. Kandy: I had seen several months previ- Buddhist Publication Society. 10:130:2. 95 but as our fellow humans, people ordinary Chinese citizens working bearing painful burdens and in need toously build in Beijing—largeair raid shelters numbers against of of support. the eventuality of a Soviet military In ways that parallel the strike—and the deep impression situation of people who have been this had made on me. driven from their long-accustomed I then asked him: “Does the communities by natural disaster, the Soviet Union intend to attack Chi- na?” uprooted and stripped of all sense of He stated clearly that the So- hope.victims Further, of conflict we andmust war never have forget been viet Union had no such intention. that children continue to constitute When I followed this up by more than half of all refugees. asking if I could communicate this to The displaced people now the Chinese leadership, he respond- seeking refuge in unprecedented ed without hesitation that I could. numbers have been met with a range Soon after, I had another op- of reactions. But more than a few portunity to visit China, where I con- people in the receiving countries veyed Premier Kosygin’s words to have been moved by the irresistible Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping. Over impulse of humanity to extend the the course of repeated visits to both hand of help. Such empathy, which countries, I continued to appeal for both sides to work for the improve- norms of human rights, is the light of ment of relations. humanityexists independent that any of of us anycan cause codified to That both sides were in the shine, illuminating the path forward for those who struggle and suffer. their differences while avoiding the Some years ago, I had the op- worst-caseend able to findscenario a path of to resolvingfull-scale portunity to undertake a dialogue - with Prof. Tu Weiming of Harvard urable value for the cause of world University. At one point, our conver- peace.conflict As was someone of course who of immeaswas en- sation turned to the report Crossing gaged in deepening exchanges with the Divide: Dialogue among Civiliza- the people of both countries, I recall tions, by a panel of eminent persons the great sense of relief with which I on which Prof. Tu served. This report welcomed this outcome. was submitted to the United Nations The contemporary challenges after the terror attacks of September xenophobia are epitomized in the 2001.General Assembly just two months refugeeof prolonged crisis, conflict something and thatintensified makes The report included a descrip- it all the more urgent to view people tion of an incident that had taken who have become refugees not in place on the shores of Lake Tiberias terms of their ethnicity or religion the year before. Two families were 96 relaxing at the beach when a child “must,” searching instead for the from one of the families went for a more spiritual aspect of human coex- swim in the sea. The child started to - lenge, the more vital it becomes that on the verge of drowning when the weistence. attend The to more the crydifficult of the the human chal fatherhave difficulty from the other swimming family and leapt was to spirit contained in incidents such as the rescue. While he succeeded in saving the child, he ended up drown- that of externally determined rules ing as he was trying to swim back to orthis, ethics. for its significance outweighs shore. The Buddhist scriptures de- As it turned out, the family of scribe an episode involving the de- the child that nearly drowned was Jewish and the family whose father stole other mothers’ children in or- rescued him/her was Muslim. But dermoness to feed Kishimojin them to her(Skt. own. Hariti) Shakya who- such differences were entirely irrel- muni, having heard the anguished evant in the face of the pressing im- tales of the mothers whose children perative to save a drowning child. had fallen victim to her predations, The report is careful to avoid came up with a plan to make her the language of “ought to be” or stop this evil behavior. He took one 97 the pain you have caused so many from her sight. other mothers?” Hearing his words, of Kishimojin’s children and hid him- - ately for her child. Finally, at her wits’ fering she had caused. She not only end, havingKishimojin heard searched rumors desper about pledgedKishimojin never realized to repeat how her much evil acts suf Shakyamuni’s success in show- but vowed to work to protect all chil- ing people ways to resolving their dren. As a result, she was able to be various problems, she asked for his reunited with her child. help. Shakyamuni responded to her Whatever differences in eth- pleas by saying, “How do you think nicity or religion might exist be- the pain you now feel compares to tween people, the anguish felt by 98 mothers and fathers when something befalls their child is the same. including through the contributions I believe that the most effec- ofthe forests end of theand twenty-first other natural century— carbon tive means of breaking the cycles of sinks. If this agreement fosters a ro- violence and hatred—the problems bust, shared awareness that climate of truly grave and challenging con- change is an unacceptable threat to ditions—can be found in establish- all societies, it will serve as an effec- ing throughout human society the - ethos of viewing things in the light tion. of empathy. This is the foundation tive basisThe for wars solidarity and violent and jointupheav ac- on which to build a society in which al of the twentieth century have been true and meaningful solidarity is ex- followed in this century by continu- tended to people suffering as a re- ing military and economic competition. International politics continues abuses and discrimination. - sult of armed conflict, human rights ernments focused on gaining the up- The will to coexistence perto be hand marked over by other conflict, governments with gov or opposing forces. In recent years, The second point I would like however, as more governments to explore is the will to coexistence have become conscious of the grave threat posed by climate change and Last year, global warming other global problems, we see signs and sharedresultant flourishing. climate change were of the emergence of a new approach to security issues. of natural disasters, in the course Traditional conceptualiza- a major focus of attention. A series tions of security have led to what is of more than 100 million people. known as the security dilemma, in Ofof justthese, one almost year, impacted90 percent the were lives which the strengthening of arma- climate-related disasters such as ments by one country is perceived as a threat by other countries, which backdrop of concern about extreme respond with their own counter- weatherfloods or events violent and storms. the other Against varied the measures, generating a cycle of es- impacts of continued global warm- calation that leaves all countries ing, in December last year the Paris experiencing lessened security and Agreement was reached, giving form increased tension. to a new international consensus on In contrast, as more countries how to combat global warming. come to see the damage wrought by This framework, in which 195 extreme weather events and other countries participate, has set the natural disasters as threats to se- long-term goal of reducing net emis- curity (understood in the broadest sions of greenhouse gases to zero by sense), they will also see that efforts 99 to strengthen disaster risk reduction Alongside such a shift in regimes not only present no threat to state-to-state relations, expand- other countries but in fact indirectly ing people-to-people solidarity and support similar efforts by neighbor- providing more opportunities for ing countries, enhancing the resil- people to harmonize their actions is ience of the region as a whole. also crucial. For herein lies the key Efforts to strengthen regional to realizing the ideal set out in the communication have already been SDGs—to leave no one behind—and initiated. China, Japan, North and to disrupting entrenched patterns of South Korea—countries whose po- violence and hatred. litical relations are marked by vari- Buddhism views the world as ous tensions—all participate in the a web of relationality in which noth- ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), in ing that exists or occurs can be com- which disaster responses are iden- pletely disassociated from anything else. Moment by moment, the world is formed and Peace and happiness are nev- shaped through this mutual relatedness. The way misery and suffering are never of life that this worldview encourages us to pursue er something we alone enjoy ... can be expressed as the idea that peace and happi- things that afflict only others.ness are never something we alone In additional to a framework for regulartified as deliberation a priority security on cooperation, concern. enjoy; Earlier,that misery I discussed and suffering the impor are- conducted. tancenever ofthings empathy. that afflict Pain andonly anguish, others. joint trainingIn the Sustainable exercises have Develop been- however, are not the only things we ment Goals (SDGs) mentioned at the as humans can share. We are equally outset of this paper, responding to climate change is listed along with living; these can serve as a bridge eliminating poverty as one of hu- thatcapable links of us sharing across our the differences. joys felt in manity’s greatest challenges. Buddhism suggests that this is how It seems possible that efforts we can bring forth the luster of our to achieve the SDGs and carry out inherent dignity as we help society the Paris Agreement have the poten- move in a more positive direction. tial to encourage a shift in the focus The Lotus Sutra, which con- of international politics and security tains the essence of Shakyamuni’s thinking from the pursuit of domi- teachings, offers a dramatic portray- - al of large numbers of people break- darity in meeting shared threats. ing free from the deep-rooted human nance in conflictual relations to soli 100 tus Sutra: “Joy means delight shared one’s own happiness. Instead, they by oneself and others. Wisdom and commitimpulse tothemselves remain satisfied to acting with andjust compassion shared with others is working for a larger vision of happi- 6 ness—one that includes others. This can be understood as the The wellspring for this vow assertionwhat is meant that bythe joy.” work of expand- - bly felt realization that an ultimately can bring to blossom the unlimited and the action to fulfill it is the palpa possibilitiesing the shared existing bonds within of joy each in lifein- exists within us, and equally within dividual, opening the way to a world allworthy others and as dignified well. This aspect realization of life produces an overwhelming, infec- conditions of peace and dignity. in whichIn allanother can live scripture and flourish of Ma in- (1222–82), the Buddhist priest who hayana Buddhism, the Vimalakirti developedtious outpouring this ofinterpretation joy. As Nichiren of Buddhism in thirteenth-century Ja- 6 Trans. from Nichiren. 1952. Nichiren Dais- honin gosho zenshu [The Complete Works of pan, states in his exegesis of the Lo- Nichiren Daishonin]. Ed.by Nichiko Hori. To- kyo: Soka Gakkai. 761. 101 Sutr founder of the organization from hundred youths who had gathered which the present-day SGI grew, arounda, there Shakyamuni, is a scene describingeach holding five Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871– their own beautifully adorned para- 1944), called for a transformation in sol. In the instant when these youths the nature of competition in inter- pledge themselves to creating a so- national relations. He urged a shift ciety in which all people can live in from the prevailing forms of com- happiness, the individual parasols petition, in which the strong preyed upon the weak and countries sought - their security and prosperity at the opyheld that by eachcovers of and them protects join together, the en- expense of others, to one in which tirecreating world. a magnificentNo matter how jeweled gorgeous can - each of their individual parasols ting oneself,”7 or what he termed might be, it can only offer protec- “humanitarian“one benefits otherscompetition.” while benefit tion from the strong wind and burn- This can be seen in the fol- ing sun to the individual holding it; lowing words of Nichiren, which il- the many people without parasols lustrate the social dynamism that themselves remain without protec- seeks happiness shared with others: tion. But when these young people, “If you light a lantern for another, it each having followed a unique path will also brighten you own way.”8 in life, rise above their differences in The inevitable endpoint of a single shared determination, this military competition that seeks brings a vast protective canopy into peace only for one’s own state can being. I see this as a beautiful sym- be seen in the more than 15,000 bol of the limitless possibilities that nuclear warheads that continue to threaten our world. The inevitable their efforts together with a shared endpoint of economic competition determination.can be realized when people join that seeks prosperity only for one’s own society can be seen in the se- Humanitarian competition verity of the damage wrought to the global ecology, epitomized in climate The grassroots activities of change. While such zero-sum modes the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) of competition may appear to produce desirable results for one’s own education that support the efforts of society, we have only to consider the thein the United fields Nations of peace, to resolve culture global and effect that any use of nuclear weap- issues are based on this Buddhist ons would have—or that unchecked worldview. 7 Trans. from Makiguchi, Tsunesaburo. 1996. Writing in 1903, at a time Makiguchi Tsunesaburo zenshu [The Complete Works of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi]. Vol. 2. To- when the forces of imperialism and kyo: Daisan Bunmeisha. 399. colonialism were at their height, the 8 Trans. from Nichiren. Nichiren Daishonin gosho zenshu. 1598. 102 global warming is almost certain to the present and future citizens of have—to realize that such an ap- each society. proach ends up undermining the As a movement, the SGI is basis for not only the continued sur- committed to dialogue that focus- vival of one’s own country, but of hu- es energies on overcoming shared manity as a whole. challenges—that shines a light on The vision embodied in Maki- the rich spiritual traditions fostered guchi’s call for humanitarian compe- within each of the world’s civiliza- tition is, rather, one in which efforts tions and religions in order to clarify to overcome such shared global the kinds of ethics and norms re- threats as environmental degrada- quired to actualize solutions. The tion and natural disaster—in which goal of such dialogue is to move be- societies vie with and spur each oth- yond the sharing of concern to exer to make the maximum contribu- panding the solidarity of action. tion—function to create the shared The Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, which benefit of conditions desirable for

103 I founded, has as its motto, “dia- Doha International Center for Inter- logue of civilizations for global citi- faith Dialogue sponsored their 12th zenship.” To date, it has organized Doha Interfaith Conference. I under- conferences on such shared hu- stand that the discussion focused man challenges as: strengthening on such critical issues as protecting the United Nations, the abolition of nuclear weapons, disarmament, extremism and strengthening the poweryoung peopleof the spiritfrom theand influence intellect inof multiculturalism, food security and support of social coexistence. climateconflict resolution,change. One human of the security, unique If we are to unravel the inter- features of the Toda Institute’s work is that it seeks to form networks of today, the kind of interfaith dialogue research collaboration around each engagedtwined crises in by that the afflict Doha our Interna world- of these challenges, thus bringing tional Center will only increase in its value and importance. I wish to them. take this opportunity to express my the world’sThis finestpast February,wisdom to to bear com on- deepest respect for the work you memorate its twentieth anniversary, have undertaken. Through the Toda the Institute organized a conference, Institute we look forward to deep- with the participation of research- ening exchanges with your Center ers from different religious back- - grounds—Christianity, Judaism, Is- tween faith traditions as well as be- lam and Buddhism—to consider the tweento expand different the fields civilizations, of dialogue in beor- role of the world’s religions in con- der to open new horizons in human tributing to peace. history. The keynote address was de- livered by Ms. Sihem Bensedrine, president of the Truth and Dignity Commission of Tunisia. In a separate interview, she shared the following thoughts: “When different religions gather to consider the same issues, because they seek to respond to the kinds of needs that are common to all human beings, they are required to become humble. And this humility is the opposite of absolutism.”9 At nearly the same time, the

9 Trans. from Seikyo Shimbun. 2016. “Bunmei- kan taiwa ninau chi no kyoten” [Intellectual hub for dialogue of civilizations]. February 19. 3. 104 New Reality: Peace and Universal Responsibility, according to the Dalai Lama

Sofia Stril-Rever

All forms of violence, especially war, are 1939. At the age of 4, he ascended totally unacceptable as means to settle the golden throne of Lhassa, the disputes between and among nations, holy city of the Roof of the world groups and persons. that was then a venerable shrine for Today, in such an interdependent world, the last great theocracy of the 20th the concept of war seems anachronis- century. In 1959, he went into exile tic, stemming from outmoded attitudes. in India, and on December 10, 1989, Many traditions from the past are no he became the world's Dalai Lama longer adapted to the present and are in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in even counterproductive and have thus Oslo. The Norwegian Nobel Commit- been relegated to the dustbins of his- tee granted him this distinction for tory. his tireless efforts on behalf of human rights and world peace. War should also be consigned to the His status as a distinguished dustbins of history. spiritual guide has not, however, The 14th Dalai Lama restricted the scope of the 14th - Winning peace dhist religion, and he has ventured farDalai beyond Lama's the reflection traditional to the area Bud of “Vague talks of peace can only scholarship held by his line of rein- disturb some pigeons” – such are the carnation. From the very beginning words of the 14th Dalai Lama, and of his exile in India, he has been he adds that external disarmament anxious to meet Western scientists, will not happen, unless we commit and in 1990, he initiated the Mind ourselves to internal disarmament. & Life dialogues that have gathered The 80 year old spiritual scholars of international renown, in leader of Tibet, who issued this - statement in a recent column of the tic physics, or the protection of the Washington Post,1 was enthroned in environment.fields such as Hisneurosciences, understanding quan of the world is thus particularly origi- 1 « Why I’m hopeful about the world’s future », The Washington Post, Opinions, 13 June 2016. nal, and innovative, insofar as it 105 combines the deep study of the mys- been brainwashed. War is neither glam- teries of classical Buddhist philoso- orous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its phy, in the Nalanda2 tradition, with very nature is one of tragedy and suf- - fering. temporary thought. - knowledgeAs a spiritualin high tech leader, fields the of Dalai con nity, one whose fuel is living beings. I War is like a fire in the human commu Lama never ceases to hammer out - that praying is not enough to face ate and useful. Modern warfare waged the violence caused by war. Since find this analogy especially appropri human action is the cause, asking but we are so conditioned to see it as primarily with different forms of fire, God to intervene makes no sense. thrilling that we talk about this or that Supporting a pragmatic realism, the marvelous weapon as a remarkable leader of the Tibetans analyzes the piece of technology without remember- widespread brainwashing that leads ing that, if it is actually used, it will burn us to accept a martial logic in the living people. War also strongly resem- name of the State. And he appeals to us to closely examine the reality bles a fire in the way it spreads. If one of war in order to understand why sends in reinforcements. wars are perpetuated, as if we had area gets weak, the commanding officer not learnt from our failures in the But because we have been brainwashed past. This is throwing live people onto a fire. to think this way, we do not consider Most of us have been conditioned to the suffering of individual soldiers. No regard military combat as exciting and soldiers want to be wounded or die. glamorous – an opportunity for men to None of his loved ones wants any harm prove their competence and courage. to come to him. If one soldier is killed, Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable; in general, nobody feels or ten people – his relatives and friends or maimed for life, at least another five that war is criminal or that accepting – suffer as well. We should all be horri- it is criminal attitude. In fact, we have are too confused.3 2 Located in central India, Nalanda was one fied by the extent of this tragedy, but we - mous universities, established by the Gupta emperorsof the world's around first 450 residential CE. An andarchitectural most fa These words do not match masterpiece, it could accommodate up to mainstream media reports nor his- 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The li- tory textbooks that carry on the an- brary, located in a nine storied building, at- tracted sudents and scholars from Korea, tagonism of victory versus defeat, of Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and wars won versus lost – whereas the Turkey. The philosophy of Mahayana Bud- outcome of an armed confrontation dhism stems from this ancient university and always corresponds to a failure of Nalanda teachers, of the 9th to 12th century, were invited by the Dharma kings of Tibet to 3 « The Reality of War » 5 December 2015: teach in their country the basis of what would http://www.dalailama.com/messages/ world-peace/the-reality-of-war

106be known later as Vajrayana Buddhism. The Kalachakra Mandala is the essential teaching of the Dalai Lamas’ lineage. The mandala symbolizes the interdependence and mutual reliance between all beings, human and non human, in the web of existence. Its meditation, based on inner peace and compassion, is an experience of being one with the univsersal life.

107 This victory has not made the comes after another, so much so that headlines, and the world has not tri- aboth war sides. that isThis won is hashow never one conflict meant umphantly hailed the man who won the end of war. It is quite the con- such a battle. The struggle waged trary. The confrontation is carried by the Dalai Lama cannot be seen on from generation to generation, in the same way as the thousands of those who surrendered yesterday bombs that fall onto habitants taken long to become the victors of tomor- as hostages in the logical process of row. confrontation between states. This The Dalai Lama goes so far as battle cannot be heard like the ex- to say that “the notion of absolute plosions that resound in what is victory for one side and defeat of an- commonly known as the theater of other is thoroughly outdated,” add- military operations. Yet, a battle has ing that, “in some situations, follow- been, and continues to be waged, by the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, state that cannot be described as according to a non-violence strategy, eithering conflict, war or suffering peace. arisesViolence from in a- with a never-failing perseverance. evitably incurs further violence. In- deed, history has shown that non- is not the one we expect. The Da- violent resistance ushers in more In such a fight, the enemy durable and peaceful democracies Chinese. Besides, could we say that and is more successful in removing thelai LamaChinese is notare fightinghis enemies? against When the authoritarian regimes than violent he mentions them, he calls them his struggle.”4 brothers and sisters. As the apostle The Dalai Lama's commit- of inner and outer disarmament, he ment is precisely to put an end to - forefront of the international stage. lence, you may solve one problem, Nomoves terrorist, forward no bare-fisted,bomb attack, in theno butthis youcycle sow of conflicts.the seeds “Through for another”, vio kamikaze gives his name as a ref- he tirelessly reminds us. From this erence. To the young generation of point of view, the almost sixty years Tibetans who would want to battle that have gone by since the invasion with Chinese occupation, he keeps of his country by China wind up be- on advocating the way of non-vio- ing a victory over war. Admittedly, lence he has never diverged from. Tibet is still occupied, without giving a single thought to the Tibetan 'Become the change you want for people's self-determination, and the world!' fundamental freedom. But the Da- lai Lama has won peace; he has won When he left Tibet in 1959, the victory of peace. the Dalai Lama was not able to bring 4 « Why I’m hopeful about the world’s future », any of his belongings with him. It The Washington Post, Opinions, 13 June 2016 108 was the price he had to pay for suc- over equipped and well trained? At the Himalayas. But he was not de- could be ironical on the idealism of ceedingprived. Lackingin his flight material to reach goods, beyond he thefirst Tibetans'sight, it would religious seem leader. so, and But we had within him treasures of wis- another interpretation can be de- dom, love, and compassion, nur- tected. tured since childhood. In the Potala For more than half a century, lamasery, he had practiced handling the Dalai Lama has been constantly weapons that dismantle all weap- appealing to the consciousness of ons, weapons that prepare for the the world. For, in an era of world- victory of peace. wide civilization and global history, The military occupation of when human rights are scorned in Tibet, the humanity within us is nation –, the violation of human violated. Furthermore, a victory of rights,Tibet – the to theplundering benefit of of the natural Chinese re- peace over a dictatorship that does sources, the forced sinicization of not respect the Universal Declara- the inhabitants, and demographic tion of Human Rights can only be the attacks are painful and unbearable. victory of all. The Dalai Lama's ap- The Dalai Lama has not ceased de- peal to the world is therefore legitimate, and his exemplary non-violent years, to the community of nations. struggle calls for questioning. Butnouncing though them, the International for more than Com fifty- What if, to transform the mission of Jurists has acknowledged the Tibetan genocide on three oc- ourselves? The Mahatma Gandhi ad- casions, in 1959, 1961 and 1965,5 visedworld, us we to: “Become first had the to change transform you no serious measure has been taken want for the world”. And the Persian against China who is part of the Se- mystic Rumi remarked that: 'Yester- curity Council of the UN. And if the day, I was intelligent, and I wanted Dalai Lama has succeeded in mobi- to change the world. Today, I am lizing consciousnesses, he has not wise, and I am changing myself.' been supported by the states that What if, with the Dalai Lama, could have put an end to the drama we were destined to become 'archi- experienced by his people. tects of peace' in order to leave fu- Would that mean that demo- ture generations a more human and cratic values and human rights are fraternal world? Becoming aware helpless in front of the economic of our power too, wherever we are, power, and the massive strike force, makes non-violence triumph, and of the Chinese state whose army – gains peace. the most numerous in the world – is 5 Cf. My Appeal to The World, the Dalai

International, 2015, part I, pp. 19-46 Lama and Sofia Stril-Rever, Hay House 109 Peace, the fruit of compassion in the Bible that urges us to transform world. There is a magnificent passage But it is still another matter swords into plowshares. I love this im- to create the causes of peace in or- age of a weapon made into a tool in the der to gain peace. It is very enlight- service of fundamental human needs. It ening to listen to the speeches suc- symbolizes an attitude of inner and of cessively made by President George outer disarmament. In the spirit of this W. Bush and the Dalai Lama on Octo- ancestral message, it seems important to me today to emphasize the urgency guide of Tibet was receiving the Gold of a long-overdue policy in order to de- Medalber 17, of 2007, the American just when Congress. the spiritual militarize the entire planet.6 The president of the United States moved his audience when he The distance between a nega- evoked the Dalai Lama as a little boy, who “kept a small copy of the Statue absence of war – and seeking a non- of Liberty on his bedside table at the violenttive definition path towards of peace peace, – reduced can beto measured. For all that, though deep- trip to the United States, he visited ly opposed to war, the Dalai Lama BatteryPotala. YearsPark in later, New during York City, his curi first- ous to see the original one”. And the and he even acknowledges the need American leader went on discussing does not advocate artificial peace, liberty, recalling that his New World I want to make it clear, that although I ancestors had to conquer their inde- to fight: pendence with arms and that “Jef- am deeply opposed to war, I am not ad- ferson considered freedom of belief vocating appeasement. It is often nec- as one of the greatest blessings of essary to take a strong stand to coun- America”. Yet, according to the lead- plain to all of us that the Second World er of the White House, “this freedom ter unjust aggression. For instance, it is does not belong to a nation, it be- civilization" from the tyranny of Nazi longs to the whole world”. War was entirely justified. It "saved The American president was Germany, as Winston Churchill so aptly - put it. In my view, the Korean War was tifying resorting to armed forces to chance of gradually developing democ- maintainspeaking ina peace the name inspired of State, by justhe also just, since it gave South Korea the balance of terror. The Dalai Lama, however, was expressing himself as racy. But we can only judge whether or grounds with hindsight. For example, a human being, advocating a peace- not a conflict was vindicated on moral ful path towards peace: we can now see that during the Cold War, the principle of nuclear deter- Peace is not decreed, nor is it imposed rence had a certain value. Nevertheless, by force. As a fruit of compassion, it rip- 6 The Dalai Lama ens in human hearts, and radiates on the My Spiritual Journey,

110 and Sofia Stril-Rever, Harper One, 2010 - New Reality and Universal Re- ters with any degree of accuracy. War is sponsibility it is very difficult to assess such mat violence and violence is unpredictable. Therefore, it is better to avoid it if possi- The Dalai Lama thus declares ble, and never to presume that we know in June 2016: beforehand whether the outcome of a It is our collective responsibility to ensure that the 21st century does not re- particularFor instance, war in will the casebe beneficial of the Cold or War,not. peat the pain and bloodshed of the past. though deterrence may have helped Because human nature is basically com- promote stability, it did not create passionate. I believe it is possible that genuine peace. The last forty years in decades from now we will see an era of Europe have seen merely the absence peace — but we must work together as of war, which has not been real peace global citizens of a shared planet.8 but a facsimile. At best, building arms to maintain peace serves only as a tem- These words express a belief porary measure. As long as adversaries that the Dalai Lama shares with sci- do not trust each other, any number of entists involved in a dialogue with factors can upset the balance of power. - Lasting peace can assure secured only ence, a notion at the core of the rep- on the basis of genuine trust.7 resentationhim on the subjectof reality of interdependin Buddhist wisdom, and a paradigm of quantic In recent statements moreo- physics which describes it as an en- ver, the Dalai Lama asserts that tanglement. armed confrontation has become The Buddhist account of in- obsolete in the 21st century, for in terdependence is to be understood the context of globalization, the de- at three levels. First of all, that of feat and the ruin of a country is a causal interdependence. Nothing loss, and a ruin for all others. Dia- that actually exists has within it the logue and non-violence must there- cause of its existence. It depends on fore prevail. Even if the situation, for cause and external conditions, like a example in the Middle East, could tree for example, which comes from make us doubt of humanity's capac- a seed, from the earth, from light ity to live in peace, the leader of the and water. The second level of interdependence is that of the parts and 21st century, we must show realism the whole, since each phenomenon andTibetans optimism. affirms that in this early depends necessarily on a series of parts and characteristics. And at last, we can distinguish a cognitive or reciprocal interdependence, for

8 « Why I’m hopeful about the world’s future », 7 Statement of December 5, 2015, ibid. The Washington Post, Opinions, 13 June 2016 111 - still tear certain regions to pieces, isting if the consciousness of an ob- signals the persistent anachronistic an object can only be defined as ex ways of thinking that are meant to Understanding those three disappear. Such is the new reality of levelsserver of identifies interdependence it. is not only our times. an intellectual task. For it challenges It was in an interview at Ox- the whole range of our relations to ford University, to which he had in- the world, and to others. The more vited me on September 15, 2015, progress we make in experiencing that the Dalai Lama insisted on the interdependence, the clearer it be- importance of this new reality: With the global warming that concerns - all of us, that affects all of the coun- cientcomes entities that we endowed cannot just with perceive intrin- tries in the world, and not only a few sicexternal characteristics, phenomenon separated as self-suffi from any more, time has come to think in a that, through self systematic manner, on the scale of the planet. Besides, if we think about it on the subject. From a contact with external objects, would different nations are also taken into ac- movedevelop on powerfulto a self that dualistic engages reflexes in a a global level, the specific interests of count. of appropriation and rejection, we our environment. We are in the 21st century, and time is flowingUnderstanding interaction with interdepend others and- ence progressively abolishes dual- new reality. We must accept this new constantly flying by. New times entail a istic apprehension, and destroys the reality. Faced with this new reality, our barriers that we set up around us, perceptions are conditioned by pat- in an erroneous understanding of terns of anachronistic thinking. Many reality. We then gain access to fun- useless problems are caused by that. damental benevolence, since in this That is why we must act in accordance relation of interdependence to all with the new reality. Otherwise, there forms of life, we feel directly con- is a gap between our perceptions and cerned by their wellness and their reality, between reality and our percep- suffering. tions. And then all of our efforts become A correct realization of inter- unrealistic.9 dependence correlates with the idea that caring for others, also means The Dalai Lama laments the caring for oneself. General interest, fact that we emphasize too much and personal interest merge and secondary matters such as national- amplify in the context of widespread ity, religious belief, or caste. Focus- globalization we are witnessing, in which each local event has a world- ing9 Nouvelle on a fewRéalité: non-lasting L’Âge de benefitsla responsa at- bilité universelle, Les Arènes, 2016, p. 40. wide112 repercussion. The conflicts that 'The 21st century will be secular, or will not be'

Convinced that the future of the world requires us to accept the unity of humanity, the Dalai Lama has admitted being shocked on several occasions seeing religion used for political purposes: How can someone kill in the name of God? It's unbelievable! Unbelievable! As a Buddhist, if I ended up quarreling with the follower of another religion, I would fear being scolded by the Bud- dha, and that would stop me short.11

In front of the increase of fundamentalism, and a new outbreak of barbaric fanaticism, the Dalai Lama says he is dumbfounded. Though all religions preach compassion, love, forgiveness, and tolerance, he does a secondary level, we forget the fun- not understand how the people in damental human level: charge of religious worship can lead their followers into so-called holy It is our responsibility to share our ef- wars: forts so that we all understand that we are the same, all human beings. Our Religions are not bad in essence. The problem is the idea that believers have human rights. The preoccupations of of the supremacy of their God. They vis- first priority should be fundamental different nations, and of the various ualize him as the one and only God, the religious communities, are secondary. real God, the only God that can bring We must consider that we are 7 billion salvation to humans. This outdated be- human beings now on this planet, and lief, centuries old, endures. that we form a one and only entity, that It is true that, on an individual basis, of the great human family. I believe we we must consider our religion to be the really need to become aware of that.10 best in the sense that it is the best for us. Being convinced of that will help us nurture all the good qualities of our religious practice. But at the collective

10 Ibid. p. 43. 11 Ibid. p. 23. 113 level of human community, it makes no Religion,13 could not be clearer. He sense. It is utterly unrealistic to want acknowledges that religion alone to gather all believers around a sin- cannot be the base of a code of ethics gle truth, a single faith. We have to ac- adapted to the reality of our world knowledge that there are several truths nowadays, in which more than one third of people are agnostic. A sys- to a greater number of people. Nowa- tem of moral values that contradicts in several belief systems, all beneficial days, there are approximately a billion no religion, and relies on none, has Muslims, and a little more than a billion Christians. Hindus number roughly 600 secular code of ethics for a united million people, and Buddhists between worldto be defined.as suggested This is theby thebasis Dalai of a 800 and 900 million. Lama. For, in the context of the new It would be unrealistic to eliminate one reality, there is the need to take on a religion in favor of another. On the con- universal responsibility, and a common human destiny. The argumen- knowing there are other religions, to tation in favor of this code of eth- trary, it would be better to rejoice in study them, and to appreciate them. It ics is supported by the conclusions - drawn from different research pro- tify the massacre of believers of anoth- tocols in neurosciences, rather than is unacceptable to use a religion to jus er faith ... It's terrible ... really terrible. 12 by reference to Buddhist philosophy. The 21st century will be secu- The news on the war in the lar, or will not be could be the Dalai Middle East overwhelms the Dalai Lama's motto. And according to him, Lama with grief. Facing the increase secular should be understood in the of religious fundamentalism, he Indian usage. In India, far from im- came to consider that, for the future plying antagonism toward religion of humanity, religion must become or toward people of faith, secularity secondary to human values com- actually has a universal scope and mon to all. implies a profound respect for and And the Dalai Lama's commit- tolerance toward all religions. ment in the interfaith dialogue aims at promoting what could be called a The Charter of Universal Respon- religious essentialism – or a base of sibility values common to all religions, love, compassion, benevolence, tolerance, It is by listening to the Dalai and forgiveness for instance, that Lama speaking about the new real- transcend doctrinal particularisms. ity that I realized we have indeed In this matter, the title of his changed worlds. book published in 2011, Beyond We have changed worlds, and

13 Beyond Religion : Ethics for a Whole 12 Ibid. p. 24. it isWorld, not the titleDalai ofLama, a science-fiction Mariner, 2011. 114 The state of the planet nowa- either, the story of some Earthmen days urges us to shift as quickly as sailingnovel, or in ofinterstellar a futuristic space film. on It isboard not, possible from patterns of individu- a spaceship, at the end of a disaster, alistic consciousness, based on per- in search of a new planet to colo- formance, power and competition, nize. We had frightened ourselves to patterns of collective conscious- with scenarios of aliens crushing us ness, inspired by the understand- in the surge of an apocalyptic terror! ing of our interdependence, our Undoubtedly saturated with these potentials, and our accountabilities. imaginary dangers, we have not no- At such a critical time on Earth, we ticed the ongoing transformation. need to become aware that all our We were expecting something spec- deeds, words and thoughts, moment tacular. How could we have predict- to moment, impact our global sured that we would change worlds in roundings. Universal responsibility such an imperceptible way, with no is the key to our survival, insists the brutal rupture? And the future we Dalai Lama. It is the best foundation had not summoned has become part for worldwide peace, the principle of our present – with an air of nor- that guides us in the use of our natu- mality – to the point where we have ral resources, and environmental not recognized it. Defying all con- protection for future generations. The mutation, we are experi- generation, nor did it wait for 2050, encing, calls for a philosophy based orjectures, for the it enddid notof our wait century. for the nextThis world resembles the former one, but longer considered as an individual it is not the same. And a new reality on the experience of the subject, no is dawning. by his multiple interactions. Such is This new reality covers vari- theseparated meaning from of others,the Charter but definedof Uni- ous parameters. Admittedly, there is versal Responsibility, a set of com- the collapse of the biosphere, global mitments inviting each one of us to warming, and the 6th extinction of embody the indivisible community species. But the new reality cannot of life by integrating non only hu- be summarized by environmental manity, but also all of the biosphere catastrophe, which, moreover, is not into the realm of our consciousness a fatality. The new reality is also the and living compassion. emergence of a planetary conscious- Are we too deprived to rec- ness taking on and unifying all the ognize this new world? Yes, as long human legacies of all wisdoms and as we look for it outside of us only. traditions, of human and non-human worlds. Such is the new para- the Dalai Lama's thought, invites us digm, based on interdependence toThe become specificity, aware and of the the shared strength real of- and the principle of universality. ity of life, and of our inner humanity, 115 to be understood as the values that The messages of the universe are in- gather us in a community of destiny. corporated in my genetic codes. I am This approach results in an applied connected with all living beings in our ethics consisting less of normative shared reality of life. rules to be obeyed than of principles I become aware of the fact that the well- for inner self-regulation, to promote being of all living beings depends on those aspects of our nature condu- the balance of ecosystems, themselves cive to our own well-being and that dependent on the peace in the hearts of others. For the Dalai Lama does - not subscribe to ideologies that disman societies where no one must be re- tance individuals from the aware- of men, and the spirit of justice in hu ness necessary to assume their hu- destitution. In a spirit of equanimity, jected, disabled by hunger, poverty, and manity fully. The freshness of his free from bias, attachment and hatred, position consists in centering the I contribute to maintaining, and restor- resolution of problems on the indi- ing, harmony in life. vidual. By failing to acknowledge that Living peace and inner healing in each it is by transforming oneself that we one of my actions, devoted to the well- can transform the world, none of the being of all lives, human and non-hu- great democratic or social ideals that man, is a great appeal to being alive, in have been proclaimed for centuries, of life. has really succeeded in bringing the the joy of universal love which is the life brotherhood. A merely external sys- promised peace, social justice, and it is to an inner revolution that the Chartertem of thought of Universal will not Responsibility suffice, and14 calls for. By setting at the heart of our lives fundamental and altruistic human values, we re-enchant hope and trust in the shared destiny of humanity.

Excerpt from the Charter of Uni- versal Responsibility15

I was born on this Earth, a child of life, in the bosom of the cosmos.

14 Released in the book Nouvelle Réalité, op. cit. 15 New Reality, op. cit., pp. 9 - 10 116 Jerusalem, City of Peace

Louis Massignon

If I have come back, eight grove at Gethsemani, strewed with weeks ago, to Jerusalem, it is be- violets, I fell back into the Judeo-Ar- cause, as a Christian, I felt obliged, at any risk, to situate and consecrate Novomeysky trucks of potassium my prayer there where "heaven has headingab gunfire, back greeting from the on Dead the way Sea. the visited the earth"; Charles de Fou- Yesterday it was the taking of cauld has in fact left me as a legacy Haifa by the Haganah1 and the per- this rule of true "Nazarean" that one spective of being expelled for many cannot perfect one's national voca- Christian Arab families, adding to tion but through expatriation, some- the exile of the 20,000 Christian in- times in the Holy Land, in order to habitants of Haifa who have already meditate on it. 1 A Jewish paramilitary organization during Hardly out of the olive-tree the British Mandate of Palestine (1921-48). ______émoignage chrétien on April 30, 1948. Translated by Patrick Laude. This article first appeared in its original French version in T 117 been evacuated by force into Leba- place, alone in the press of Paris, last non since 1947. December 12, it was not only lacking We are blasé with respect to in good politics, but impious, to con- deportations! Many diplomats place sider a "partition" of Palestine, fol- the salvation of the world in a sys- lowing a "partition" of India under tematic "resettlement" of inconven- - ient minorities, as a generalization ternational salvation lies elsewhere. of concentration camps on a global the pretextWe Christians, of total pacification. as Pius XI putIn it, are and must become more "spir- persons", metamorphosis of the pil- itually Semites." grimsscale, of final Eretz uprooting Israël into of pioneers "displaced of This is not in order to poison a a technological colonization that re- territorial duel between two Semitic expediate Arabs to the desert. people who are brothers in Abra- God knows, however, the ris- ham, the Jews and the Arabs. But it is ing, inexpiable hatred that one hears in order to quicken within ourselves rising against these methods that the meditation of the Holy Scriptures the USSR borrowed from Nazism, which they have received, in order to engage ourselves, we ill-evangelized Galician, Baltic, Romani- an,the Crimean clamor forand justiceCherkess from exiled people. Israel should help Islam to de- No sensible human fend this poverty of the believer being should found the return of Israël to its origi- in the true God of Abraham, the nal land on the exile of a pure cult of His transcendent Christian Arab minority, nor a fortiori on that of a blaspheme as it does by making 12,000,000 souls who is jealousy,of the Holy instead Land ofthe inviting stakes itof to a kinMuslim by language Arab majority and reli of- duel among oil tankers. gion to all the bordering Eastern states. There has always been, in Palestine, nomadic, people who have relapsed into the in small transhumance and seden- tary Arabs and among them, always by the liturgy of our stock exchanges — every Christian should remember andidolatry our oftheatres, gold and to fleshcommit divinized to the it— more than one-twelfth Chris- true vocation of baptized nations, tians, i.e., 100,000 souls, many more that from which the Crusades have than the number of Hebrews who quickly deviated, pushing the love of remained in 1917. gain to the criminal ransack of Con- As I announced it in this very stantinople in 1204. 118 nopolies, Israel should help Islam to to me on the spot, on Al-Fassy Street, defend this poverty of the believer on FebruaryAnd it 26,is what by the was man reaffirmed who de- in the true God of Abraham, the pure fends, almost alone, Israel’s honor in - Palestine, J.-L. Magnes, president of stead of inviting it to blaspheme as this Hebrew University, to which I itcult does of His by transcendentmaking of the jealousy, Holy Land in had contributed by having the Arab- the stakes of a duel among oil tank- ist library of our dear master Goldzi- ers, in which one competes in com- her bequeathed in 1922, being mitting crimes against humans, in a convinced that only the Jewish Uni- sacrilege against God. versity could give back its place to Any attempt at sharing the Israel in Palestine by taking Arabic Holy Land among rivals, and even as its second language, a language of any attempt at abandoning this civilization, as did Saadia, Baya and unique symbol of future human Un- Maimonides. ion to Israel only, by excluding Chris- I was very moved to hear tendom or Islam, is unrealizable. Even of the twelve millions true peril that threatens Israel in Jews of the earth could gather in Zionism,Magnes reaffirm is that itto betrays me that the the more only Palestine, Palestine could not be an than international, supranational independent nation, for the “time of vocation that God, who is without nations” has passed, as that of colo- repent, assigned to it here-below. nizing nationalisms, even Hebrew Every time Israel has be- nationalism. trayed this vocation, Magnes told me Israel has no temporal inde- God has punished it by catastrophes, pendence to hope for anymore given kherbān, announced by its prophets, today’s geopolitics. The only inde- commemorated in an incredible pen- pendence it must safeguard is the itential liturgy, Israel is devoted to originality of the Semitic tradition break down all the idols made with of thought, and the Hebrew Univer- human hands, and God, who forbids sity of Jerusalem will only be able to it to worship them, cannot but pun- safeguard it by relying on Arabic, a ish those who prostitute the faith of sister language, a language of civi- Israel to the perverted techniques of lization. A human thought is worth contemporary machiavelism. more than the power of all robots. Before the skeptical abulia Statisticians say that Pales- of a tepid Christendom, where the tine is a small country, that the Sovi- cult of wealth increasingly prevails, et iron wall will remain, fortunately, where the vow of individual pover- impermeable to the clamors of the ty is more and more amalgamated duelists, which will die out without among the “perfect” with a concern one’s having to risk the life, on the for collective and privileged mo- spot, of any president of the UN in 119 uniform. of which an at least decent behavior And still, if the said president, is required, if “democracies” want to from the very beginning of the sac- pacify Palestine. The salvation of the world de- he would have come by plane, with pends more and more on Israel, of hisrilegious dictaphone conflict, and had his understood,secretaries, the character that it impresses upon to Jerusalem, he would have taken the return to the homeland; it can abode in a house, mined or not, to only remain here if it accepts, un- “preside”, reconcile or die. And had der a supreme international control, he been killed, like Gandhi, he would to live in it in equal terms, with the have, by a powerful death, broken Muslims (for whom Jerusalem is the the impetus of hatred toward parti- qibla) and with the tion. Christians who are all born natives The Arabs, one can feel it, offirst Nazareth, and the throughlast the Marian fiat would accept the exiles of “Exodus”, of the Annunciation. if this gesture were not to re-open an immigration that overwhelms them; Machiavelism, when it is revealed in - ble; could not one try to love one another,the light in aof charity day, is that no morewould profita not be commiseration, nor hypocritical, nor tactical, between Christians, Jews and Muslims, agreeing in theory on

The fear of the hour alone, to whichthis first we commandment come closer every of the day, law? the fear of a general reckoning, the ses- sions of which will take lace precisely in Jerusalem, could persuade us. The Palestinian problem is a key test, the British political ruses have broken their teeth upon it by - ternational Commission on the Holy Sitesevading decided for twenty-five in San Remo years (article the In 13-14 of the mandate). This Com- mission must not only rule on the dusting turns of the sacred thresh- olds, for religions are not archeolog- ical ruins, but living stones in front 120 Photo courtesy of Photo Dharma Human Diversity in the Mirror of Religious Pluralism

Samuel Bendeck Sotillos

“It is the one truth, which jnānins call by return all together, and He will inform different names.” you of that wherein you differ…

Rigveda 1:164:46 Qur'ān 5:481

For each among you We have appointed The many faces of xenophobia a [different] law and a way. And had God threaten not only the national secu- willed, He would have made you one community, but [He willed otherwise], 1 See Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Caner K. Dagli, Ma- that He might try you in that which He ria Massi Dakake, Joseph E.B. Lumbard and Mohammed Rustom (eds.), The Study Quran: has given you. So vie with one another A New Translation and Commentary (New in good deeds. Unto God shall be your York, NY: HarperCollins, 2015). 121 rity of a particular country, state or “Who am I?”—like religion itself, is region, but the stability of the entire reduced to socially constructed phe- world and fundamentally undermine nomena devoid of any transcend- the possibility of enduring peace for ent criteria. For some the mention all people. The rise of xenophobia, of religion itself provokes a nega- analogous to the violence and chaos that have become normalized today present-day and how estranged we havetive reaction, become whichfrom religionis a reflection and the of imbalance and lack of peace found transcendent norms that were as- withinare a symptom the contemporary or a projection psyche of the. sociated with it that inform what it Given that very little positive news is means to be integrally human. covered in the mainstream media on How can religion contribute religion, it will appear to be counter- to peace when it appears to be the intuitive and even paradoxical to as- leading culprit of a world in crisis? sert the need to return to religion for This question can be answered di- an answer to the numerous persis- rectly and has been answered by tent and escalating problems of the day, as religion “Truth does not deny forms from is all-too-often assumed the outside, but transcends them to be the primary cause from within.” though it goes against theof thesecurrent conflicts. mindset, Evenreligion could saints and sages across the cultures be the only way out of this predica- who have repeatedly instructed this: ment. Yet what is radically needed is It is through returning to the origi- to re-envision what religion is and to nal meaning of religion, especially clarify what it is not because misin- its spiritual or inner dimension formation dominates the mass me- and living in accordance with these dia which does little to present the teachings, that right relationship merits of religion. can be established throughout the Because of the interconnected web of life. What is urgently needed nature of the human and the Divine, is to increase spiritual literacy on a there is a sacred origin of human di- mass scale in order to foster genuine versity which is seldom recognized interfaith dialogue which can estab- or understood in today’s secular lish peace. Yet how can this be ac- world. The assertion that there is an complished given the myriad issues essential connection between them and magnitude of today’s problems? could be viewed with trepidation One way to do this would be given the prevalence of secularism to return to the perennial philoso- and its desacralized outlook. In this phy, the essential truths found at the context, the perennial question of— heart of all of the world’s religions, 122 including the First Peo- ples and their Shamanic traditions. The timeless and universal message which captures the essence of how peace can be established in these topsy-turvy times is expressed here: “[P]eace… comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they real- itualis. “The man of the traditional ize that at the center of the universe societies [and civilizations] is ad- dwells Wakan-Tanka [the Great Mys- mittedly a homo religiosus”. 4 The tery or Great Spirit], and that this connection between the human and center is really everywhere, it is the transpersonal was known since within each of us.”2 earliest times, “In one manner or an- differently, “[P]eace…is ultimately other all life is seen to participate in nothing else but order, Defined equilibrium, slightly the sacred, all cultural forms express - the sacred, so that inevitably within tion of unity in multiplicity.”3 this context the lives of those peo- or harmony…denoting…theIt is imperative to recall reflec that ples who live close to their sacred the etymological root of the English traditions may be called religious, word “religion” is from the Latin re- and they are thus beings who are ligare, meaning to “to re-bind” or religiously human.”5 Yet deprived of “to bind back” by implication to the the transcendent, true human iden- Divine or a transcendent Reality. Across the traditional civilizations, It is a precondition that being hu- the human state was considered to mantity isrequires disfigured what and is beyond unintelligible. the hu- be inherently connected with the man state, what is transpersonal, in transpersonal and could be said to 4 Mircea Eliade, “Introduction,” to The Sacred be Homo religiosus or Homo spir- and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. Willard R. Trask (New York, NY: Harcourt 2 Black Elk, quoted in Joseph Epes Brown, The Brace Jovanovich, 1987), p. 15. Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven 5 Joseph Epes Brown, “On Being Human,” in The Rites of the Oglala Sioux (Norman, OK: Univer- Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian: Com- sity of Oklahoma Press, 1989), p. 115. memorative Edition with Letters While Living 3 René Guénon, “War and Peace,” in The Symbol- with Black Elk, eds. Marina Brown Weatherly, ism of the Cross, trans. Angus Macnab (Ghent, Elenita Brown and Michael Oren Fitzgerald NY: Sophia Perennis et Universalis, 1996), p. (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2007), p. 43. 93. 123 order to make it human. sincerely believe themselves to be In the same way that human religious have for the most part a diversity requires a metaphysical greatly diminished idea of religion: framework to accurately situate the dialectic between differences and on their thoughts or actions and is asit hasif separated hardly any from effective the rest influence of their at their innermost core, the same life. Practically, believers and unbe- issimilarities, true for religious and what pluralism. unifies themThis lievers alike act in almost the same is made evident in the following: way”.8 “Truth does not deny forms from the An essential stumbling block outside, but transcends them from in comprehending human diversity, within.”6 What is critically needed not unlike religious pluralism, is due is not a shallow or docile tolerance to the prevailing weltanschauung of toward understanding the diverse modernism and postmodernism and human collectivities and religions, its entrenched assumptions about rather a quality of receptivity and the nature of reality. “[M]odern man way of seeing that recognizes the has desacralized his world and as- necessity of these differences and sumed a profane existence.”9 So dia- what is beyond them. “That which metrically opposed is the worldview is lacking in the present world is a of secularism with that of the sapi- profound knowledge of the nature ential traditions that the following of things; the fundamental truths needs to be kept in mind: “[N]onre- are always there, but they do not ligious man has been formed by op- impose themselves because they posing his predecessor, by attempt- cannot impose themselves on those ing to ‘empty’ himself of all religion unwilling to listen.”7 Due to the im- and all transhuman meaning.”10 It is balance that dominates this era, the in this context that we can better un- religions themselves are not imper- derstand the psychological mecha- nisms underlying the attack waged are facing myriad challenges from on religion: “‘Religion has failed’ say within.meable Withto these this conflicts said, there as theyis a cer too- its critics. They do not understand tain shortsightedness or spiritual illiteracy with regards to those who 8 René Guénon, “The Reform of the Modern Mentality,” in Symbols of Sacred Science, trans. identify themselves as being reli- Henry D. Fohr, ed. Samuel D. Fohr (Hillsdale, gious, while well intended, they of- NY: Sophia Perennis, 2004), p. 2. ten do not adequately understand 9 Mircea Eliade, “Introduction,” to The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. what this means: “[E]ven those who Willard R. Trask (New York, NY: Harcourt 6 Language Brace Jovanovich, 1987), p. 13. of the Self (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom 10 Mircea Eliade, “Human Existence and Sancti- Books,Frithjof 1999), Schuon, p. 40. “The Vedanta,” in The Sacred and the Profane: The 7 Nature of Religion, trans. Willard R. Trask Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Newfied Life,” York, in NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (AutumnFrithjof Schuon, 1969), p.“No 195. Activity Without Truth,” 1987), p. 204. 124 that it is not religion but those who its characteristics show.”12 Without analyze, criticize, and neglect it who analyzing these underlying assump- - tions or rather fundamental biases, manity which is precisely to be re- we are limited to a surface level of ligioushave failed (since in no the other first creature duty of can hu understanding of human diversity be) and that humanity has through and religious pluralism. “When we its fault lost its sense of direction.”11 use the term “modern” we mean nei- In order to understand the more ther contemporary nor up-to-date…. nuanced aspects of diversity, it is Rather, for us “modern” means that required an understanding of the which is cut off from the transcend- theoretical underpinnings of the ent, from the immutable principles contemporary West and its devel- which in reality govern all things”.13 opment, “The truth is that there are Approaches such as multicul- many civilizations, developing along turalism, cultural diversity, cultural very different lines, and that, among awareness, cultural competence, these, that of the modern West is race relations and so on attempt to strangely exceptional, as some of guide contemporaries through the murky waters of this pluralistic age, 11 Lord Nothbourne, “The Ineluctable Alterna- 12 René Guénon, “Preface,” to East and West, tive: A Letter to My Descendants” in Of the trans. Martin Lings (Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Per- Land and the Spirit: The Essential Lord North- ennis, 2004), p. 2. bourne on Ecology and Religion, eds. Christo- 13 pher James, the 5th Lord Northbourne and and Modern Thought,” Studies in Comparative Joseph A. Fitzgerald (Bloomington, IN: World Religion,Seyyed Hossein Vol. 15, Nos. Nasr, 3 “Reflections& 4 (Summer-Autumn on Islam Wisdom, 2008), p. 220. 1983), p. 164. 125 where one encounters the “other” or es in a way that is true to all races individuals from different cultures, and ethnicities, the phenomenon of races, ethnicities and religions dis- color-blindness allegedly overlooks tinct from one’s own on a regular human differences or ignores the basis. Even though these approach- relevance of race and ethnicity. In es deem to rectify the apparatuses emphasizing the uniqueness of each of oppression that began with colo- distinct human group, multicultur- nialism and the horrors of slavery, alism tends to lose sight of what is they do not contain the substance beyond human differences. In the to address the complexity of human same way, the color-blind approach diversity including its connection to emphasizes similarity overlooking religious pluralism. Addressing hu- what is beyond human similarities. man diversity and its relationship To solely emphasize one of these po- with religious pluralism is one of sitions leads to a polarized portrayal the most vital responsibilities of our of what is truly human and misses times, one that cannot be postponed the mark in comprehending the nec- or ignored as human existence on essary facets of human uniqueness and similarity. Contemporary approaches generally Before the popularization of tendearth to is assertin increasingly a polarized in portrayaljeopardy. the term multiculturalism, we recall of human diversity, one that either the well-known verse by Rudyard Kipling published in 1889 that il- into account the deeper dimensions. lustrates a widely held belief in a Multiculturalismaffirms or denies is it,a rarelygeneric taking term polarized vision of human identity, “East is East, and West is West, and has different meanings in different never the twain shall meet”.14 This contexts.that is not In easily general, defined terms because such asit outlook culminates in the now fa- multiculturalism assert the co-ex- mous phrase, yet a false thesis of istence of diverse populations and the so-called “Clash of Civilizations”15 challenge the “melting pot” theory which appropriately has been de- that ultimately assimilates individu- bunked as the “Clash of Ignorance”.16 als into the dominant culture. The 14 Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and “melting pot” or “salad bowl” theory West,” in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other does not foster human diversity, but Verses (Leipzig, Germany: Heinemann and will inevitably destroy all diversity. Balestier, 1892), p. 85. 15 Bernard Lewis coined the term “clash of civi- Multiculturalism, on the other hand, lizations” before Samuel P. Huntington, see emphasizes equality of each distinct Bernard Lewis, “The Roots of Muslim Rage,” group within society and celebrates The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 266, No. 3 (Septem- ber 1990), pp. 47-60; Samuel P. Huntington, these differences. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs, While multiculturalism at- Vol. 72, No. 3 (Summer 1993), pp. 22-49. tempts to honor human differenc- 16 See Edward W. Said, “The Clash of Ignorance,” The Nation, Vol. 273, No. 12 (October 22, 126 The “clash” is in many ways po- Nonetheless, beyond these larized by the extremism of anti- divergent portrayals is an entire religious secularism and religious way of seeing and perceiving human fundamentalism. When considered identity, which the modern secular in a larger context, the rise of mod- mindset has discarded in cutting it- ernism that gave birth to secular- self off from the sacred. It is in redis- ism has created a void in the human covering the perennial psychology collectivity heavily impacting the found within the world’s religions religions themselves. This vacuum that we can understand both diver- has created an imbalance which reli- sity and similarity and what bridges gious fundamentalism, and New Age them. Apart from this approach we spirituality for that matter, attempt are left in a precarious and very lim- - ited, if not dehumanizing portrayal talism emerged to defend itself from of what it means to be human. It is theto fill. threats Although of anti-religious religious fundamen secular- essential to recall anew, especially in ism, it has totally lost sight of what a globalizing world, “So long as West- religion is and has become in fact a erners imagine that there only exists betrayal to religion.17 a single type of humanity, that there 2001), pp. 11-14. is only one ‘civilization,’ at different 17 See Joseph E.B. Lumbard (ed.), Islam, Funda- stages of development, no mutual mentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Es- understanding will be possible.”18 It says by Western Muslim Scholars (Blooming- ton, IN: World Wisdom, 2009). 18 Réné Guénon, “Preface,” to East and West, 127 was not that the existence of diverse time impacts the human psyche and peoples or other religions was un- its relationship to Spirit. The nature known in earlier times, but it was of time across the cultures is under- not existentially threatening to the stood to be cyclical moving progres- practitioners of other faiths as it has sively from wholeness to greater become today. degrees of fragmentation. This pro- An unprecedented phenomenon has emerged today where di- on how human beings understand themselvescess has a and tremendous their relationship influence living beside one another, unlike any to the whole of life. “Originally man otherverse time beliefs before, now which find themselves is indica- saw the diverse in the One, then the tive of the urgent need for a deeper One in the diverse. Man must infer religious pluralism with better de- the One from the diverse, and to lineated bridges between faiths. This the extent that he grasps the One, is epitomized by the ensuing: “[T]he know the diverse through the One outward and readily exaggerated and dissolve the diverse in Unity.”21 incompatibility of the different religious forms greatly discredits, in the the Primordial Tradition that mani- minds of most of our contemporar- festedThere areat the two inception identifiable of this poles tem of- ies, all religion”.19 A natural outcome poral cycle, one is the First Peoples and the Shamanic traditions and the in the similarities and differences other is Hinduism, also known as the withof religious regard to pluralism their faith is traditions. reflected sanātana dharma or “the eternal and “The multiplicity of races, nations, universal code of conduct” which is and tribes necessitates the diversi- said to have existed everywhere. Ac- ty of revelations.”20 cording to the Hindu dharma, the to know that people have different initial temporal cycle known as the faiths and differ among It is themselves;insufficient Krita-Yuga or Satya-Yuga (Golden one must know why they differ and Age) was described in the following manner: “O child, that Yuga is called their metaphysical roots. Krita when the one eternal religion simultaneouslyIn surveying what traditional unifies them cos at- was extant. And in that best of Yugas, mology and psychology we can every one had religious perfection, glean many insights about the way and, therefore, there was no need of religious acts.”22 In the descriptions trans. Martin Lings (Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Per- ennis, 2004), p. 2. 21 Pri- 19 The Transcend- mordial Meditation: Contemplating the Real, ent Unity of Religions (Wheaton, IL: Quest Frithjoftrans. Gillian Schuon, Harris “Fourth and Collection,”Angela Schwartz in Books,Frithjof 1993), Schuon, pp. “Preface,” xxxiii-xxxiv. to (London, UK: Matheson Trust, 2015), p. 143. 20 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “One God, Many Proph- 22 “Tirtha-yātrā Parva,” in The Mahabharata of ets,” in The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated Into for Humanity (New York, NY: HarperCollins, English Prose, trans. Kisari Mohan Ganguli 2004), p. 16. (Calcutta: Bharata Press, 1884), p. 446. 128 provided by the Primordial Tradi- ter them abroad upon the face of all tion we have examples of the earliest the earth.” (Genesis 11:9) From the human collectivities living in peace, beginning of the temporal cycle until harmony and in remembrance of its close with the revelation of Islam, the Divine. “And during that [Krita-] we see clear examples of the rela- Yuga, there was neither disease, nor tionship of unity in diversity and di- decay of the senses. And there was versity in unity. Human diversity has neither malice, nor pride, nor hypocrisy, nor discord, nor ill-will, nor in distinct ways since time immemo- cunning, nor fear, nor misery, nor rial.been It reflected was also in known religious that pluralism through envy, nor covetousness. And for this, the dissociation from the sacred hu- that prime refuge of Yogis, even the man beings become estranged from Supreme Brahma, was attainable to their own nature as beings created all.”23 Another account reads, “I have “in God’s image,” and from their created these First People… …gave common spiritual heritage. This is them speech, a different language illustrated here: to each color, with respect for each [H]uman unity, initially traditional, by other’s difference.”24 We can also raising such a revolt against the divine Unity, compelled the latter to break it Abrahamic monotheisms, such as into ethnic fragments, dispersed over Judaism:find insinuations “And the of whole this unity earth in was the the entire earth and henceforth op- of one language, and of one speech.” posed one to another; and this through ( 11:1) Genesis a lack of understanding caused by the The early peoples that inhab- confusion, or more precisely by the dif- ited the earth were given clear in- ferentiation of their ‘language’ or single structions about how to live in right tradition into several ‘languages’ or di- relationship with the whole of crea- vergent traditions, but with a foundation, which continues to this day: tion that remains unanimous thanks to “There is only one thing I ask you. its divine essence.26 To respect the Creator at all times.”25 The consequences of not adhering It is in returning to what is unanimous across the faiths of all the Unity among the human collec- times and places that we can proper- to this Divine injunction ruptured tivity and the repercussions were as ly situate the theme of religious plu- follows: “[T]he Lord did there con- ralism and human diversity. Prior to found the language of all the earth: the modern and postmodern world and from thence did the Lord scat- and the emergence of secularism, 23 Ibid. p. 446. the linkage between religion and the 24 Hopi Elders, quoted in Frank Waters, Book of the Hopi: The First Revelation of the Hopi’s His- 26 Leo Schaya, “Some Universal Aspects of Juda- torical and Religious Worldview of Life (New ism,” in Universal Aspects of the Kabbalah and York, NY: Penguin Books, 1977), p. 7. Judaism, ed. Roger Gaetani (Bloomington, IN: 25 Ibid. p. 7. World Wisdom, 2014), p. 10. 129 human collectivities was more ex- plicit due to their isolation from one another, which sharply contrasts

A common misnomer is that race with the scenario that we find today. cultural or ethnic group. Neverthe- less,suggests race uniformity itself does within not automati a specific- cally imply psychological homoge- neity within a human collectivity, for race allows for certain psychological dissimilarities to also exist. To indis- criminately lump different races and ethnicities together assuming that they are all the same is to do them a

For thousands of years already, human- grave injustice. ity has been divided into several fundamentally different branches, which constitute so many complete humanities, more or less closed in on themselves ... [T]his is not always a question of race, but more often of human groups, very diverse perhaps, but none the less sub-

ject to mental conditions which, taken homogeneous spiritual recipients.27 as a whole, make of them sufficiently At its core we must realize that the “other” or “otherness” is an encounter with both the mystery identifying with our horizontal or of human existence and the Divine. relative identity, this mystery is ob- “‘Otherness’ is a veil over our eyes scured, yet through the Intellect or woven by our own imagination. Nei- the Eye of the Heart, both the hori- ther we ourselves nor the things we zontal and vertical dimensions of perceive outside of ourselves are human identity in divinis, the “oth- 28 truly other than God.” In solely er” or “otherness” can be under- 27 stood. “[T]he mystery is a mystery Gnosis: Divine Wisdom, trans. G.E.H. Palmer (Bedfont,Frithjof Schuon, Middlesex, “Diversity UK: Perennial of Revelation,” Books, in Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi 1990), p. 25. (Albany, NY: State University of New York 28 The Sufi Press, 1983), p. 304.

130 Rūmī�, quoted in William C. Chittick, solely for the reason that there is ethnicity or religion. The Qur'ān in- ‘otherness’; it is this, the creature, forms us that, “He created you [hu- which hides the divine unity and manity] from a single soul” (39:6), asks the question: ‘who’ and ‘what’ am I? Without this ‘otherness’ there of the First Peoples, “We are all one is neither ‘who’ nor ‘what’, neither inwhich nature.” reflects32 While the spiritual human individumessage- search nor mystery: there is nothing als have a common origin, this does but the only reality in its non-dual not undermine their uniqueness in and absolute selfness.”29 By taking an the Divine: “No two individuals are integral approach informed by the identical.”33 —analogously no two spiritual hermeneutics of the per- individuals occupy the “same stage ennial philosophy we can view the of development”.34 The many ways interrelatedness of all sentient be- to the Divine belong to the diversi- ings past, present and future: “There is not a single being in samsara, this sādhanās….”. 35 - immense ocean of suffering, who in tyage of points human out, types, “[T]here “Infinite are as are many the the course of time without begin- paths to God Likewise,as there theare Sufihuman ad ning has never been our father or souls”.36 According to a well-known mother.”30 Thus, the “other” or “oth- ḥadīth erness” is our disowned integral na- “People are as equal as the teeth ture that cannot be reclaimed devoid of a comb.” human And similarity yet according is affirmed: to a of a transpersonal dimension, “[A] man of another race…is like a forgot- also emphasized: “And among His ten aspect of ourselves and thus also signsQur'ānic is the verse, creation human of the diversity heavens is like a rediscovered mirror of God.”31 and the earth and the [diversity] The completion of the human variation in your tongues and colors. identity as viewed unanimously, in 32 Luther Standing Bear, “Hunter, Scout, Warri- all times and places, is its reintegra- or,” in Land of the Spotted Eagle (Lincoln, NE: tion with the Supreme Identity and University of Nebraska Press, 2006), p. 45. 33 Alain Daniélou, “Hinduism and Human Be- this is the human birthright acces- havior,” in India, A Civilization of Differences: sible to all regardless of sex, race, The Ancient Tradition of Universal Tolerance, trans. Kenneth Hurry, ed. Jean-Louis Gabin 29 Leo Schaya, “Contemplation of the Divine As- (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2005), p. 9. pects,” in The Universal Meaning of the Kab- 34 Alain Daniélou, “Introduction,” to Yoga: Mas- balah, trans. Nancy Pearson (Secaucus, NJ: tering the Secrets of Matter and the Universe University Books, 1971), p. 57. (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1991), p. 6. 30 35 The Essential Śrī freedoms and advantages,” in The Words of My Ānandamayī Mā: Life and Teachings of a 20th PerfectPatrul Rinpoche, Teacher, trans. “The Padmakaradifficulty of Translation finding the ĀCentury� nandamay Indianī � Mā, Saint, quoted in Group (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publish- Joseph A. Fitzgerald (Bloomington, IN: World ers, 1994), p. 7. Wisdom, 2007), p. 62. trans. Ā� tmānanda, ed. 31 36 The Eye of the Castes and Races, trans. Marco Pallis and D.M. Heart: Metaphysics, Cosmology, Spiritual Life MathesonFrithjof Schuon, (Bedfont, “The Middlesex, Meaning UK: of Perennial Race,” in (Bloomington,Quoted in Frithjof IN: Schuon,World Wisdom Books, Books, 1982), p. 60. 1997), p. 121. 131 Truly in that are signs for those who to what is beyond all color: “If my know.” (30:22) Additionally, impor- eye is to see color, it must be free of tant is the role of knowledge and all color.”41 Metaphysically speaking, its connection to different human the uncolored light represents the types, “[T]here are as many ways of pure Unity and the rainbow repre- understanding as there are human sents manifestation in the phenom- knowers.”37 enal world. To solely acknowledge Integral metaphysics pro- the rainbow of human diversity is vides a way of conceptualizing the to lose sight of the singular source divine Unity underlying the human of the uncolored light, which gives condition which is at the same time birth to the rainbow itself: the origin of human diversity. “The Whatever a man’s race might be, when single origin of humanity implies the the Spirit crystallizes in him due to the profound unity within diversity of effect of his worshiping God, his soul human nature”.38 This becomes ap- becomes like a mystical diamond. The parent in the relationship between skin color or the circumstances of the the uncolored light and the spectrum of colors comprising of the rainbow. on the quality of his spiritual illumina- “The rainbow owes its beauty to the birth of such a man have no influence tion. Whatever his social standing or variety of its shades and colors. In the disadvantages of his birth might be, the same way, we consider the voic- if he has reached this state, no outer ele- es of various believers that rise up ment will be powerful enough to make from all parts of the earth as a sym- this state slip away from him.42 phony of praises addressing God, 39 Who alone can be Unique.” And This integral perspective on expressed similarly in: “All light is human diversity as it is found across 40 one but colors a thousandfold.” The the cultures is regrettably absent source of each distinct color belongs from contemporary multicultural discourse and interfaith dialogue. 37 Meister Eckhart, quoted in C.F. Kelley, Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge (Cobb, CA: Dhar- Without turning to this transper- maCafé Books, 2009), p. 190. sonal dimension of human iden- 38 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “One God, Many Proph- tity we cannot understand the deep ets,” in The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity (New York, NY: HarperCollins, roots of diversity. “[We take our] 2004), p. 16. color from God; and who is better 39 Tierno Bokar, quoted in Amadou Hampâté Bâ, A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of 41 Meister Eckhart, “Sermon 12,” in Teacher and Tierno Bokar, trans. Jane Casewit, ed. Roger Preacher, ed. Bernard McGinn (Mahwah, NJ: Gaetani (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, Paulist Press, 1986), 270. 2008), p. 126. 42 Tierno Bokar, quoted in Amadou Hampâté 40 Fakhruddin Bâ, A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of 'Iraqi: Divine Flashes, trans. William C. Chit- Tierno Bokar, trans. Jane Casewit, ed. Roger tickFakhr and al-D Peterī�n ʻIrāq Lambornī�, ‎“Flash Wilson XI,” in (New York, Gaetani (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, NY: Paulist Press, 1982), p. 94. 2008), p. 131. 132 than God at coloring? And we wor- Unity. Although there are no ready- ship Him.” (Qur'ān 2:138) Similarly without this metaphysical perspec- to the challenges of our day requires tive we cannot understand religious increasingmade panaceas, spiritual a definitive literacy to remedy go be- pluralism: “Religions are like lamps yond the surface level understand- of colored glass.... [I]f it is true that ing of the world’s religions and their without a given colored lamp one relation to the diverse human col- would see nothing, it is quite as true lectivities. The gift of all of the rich diversity that exits in the human and with any one color.”43 The correla- transpersonal domain can be un- tionthat between visibility human cannot diversity he identified and derstood and embraced through the religious pluralism is made evi- divine Unity found in all times and dent in the perennial psychology: places. “[W]hat determines the difference The attempt to forge a viable among forms of Truth is the differ- model of human diversity on the ence among human receptacles.”44 principle of diversity as do contem- And correspondingly the necessity porary multicultural discourse or of diverse revelations: “For every interfaith dialogue for that matter is community there is a messenger”. not only questionable, but improb- (Qur'ān 10:48) able for multiplicity cannot establish What is evident is that we a true unity without an agency high- can no longer turn our backs to the er than itself. “[I]t must be authenti- urgent need for more integral and cally a unity, not merely something deeper forms of religious pluralism. elaborated into unity and so in reali- The consequences of not doing so ty no more than unity’s counterfeit”.45 are made apparent by the incessant The very existence of the diversity of media soundbites broadcasting hor- human individuals and the religions does not contradict or negate Unity. the globe in the name of religion. At the same time, Unity does not con- Furthermore,rific events transpiring religious throughoutpluralism tradict or negate diversity and this is also requires that we not gloss over an essential point that secular ap- its connection to human diversity, proaches to human diversity and the as they are at their metaphysical religions do not appear to grasp. The root derivatives of the same divine principle of diversity is contingent on what is higher than itself, a ver- 43 tical dimension, to fuse and balance Religions,” in Christianity/Islam: Essays on EsotericFrithjof Schuon,Ecumenicism, “The Ideatrans. of Gustavo ‘The Best’ Polit in the domain of manifestation. Even (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom Books, though contemporary multicultural 1985), p. 152. 44 45 Plotinus, “How the Secondaries rise from The Gnosis: Divine Wisdom, trans. G.E.H. Palmer First; and on The One,” in The Enneads, trans. (Bedfont,Frithjof Schuon, Middlesex, “Diversity UK: Perennial of Revelation,” Books, in Stephen MacKenna (New York, NY: Penguin 1990), p. 25. Books, 1991), p. 387. 133 approaches to human diversity recognize the uniqueness and importance of the many colors of the rainbow, they overlook the most vital facet, the uncolored light prior to its refraction which is the source of the distinctive varieties of human beings and their faith traditions. By restoring human diversity to its sacred origins we can authentically recognize and celebrate the indwelling Spirit found in all of the unique human beings and their corresponding religions. The timeless wisdom reminds us that if the human microcosm is at peace, it will reverberate into the macrocosm. We conclude with a traditional Hindu mantra for invoking peace throughout all levels of Reality since the beginning of this temporal cycle: Om, Shānti, Shānti, Shānti and correspondingly a verse from the Islamic revelation at the end of the calycle, “O you who believe! Invoke blessings upon him, and greetings of peace!” (Qur'ān 33:56)

134 The Greatest Binding Force

Mahatma Gandhi Prayer is the greatest bind- a Musalman, a Parsi, a Christian or ing force, making for the solidarity a Sikh. Similarly, there would be no and oneness of the human family. If scramble for personal gain or power a person realizes his unity with God between various groups or between through prayer, he will look upon different members within a group. everybody as himself. There will be - no high, no low, no narrow provin- ner. If we are in tune with God, no cialism or petty rivalries in the mat- matterThe how outer big a must gathering, reflect perfectthe in ter of language between an Andhra quiet and order would prevail and and a Tamilian, a Kanarese and a - Malayalee. There will be no invidi- fect protection. Above all, realization ous distinction between a touch- ofeven God the must weakest mean wouldfreedom enjoy from per all able and untouchable, a Hindu and earthly fear. ______Harijan, 3-3-'46, p. 29, quoted in "The Discipline of Prayer" by Pyarelal Nayyar.

135 Hope for Peace in a Broken World: 1 Chronicles, Exile and Building Walls

Grace Ji-Sun Kim

The world abounds in clash of rate one another. We see this in the cultures, religions and beliefs today, division of Korea into North and as it has for millennia. In such con- South Koreas and the devastating texts, how do we try to live peace- consequences for a divided country. ably with those who have differing Today, our American context of im- opinions on how to live, worship, migration is resulting in a clash of and believe. Such situations, in ad- cultures between various world reli- dition to the more mundane reasons gions as well as the difference in re- based on wealth and land, often lead lations between religions and state, to wars, destroying each other’s re- where, in Jewish and Muslim socie- ligions and building walls to sepa- ties, the two are intertwined, while 136 in American Christian societies, the capital, Babylon, where much of the two are, in principle, separated. This Old Testament was put to parch- article will examine the Book of 1 ment. As with any event in which Chronicles to see how people in exile people are displaced, the exile had the consequence of effacing some return and rebuilding and what its of the crucial particularities of Isra- implicationsexperienced sojourning,are for us settlement,are today. elite identity and silencing the sub- This paper will work towards how different religions, cultures and societies can peacefully coexist. thejects Davidic who constituted dynasty, the it, Levites,such as the The Old Testament book of Jerusalemtribes of Judah, temple, Levi, the and priesthood, Benjamin, Chronicles is an example of Diaspora and the Judean cult. This experi- literature which was edited into its ence of the exile is still felt by Jews today. Many have similar experienc- Persian domination of all lands from es of being exiled during WWII from thefinal Indus form to during Cyrene the and fifth-century Macedonia. their homes in central Europe and in Chronicles is written to explain how other parts of the world such as Asia a people who lived through a catastrophic event managed to survive, caused many peoples to be exiled fromwhere their armed homes. conflict and genocide to rebuild their lives. They were not contentendure, toand let find their freedom oppressors and hopehave Living with Different Peoples

1 When exiles return home, thetheir last past word and ortried define to move their forward history their priorities and their sense of withas they their searched lives into to find a new meaning future. in identity may not be the same as those of their parents. For the re- and reestablish one’s heritage is a turning Israelites, the initial ex- strongThe power message to fight for us back, today. persevere citement and desire to rebuild the Jerusalem fell to Babylon in temple had worn off. The hope for 587 BC. In Judah, key aspects of the emergence of a new king, per- Israel’s past were suppressed and haps Zerubbabel2 had also worn off. - What remained was the grim reality quirements of the Neo-Babylonian of reestablishing a daily life in Judah. Empire.co-opted Part to fitof thethat ideological cultural sup re- It is in this context that the Chroni- pression was the exile of Judean cler3 rewrote Israel’s history. It was elite to locations in and around the 2 A governor of the Persian Province of Yehud Medinata (Haggai 1:1) and the grandson of 1 Renita J. Weems, ‘1-2 Chronicles’ in The Afri- Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. cana Bible: Reading Israel’s Scriptures from 3 Because the author of this material is un- Africa and the African Diaspora Hugh R. Page known, he has been designated ‘the Chroni- Jr. General Editor, p. 286-290 (Minneapolis: cler.’ Most scholars believe that 1 and 2 Fortress Press, 2010), 287, 288. Chronicles originated in priestly circles and 137 written to the displaced people that also to rediscover God’s purpose for there is hope for them and God is still them under new circumstances. with them. They are not a forgotten Chronicles contains stories of people, but a people whom God has people struggling to preserve their chosen and loves. It becomes a com- cultural identity, reclaim their his- passionate book giving them a solid direction of how they are to proceed to characterize their own identity.4 with their life as they return to their Thosetorical whomemories, remained and andfind thoselanguage re- homeland dispossessed and dam- turning need to negotiate how they aged by the exile. The chronicler re- will live together in peace and har- tells its history to remind the people mony. This identity crisis pervades where they have come from and how cultures today and reconstructing God has been with them throughout the past which has been scrubbed their history. clean by events may not be the way For the Israelites, to rebuild to do it.5 the community after the exile is a As the world has become in- huge undertaking, which needs to creasingly interdependent and peo- be celebrated. As displaced people ple are constantly moving to follow, or escape, from events of the day, it even torturous to pick up where one hasreturn left home off. itNothing becomes remains difficult the or and people living in the diaspora same as all things are in a state of tois difficultcome to for terms immigrants, with their transients identi- be honored. Changes have occurred themselves even though those in flux and old property rights may not powerty. Many are are trying struggling to do itto for redefine them. root in Judah to give one the sense ofand loss foreign of identity influences and history. have taken Peo- to reclaim the power to name and ple are intermarrying with foreign In this difficult space, it is crucial neighbors and there is an intermix- separate from the dominant culture. ing of history, culture and religions. Somefind themselves people living in relationin the toUnited and A lot of anxiety can be experienced 4 Renita J. Weems, ‘1-2 Chronicles’ in The Afri- by those who have returned home cana Bible: Reading Israel’s Scriptures from and realize that it is not the way they Africa and the African Diaspora Hugh R. Page had left it or remembered it to be. Jr. General Editor, p. 286-290 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010), 286. The returnees were forced not only 5 This is particularly true following WW II, where the British, French, Dutch, Belgian, and American protectorates and colonies were to consequently adjust to they their presume new male reality authorship. but dismantled, and arbitrary lines were drawn Alice L. Laffey, “1 and 2 Chronicles’ in The in the sand, dividing the mid-East and Africa Women’s Bible Commentary p. 110-115 ed- into nations which did not necessarily follow ited by Carol A. Newsom & Sharon H. Ringe cultural boundaries, as when the Kurds found (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, themselves without a country, and split be- 1992), 110. tween Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. 138 States today wanted a scrubbed im- 7 and settlement. The age of the U.S. which ‘existed’ in their - minds before all these new liberal tlement,es: sojourning exile and return, not only ideas. If the 1960’s lead us into exile bringstension structure between to sojourn the Chronicler’s and set because of women’s liberation, civil memory of ancient Israel; it also rights movement, people of color, immigrants, so-called illegals caused of its relationship to the Neo-Bab- our destruction some may feel that yloniandefines Israel’sand Persian experience empires in terms that getting back to the good old days is shattered then shaped Israel’s mo- what we need. It is important to rec- narchical past,8 ognize that the good old days never inescapable memories, which can existed for much of the US as man- cause problems conjuringfor us today. up some Ille- sions and summer homes that had gal aliens and desperate immigrants 20 bedrooms may have been the have shaped our history but it has life of a few but not reality for the become the “glorious past” and the nation. The Chronicler may also be current illegals, those people osten- addressing such people who may sibly living off our wealth - that have have wanted the good old life back made it into our consciousness. again. The Chronicler encouraged This experience of exile, even the people to move forward rather exile in place, as with the current than backwards and to focus on re- Palestinian population living under building the temple. It is the temple Israeli rule or Kurds, left without a which will bring all the key players land, and dominated by Turkish or together, the exiled and those who Iraqi rule, causes pain, anger and remained. loss which can then be translated The book of Chronicles6 is in- into hatred and acts of violence. spired by the events of Israel’s ex- We see this in the country of Korea ile in Babylon and the subsequent which has experienced invasion, im- return. In trying to recount these perialism and division. events, Chronicles reconstructs a cultural memory of the people of Is- Korea and Japan rael. The exile and the return represent far more than theological The Japanese invaded Korea metaphors. From the beginning to and occupied Korea from August 29, end, these traumatic events ordered 1920 to August 15, 1945. The Japa- all of Israel’s past into a tension be- 7 To stay somewhere temporarily, such as an tween two fundamental experienc- exile, followed by a return. 6 In the Hebrew tradition, the book of Chronicles 8 Gregory Lee Cuellar, The Peoples’ Bible: New is a single book, placed at the end of the Jew- Revised Standard Version with the Apocry- ish Bible, the last book of the Kethuvim. See pha, edited by Curtiss Paul DeYoung, Wilda C. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, The Jewish Gafney, Leticia A. Guardiola-Saenzk, George Study Bible, Tanakh Translation (Oxford, UK: “Tink” Tinker and Frank M. Yamada (Minne- Oxford University Press, 1999) 1712. apolis: Fortress Press, 2009), 526. 139 nese presumed that they had every come this terrible event. She lived a right to occupy Korea and do what life of exile from her own city of Seoul they wanted with the people of Ko- not knowing when it would be safe rea. There was much brutality and to return home. The consequences a loss of Korean culture, identity and of such experiences have had grave society. This was the distorted per- effects on the lives of many Koreans ception of reality that the Japanese and still haunt many who have lived - selves that they are able to occupy - anotherpeople held country. in order to justify them terthrough such trauma similar can horrific have lasting ordeals. ef- My mother, used to tell me fectsThe difficulty on the generations of rebuilding who lives follow. af stories of the Japanese occupation of The generations who follow are dis- Korea. She told stories of her child- placed, without a strong identity of hood experience of living on the run, home, place, religion and country. fearful of being shot or being killed Building Walls9 kill civilians. One such land-mine ex- by land-mines, planted to injure or- There have been many good reasons for building walls. Walls butploded she assurvived my grandmother the explosion. was Durflee- 9 This section is adapted from my blog post ing duringher childhood, the war. myShe motherwas injured was - articles/walls-divide]“Walls that Divide” Sojourners (Nov 3, 2014). Accessed March 28, 2016 [https://sojo.net/ terrified140 and could not fully over protect against aggressors, such as a wall built from the remaining met- Hadrian’s wall and the Great Wall of al landing scraps of the Gulf War, a China. Even as we examine the Bible, wall that expanded the role of the there are references to walls. In Ne- military’s use of metal. The border hemiah, the survivors who remained has become militarized with patrols and those who returned home are who treat migrants as prisoners. full of shame that “the wall of Jeru- It symbolizes militarization, xeno- salem is broken down and its gates phobia, hatred, pride and fear of Nehe- the other, a reminder of wanting to miah 1:3). The walls gave them pro- protect what is yours and not shar- tectionhave been and destroyed security against by fire” bandits ( ing what God has given you. Walls as the only barrier to felons from the continue to go up as the American outside world. people continue to fear that the mi- For people today, we may have a very different perception of is an enormous amount of fear of the the function of a wall. There may be othergrants which will take may away poison the jobs.the lives There of a negative understanding in a world the poor in both countries. where we have become hardened The walls went up in 1994 to the needs of the hungry, impov- between the Mexican and U.S. bor- erished, malnourished neighbors der after the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agree- to work and feed their families. A ment (NAFTA) which was intended wallwho existswant toat comemany intoparts the of U.S.the justU.S. to help with trade and the economic and Mexican border to help America status of Mexico. However, it back- protect itself from foreigners who - want to enter into the United States tion worse for the Mexicans. It was without proper documentation. In onlyfired theand rich made corporations the economic and situa com- the decision to protect our country from undocumented people, we are Trade Agreement as they were able preventing many people from access topanies move that their benefited factories from to the Mexico Free to food and a way of living which where the labor was cheap and prof- may not be available in their own its higher. What Americans fail to home country. recognize is that the undocumented Rather than having these atti- people do not cross the border to tudes towards the stranger, we need to nurture feelings of inclusion. Even - along the U.S. and Mexico border, a videsteal, forto createtheir familiesproblems, back to fight home. or wall exists which divides the two Therefore,to murder, we but need to find to jobsrethink to proour countries; a wall that provides con- border policies. Many Americans stant surveillance to deter people have actually begun to call the mi- from entering into the U.S. illegally, grants ‘clutter’ and have reduced 141 This wall is under constant surveil- and the devastation caused by build- lance to prevent people from enter- ingthem them, to jetsum. we have As come we ponder to recognize walls ing into the U.S. illegally. that we can’t continue building walls The Korean peninsula is an- to separate us from others. We need other example of a place that is di- to replace them with prudent friend- vided by a great wall/barrier at the ship. 38th parallel. The divided border A few years ago, I took a class is called the DMZ: a ‘demilitarized to Mexico-U.S. border through Bor- zone,” created in 1953, after Korea derLinks, an organization that pro- was separated into two countries by vides educational experiences to the United States and the Soviet Un- connect divided communities, raise ion at the end of World War II. This awareness about border and immi- division continues to generate fear gration policies and their impact, and hostility. and inspires people to act for social I have visited the DMZ sev- transformation. We visited the metal eral times; the last time I took two wall that separates the United States from Mexico In the midst of horror, God trav- at Nogales, Mexico. els into exile and returns with us. Rich corporations and companies that bene- of my three children to see it. They as they were able to move their fac- are too young to remember the visit, toriesfited from down the to Free Mexico Trade where Agreement labor but every time I visit the DMZ I am overcome with emotion. The dev- economy of Mexico suffered, more astation of families separated, lives peoplewas cheap made and their profits way, higher. without As doc the- lost, friendships broken, and a coun- uments, to the United States to seek try torn apart. It is a sign of despair, work so they could support their hatred, sadness, anger, division, and families. hopelessness. In 2006, the United States re- At the border, there is a metal sponded with the Secure Fence Act. fence that divides the road traveling As President George W. Bush signed into the DMZ. Hundreds of letters, the bill, he stated, “This bill will help - protect the American people. This ven into the fence, left by families bill will make our borders more se- andnotes, strangers flowers, andto express trinkets the are painwo cure. It is an important step toward and longing that each person feels. immigration reform.” The act includ- Koreans want the two Koreas to ed provisions for the construction of unite so that the wall can be disman- physical barriers-walls-and the use tled and families reunited. Broken- of technology to forward these ends. ness needs to be healed. 142 so in light of the passage in Nehemiah. The walls built today as those in Nehemiah are not used functionally the same as the time in Ne- hemiah or in other cases in history to protect people from real dangers, such as the ancient cities of Eu- rope10. Today, there may be walls around us that may be physically or socially built; some may be in need of repair. We have built walls as shortsighted ways of dealing with other countries, strangers and communities. Korea has experienced war, and especially the exile of young women who were taken as sexual slaves for the Japanese sol- This image is similar to that of diers. Korea has a history the Berlin Wall that divided East and of such loss of culture, identity and West Berlin and Germany. It was community for many of its citizens. built of bricks and other left-over As a separated country it seeks rec- war materials from WWII. It had onciliation, solidarity and peace for barbed wire attack dogs, mines, and its separated peoples, so the north spotlights. It was a symbol of fear can share the prosperity of the south. and the failure of a repressive regime. This Berlin wall is now gone, Hope for a Broken World but the U.S./Mexico border reminds us of the Berlin wall. The walls are It is important to recognize built to separate people and not to that in the midst of horror, God - travels into exile and returns with ican and Mexican policies to accom- us. God was in the gas chambers unite. It signifies the failure of Amer- with the Jewish victims…and walk- nization and the powerlessness of ing with the survivors into a new theplish other, economic the dominated justice and countries. the femi life that is far more important than - whether the new life replicated the cance of walls today, we need to do 10 As we reflect on the signifi towns/ http://www.thetourexpert.eu/fortified-143 old. Life cannot be reenacted, but tory of God’s people from creation to the presence of God can be experi- their own salvation from exile. God enced in new lands or when one re- reaches out and saves God’s people. turns to traditional homelands. God controls the world and we need The work of the church is to constantly come before and seek not to simply accept the status quo God’s wisdom and help in eliminat- as ‘God ordained’ and something ing the evil structures of this world. which needs to remain in society. Today, we need to broaden The church needs to challenge, cri- our sense of our society to include tique and reimagine what the ‘reign the world and see if we need to re- of God’ needs to be like here on earth structure our lives so that others as political circumstances change, as around the world can live more when the two Germanys were reu- equally and in harmony with each nited and violence ceased in North- other. Chronicles pulls us out of our ern Ireland. In this way changes that comfort zones and encourages us help the poor, the dominated, the en- to look at ourselves in the mirror slaved, and subordinated can occur. This is the mandate of the church for hold the imperialistic power and are us today, retelling the reality of God dominatingto figure out otherif we arecountries. the ones If who we walking with us from the past into are, what steps we need to take so the future. that we are not the oppressors, but 1 and 2 Chronicles provided are the liberators and are seekers testimony that despite the destruc- who wish to build the reign of God in tion of the Temple and exile, the this world. There are some “allies” hopes and dreams of a national re- who can work with us and accompa- vival of Israel could never be extin- ny the oppressed in their search for guished. Israel’s future and destiny was tied to the God of its history move forward and see how we can and not to human powers. God is becomefreedom agents and flourishing. of change Wein our need new to in control, ordering the destinies conception of a global society. of empires and their inhabitants. Even though humanity believes that settlement, and immigration are their human leaders control world prominentThe concepts concept in of today’s sojourning, post- events, the Hebrew Scriptures re- colonial world where people were inforce that God is in control of his- displaced and may experience mi- tory. It is God who ultimately allows gration, such as the monumental dis- the Israelites to return to their land. placement of Hindus and Muslims in This explains why Chronicles is the the partition of India and Pakistan in last book in the historical narrative 1947. They are asked to settle in for- 11 Hebrew Bible as it retells the his- Africa and the African Diaspora, Hugh R. Page 11 Renita J. Weems, ‘1-2 Chronicles’ in The Afri- Jr. General Editor, p. 286-290 (Minneapolis: cana Bible: Reading Israel’s Scriptures from Fortress Press, 2010), 288. 144 eign lands and places, thus etching Conclusion of displaced people. Thus it becomes exile and sojourning into the minds- to repair relationships that we have es so that a positive impact can be damagedWe ormay have need created to reflect to onbe how out madeessential upon to theirreflect lives. on the Positive experienc feed- of balance. Maintaining such imbal- back is crucial for their survival in a anced relations with African, Asian, postcolonial world. Proper exegeti- Latin American and Middle Eastern cal analysis is also needed so that clients creates the impulses which people will not have misconceptions drive citizens of those clients into about those of our brothers and sis- the hands of terrorist organizations, ters who are displaced and have be- because they see no other escape or come strangers to us. means of relief. As leaders within The world needs God to facili- our own community or church, we tate a peaceful world. America has need to examine where the walls of relationship have crumbled and how - to delicately repair them. ingbenefited lived in from the beingAmerican complacent. empire. As we think about walls and OutWe haveof this reaped comfort the webenefits need ofto hav ask other barriers, we recognize that for ourselves if we are being true to the such walls to come down we need to gospel which speaks of love; accept- repair the damaged and broken rela- ance; and helping the sick, poor and lame, when it means all the sick, poor place. The hostility between the two and lame. As we recognize our own Koreastionships needs that builtto end. them Peace in the needs first participation in a global economic to be restored on this tiny peninsu- domination, we need to detach our- la, my homeland. Walls can be torn selves from interests based entirely down—walls that separate us from on attaining wealth and access to each other and keep families apart. cheap goods and work towards elim- As we endeavor in this work, our fears and hatred of the other need to domination in our world. We need be abolished. Communication, dia- toinating ask ourselves injustices, who oppression, represents and us logue, trust, and mutuality need to in this story? Furthermore, we must be restored or created, where it has entertain the possibility that we may never been. be similar to the Persians in this ac- In the story of Chronicles, count, who have not yet released our God never abandoned as the people grip on all of our economic and po- thought that God did during the ex- litical vessels. ile. The temple was gone and the exiled were taken away, but God never abandoned the people. Chronicles is talking to a community who has 145 been broken apart and scattered. the community together, above the The message that the Chronicler miasma of racism, sexism, xenopho- wants to share is that God is giving bia and chaos. them a second chance. Thus com- People may become afraid munity is very important to them. of each other rather than come to Rather than condemnation, we need know each other. If we are to live to see grace and love of God that is peaceably with each other of vari- so much greater than condemnation. ous cultures, societies and religions, In this narrative, there appears to be we need to learn to “Embrace each a love story. God is telling the peo- other”12. That can happen if we allow ple, “I love you, please come home.” the Spirit of God to move us and live There is a passion within the story within and through us. of God saying that you may have misbehaved but please come home. Keeping the community together is important and it is in the commu- to build the community. Today, we facenity thatsimilar one challenges finds God. as One we needstry to see what is best for the immigrant and diverse communities. We need 12 For more discussion see Grace Ji-Sun Kim, to be able to sustain them and keep Embracing the Other (Grand Rapids: Eerd- mans, 2015).

146 Integral Pluralism as the Basis for Harmony: The Approach of His Highness the Aga Khan

Ali Lakhani

Central to my life has been a verse in Conflict and Fragmentation: The the Holy Qur’an which addresses itself Spirit of the Age to the whole of humanity. It says: “Oh Mankind, fear your Lord, who created We are living in an age char- you of a single soul, and from it created - its mate, and from the pair of them scat- tation, where the spirit of the age is tered abroad many men and women…” increasinglyacterized by pitted conflict against and the fragmen Spirit I know of no more beautiful expression itself. In W. B. Yeats’ prophetic words, about the unity of our human race, born things fall apart and the centre can- indeed from a single soul.1 not hold. In the domain of religion, His Highness the Aga Khan often of political or economic origin thoughwe have purporting been witnessing to be conflictsbased on – 1 Address by His Highness the Aga Khan to religious differences – that feed re- both Houses of the Parliament of Canada in the House of Commons Chamber (Ottawa, actionary claims. At the same time, Canada) 27 February 2014. The scriptural we have been witnessing a secular- reference is to Surat an-Nisa, 4:1. 147 ist ascendancy that questions the le- trifugal tug away from traditional gitimacy of religion as such as well notions of community and commun- ion, and from our connection with world is placing its faith increasingly the natural world. Uncertain of who inas scienceof specific over religions. religion, inThe earth modern over we truly are, and lacking the aware- heaven, and in man over God – re- ness of our spiritual centre, it is easy ductively preferencing polarity over for us to mistrust the ‘Other’ and to complementarity. Not unrelated to revert to tribal associations which – this, there is a deepening ‘malaise particularly in a globalized world of porous boundaries and therefore of and technological advancements of increasing diversity – can lead us to ourof modernity’. age, and its Despite medical the and scientific mate- - rial marvels, there is a strange and mony. paths ofThere conflict is a ratherneed forthan us of to har re- disorientation, distraction, discon- discover the integral foundations of nection,discomfiting disenchantment, sense of dislocation, and dispir- life, of connection, of wholeness and itedness in our triumphal, if not hu- bristic, march of ‘progress.’ It is easy While these foundations may be in such an age to be cynical or apa- rootedequilibrium in religion, in our itdisjointed is an especially world. thetic. Are we, in the biblical phrase, - gaining the whole world but losing gion is in such disfavor, to address our own soul? Are we forgetting our solutionsdifficult task, in inexpressly an age where religious reli very nature, and thereby our true terms. This is lamentable because place in the natural world? Are we religion as such is the expression, losing our sense of the sacred, and albeit in particular theological idi- thereby our integral relationship oms, of the universal and perennial with the cosmos? In a sophisticated theme of Unity and of pathways to era where materialism seduces the Union. And it is especially lamenta- soul with more immediate rewards ble that Islam – a religion which pre- than the promise of a deferred salvation, and where the zeal to indulge name – should be so misunderstood our individual freedoms and appe- eveneminently as it signifies is defamed ‘peace’ by in terrorist its very tites is stronger than the restraint groups who, through barbaric acts, of responsibility and moderation, misrepresent their own avowed we are experiencing a strong cen- faith. There is a need, then, not only ______

Development Network website (http://www.akdn.org/speeches) and, on occasion, from the online archiveAll quotations known from as NanoWisdoms His Highness the (http://www.nanowisdoms.org/nwblog). Aga Khan are excerpted, with thanks, from Some the officialof the Agaspeeches Khan cited in this article are also excerpted from the publication Where Hope Takes Root: Democracy and Pluralism in an Interdependent World by His Highness the Aga Khan, introduction by the Rt. Hon. Adri- enne Clarkson, © 2008 by Aga Khan Foundation Canada, published by Douglas & McIntyre Ltd. (here- after cited as Where Hope Takes Root). 148 to rediscover the bond that connects approach provides a corrective for us to each other, but also to provide Islam and for faith as such, is the a corrective to the misperceptions spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Is- about Islam in a manner that is true maili Muslim community – His High- to the essence of the Muslim faith, ness Prince Shah Karim Al-Husseini, and to faith as such. known in the West by his title, ‘Aga Khan’. His approach, which can be The Aga Khan and the Ismailis summed up in the phrase ‘integral pluralism’, is true to universal and - perennial principles that undergird erate Muslim leader who has ad- his Muslim faith, while also appeal- dressedOne the quietly issue influential,of the fragmen mod- ing to secular humanists who might tation of our times, and whose be wary of solutions couched in ex- 149 pressly religious terms. ership of the hereditary Ismaili Imam of By way of background, the the time. This adherence is in harmony Ismailis are a transnational commu- - nity of Shia Muslims, located mostly ciples of personal search and balance also with our acceptance of Sufi prin in South and Central Asia, in parts between the zahir and the spirit or the of the Middle East and Africa, and intellect which the zahir 2 in Canada, the USA, and Western signifies. Europe. The Aga Khan is the 49th As the Amman protocol indi- ‘Imam’ or spiritual leader of his com- cates, the Ismaili approach is predi- munity, and is a direct descendant of cated on harmonizing the outer Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.), and (zahiri) and inner (batini) realities the only living Shia Imam in a suc- through an intellectual and prin- cession of Imams beginning with the cipial approach guided by the Is- Prophet’s cousin and son-law, ‘Ali maili Imam. This occurs through a ibn Abi Talib. The Ismaili ‘Imamat’ reciprocal relationship whereby Is- is a supra-national entity represent- mailis pledge allegiance (bayah) to ing the succession of Imams through their Imam, who in turn guides them the Nizari Ismaili lineage, and has a through the exercise of his ta’lim and legal status and function recognized ta’wil, that is, his intellectual-moral under international law, notably by and principial-exegetical author- Portugal, where the Imamat estab- ity in conformity to spiritual princi- lished its Seat in 2015, and by Cana- ples (Usul ad-Din) and the traditions da, where the Imamat established a of Islam, adapted according to the formal ambassadorial presence, the needs of the changing times. Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat. The Ismailis’ heritage in- Underlying Principles cludes the glorious era of the Fatim- id Caliphate in Egypt, where Ismaili Central to these spiritual Imams in the 10th century founded principles is the doctrine of unity the city of Cairo as their capital and (tawhid), which lies at the heart of established Al-Azhar Masjid and Uni- versity, one of the oldest surviving has multiple dimensions, it is essen- universities in history. From a theo- Islam. It affirms that, though reality logical perspective, the Ismailis fol- 2 Amman Message, July 2005 [http://amman- low spiritual principles emphasized message.com/]. The Amman Message is an initiative of the Royal Court of Jordan, begun

As the Aga Khan noted in his letter to Ummah (or Muslim community) and thereby theby the Amman Ja’fari Conference jurisprudential in July school. 2005, toin portray November its diversity 2004. It – sought an important to define retort the to those who might seek to portray it as ho- Our historic adherence is to the Ja’fari mogeneous. The Ismailis were recognized in the Amman Message as a part of the Ummah Madhhab and other Madhahib of close through a protocol from which the excerpt - herein is cited. 150affinity, and it continues, under the lead tially one. While discontinuous and world and the egoic self, in each case transcendent, it is also continuous through a fragmentary perception and immanent. Referring to the real- devoid of the sense of the sacred, ity of One God, the Holy Qur’an states and which thereby fails to perceive that “He is the First (al-Awwal) and reality integrally, as holy, as whole. the Last (al-Akhir), the Outward (az- A further implication of the Zahir) and the Inward (al-Batin)”3, Absoluteness of reality is its Per- - fection. It is the Origin and Font of solute, with a phenomenal (zahiri) creation as well as its Perfection and aspectaffirming as wellthereby as an that esoteric reality (batini is ab) End. Humanity shares both a com- dimension “which the zahir signi- mon patrimony (being created “of a single soul”5) and a common matrix Implicit in this is the notion (being created and sustained by Di- fies”. - vine Mercy 6) so that outward differ- herent in Absoluteness (or unity). ence can be transcended by radial Diversitythat Infinity can (or therefore multiplicity) be under is in- reconnection to the same Centre in stood as an aspect of unity, or of in- all things. Unique among all crea- ner and complementary harmony. tures, human beings are created The epistemological implication of with a divine nature (fitra) capable this is that reductive reality – that is of the grace of self-knowledge and to say, opaque reality, perceived only self-transcendence. Hence the had- in its outward aspect, not as trans- iths, “Heaven and earth do not con- parent to transcendence – is based tain Me, but the heart of My faithful on an epistemic closure which veils servant contains Me” and “Whoso theophany. Instead of seeing “the knows himself, knows his Lord.” Hu- Face of God” everywhere4, veiled manity is made for Perfection. To humanity sees only the phenom- this end, human beings are endowed enal world of multiplicity and out- - ward difference. This kind of reduc- sponsibility (amanah) to live in con- tive perception is the very root of formitywith the with freedom their divine and fiduciary norm. Thus re idolatry (shirk), which is forbidden the scripture asserts, “And so, set thy in Islam because it opposes the ba- face steadfastly towards the [one ev- sic creed of theophanic witnessing er-true] faith, turning away from all (shahada), of perceiving the reality 5 Surat an-Nisa, 4:1. that “There is no reality but God” 6 God is referred to in the Holy Qur’an as both (la ʾilaha ʾilla-Llah). Thus one can Rahman (intrinsic Mercy, the divine quiddity that is the “Hidden Treasure” of the Hadith of be veiled from reality by both the the Hidden Treasure, which describes creation to be an act of Divine Self-manifestation 3 Surat al-Hadid, 57:3. - 4 Surat al-Baqarah, 2:115 (“Unto God belongs ury into existential reality as an aspect of the East and the West, and wherever you turn, Histhat intrinsic projects goodness)the qualities and of Rahimthe divine (extrinsic treas there is the Face of God. Truly, God is All-Em- Mercy, the womb-like matrix that umbilically bracing, All-Knowing.”). sustains and integrates creation). 151 that is false, in accordance with the natural disposition (fitra) which God from his address at the Seerat Con- has instilled into man: [for,] not to al- ferencespeeches in illustrate Pakistan this.in 1976, The firstwhere is low any change to corrupt what God he made the following observations has thus created this is the [purpose about individualism and moral rela- of the one] ever-true faith; but most tivism: people know it not.”7 I have observed in the Western world a In practical terms, these met- deeply changing pattern of human rela- aphysical principles of integral re- tions. The anchors of moral behaviour ality and human perfectibility have appear to have dragged to such depths ethical implications. To conform oneself to integral reality requires life. What was once wrong is now sim- one to live life with integrity. Despite that they no longer hold firm the ship of ply unconventional, and for the sake of their outward differences, human individual freedom must be tolerated. beings were created as separate What is tolerated soon becomes accept- communities so as to better know ed. Contrarily, what was once right is one another, to transcend their dif- now viewed as outdated, old-fashioned and is often the target of ridicule. their shared spiritual bond, and to vieferences with each through other the in affirmation good works. of8 In the face of this changing world, which Spiritual growth therefore balances was once a universe to us and is now no more than an overcrowded island, con- materialism and individualism that fronted with a fundamental challenge to characterizesspirit and matter the ethos and of rejects modern theour understanding of time, surrounded ism. - logical ships which have broken loose, by a foreign fleet of cultural and ideo Critique of Modernism precise understanding of what Muslim I ask, “Do we have a clear, firm and The Aga Khan’s attitude to Society is to be in times to come?” And modernity is to embrace the modern if as I believe, the answer is uncertain, world (for Islam is a faith for all time) where else can we search then in the while being critical of the modern- Holy Qur’an, and in the example of Al- 9 basis of life. Two examples from his lah’s last and final Prophet? ist7 Ayat ethos ar-Rum which, 30:30. rejects the spiritual His Highness also cautioned 8 Surat al-Maidah, 5:48: “For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. in his Seerat Conference address that Had God willed He could have made you one the modern world was increasingly community. But that He may try you by that at risk of losing sight of the Divine which He has given you (He has made you Countenance and of being trapped as you are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto God you will all return, and He 9 Presidential Address, International Seerat will then inform you of that wherein you dif- Conference, ‘Life of the Prophet’ (Karachi, Pa- fer.” kistan), 12 March 1976. 152 in “a shrinking cage” of materialism: Islamic and Western worlds: Thus it is my profound conviction that I fully understand the West’s historic Islamic society in the years ahead will commitment to separating the secular from the religious. But for many non- Westerners, including most Muslims, find that our traditional concept of time, the eternal, will become a shrinking the realms of faith and of worldly affairs a limitless mirror in which to reflect on cage, an invisible trap from which fewer cannot be antithetical. If “modernism” and fewer will escape. lacks a spiritual dimension, it will look like materialism. And if the modernis- The second illustration is from his address precisely three dec- ing influence of the West is insistently ades later at the Evora Conference in then much of the Islamic world will be and exclusively a secularising12 influence, Portugal in 2006, where he asked, somewhat distanced from it. How, in an increasingly cynical time, While being a modern man, at can we inspire people to a new set of ease in the West, he nonetheless re- aspirations – reaching beyond rampant materialism, the new relativism, self- Muslim world should follow the path serving individualism, and resurgent ofjects the the West Occidentalist in regard to view its modern that the- tribalism?10 ist excesses, and has stated,

The use of the expression Although the modern page of human “cynical time” reveals the His High- history was written in the West, you ness’ concern about the loss of faith should not expect or desire for that in modern materialistic and secu- page to be photocopied by the Muslim 13 larist societies. While not opposed world. to secularism as such, he has clari- - Instead, His Highness has em- eral secularism where the notions of phasized the importance of an ethos fied that he is “opposed to unilat founded on perennial principles and society.”11 He has also expressed a values, true to his Muslim faith. faithconcern and aboutethics justthe disappeardeleterious from effects of modern world’s secularist Faith and Ethics materialism and the potential for this to create divisions between the Building on the Qur’anic 10 Remarks by His Highness the Aga Khan at foundations of unity and commu- Evora University Symposium: “Cosmopolitan nity, and recognizing the Muslim Society, Human Safety and Rights in Plural and Peaceful Societies” (Evora, Portugal), 12 12 School of International and Public Affairs, Co- February 2006. lumbia University, Commencement Ceremony 11 Spiegel Online Interview, Stefan Aust and Er- (New York, USA), 15 May 2006. ich Follath, ‘Islam Is a Faith of Reason’ (Berlin, 13 Baccalaureate address at Brown University Germany), 12 October 2006. on 26 May 1996. 153 their separation. They constitute a “Way of Life.” 15

The “Way of Life” refers to the ethos of integral pluralism which lies at the heart of the Aga Khan’s interpretation of Islam. It is an ethic that requires human beings to live their lives integrally, transcending outward differences through dialogue and a respect for human dignity, according to the principles and values of their faith. This principial and practical approach, which transcends theological differences, is humanistic in its appeal. It has two - itan ethic that embraces diversity; andmain second, components: a social first, conscience a cosmopol that ethical tradition that links spirit and impels one to improve the quality of matter, the Aga Khan’s approach life for all. These elements are prem- is premised on the convergence of ised on a holistic view of life, on an - inclusive vision of society based on gustinian division between faith and its common humanity (born “of a thefaith world, and he ethics. stresses Rejecting that “Islam the Aube- single soul”), and on a recognition of lieves fundamentally that the spirit- the inherent dignity of humankind. ual and material worlds are inextri- With regard to the vision underlying cably connected”14 and that Islam is his integral approach, the Aga Khan has noted, integral way of life. He has repeat- edlynot just spoken a faith of ethicsbut a lived as a bridgereality, be an- Islam does not deal in dichotomies but tween the realms of faith (din) and in all-encompassing unity. Spirit and the world (duniya). In one of his key body are one, man and nature are one. public addresses, he stated, What is more, man is answerable to God for what man has created. One of the central elements of the Is- lamic faith is the inseparable nature of faith and world. The two are so deeply Human action must therefore intertwined that one cannot imagine 15 From “The Spiritual Roots of Tolerance”, 14 Address by His Highness the Aga Khan to speech made at the Tutzing Evangelical Acad- both Houses of the Parliament of Canada in emy, upon receiving the Tolerance Prize, 20 the House of Commons Chamber (Ottawa, May 2006; Where Hope Takes Root, p.124, at Canada) 27 February 2014. p.125. 154 be governed by the ethical impera- say in one of the most inspiring refer- tive to respect the underlying unity ences to mankind, that Allah has cre- of life and to sustain an equitable ated all mankind from one soul? social order; in other words, to live Today, this vision is implemented by according to “Islam’s precepts of one institutions of the Aga Khan Develop- humanity, the dignity of man, and ment Network... The most important feature of these organisations… is that 16 of goodness.” they share a vision, they work together, the nobility of joint striving in deeds- they create opportunity and they are in- shrined in the activities of the Ima- scribed in a single ethical framework. 17 These objectives are en Aga Khan Development Network This “single ethical frame- (AKDN),mat, conducted a network chiefly of agencies through thees- - tablished by His Highness to im- tive holistic vision that is central to prove the quality of human life in faith,work” andis a reflectionof the social both conscience of the uni areas ranging from health, housing, that is its ethical imperative. As His economic welfare, and rural devel- Highness has underlined, “Islam is opment to education and cultural a faith of tolerance, generosity and pluralism. Speaking of the term spirituality”18, and these three ele- “quality of life” and the purpose of ments are interlinked. It is by virtue AKDN, the Aga Khan has stated, of our shared spiritual patrimony To the Imamat, the meaning of “quality that tolerance and generosity are inof life” extends to the entire ethical and cumbent on us as human beings; tol- social context in which people live, and not only to their material well-being integrity, and generosity an expres- measured over generation after gen- sionerance of beingsocial a conscience. reflection of Thus, spiritual the eration. Consequently, the Imamat’s is a Aga Khan has observed, holistic vision of development, as is pre- Faith should deepen our concern for scribed by the faith of Islam. It is about improving the quality of human life in investing in people, in their pluralism, all of its dimensions. That is the over- in their intellectual pursuit, and search - velopment Network... 19 much as in material resources. But it is arching objective of the Aga Khan De for new and useful knowledge, just as also about investing with a social conscience inspired by the ethics of Islam. Though the Aga Khan openly

17 Alltex EPZ Limited Opening Ceremony (Athi gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality or It is work that benefits all, regardless of River, Kenya), 19 December 2003. background. Does the Holy Qur’an not 18 Golden Jubilee Inaugural Ceremony (Aiglem- ont, France) 11 July 2007. 16 The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat Founda- 19 88th Stephen A. Ogden, Jr. Memorial Lecture tion Stone Ceremony (Ottawa, Canada) 6 June on International Affairs, Brown University 2005. (Providence, USA) 10 March 2014. 155 advocates Islamic principles as the ues which are broadly shared across basis of his Muslim faith, he prefers divisions of class, race, language, not to promote his public views in faith and geography”22 and which overtly religious language or to en- “constitute what classical philoso- gage within the narrow dialectic of phers, in the East and West alike, theological discourse. This is not have described as human ‘virtue’ — because he regards religion as ir- not merely the absence of negative relevant. On the contrary, as he has restraints on individual freedom, but stated, “The message I will always also a set of positive responsibilities, give is that humanity cannot deal moral disciplines which prevent lib- with present day problems without erty from turning into license.”23 a basis of religion.”20 He is clearly aware that in an age where formal A Cosmopolitan Ethic religion – and particularly Islam – is under attack and, some would even This is one of the reasons that argue, in decline, there is a need for a the Aga Khan prefers to speak in broad-based appeal to universal and terms of a “cosmopolitan ethic” as a perennial principles and values. As central element of his integral plu- the message of Islam is of universal ralism. As he explains, appeal, and its principles and val- There are several forms of proselytism ues of perennial import, they can be and, in several religions, proselytism is couched in a way that avoids the po- demanded. Therefore, it is necessary to tential divisiveness inherent in the develop the principle of a cosmopolitan proselytism of theology. 21 His High- ethic, which is not an ethic oriented by ness’ preferred approach therefore faith, or for a society. I speak of an ethic is to speak in terms of a multifaceted under which all people can live within humanism, of “universal human val- a same society, and not of a society that 20 Press Conference, Kampala, 18 September 1959. would call that ethic, quality of life.24 21 This is evident from the following comments reflects the ethic of solely one faith. I relating to his views on inter-faith dialogue: “In recent decades, inter-faith dialogue has A fundamental attribute of been occurring in numerous countries. Un- the cosmopolitan ethic is “a readi- fortunately, every time the word ‘faith’ is used ness to accept the complexity of hu- in such a context, there is an inherent sup- 25 position that lurking at the side is the issue man society”. Elaborating on this, of proselytisation. But faith, after all, is only 22 School of International and Public Affairs, Co- one aspect of human society. Therefore, we lumbia University, Commencement Ceremony must approach this issue today within the di- (New York, USA), 15 May 2006. mension of civilisations learning about each 23 Ibid. other, and speaking to each other, and not 24 Paroquias de Portugal Interview, António exclusively through the more narrow focus of - inter-faith dialectic.” – Keynote Address to the tugal) 23 July 2008. Annual Conference of German Ambassadors 25 10thMarujo Annual and Faranaz LaFontaine-Baldwin Keshavjee, (Lisbon, Lecture, Por In- (Berlin, Germany), 6 September 2004. stitute for Canadian Citizenship, ‘Pluralism’, 156 and on the spiritual roots of toler- Globalization and Pluralism ance, the Aga Khan has stated, One of the effects of moder- It is an ethic for all peoples. It will not nity has been globalization, and surprise you to have me say that such with it has come the tension of liv- an ethic can grow with enormous pow- ing with “the other.” This tension can er out of the spiritual dimensions of our lives. In acknowledging the immensity managing the tension is pluralism, of the Divine, we will also come to ac- whichoften result“means in conflict.not only Theaccepting, key to knowledge our human limitations, the but embracing human difference.”27 incomplete nature of human under- A strong proponent of pluralism, in standing. 2006 the Aga Khan, in partnership In that light, the amazing diversity of with the Canadian government, es- creation itself can be seen as a great tablished The Global Centre for Plu- gift to us — not a cause for anxiety but ralism in Ottawa, Canada, as an inde- a source of delight. Even the diversity of our religious interpretations can be research and education organiza- greeted as something to share with one tionpendent, to cultivate not-for-profit the ethic international of plural- another — rather than something to ism and to promote pluralistic goals fear. In this spirit of humility and hos- worldwide. pitality, the stranger will be welcomed His Highness views the need and respected, rather than subdued — or ignored. of our time through the cultivation ofto combata pluralistic the centrifugal ethic as one influences of the In the Holy Qur’an we read great challenges of the age. Thus, he these words: has stated, O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a sin- this is the greatest challenge of our Diversification without disintegration, time. 28 love, so that by His grace ye became gle soul … [and] joined your hearts in brethren. This is a delicate task involv- As we strive for this ideal, we will rec- ing the balancing of identity and ognize that “the other” is both “present” difference while avoiding the polari- and “different.” And we will be able to zations of homogenization and of appreciate this presence — and this dif- tribalism. The former can result in ference — as gifts that can enrich our a bland world of diluted identities, lives. 26 27 “How the world is shaped by the ‘Clash of Ignorances’” – published in the Daily Nation (Nairobi, Kenya) 15 June 2009. 28 88th Stephen A. Ogden, Jr. Memorial Lecture (Toronto, Canada) 15 October 2010. on International Affairs, Brown University 26 Ibid. (Providence, USA) 10 March 2014. 157 while the latter can result in ghet- The prevalence of greater diversity in modern societies can be is vitally important because, as His perceived as a threat, as for instance Highnesstos and conflicts. has noted, This “every balancing time taskplu- in the case of the recent mass refugee ralism fails, in one way or the other migrations occurring from Syria and 29 North Africa into Europe, prompt- Yet, he laments that the mod- ing the Hungarian Prime Minister, itern ends world up inhas conflict.” not responded well to Viktor Orbán to make a public plea this challenge: in September 2015 “to keep Europe Christian.”31 This tribalist tendency Sadly, the world is becoming more plu- ralist in fact, but not necessarily in spir- 31 Prime Minister Orbán’s statement was published in September 2015 in the German it. “Cosmopolitan” social patterns have newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. not yet been matched by “a cosmopoli- It stated, “Let us not forget, however, that tan ethic.”30 those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims. This is an important question, be- 29 CBC Interview, ‘One-on-One’ with Peter Mans- cause Europe and European identity is rooted bridge (Toronto, Canada) 1 March 2014. in Christianity. Is it not worrying in itself that 30 Address to both Houses of the Parliament of European Christianity is now barely able to Canada in the House of Commons Chamber keep Europe Christian? If we lose sight of this, (Ottawa, Canada) 27 February 2014. the idea of Europe could become a minority 158 is fundamentally opposed to the tian and Muslim worlds.”33 Speaking notion of a cosmopolitan ethic. In a of this so-called clash, he has com- public address at Harvard in Novem- mented, ber 2015, the Aga Khan explained, The clash, if there is such a broad civili- A cosmopolitan society regards the dis- zational collision, is not of cultures but tinctive threads of our particular iden- of ignorance.34 tities as elements that bring beauty to the larger social fabric. A cosmopolitan His Highness has cautioned ethic accepts our ultimate moral re- that ‘ignorance gaps’ can easily be- sponsibility to the whole of humanity, come ‘empathy gaps’35 and that rather than absolutising a presumably what is required to bridge these exceptional part. Perhaps it is a natural gaps is a better cultural understand- condition of an insecure human race to ing and true cultural sensitivity. This seek security in a sense of superiority. “implies a readiness to study and But in a world where cultures increas- to learn across cultural barriers, ingly inter-penetrate one another, a an ability to see others as they see themselves.” 36 outlook is needed. What this means, more confident and a more generous He is as critical of Muslims in perhaps above all else, is a readiness this regard as he is of the West, not- to participate in a true dialogue with ing that “What we are now witness- diversity, not only in our personal rela- ing is a clash of ignorance, an igno- tionships, but in institutional and inter- rance that is mutual, longstanding, 32 national relationships also. and to which the West and the Islam- ic world have been blind for decades A ‘Clash of Ignorance’ at their great peril.”37 To provide a corrective in this Nowhere today is there a regard, and to lead by example, His greater need for “a more generous 33 La Croix Interview, Pierre Cochez and Jean- outlook” and “a readiness to par- Christophe Ploquin (Paris, France), 8 April ticipate in a true dialogue with di- 2003. versity” than in the case of relations 34 Keynote Address to the Governor General’s 2004 Canadian Leadership Conference: ‘Lead- between Islam and the West, which ership and Diversity’ (Gatineau, Canada), May some have characterized as a ‘Clash 19, 2004. of Civilizations’. His Highness is “vig- 35 88th Stephen A. Ogden, Jr. Memorial Lecture on International Affairs, Brown University orously opposed to any notion of (Providence, USA) 10 March 2014. Also, Key- - note Address, Athens Democracy Forum (Ath- ens, Greece) 15 September 2015. intrinsic conflict between the Chris 36 The Peterson Lecture, Annual Meeting of the interest in its own continent.” International Baccalaureate (Atlanta, USA) 18 32 Samuel L. & Elizabeth Jodidi Lecture, Harvard April 2008. University (Cambridge, USA) 12 November 37 Banquet hosted in Honour of Governor Perry 2015. (Houston, Texas, USA), June 23 2002. 159 Highness has regularly spoken out ticularly that of the Muslim world, about misperceptions in the West- and the multicultural symbiosis be- ern world about Islam and Muslims, tween them, and “to actively pro- emphasizing the diversity and plu- mote, internationally, the spirit of ralism of Muslims and the tolerant ‘convivencia’.” 40 spirit of their faith, while strongly condemning both the terrorist out- Social Justice rages that are wrongly attributed to the faith, and the misperceptions At the heart of the Aga Khan’s and stereotypes about Muslims, as efforts is a quest to improve the qual- well as the false assumptions about ity of life of all human beings. This the causes of so-called ‘religious’ is in keeping with the Muslim ethos strife. And in promoting this corrective viewpoint, he has also frequent- impelled by the ethic of a social con- of promotingscience social that justice, derives and from it is - "The clash, if there is such a ligation (amanah) to God. broad civilizational collision, is humankind’s fiduciary ob- not of cultures but of ignorance." tive of AKDN, and dem- onstratesThis is the aprimary fundamental objec recognition of the ethical ly emphasized the vitally important this responsibility, the Aga Khan has a responsible media to promote cul- stated,foundations of society. Reflecting on turalrole of understanding educators, public and figures,sensitivity. and There are those who enter the world in He has also undertaken ma- such poverty that they are deprived of both the means and the motivation to including restoring historical cul- improve their lot. Unless these unfor- turaljor cultural sites and initiatives revitalizing worldwide, Muslim tunates can be touched with the spark traditions and societies 38, as well as which ignites the spirit of individual enterprise and determination, they museum39 to highlight the pluralistic will only sink back into renewed apa- establishingheritage of world a major civilizations, international par- thy, depredation and despair. It is for us 38 Through the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, it who are more fortunate to provide that 41 as part of its Historic Cities Program, among spark. which,has engaged notably, in have several been restoration the Al Azhar projects Park

the Citadel of Aleppo in Syria, the Baltit Fort 40 Introduction to ‘The Worlds of Islam in the inproject Pakistan, in Egypt, the Old Humayun’s Cities in Kabul Tomb and in Herat, India, collection of the Aga Khan Museum’ (Madrid Stone Town in Zanzibar, and the Great Mosque and Barcelona, Spain) 5 June 2009. of Mopti in Mali. 41 Quoted in CBC Interview, ‘Man Alive’ with Roy 39 The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, Bonisteel (Canada), 8 October 1986, from a which opened in September 2014. speech made in India on 19 January 1983. 160 Photo courtesy of James Gordon The provision of that spark within modern governments, he has commented that the choice between linked to the human quest for social democratic government and com- harmonythrough the and pursuit ethical of living. social Thejustice pur is- petent government is a false choice, suit engages the ethic of social con- stating, science, of generosity and service, The best way to redeem the concept of of responsible stewardship, and of democracy around the world is to im- pluralistic dialogue and understand- prove the results it delivers. ... We must not force publics to choose between of interconnectedness grounded in democratic government and competent humilitying. It reflects and a theprofound humanistic respect ethic for government.42 human dignity. These are all qualities that His Highness frequently emphasizes in his public speeches. In this regard, he has identi- From a practical perspective, - the Aga Khan has also been a strong en democracy’s effectiveness: advocate for a culture of respon- “improvedfied four elements constitutional that can strengthunder- sible government, based on merit standing, independent and pluralis- and competence, and dedicated to 42 School of International and Public Affairs, Co- improving the quality of life of all lumbia University, Commencement Ceremony constituents. Noting the stresses (New York, USA), 15 May 2006. 161 tic media, the potential of civil socie- trate not only the essentially peace- ty, and a genuine democratic ethic.” 43 ful message of the faith but also the The role of civil society (“an perennial and universal relevance array of institutions which oper- of its principles and values as exem- ate on a private, voluntary basis, but are motivated by high public pluralistic vision. It is a vision of a purposes”44) is vital in this regard. livedplified faith in His – of Highness’ engagement integral with and life It is an aspect of what His Highness through creating a bridge between has termed the ‘enabling environ- faith and the world, a “bridge of ment’ that is necessary to promote hope” that places value in community while respecting individual aspi- the AKDN’s work in partnership rations, and that embraces diversity withsocial private justice. groups, Leading NGOs by example,and gov- while remaining true to the princi- ernment organizations, has engaged ples of faith. building hospitals, universities and educationalin a vast range academies of projects worldwide, – from to assisting with strategies such as reviving cultures as “a trampoline formicrofinance progress” in– in rural order areas, to improve and to the quality of peoples’ lives glob- ally, not only in areas populated by Ismailis. And as Imam, the Aga Khan has emphasized to his followers the importance of serving one's fellow human beings, and of generosity, as an aspect of living the ethics of one's faith.

An Integral Vision

The approach of the Aga Khan as a Muslim leader of our times is a useful corrective to many of the misperceptions about Islam in today’s world. His words and actions illus-

43 Keynote Address, Athens Democracy Forum (Athens, Greece) 15 September 2015. 44 Address to both Houses of the Parliament of Canada in the House of Commons Chamber (Ottawa, Canada) 27 February 2014. 162 Out of the mouths of babes: Comenius and World Peace

Elizabeth Kristofovich Zelensky

There is needed in this century an im- will end only with the destruction of mediate remedy for the frenzy which themselves and the universe. Noth- has seized many men and is driving ing is, therefore, more necessary for them in their madness to their mutual the stability of the world, if it is not to destruction. For we witness throughout perish completely, than some universal the world disastrous and destructive re-dedication of minds. Universal har- - mony and peace must be secured for ing kingdoms and peoples with such the whole human race. By peace and flames of discords and wars devastat persistence that all men seem to have harmony, however; I mean not that ex- conspired for their mutual ruin which ternal peace between rulers and peo- 163 ples among themselves, but an internal - peace of minds inspired by a system of gees. By the war’s end one third of ideas and feelings. If this could be at- theflight population of tens of of thousandscentral Europe of refu had tained, the human race has a possession been either displaced or killed. The of great promise.1 Treaty of Westphalia (1648) ended the war, with both sides agreeing to This warning, eerily presci- ignore religious difference in favor ent in 2016, comes to us from 1643, of the secular principle of state sov- from a Europe torn apart by war. ereignty. This treaty also destroyed John Amos Comenius2, its author, any hopes Comenius had of return to was describing the destruction wrought by the Thirty Years Comenius understood war to be the War (1618-1648) an unprecedented symptom of an existential crisis of breakdown of state communication – man’s alienation power, during which from man and from nature through armies, nominally inspired by confes- his alienation from God. sional differences between Catholics and Protestants, slaughtered each his homeland. As a prominent Prot- other and ravaged the defenseless estant he was banned from what civilian population, resulting in the is the present day Czech Republic, 1 John Amos Comenius, “Rededication of Minds which was given back to the Catholic (Written in 1643)”, World Affairs, Vol. 109, Hapsburgs. No.1 (March,1946),p.2. And so, having become a 2 For a scholarly biography, see Matthew Spinka, John Amos Comenius, that Incompo- stateless refugee himself due to war, rable Moravian ( New York: Russell and Rus- Comenius - a leading European in- sell,1967), for his philosophy see Matthew tellectual and philosopher - dedicat- Spinka, “Comenian Pansophic Principles” ed himself to perfecting and prom- Church History, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Jun., 1953): 155-165. All of Comenius ideas concerning ulgating what he believed to be the pre-school children and education may be formula for peace; a formula based found in his School of Infancy, translated, ed- on the idea of universal education, ited and with an Introduction by Ernest M. El- ler (University of North Carolina Press:Chapel and embodied in the fragile forms Hill,1956) A shortened summary is contained of children, who were, in his words in Chapter 28 “Mother’s School” in J.A. Come- “… given to us as a mirror, in which nius, The Great Didactic [The Great Didactic Online: http://studentzone.roehampton. we may behold humility, gentle- ac.u/library/digital-collection/froebel-ar- ness, benign goodness, harmony…”3 chive/great-didactic/index.html]. 3 School of Infancy, pp. 60-61. Comenius’ publicly stated idealization of children was quite 164 and among whom there is “ neither rule of one over the other, nor compulsion, nor dread nor fear, but, on the contrary, love, candor, free discussion about anything that comes up. All these are missing when we older people deal with children. And this defect is a great obstacle to our free communication with them...”4 Comenius understood war to be the symptom of an existential crisis of communication – man’s alienation from man and from nature through his alienation from God. Hu- mans had ceased to carry God in their hearts, and thus could no longer read God’s world as His image and symbol. Without God, God’s Creation as it actually exists and the remain obscure to them. This leads laws and properties governing the to the inability of language to ex- natural, social and spiritual worlds press truth which creates the ten- revolutionary for his time. The more common dency of words, and the images cast attitude may be summarized in the follow- by words, to stand between the in- ing excerpts from a few Protestant sermons dividual and reality. The result is the fox chickens, a wolf cub sheep, so are infant appearance of various “truths”; and, humansfrom this are era: inclined “… just in as their a cat hearts craves to mice, … im a- as a consequence, vice comes to be pure desires, lewdness, idol worship, belief masked in the language of virtue, in magic, hostility, anger, strife, dissension,… gluttony and more. ” “surely there is in all chil- and eventually such masks are taken dren a stubbornness and a stoutness of mind for reality, which inevitably results arising from natural pride which must, in the in idolatry. The All-Merciful Creator is forgotten for the sake of power, Cunningham, Children and Childhood in West- firstern Society place, (Londonbe broken and and New beaten York: down.” Longman, H. wealth, revenge, fame and other 1995)p. 49. 4 Infancy, p.90. 165 “false idols”; thus, war.5 takes little children in his arms may Children have not yet entered be assured that he takes angels. We this cycle of false consciousness and do not nourish our infants, but they alienation. It was the very openness nourish us; for because of these inof children to different points of nocents God supplies necessities, view, their freedom of thought, not and we aged sinners partake with - them. …Do you wonder why God did vention, their preference for reality not at once produce these celestial ratheryet calcified than words, by categories for “doing of conand gems (children, ekz) in the full num- playing” rather than talking which bers he purposed to have for eterni- brings them closer to God, accord- ty, as he did angels? He has no other ing to Comenius. Commenting on reason than that in doing so he hon- Mathew 21:16 “From the lips of in- ors us by making us his associates in fants and sucklings thou hast per- multiplying creatures.“7 Children are fected praise, ” in which verse the also compared to celestial plantlets, evangelist notes that Christ was rec- saplings, blossoms, and the homes ognized as the Messiah by the chil- where they dwell to paradise.8 Thus, dren alone, not by the adults, when children not only act as bridges or he came to rid the Great Temple of channels between this world and Jerusalem of moneylenders, the phi- the next, but they embody the rela- losopher stresses that children “… tionship of all humans to God - we - are all children in this, our best as- ing innocent… they are not yet the pect : “God Himself in His Word and defacedare valuable image to of God God first and because are unable be in this life speaks to us adults as chil- to discern between good and evil, dren. For in truth we are children, between the right hand and the left… understanding divine and celestial they have yet to develop unbelief and things not as they are in themselves impenitence… for Christ said that but according to our capacity.”(I Cor. “Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.“6. 13:11)9 Children are the evidence of God’s Comenius anchored his presence here on earth. Around hopes for reform to reason which them heaven and earth overlap, for he called “the rational soul” or the “Whereas the Lord declares that lit- body’s “guest”10. Reason was God’s tle children are always committed to gift to humankind; all humans, re- the guard of angels, hence who has gardless of gender or social con- children within his house may be certain he also has angels… he who reason, if developed properly in 5 John Amos Comenius, Labyrinth of the World, childhood,dition enjoy when access it ” toas reasona lovely andlit- and the Paradise of the Heart, written in 1631 is an allegory devoted to this topic [English 7 Ibid., p. 62-63 electronic version: http://www.labyrint.cz/ 8 Ibid., p. 66-67. en/contents]. 9 Ibid., p.114. 6 Infancy, p. 61. 10 Ibid., p.63. 166 - its current defects: schools must tinguish things”11 will inevitably lead be reformed. Education in its pre- backtle flower to God. begins The toseeds unfold of learning,and dis sent state is not only inadequate virtue and piety are naturally im- but harmful to “the rational soul”, it planted in children because children taints and maims the uncorrupted are the image of God, therefore they reasoning of children, and destroys are capable of acquiring knowledge their natural love of learning and of all things created by God.12 "There curiosity about God’s world. “[In the is nothing in heaven or earth or in past]… Places designed for educa- the waters, nothing in the abyss un- tion were called colleges, gymnasia der the earth, nothing in the human and schools (that is retreats of ease body, nothing in the soul, nothing in Holy Writ, nothing in the arts, noth- the action of teaching and learning ing in politics, nothing in the Church, is…)These in its own very namesnature signifiedpleasing thatand of which the little candidates for agreeable, a mere amusement and wisdom shall be wholly ignorant."13 Or, to paraphrase Gregory of Nezian- however disappeared in subsequent sus, an Eastern Church Father cited timesa mental … schools delight were…. This no joyousnessmore plac- by Comenius in “The Dedication to es of amusement and delights. They the Reader” of The Great Didactic, - became grinding houses of torture man’s mind is perfectly matched to and torment…they imbued youth the world, it is the mind which gives not with faith, godliness and sound the world its unity.14 morals but with superstition, impi- Yet, the very institutions ety and evil conduct…. thinking to meant to hone and advance rea- beat in knowledge, (the incompe- son are one of the main sources for tent teachers) wretchedly tortured 15 11 Ibid., p.112 children.” The emphasis that Come- 12 The Great Didactic Online, Chapter 5, The Seeds of These Three are Naturally Implant- essential to children’s development ed in Us. [http://studentzone.roehampton. nius places on play and joy as being ac.uk/library/digital-collection/froebel-ar- further darkens his contrasting im- chive/great-didactic/index.html]. By positing age of contemporary schools: “ A that the key to knowledge of the created world lies in human’s God-given reason Comenius of the heart is the very life spring displays that synthesis of science and faith which differentiates him from the other two ofjoyful man. mind Therefore, is half health parents … The ought joy great revolutionaries in Western thought of to be especially careful never to al- his time, Descartes and Pascal; the former low their children to be without de- later forsaking science in his quest for faith. lights, but should … let their spirits 13 J.E.Hutton,excluding God History from ofhis the scientific Moravian method, Church. the be stirred by happy play … running Chapter XI, “Comenius and the Hidden Seed”, about, chasing one another, and by [http://biblehub.com/library/hutton/his- tory_of_the_moravian_church/index.html]. music and pleasant sights such as 14 The Great Didactic Online. Greet- ings to the Reader, Subsection 5. 15 Infancy, p.68 167 pictures.”16 “Boys ever delight in be- nature,”20 ing employed in something, for their the immanence of God’s presence in youthful blood does not allow them this world, Comenius’ in the essential firm goodness belief in to be at rest. Now as this is very use- of all creation, and his emphasis on ful it ought not be restrained but experiential learning, rather than provisions made that they always on memory underlay his pedagogi- have something to do …. 17 cal principles:, “As far as possible Education, according to man are to be taught to become wise Comenius must be based on the not by books but by the heavens, the study of Nature (the sensory world), Earth, oaks and beeches; that is they on the training of Reason to clas- must learn to know and examine the sify and integrate this inductively things themselves and not the obser- attained data, and on the apprehen- vations or testimony of others about sion of moral and spiritual principles from divine revelation in Scrip- state that it is the child’s natural cu- ture. Comenius believed that one riositythings.” about He was the theworld first around to clearly him, Truth underlay all knowledge-polit- which should be used as the basis for schooling.21 this Truth stemmed from God as the His literacy textbooks are an Logosical, moral, or Source scientific, of Order. linguistic- 18 Learn and- example of the method discussed ing the texts of ancient authorities19 above. Using living words from actu- is a questionable methodology, since al life situations, instead of memori- it demonstratively did not prevent zation of theoretical tracts or gram- the elites of Europe from pursuing a mars, and the mother-tongue or devastating war for nearly half a cen- vernacular in combination with Lat- tury. Direct experience of the world in, he wrote what would become the - what Comenius called “nature’s two most popular children’s books way” - leads to a true apprehension of the early modern Western world, of God and men: “Do we not dwell in the Janua Linguarum Reserata or The the Garden of Eden, as well as our Gate of Language Unlocked (1631) predecessors ; why should we not and The Orbis sensualium pictus or use our eyes, ears, and noses as well The World of Things Obvious to the as they; why need we other teach- Senses through Pictures (1658). He ers than these in learning to know originally wrote these books in both the book of Nature, Why should we Czech and Latin, side by side; thus, not, instead of these dead books, pupils could compare the two lan- open to children the living book of 20 Infancy, p.20. 21 essential, words accidental, things are the 16 Ibid., p.84. body,“Matter while comes words first, theform garment” follows, thingsThe Great are 17 Ibid., p.91. Didactic Online, Chapter 16. The Universal Re- 18 Spinka, Pansophic Principles: 156. quirements of Teaching, Subsection 15. Natu- 19 The Great Didactic Online, Chapter 25. ral Order. 168 guages and identify familiar words and things with the unfamiliar Lat- in terms. Both of these books were translated into many other Euro- pean languages besides the original Czech.22 While their success resulted from the real-life observations of the author, both as father and ped- agogue, of how children actually learn, they were based theoretically on the idea, going back to Plato, that images speak to souls directly and are thus in closer contact with the “heart” or emotions. Children, not yet caught up in the obfuscations stemming from our reliance on im- precise words, have souls which are tender, clear, and easily impressed and are thus the key to the more general program of reform of humanity and a “rededication of minds”: “The most useful thing that Holy Scrip- ture teaches us is that there is no more certain way under the sun for the raising of sunken humanity than the proper education of the young. …and if anyone should wonder why God should prize children so highly that children are simpler and more susceptiblehe will find noto thisweightier remedy reason which than the mercy of God grants to this lamenta- to compose a picture book for pre- ble condition of man.”23 schoolers , with the resulting Orbis It was in The Great Didactic sensualium pictus mentioned above, (1633), the work which revealed his eventually published as a separate revolutionary approach to pedago- tome in 1658. Comenius states in The Great Didactic that such a book should be given to every child while gy,22 We that will hebe using first Joh. expressed Amos Comenii, his Orbis desire sen- they are still at home with their sualium or The Visible World (London,1685) mothers, because at this age instruc- the English translation from 1685, found online through EEBO. tion should be carried out through 23 The Great Didactic Online, Dedication sense perception . The book would 169 have used his own observations, as a

imitating animal sounds to illustrate thefather, sounds of the of joy the that letters; children for takeexam in- ple, the letter “G” is introduced with a picture of a goose and the words “The goose gaaglath/Anser ginglit. Ga ga”. By using examples familiar to the child from the real world, the abstract notion of certain sounds being connected with certain letters - troduction to Latin, the necessary componentis clarified andto any retained, education and higheran in than primary at that time, is accom- plished. On the Frontispiece of The Great Didactic (1633) Comenius summarizes his purpose in propos- ing educational reform: -

Let the main object of this, our Didac method of instruction by which teach- tic, be as follows: to seek and to find a assist the child’s development in ers may teach less, but learners learn three ways, 1) It will make impres- more; by which schools may be scenes - of less noise, aversion and useless labor, trayed 2) It will accustom the little sions on the mind of the objects por ones to the pleasure which comes progress and through which the Chris- but more leisure, enjoyment and solid from books 3) It will aid in learning tian community may have less dark- 24 to read. This book was the ances- ness, perplexity and dissension but on tor of all modern picture books for the other hand more light, orderliness, children. peace and rest.26 The illustration reproduced Orbis.25 The peace agenda behind his It demonstrates all of the principles education effort, as stated above, is ofbelow Comenius’ is from pedagogical the first page revolution. of reiterated numerous times through- Characteristically, Comenius may out all of Comenius pedagogical works. Another example comes from 24 The Great Didactic Online, Chapter 28.The Mother-School. Subsections 25-26. Orbis under the rubric “Humanity/ 25 Comenii, Orbis sensualium or The Visible World. Accessed on-line through EEBO. Image 11. 26 Great Didactic Frontispiece. 170 Humanitas”. 27 It begins with the following admonition“ Men are made for one another’s good, therefore let them be kind.” The entry then goes on to say on the next page; “Love, so that you may be loved,” illustrat- women greeting each other and two turtleing friendship doves, and by illustratingthe figures the of twoop- posite of love, by depicting a duel, “where men are angry, cruel and implacable (rather wolves and li- ons than men).” The convention of dueling embodied the idea of vice masked as a virtue- for the sake of

That the connection of Come- nius’“honor” pedagogical murder is justified.reform plans to the ideal of world peace is still recognized in our own time was under- scored on the three-hundredth anniversary of Opera Didactica Omnia life”.29 And so, his answer to war in 1957 by UNESCO .28 does not lie in improving security, or Europe’s catastrophic situ- better weaponry and armies, nor in ation in 1643, with all of the hor- re-establishing a balance of power, rors of the Thirty Years War was but in creating a common intellec- due, in large measure, according to tual foundation for humanity, as a Comenius, to the failure of its educa- “re-dedication of minds”; and this tion system: “Every one knows that re-dedication begins with children whatever disposition the branches and their education. While his or- of an old tree obtain they must nec- ganizational schema of incremental essarily have been so formed from learning , based on a child’s different developmental stages, starting with otherwise… Man therefore in his its first growth, for they cannot be pre-school, going to primary school, secondary school, college and uni- should be molded so as to be such as The hefirst ought formation to be throughout of body his and whole soul Great Didactic, in 1633, continues 27 Orbis or Visible. Image 133. toversity, be the as bedrock first outlinedof modern in peda - 28 Marie Madeleine Rabeq, “Comenius, Apostle gogy, the ends of these reforms-the of Modern Education and of World Under- standing”, The UNESCO Courier, November, 1957. 29 Infancy, p. 69. transfiguration of humankind171 and the rest of creation - are taken less tear one another apart like wild beasts; than seriously today, and are usu- nor is our understanding dull and mind- ally dismissed as being “Utopian”. It less, designed for universal ignorance, seems to me, however, as we look at like that of brute cattle; rather, we have the present condition of our world, rational souls, made for perceiving and at the degradation of our natural discriminating all things, for choosing freely what is good and true, and indeed wars, at the waves of refugees, that - wehabitat, might at reconsiderthe endless Comenius. conflicts and As cordance with what God said to Moses: rejecting what is bad and false. In ac the last fragments of paradise lost in "I have set before you life and death, our disenchanted world, children re- blessing and cursing. Choose life, that main one of our few hopes, but only you may live!” 30 if we give them an education which will strengthen and broaden their connection to the natural world and which will help them recognize their innate ability to see God’s presence in every blade of grass and in every human face.

In conclusion I would like to cite a dedicatory epistle written by Comenius to the Turkish Sultan in 1666, as a glimpse into his dream of a rational paradise based on the universal brotherhood of man: Certainly, since each one of us worships that one God, the creator of us all, the fact that we worship him in different ways should not make us pursue one another with hatred, nor go after one another in a hostile way, nor provoke one another with quarrelsome disputa- tions. Rather, engaging in a pious and silent contemplation of mysteries, and in a peaceful discussion one with another, we should consider, with open minds, what it is that has the greatest truth or verisimilitude. Indeed, as we are all 30 Noel Malcolm, “Comenius, the Conversion of made in the image of God, we are not the Turks and the Muslim-Christian Debate on equipped with horns, claws or teeth to the Corruption of Scripture,” Church History and Religious Culture,Vol.87.No.4(2007): 482. 172 Les religions, entre violence et paix

Eric Vinson

Since the Enlightenment, the modern secular discourse has stigma- tized religion as a source of violence. Eric Vinson argues that in order to understand how and why religion can justify violence but also promote peace, we should move beyond the simplistic dichotomy between religion and politics and rethink religion as a mediating instance between politics and spirituality. (Managing-Editor)

La violence, au coeur du reli- aime à souligner les défauts des re- gieux ? ligions traditionnelles, à commenc- er par leur implication – directe ou Depuis le XVIIIe siècle au indirecte – dans toutes sortes de moins, la modernité occidentale violences. "Fanatisme", "obscurant- 173 isme", "superstition", "arriération", service de l'harmonie individuelle "guerre sainte"… A travers ces voca- et collective, mettant en pratique ces bles et quelques autres non moins appels scripturaires… Hélas contre- négatifs, nombre des penseurs des balancés par d'autres appels – certes Lumières et de leurs héritiers poin- moins nombreux – émanant des tent ainsi les manquements et in- mêmes sources, pour inciter cette cohérences (réelles ou supposées) fois à l'usage de la force, au combat, de ces traditions envers leurs pro- à l'intolérance. Or, au fond de cette pres standards moraux, si ce n'est contradiction, l'on retrouve le prob- à l'égard de ''l'humanisme'', norme - universelle émergente promue par les temps nouveaux. Si bien que la dulème phénomène de la définition, religieux. de laProblème délimi "violence religieuse" et sa dénoncia- quetation nous et voudrions de la signification poser à travers même tion vont peu à peu devenir des lieux quelques hypothèses clés, qui res- communs dans l'opinion des sociétés sortissent toutes plus ou moins de la en voie de sécularisation, et l'un des problématique religion/politique ; principaux ressorts argumentatifs et, plus fondamentalement encore, à pour critiquer les religions (surtout celles du mal et de la théodicée. les trois monothéismes). Dans la cul- Voici les principales de ces ture française actuelle, marquée par hypothèses sur le lien religions/vio- une imprégnation anticléricale et lence : certaines lectures antireligieuses de 1) Intrinsèquement ouvrières de paix, les religions sont régulière- souvent pour des foyers autoritaires ment instrumentalisées par la poli- la laï�cité, les religions passent ainsi- tique, elle-même consubstantielle- ment de sévices variés, dont souf- ment liée à la violence ; les violences d'ignorance, d'hypocrisie et finale- apparemment religieuses résultent tres, croyants ou non. ainsi d'une manipulation et/ou d'une friraientL'un leurs des fidèles premières comme questions les au illusion, qui dénaturent et menacent posées par cet état de fait est bien le religieux authentique ; en elles- sûr la contradiction existant entre mêmes, les religions n'ont donc rien ces maux liés (de près ou de loin) à voir avec la violence, mais c'est au aux religions – violences indéniables fond le péché (individuel et collectif) au vu de l'expérience historique de nos civilisations – et les innombra- voire à les corrompre. Mécanisme bles appels à la paix, à la concorde, dontdes hommes elles sont qui les tend victimes à les défigurer, impuis- à la réconciliation proférés par les santes, surtout quand leurs adver- textes sacrés et les autorités de ces mêmes religions. Sans oublier les ac- avec ces violences exogènes. tions concrètes entreprises par ces saires modernes2) Les religions les identifient veulent à fontort- dernières et par leurs membres au damentalement la paix, mais elles 174 - (notamment sur le plan moral), cha- - cun peut y puiser ce qu'il souhaite quelsreflètent elles aussi s'adressent les sociétés et s'adaptent. et les in selon les besoins – éthiquement ou Ellesdividus sont qui doncles ont marquées vu naî�tre paret aux les politiquement bons ou mauvais – du violences qui caractérisent ces der- moment. niers ; violences propres à la nature 4) Les religions sont des sys- humaine, que les religions tentent tèmes idéologiques institutionnels tant bien que mal de réguler, ori- rivaux visant la puissance, le con- enter ou transmuter, selon la logique trôle des humains et le maintien - - cidence des opposés", notamment tent) ; et pour conserver ou déploy- moraux,du "moindre dès mal"qu'il (voire est question de la "co ïde�n erde ce l'ordre pouvoir établi à (dontl'interne elles comme profi l'Absolu divin). Les religions luttent à l'externe, elles veulent souvent, ainsi contre la violence, mais lui lais- sent faute de mieux une certaine coercition et parfois la guerre. Elles place, temporaire, en faisant preuve nesinon sont toujours, au fond l'embrigadement, que des formes ar la- de réalisme et de pragmatisme en- - vers ce bas monde et ses habitants, sément, de l'idéologie), c'est-à-dire marqués par le péché. Une vision à decha laï�ques domination. de la politique Une position (plus préci que laquelle s'apparente, par exemple, la l'on retrouve grosso modo chez les théorie mimétique de René Girard, marxistes, par exemple. - vient réguler la violence diffuse qui pothèse" doit être prise en compte : menaceselon lequel la société, les "sacréen la concentrant archaï�que" celle qui5) distingue Enfin, et une classe "méta-hy les re- périodiquement sur un "bouc émis- ligions en fonction de la grille de saire", généralement innocent de lecture contrastées produite par l'articulation des hypothèses pré- - cédentes. En effet, ces dernières ont ticecette cyclique, violence. sorteD'où unde maintienmal néces de- été formulées à propos des religions sairel'ordre anthropologique social fondé sur minimal, cette injus de en général, c'est-à-dire à propos du tragédie civilisationnelle (qui trou- religieux dans son ensemble. Mais verait, selon René Girard, sa résolu- on peut aisément différencier en la tion uniquement à travers la "bonne matière (et l'histoire des théories, nouvelle" chrétienne). confessionnelles ou non, sur la reli- 3) Charriant toutes sortes de gion le montre assez) des religions contenus culturels divers et de nor- réduites à la politique et à la vio- des siècles, les religions – qui sont les religions" dans le cadre de la polém- plusmes contradictoiresvieilles institutions accumulés culturelles au fil iquelence, interreligieuse souvent qualifiées – surtout de "fausses au- du monde – contiennent le pire et le trefois. Et puis d'autres religions, meilleur. Etant en cela incohérentes au contraire valorisées comme "ré- 175 vélées", "authentiques", "pures" en sèquement religieuse de l'ordinaire contrepoint du premier groupe des violence politique, supposée pure- "fausses religions" (décrites comme ment séculière… Or, à en croire les simplement humaines, voire comme travaux de l'ancien ministre libanais d'origine démoniaque). Ainsi, en Georges Corm1 ou du théologien fonction de ses propres options américain William Cavanaugh2, une idéologiques et/ou convictionnelles, telle dissociation s'avère en fait im- tel auteur classera par exemple le possible ; W. Cavanaugh démasquant christianisme dans l'une des "cases" même – derrière l'assimilation ''re- citées (hypothèses 1, 2, 3 ou 4), et ligion = violence'' – un stéréotype l'hindouisme dans telle autre ; al- fondateur de la modernité : un ors qu'un autre analyste rangera ces "mythe" typiquement moderne, par deux religions dans deux autres ca- tégories… le sacré dévolu pendant des millé- Chacune de ces hypothèses lequelnaires l'auxÉ� tat-nation traditions cherche religieuses à capter en mérite un examen approfondi, qui les diabolisant et les discréditant. dépasse de loin les limites, étroites, 1 Georges Corm, Pour une lecture profane des de cet article. En outre, une autre conflits : sur le "retour du religieux" dans les piste devrait être explorée : celle de conflits contemporains du Moyen-Orient, Paris la possibilité – ou non – de distingu- : La Découverte, 2012, 275 p. 2 William Cavanaugh, Le Mythe de la violence er précisément une violence intrin- religieuse, Paris : Ed. de L'Homme Nouveau, 2009, 382 p. 176 Devant les hécatombes sans pré- été employés comme des quasi- cédent dues aux idéologies mod- synonymes ; pensons par exemple ernes que sont les nationalismes à la distinction occidentale clas- et les totalitarismes (nazisme, sta- sique entre "l’autorité spirituelle" - (en l’occurrence religieuse, puisqu’il gumentation interpelle. Récentes à s’agit de l’Eglise catholique) et le l'échellelinisme, maohistorique,ï�sme…), ces une idéologies telle ar "pouvoir temporel" (monarchique, - impérial, etc.)… L'usage conduisant ligions pour cibles, ou, pire encore, néanmoins à spécialiser peu à peu pourne prirent-elle instruments pas ? toujours les re le terme "spirituel" pour désigner Ne disposant pas de l'espace - - port avec l'au-delà, le surnaturel, le rentes problématiques comme il le Divin,ce qui au a plussein spécifiquementmême du religieux, rap faudrait,suffisant on pour peut analyser néanmoins ces éclair diffé- perçu comme une réalité plus com- er l'une des questions centrales qui - - ituel" et du "temporel" (profane, tions respectives du posite, à la jonction de ce "pur spir politique,les réunit, àdu savoir reli celle- des défini gieux et des rapports Le socio-politique, le religieux et le qu'ils entretien- spirituel forment un continuum et nent, notamment eu sont inséparables, comme le sont le égard à la question du pouvoir et de la - violence. Ce qui im- ganisme humain vivant. plique d'utiliser une corps, l'âme et l'esprit dans un or troisième notion, en lui donnant un sens précis : le spir- mondain, terrestre, séculier, social), ituel. comme on va le voir dans un instant. Le "spirituel" apparaissant ainsi – en Définir, distinguer et articuler quelque sorte – comme la dimension trois notions : le religieux, le spir- la plus mystique du religieux, car di- ituel et le politique rectement en rapport avec le Divin,

"Spirituel" est un mot ré- dégagée des contraintes sociales et gulièrement utilisé, le plus souvent politiques.l’absolu, l’infini et pour cela la plus Pour sortir de cet état qui constitue certainement l’une des d'indétermination, nous faisons les explicationssans conceptualisation, de son succès. dans Deun floufait, hypothèses suivantes : "religieux" et les termes de sa famille - d'une part, et "spirituel" et ceux de oureusement le religieux qu’en ten- la sienne d'autre part, ont longtemps sion/articulation1) On ne avec peut deux définir autres rig 177 notions, à savoir le "spirituel" et le ces conceptions, le corps, la psyché "(socio-)politique" ; notions elles- et l’esprit d’une personne humaine mêmes vagues si on les envisage vivante sont aussi interdépendan- séparément, mais précisées par un tes qu'inséparables ; et pourtant, emploi simultané et articulé. Un il est possible – et nécessaire à qui peu comme les ternaires notionnels "gauche/centre/droite" ou "chaud/ distinguer par la pensée ces trois in- tiède/froid" ne font sens que par stancesveut bien ; ces connaî�tre trois niveaux l'homme de réalité – de l'interaction entre leurs com- unis mais non confondus : le phy- posantes respectives. sique, matériel, organique, "gros- 2) Ce modèle ternaire décrit sie" ; le psychique, "animique" et la situation régnant au sein du type- idéal de la société traditionnelle, qui est de fait la matrice de la situa- mystique,conceptuel, supra-formel, sensible et subjectif,"ultime". ou tion moderne ; et ce même si la sec- encoreLe "subtil" caractère ; et enfin, heuristiquele spirituel, onde se distingue radicalement de la première, en particulier sous ce notamment dans l'univers biblique, rapport du religieux/spirituel. Il faut d’une telle approche se vérifie- donc comprendre comment fonc- tiques et complémentaires du roi tionne la société traditionnelle en (pôleavec sespolitique), trois figures du prêtre paradigma4 (pôle la matière pour éclairer ensuite le religieux) et du prophète (pôle spir- fonctionnement de la société mod- ituel 5 erne, qui en provient par généalogie et opposition. porte ).sur Trois le pôlefigures qui pour leur lesquelles est asso- Selon ce modèle tripartite de l'accentcié par définitionnelexcellence, mais et fonctionnel sans être la société traditionnelle, le socio- pour autant séparé des deux autres politique, le religieux et le spirituel forment un continuum et sont in- Mohammed dans l'islam – les réunit séparables, comme le sont le corps, touspôles trois : ainsi, en lui, Mo maisï�se, quitient – plus comme par- ticulièrement le rôle prophétique en humain vivant, selon la vision de déléguant le rôle religieux au grand l'hommel'âme et l'espritdes grandes dans traditionsun organisme reli- 3 4 - gieuses , dont les conceptions socio- istes de la Loi et des Ecritures saintes (rab- Le juriste, le théologien et les autres spécial par le holisme, l'organicisme ou en- pasteurs en protestantisme…) correspondent corepolitiques l'inséparabilité sont justement du macrocosme marquées égalementbins dans à le ce judatypeï �sme,« religieux oulémas », dans en les islam, tra- et du microcosme. En effet, selon que tels. 5 Leditions moine, où n'existentou encore pas mieux, de « prêtres l’ermite » en – tantqui 3 « fuit seul vers le Seul » (Plotin) et pour qui français Michel Fromaget, de l'historien et théologienCf. les travaux français sur le sujetJérôme de l'anthropologueRousse-Lacord- aire ou encore du théologien italien Vito Man- typique« Dieu seuldu spirituel suffit » ainsi (sainte conçu, Thérèse compte d'Avila) tenu cuso. de– peuventleur caractère également ''a-social''. constituer une figure 178 prêtre Aaron et le rôle politico- tte dernière l'usage de la force, voire guerrier à Josué. Ainsi, le roi David, de la violence). A l'opposé, le spir- par essence personnage politique ituel ne s'occupe – comme son nom mais qui est aussi un personnage l'indique – que de l'Esprit, c'est-à- éminemment ''religieux'' (ne doit-il dire de la Réalité ultime, divine, en- pas construire le Temple de Jérusa- visagée pour Elle-même, dans une re- lem, centre du culte divin propre aux lation gratuite et désintéressée avec prêtres ?) et tout autant ''spirituel'' (la tradition prête à celui qui a reçu pas d'intervenir dans le champ re- l’onction sainte la composition des ligieuxl'Absolu, et l'Infini. socio-politique, Ce qui ne l'empêchequand les psaumes, et surtout une véritable nécessités spirituelles – ici insépara- intimité mystique avec Dieu) ; com- bles de l'éthique – l'impliquent ; en plémentarité et inséparabilité des témoignent les interpellations voire trois fonctions chez David résumée les contestations des prophètes bib- dans l'idée de Messie, si importante liques à l'égard des monarques, du historiquement et théologiquement, clergé et de la société toute entière de - ure du père de Salomon. De même, ce qui constitue la nécessaire média- qui s'origine justement dans la fig tionl’ancien entre Israël. ces deux Enfin, pôles le religieux respective est- nous le montre la Bible, les grands ment spirituel et politique, opposés prêtres,dans le les juda roisï�sme et antique les prophètes tel que - sont des types qui font système et ment de cette articulation religieuse. se complètent en s'opposant, aucun Deet inconciliablesce point de vue, en dehorset contraire juste- des trois n'étant complètement cou- ment aux conceptions actuellement - dominantes en France, le religieux ment les deux autres. pé du champCorrespondant où œuvrent au planspécifique corpo- - rel, le socio-politique est l'instance biguë,apparaî�t qui ainsi tient commeautant du une spirituel réalité qui gère par excellence l'ordre so- etpar que définition du politique mixte, – médiate et donc, et d'une am cial, terrestre, matériel, celui des - ement pour fonctions simultanées santé et leur prospérité, c'est-à- decertaine ''spiritualiser'' violence –, la puisque vie sociale il a just et direcorps, leur justement, préservation en assurantphysique leurface politique, d’une part ; et d’autre aux dangers et nécessités de ce bas part, d'''incarner'' (d'''incorporer'') monde (fonctions économique et et d'institutionnaliser le spirituel sécuritaire6, qui implique pour ce- dans la vie concrète, quotidienne, 6 Cf. De Monarchia, des humains, tant individuellement que la fonction de l'Empereur – c'est-à-dire que collectivement. Ce qui ne va pas, du pouvoir temporel III, 16,– est où de Dante conduire souligne les parfois sans violence : qu'on pense, hommes à la ''félicité temporelle'' ''dans la tranquillité de la paix'' en les protégeant des doit quant à lui les mener au salut éternel. Le troubles et désordres ; et ce en complémen- premier veille ainsi au ''salut'' des corps, et le tarité avec le Pape – l'autorité spirituelle – qui

second à celui des âmes. 179 en particulier, au type humain à la quelque sorte apprivoisé voire ba- fois religieux, socio-politique et spir- nalisé – c'est-à-dire humanisé – par ituel que constitue le chevalier, ce la familiarité récurrente des rituels guerrier vertueux – présent mutatis religieux ordinaires et des institu- mutandis dans toutes les civilisations qui les administrent. Qu'on tions – qui combat pour le bien et pense à l'exemple, en la matière défend la veux et l'orphelin. si parlant, de la messe catholique, En médiatisant ainsi les exigences du spirituel vers le socio- s'opérer à chaque fois le miracle de politique, et réciproquement celles liturgie quotidienne où est censé- du socio-politique vers le spirituel, ement par excellence la Terre et le le religieux est ainsi par excellence Ciel,la transsubstantiation, le Divin et l'Humain… qui unitDes justritu- l'instance intermédiaire, ambiva- els et institutions qui, du fait même lente, qui assure la cohésion, la sur- de cette fonction d'apprivoisement, vie et la vie d'un monde proprement familiarisation et banalisation du humain. Spiritualisant autant que spirituel originaire, sont menacés possible le socio-politique et so- de routinisation, sclérose, dérive... cialisant (ou politisant) autant que N'étaient les surgissements péri- nécessaire le spirituel, le religieux odiques mais imprévisibles de ce est donc un lieu de tension et de spirituel (re-)fondateur et régéné- contradiction, mais aussi de régula- rateur, proprement prophétique, à tion. Ce qui fait de lui la clé de voûte même de ressourcer mystiquement ''d'En-haut'' ce religieux humain convergent les poussées opposées trop humain, pour éviter sa déna- desde l'édificeforces humaincontraires traditionnel, qui caracté où- turation complète et son absorption risent ce dernier, par nature hiérar- par l'ici-bas (socio-politique, parfois chisé en fonction de la ''primauté du violent). spirituel'' sur ce bas monde. En em- Envisager ainsi le religieux ployant le langage symbolique pro- comme instance non-dichotom- pre à cette vision traditionnelle du ique – médiate, mixte, ambigüe – monde, nous pourrions dire qu'entre de matérialisation/humanisation les exigences de la Terre (le socio- du spirituel et de spiritualisation politique, ''en bas'') et celle du Ciel de l'humain et du monde conduit (le spirituel, ''en haut''), le religieux au constant suivant, d'importance. (''au milieu'') est par excellence le Bien que distincts, le religieux et le spirituel sont vraiment intriqués 7, et - 7 Sur les problèmes posés par une opposition traordinaire''lieu de l'Homme, par saoù communication l'ordinaire des trop tranchée entre spirituel et religieux, voir (aujours moyen est régulièrement de l'activité rituelle) rendu avec ''ex Nancy Ammerman, "Spiritual But Not Reli- gious ? Beyond Binary Choices in the Study - of Religion", Journal for the scientific Study of traordinaire'' du Divin se trouve en Religion, 52/2, 2013 et Sandra M. Schneiders, ces réalités d'En-haut ; et où cet ''ex Religions vs. Spirituality : a contemporary Co- 180 voyant quant à lui selon ce schéma à l'institution et à la tradition, par

''les religions'' comme des sys- tèmeslesquelles normatifs on définit et identitaires couramment clos, s’excluant les uns les autres, passé- istes voire réactionnaires, oppressifs envers l’individu et l'intelligence, inutiles et même nuisibles du fait de - tuel supposé. leur caractère liberticide et conflic- cation contemporaine des catégo- Photo courtesy of Samuel Bendeck Sotillos courtesy Photo ries deCaricaturale, ''spirituel'' et cettede ''religieux'' simplifi (ainsi que de leurs rapports) l'est à bien des égards. Elle ignore en particulier cette inséparabilité du spirituel et du religieux dans le temps historiquement inséparables ; mais long de l'histoire humaine. Elle ou- modernité et postmodernité rem- blie en effet que le religieux – et les ettent en question leur articulation religions – peuvent être vus comme traditionnelle, en les confondant les résultats socio-historiques para- selon certains rapports, en les sé- parant radicalement selon d'autres. double mouvement simultané : l'institutionnalisationdoxaux et spécifiques du issus spirituel d'un selon lequel, le ''bon religieux'', c'est dans un contexte politico-culturel enD'où fait un ce schémaqu'on appelle occidental désormais actuel particulier ; et la spiritualisation pro- le ''spirituel''8, réduit à l'intériorité gressive de ces mêmes institutions privée, à la non-normativité et à politico-culturelles. Cette dichoto- mie du ''bon'' et du ''mauvais'' reli- issues des religions historiques sont censéesl’espace pouvoirinformel communier, où les spiritualités une fois foncière de ce dernier, travaillé par amputées de leurs volets socio-poli- desgieux tropismes méconnaî�t – enfinrespectivement l'ambivalence cé- leste et pur (au sens d'éthique et de et/ou incompatibles les uns avec les non-violent) versus terrestre et im- autres.tiques respectifs, Le ''mauvais jugés religieux'' ''archaï�ques'' ren- pur, autrement dit potentiellement nundrum, Spiritus, 2003. violent – à la fois opposés et com- 8 Cf. Lionel Obadia, "Terminologie des sciences plémentaires. Et comme l'attention des religions et vocabulaire anthropologique : occidentale contemporaine tend à retour sur l'abstrait et l'empirique dans le ré- pertoire conceptuel", Histoire, Monde et Cul- tures religieuses, aspects négatifs, il est bon de rap- de la religion", Paris : Karthala. p. 41-57. identifier le religieux avec ses seuls juin 2013, n° 26 ''Les Mots 181 peler que si ces derniers existent du Roy9 en a retrouvé trace partout bel et bien, ils ne sont pas le tout sa version négative ou bien posi- impliquant donc de prendre aussi tive,où il explique-t-il, a cherché. Que ''cette ce soitmaxime dans ende lacompte question. les Unefforts regard millénaires objectif morale est attestée dans toutes les des traditions religieuses pour ré- cultures et religions du monde dep- guler, limiter, sublimer si ce n'est uis le Ve siècle avant Jésus-Christ, éradiquer la violence, en leur sein depuis Confucius, le bouddhisme et comme à l'extérieur. l'hindouisme, l'Egypte ancienne, la Mésopotamie, le mazdéisme, la Bi- Les religions au service de la paix

Un fond éthique partagé par les ble et enfin l'islam. Elle joue un rôle religions commemajeur dansl'expression l'histoire de de la la loi pensée na- Auteur de l'ouvrage franco- turelle.chrétienne Luther où et elle les est réformateurs considérée phone de référence sur la ''règle lui accordent une place éminente d'or'' – règle éthique qui revient à dans leur prédication. Elle devient ''Ne fais pas à autrui ce que tu ne voudrais pas subir'', ou à ''fais à autrui contre l'esclavage au XVIIe siècle.''10 un argument majeur des Quakers ce que tu voudrais qu'il te fasse'' –, 9 Cf. La règle d'or : histoire d'une maxime morale le philosophe et théologien Olivier universelle, Paris : Cerf, 2012, 2 t., 1518 p. 10 In Olivier du Roy, La règle d'or : le retour d'une maxime oubliée, Paris : Cerf, 2009, 178 p.

182 L'un de leurs leaders, William Penn normes morales et principes spir- (1644-1718) ayant d'ailleurs fondé ituels. Un fond humaniste partagé, et en Pennsylvanie une société sans en cela véritablement universel, à la peine de mort ni armée permanente, connaissance et à la diffusion duquel car vivant en harmonie avec les Indi- le théologien suisse Hans Küng con- ens. A côté de la ''règle d'or'', les di- sacre depuis 1993 sa Fondation verses Ecritures et corpus de sagesse Ethique Planétaire, Weltethos11 (ba- offrent bien sûr mille et une autres sée en Allemagne). Par ailleurs, on doit aussi met- toute agression, grave aussi bien que tre au crédit des religions leur vaste légèreparoles : etdes injonctions ''dix commandements'' condamnant et constant effort culturel et caritatif aux ''cinq préceptes'' bouddhistes, contre les diverses formes de souf- du Sermon sur la montagne au Co- france, de pauvreté, de barbarie. ran ("Celui qui tue un homme, c’est Concernant leur lutte en faveur du comme s’il tuait toute l’humanité. De savoir, des malades, des démunis, même celui qui le sauve, c’est comme s’il sauvait tout le genre humain", tant d'autres : règle sacrée univer- sourate 5,32 ; ''Nulle contrainte en sellequelques d'hospitalité, exemples et suffiront d'asile parmidans religion !'' 2, 256 ; ou encore "Si Allah certains lieux saints ; alphabétisation l’avait voulu, il aurait fait de vous une - communauté unique. Toutefois il ne ra ; fondation des hôpitaux, écoles, bibliothèquesmillénaire des juifs,et universitéspour lire la Thopar ce qu’il vous a donné. Devancez-vous doncl’a pas mutuellement fait, afin de vous dans éprouver les bonnes en les Maisons de la Sagesse ou du Soin actions. Vous retournerez tous vers musulmanesl’É� glise chrétienne transmirent médiévale, le savoir à qui Allah et il vous éclairera sur le sens antique. Incitation permanente des de vos différences'', 5,48). Impos- trois monothéismes (et des autres sibles à lister tant elles sont nom- traditions, exaltant la vertu du don) à la générosité et au partage, avec le tsadaka inverses,breuses, cesmême sentences si ces derniers pacifiantes exist le- chrétienne et la zakat, l'un des cinq entsont aussi. infiniment En outre, plus queces parolesles propos de piliers de juive, l'islam. l'aumône Du médecin ou charité et philosophe persan Avicenne (980- qui incitent au bien et aux multi- 1037) au charitable Vincent de Paul concorde s'ajoutent à toutes celles (1581-1660), de la Croix rouge au prochain'' et même ''des ennemis'' Croissant Rouge et de Mère Teresa (plesMat . vertus,5, 44). jusqu'àDe quoi l'''amourattester, sur du à l'Abbé Pierre, la religion n'est-elle la longue durée, le rôle civilisateur des religions, ''grandes éducatrices d'un monde sans coeur'' ? Du moins du genre humain'' à travers leur pas – selon Marx lui-même – ''l'âme défense et illustration des mêmes 11 Fondation Weltethos : http://www.global- jusqu'àethic-now.de ce que l’É� tat-Providence, les 183 Organisations Non-Gouvernemen- vé dans leurs traditions religieuses''. tales et la sécularisation ne vien- - nent, tout récemment à l'échelle fession indienne très minoritaire, historique, lui contester cette mis- Ainsi,que Gandhi c'est du a jareçuï�nisme, son antiqueconcept con clé, sion clé d'humanisation, en insistant l'ahimsa (littéralement ''non-nui- - sance''), reprise dans l'hindouisme structions culturelles (autodafés, et le bouddhisme. Autre source de la iconoclasmes,exclusivement etc.)sur les revendiquant conflits et deun non-violence, cette religion offre au motif religieux ; lesquels n'ont, hé- las, pas manqué non plus au cours qui articulent la spiritualité et la dé- des siècles. XXe siècle des figures remarquables des droits de l'homme vietnamien Les religions inspiratrices de la non- Thichmocratie Nhat : le Hanh maî�tre et zenles etdeux militant prix violence et des ''spirituels en politique'' Aung San Suu Kyi (actuellement aux Spécialiste des questions rel- Nobelportes dedu pouvoir la Paix, en le DalaBirmanie),ï � Lama qui et

Mellon12 souligne cet apport irrem- à la guerre, la dictature ou la coloni- atives à la paix, le jésuite Christian- sation.ont tous trois résisté pacifiquement tion du monde : ''Un certain nom- Bien que moins connus, de breplaçable de croyants des religions estiment, à la à pacifica tort ou tels artisans de paix existent aus- à raison, que la tradition religieuse à laquelle ils adhèrent leur inter- dit de recourir à la violence, même médiévauxsi en islam. – Du Ibn côté Arabi, du soufispar exem tout- - ple,d'abord, qui souligna de certains la convergence grands maî�tres des ons ''à tort ou à raison'', c'est parce spiritualités authentiques – au chef qu'ilpour n'entre de justes pas causes.dans (notre) Si nous propos dis de la résistance algérienne face à la de trancher, à propos de chacune conquête française, l'émir Abd el- des traditions religieuses, la ques- Kader (1808-1883), qui devint une tion de savoir si cette interprétation vedette internationale – honorée à la est fondée ou non : au nom de quoi fois par le Pape et les franc-maçons – dira-t-on, par exemple, que (le non- pour avoir protégé, au péril de sa vie, les chrétiens persécutés à Damas en 1860. Plus près de nous, on peut théologienviolent radical) allemand Tolsto Dietrichï � a été Bon plus- également penser à Abdul Ghaffar hoeffer,fidèle à l'Evangilequi estima que que le sonpasteur devoir et Khan (1890-1988), ami et disciple était de soutenir le complot visant du Mahatma Gandhi, ou au théolo- à assassiner Hitler ?'' Restent les gien démocrate Mahmoud M. Taha ''sources d'inspiration que les ac- (1909-1985), ''le Gandhi soudan- teurs non-violents ont dit avoir trou- 12 Christian Mellon, Jacques Semelin, La non- aussi ''leur'' Gandhi, avec l'écrivain violence, Paris : PUF, 1994, 128 p., p. 29. ais''. Enfin, les Balkans ayant eux 184 non-violent Ibrahim Rugova (1944- 2006), le premier président du Ko- de se défendre par les armes contre sovo. leschrétiennes persécutions, n'ont et jamais qu'elles envisagé consi- Concernant le christianisme, déraient toutes les activités faisant ses apports en matière de paix sont verser le sang comme des péchés moins ignorés, ainsi que le détaille particulièrement graves. Quant au C. Mellon : ''A diverses époques de l'histoire, des groupes de chrétiens incompatible avec la foi (…). Pour ont pris au pied de la lettre les en- Origènemétier des (185-252), armes, il estpar d'abord exemple, jugé le seignements du Nouveau Testament chrétien ne doit ''tirer l'épée ni pour sur la renonciation à la violence : faire la guerre, ni pour faire valoir ses droits ni pour aucun autre mo- tend encore l'autre'' (Matthieu 5, tif, car ce précepte de l'Evangile ne 39),''Si l'on ''Ne te résiste frappe pas sur laau joieméchant'' droite, souffre aucune exception.'' (Oeuvres, (ibid.), ''Celui qui prend l'épée pé- corpus de Berlin, vol. II, p. 221-222). rira par l'épée'' (Mat. 26, 52). Les Marginalisé après la conversion au témoignages concordent sur le fait christianisme de l'empereur Con- que les premières communautés stantin (313) et l'élaboration par Au- 185 hommes politiques), à la Française théologique de la guerre, le refus de sainte Jeanne d'Arc (1412-1431), au lagustin violence (354-430) sera périodiquement d'une justification re- - mis à l'honneur par les mouvements sang Gyatso (1617-1682), etc. - premier Dalaï � Lama chef d'Etat, Lob nent l'histoire du christianisme : L'interreligieux face aux conflits émergencede ''retour àde l'Evangile'' la vie monastique qui jalon Dans une logique de tolé- (Ve-VIe siècles), Vaudois (XIIe), rance, de compréhension mutuelle franciscains, (XIIIe).''13 Par la suite, et à terme de concorde universelle, certains courants – comme les prot- le combat pour la paix rencontra peu estants mennonites – mettront à à peu le désir de dialogue oecumé- nouveau la non-violence au centre nique, puis interreligieux, en par- de l'éthique chrétienne. En France, ticulier chez certains protestants. c'est d'ailleurs ces anabaptistes qui En 1893 à Chicago fut ainsi ouvert le obtiendront de la Convention, en premier Parlement mondial des reli- - gions, sur une initiative de quelques science. Autre occurrence historique unitariens ; et le Mouvement inter- 1793, le droit à l'objection de con national de la réconciliation (MIR) 1910), chrétien radical hétérodoxe est né quant à lui en 1919, avant excommuniébien connue :en Leon 1901 Tolsto notammentï � (1828- de s'ouvrir très tôt aux autres chré- pour avoir dénoncé les incohérences tiens, puis aux autres croyants, et compromissions des Eglises. Or après 1960. Quant aux Mennonites inspirateurs de M. K. Gandhi, lequel interpretation de leurs credo et cou- Tolstoï � fut aussi l'un des principaux déjà évoqués, ''sur la base d'une ré- ''spirituels en démocratie'', unissant des années 80 des experts du peace- lainfluencera non-violence à son à latour foi tantreligieuse d'autres et buildingtumes, ils actifs sont dansdevenus une depuis soixantaine la fin démocratique : Martin Luther King, de pays'', atteste la politologue San- Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, etc. drine Lefranc14. Depuis le concile De quoi réactiver en pleine moder- Vatican II (1962-65) et surtout les nité, mutatis mutandis, le modèle rencontres d'Assise à partir de 1986, classique de la "sainteté politique", si abondamment illustré au cours ralliée à la démarche interreligieuse, àl’ Élaquelle� glise catholique elle apporte s'est ses elle grandes aussi à l'empereur bouddhiste Ashoka capacités d'action et de médiatisa- (v.des - âges304- ?- On232), pense, au quatrième par exemple, cal- tion. Dans ce cadre, ses priorités ife Ali (Arabie, v. 600-661), au roi sont la lutte pour la paix, la liberté de France Louis IX (« saint Louis », de conscience et le dialogue inter- 1214-1270), à l'Anglais Thomas 14 - More (1478-1535, le saint patron des spirés. Notes sur des groupes anabaptistes et évangéliquesCf. Sandrine américains, Lefranc, Des Terrain pacificateurs, n° 51, 2008, in 13 Ibid., p. 32-33. p. 42-49. [http://terrain.revues.org/10963] 186 convictionnel, illustrés par des lieux Conclusion (comme la communauté de Taizé, en France), des manifestations (les JMJ, Eclairant, réchauffant et hu- Journées Mondiales de la Jeunesse) manisant toutes les civilisations et des mouvements, tel Sant'Egidio. 15 du Habile médiatrice, cette commu- religieux peut aussi incendier, con- nauté internationale née en 1968 sumerdepuis toujours,et détruire le ''feu parfois, sacré'' sans en Italie a notamment contribué qu'on puisse vraiment savoir si ces - embrasements périodiques sont zambique, en 1992. A ces grandes propres à la nature violente de ce causesà la fin deecclésiales, la guerre civilel'encyclique au Mo dernier, qui se trouverait ainsi ré- Laudato si' du pape François vient vélée ; ou bien résultent de dérives – soit endogènes, soit exogènes – issues des instrumentalisations, récu- l'universeld'ajouter l'écologie, spirituel, dontéthique la portée et – pérations et manipulations du re- enplanétaire l'occurrence ne peut– politique. que rejoindre Autant ligieux par le politique (et d'autres d'innovations qui témoignent d'une intérêts, économiques en particuli- progressive ouverture au pluralisme er). Contrairement aux conceptions dominant la modernité occidentale, catholique, tissée de messages pon- il semble bien – en tout cas – que le de l'antique tradition pacificatrice lien du religieux et du politique ne d'initiatives éthico-spirituelles var- soit pas ni contingent, ni optionnel, iées,tificaux, telle d'efforts la ''paix diplomatiquesde Dieu'' (Xe-XIe et mais soit au contraire nécessaire ; et siècles) visant à limiter les violences qu'il se concrétise par la même d'une dans la société féodale européenne. façon ou d'une autre, que l'on ap- Longtemps initié par des chrétiens, prouve ou condamne cet état de fait. le dialogue interreligieux se trouve depuis quelques années également le religieux possède des rapports pris en charge par des croyants issus structurelsCe qui signifie, avec hélas la violence sans doute, ; soit que du d'autres confessions, ainsi qu'en té- fait de sa nature propre, soit en rai- moignent le Festival de Fès des mu- son de ce lien avec le politique, lui- siques sacrées du monde (Maroc) même voué au maintien de l'ordre à et les activités du DICID (Qatar), ou l'intérieur des sociétés ou entre ces plus récemment du KAICID (Arabie dernières, autrement dit à l'usage Saoudite), patronnées par des mu- tendanciel de la force. Mais souligner l'inséparabilité musulmane, pour prendre un exem- du politique et du religieux ne re- plesulmans français. ; ou encore l'Amitié judéo- vient pas à la réduction de l'un à l'autre (ce qui reviendrait à confon- 15 Expression de Régis Debray, cf. son livre Le Feu sacré : fonctions du religieux, Paris : Fayard, 2003. 187 dre ''religion'' et ''idéologie'') ; ni a fortiori à la réduction du religieux à la violence, ne serait-ce qu'en raison du lien non moins consubstantiel existant entre le religieux et le domaine éthico-spirituel, qui s'oppose complexesjustement parqui relient nature à àla la fois violence. le spir- ituelReconnaî�tre avec le etreligieux assumer et les le relationsreligieux avec le politique conduit ainsi à une vigilance humaniste à l'égard des - gieux, quand il perd sa position mé- dianedérives entre toujours ces deux possibles pôles opposés du reli et complémentaires. Et, en particulier, quand il devient un outil voire - cace (du fait de sa puissance intrin- sèqueune ''arme'' de ''feu particulièrementsacré'') dans les mains effi du politique, notamment comme moyen de mobilisation des foules ou de sacralisation de l'identité, du pouvoir, de l'ordre social en place, de la communauté, etc. Heureusement, face à de telles instrumentalisations, le religieux possède des gardes fous - muns à toutes les religions et civili- sationséthico-spirituels : la récurrence spécifiques, scripturaire com de la ''règle d'or'' et d'autres valeurs inter-communautaires et de pra- tiquepacifiantes d'intériorité ; l'existence incitant de dialoguesau travail régulière de leaders ''spirituels en politique'',sur soi ; ou le enfinplus souvent la manifestation non-violents.

188 189 Book Reviews

Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Tra- ditions, ed. Daniel L. Smith-Christopher (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007). xxvii, 210pp, $20.00. Tenth Anniversary Edition.

Our collective sensibilities are assaulted by many cases of violence and terror. Our global landscape is indeed tormented by news of horren- dous terror committed in the name of God. It seems very ironic that sacred traditions that are meant to safeguard human wholeness have been used wrenching realities of our contemporary world. Therefore, the search for newto justify models hatred concerning and violence peace all provides over the a newglobe. sense This ofis hopeone of for the a heart-world relentlessly yearning for a message of hope in the midst of chaos. In a sea- son of negative perspectives about religion, it is important to set the record straight concerning the enduring connections between religion and peace. New paradigms concerning peace are imperative in a terror-saddled world. Religion can contribute some valuable insights to this important process. Subverting Hatred is an edited book that brings together different voices on religion and peace from different religious traditions. The book is a lucid appeal to recover the transformative power of religion in the midst of global violence and terror. It is comparative and seeks to provide a cross- cultural understanding of peacebuilding. Beyond destructive rhetoric, the book seeks to provide a new narrative that can engender peace and understanding in the world. It uses a case study approach to uncover the contributions of religion to both inner and global peace. It wrestles with an understanding that religion can contribute to the discourse on subverting hatred and building the capacity for peace. The essays in Subverting Hatred - sioned by the Boston Research Center in the spring of 1998. The purpose emerged out of a project commis oral teachings, and the traditions of world religions. It is a bold testimony of the project was to study the theme of nonviolence in the scriptures, the Religious traditions are replete with ambivalent messages about war and of the ambiguities and conflicting messages that emerged from the study.- damental message of peace in all religious traditions. peace. TheNonetheless, book notes the that project the Buddhist encourages peace scholars wheel, to the investigate Confucian/Daoist the fun teachings190 that teaches how to “channel conflict” and “call for cooperation,” the Hindu tradition concerning ahimsa, Islam’s al-jihad al akbar (the Great- er Struggle), and the Jainist advocacy for peace are all enduring insights that - lenges of peacebuilding in all religious traditions. Using sacred texts, the- ologies,can contribute histories, to peace,traditions, harmony, and practices; and justice. it Thisis a compendium book amplifies of the the chal rich legacy of nonviolence in religious traditions. The ten chapters in the book cover Buddhism, Jainism, Confucian- ism and Daoism, Hinduism, Indigenous Traditions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. It opens with a powerful foreword by Daisaku Ikeda, Founder, Boston Research Center for the 21st Century and the President of the Soka Gakkai International and concludes with an epilogue by Donald K. Swearer. The book’s editor, Daniel Smith-Christopher teaches theological studies and directs the Peace Studies program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. In his introduction, he sets out the rationale of the book. Accord- ing to him, “the main purpose of Subverting Hatred on religious traditions in the context of the current debates about violence and nonviolence, and to offer resources from within is religious an invitation traditions to reflect that would support a nonviolent approach to pressing issues”(p.xxiii). Typical of most edited books, the chapters in Subverting Hatred are uneven in terms of their depth and critical dimension. This is one of the pitfalls of an edited volume. However, this dimension does not diminish its wonderful collection of essays on what Michel Foucault called a “reverse value for contemplating useful models for peacemaking and justice. It is a violence and mayhem. narrative” that would refute the tendency to solely use religion to justify Akintunde E. Akinade

191 Karen Armstrong, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence (London: The Bodley Head, 2014). 499 pp. ISBN 9781847921864 (Hardback)

The recent work by Karen Armstrong entitled Fields of Blood is more than a new contribution to the ongoing debate about religious extremism, radicalism, fanaticism and the so-called religious terrorism that is so much present in our world. It also provides an in-depth scholarly attempt to explain the historical roots of violence in human history. Penned by the author A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; The Battle for God:whose Fundamentalism numerous other in worksJudaism, on Christianity religious subjects and Islam; (such The as Case for God: What Religions Really Means to name but a few) have earned her the status - ies, Fields of Blood is a synthesis of her scholarship on religious and non- religiousof a very distinguishedviolence from andancient respected times scholarto the present in the field day. ofThe religious book places stud the question of religious violence in a larger context that takes into account as well its socio-economic, political and cultural roots. The book is divided into three parts and thirteen chapters, besides the history of ancient civilizations such as the Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyr- ianthe andintroduction Babylonian and empires the afterword. of Mesopotamia, In the first the part Aryan the kingdoms author delves of Indian into - andSubcontinent, the birth ofthe Jesus Chinese Christ. ruling Most dynasties of these ofcivilizations Xia, Shang developed and Zhou duringand fi thenally Agricultural the biblical or prophets Neolithic and revolution. their peoples This revolutiondown to the created first centurya situation BC organization, became unavoidable. Society was thus divided into a ruling elitein which supported the emergence by military of forcemore oncomplex the one societies, side and withordinary a highly peasants stratified and farmers on the other side. In Armstrong’s view, violence in all these societies can be traced back primarily to political and economic struggles, with fertile territories. Later on, this practice led to the development of more andneighboring more organized cities and warfare, communities with empires fighting waging each other wars foron anthe ever control larger of scale. As Karen Armstrong observes, violence at the time had little to do with religious beliefs and practices, in part because religions were in the early stages of their development. Only centuries later did religions become systematically organized institutions, with their own principles and laws. For the author, religion was “embedded into political, social and domestic arrangements of a society, providing it with an overarching system of meaning. Its goals, language and rituals were conditioned by these mundane con- 192 siderations” (Armstrong, 22). Similar conditions were found among societies ruled by the biblical prophets and kings. The author vividly narrates how primitive and ancient religious rites and practices were being incorporated into the political, economic and cultural fabric of those societies. She also analyses how monotheism emerged and the role of priests in the formation of a body of written religious literature. This leads us to the second part of the book where several important topics are discussed including the formation of Christianity, issues related to notions of Crusade and jihad. ByzantineChristianity, Empire andwith its the dissolution, idea of Christ’sthe coming Divine of IslamKingdom, and finallyoriginally the emerged as a reaction against oppressive forms of government in the An- cient world. This origin did not prevent the Byzantine Empire to use extreme

Christianity appeared during the period known as the Pax Romana where relativeforms of peace repression was established and domination within Roman against Empire, its own Christians subjects. Althoughand Jews were still being persecuted because they represented a potential challenge to the Pagan Roman emperors. After the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, Chris- into a power structure of its own, with the clergy gradually replacing pagan rulerstianity andwas claiming officially for recognized themselves and their from political then it power. began Inits what transformation she writes about Christianity in the Western world, Karen Armstrong pays a special attention to its attitude toward Islam, which was seen as a threat to Europe but also toward European Jews as well as those Christians who opposed the institutional Church. Religion was clearly used as an excuse to protect the so called ‘papal libertas’, a notion borrowed from Ancient Rome and referring to special privileges granted to the new ruling class, namely the Christian - thor, besides its religious zeal, these wars were always motivated by social andclergymen. economic Religion factors, was i.e. similarlythe staggering used toand justify chaotic the situation Crusades. in manyFor the parts au of Europe caused by endemic civil wars, famine, all sorts of diseases and other disasters. Despite the claim that the Crusades were waged to liber- ate Christians from Islamic domination, the main motivation lied elsewhere. Many Europeans wanted to escape misery in their own land and the popes saw in the Crusades an opportunity to strengthen their political power. In the third part of the book entitled “Modernity”, Armstrong discuss- es questions such as the modern understanding of religion in the Western world and the process of separation between religion and state that gave rise to secularism. She concludes with two interesting chapters called “Holy terror” and “Global jihad” respectively. For the author, the idea of liberating others which started with the Crusades has survived in “Western imperial 193 aggression” till our time. As a result of the Enlightenment and industrial revolution, the unimaginable atrocities and terror brought about by the Crusades in the Middle East as well as in Europe itself have continued and extended even further in other parts of the world through colonialism. It is during this time that religion paradoxically has been accused of causing more wars, oppression and suffering than any other human institution. The author righty asks, “more than what?” Furthermore, she once again tries to underline the fact that “[u]ntil the modern period, religion permeated all aspects of life, including politics and warfare, not because ambitious church- men had ‘mixed up’ two essentially distinct activities, but because people

In failing to understand this very fact about religion when dealing withwanted nations to endow that wenteverything through they a different did with processsignificance” of development (Armstrong, than 359). the one undertaken by the Western world, modern thinkers and secularists only and even genocides committed by colonialism in the pursuit of economic or add fuel to the fire. At the same time, they tend to disregard those crimes analyzes religious fundamentalism, extremism and secular nationalism, as itpolitical developed interest. in the In Muslim the chapter world entitled“under secular “Religion rule fights of the back”, colonial Armstrong powers - atically violent” (Armstrong, 288). Muslim extremism did exist even before thewhich colonial the majority period andof Muslims was embodied have experienced by a few religious as militarily scholars and systemsuch as Ibn Taymiyyah (who was himself responding to the Crusades and Mongo- leaders have demonstrated through centuries a remarkable capacity to deal lian invasion). Still the vast majority of Muslims as well as their political - in a peaceful manner with the fact of religious diversity. Sufi philosophers inand the scholars Western such world, as Ibn are ‘Arab the bestī�, Jalāl examples al-Dī�n al-Rūm of thisī�, attitude.and even To military account com for themanders emergence such as of Ṣalāḥ radical al-D Islamistī�n (Saladin), movements, all of whom to explain have why gained today praise violence even ignore the disastrous impact of colonialism on the Muslim world. As Karen Armstrongand terrorism observes, are all-too it is oftennot that justified “Islam in is the more name prone of Islam, to violence one cannot than Protestant Christianity.” But “Muslims had a much harsher introduction to modernity. Before the birth of the modern state in the crucible of colonialism, Islam had continued in many Muslim lands to operate as the organizing principle of society.” (Armstrong, 278).

Senad Mrahorović 194 Biographies

Karen Armstrong OBE is a historian of religion, whose books on the traditions of India, China, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been translated into forty- A History of God, which was an international bestseller; The Battle for God, A Historyfive languages. of Fundamentalism; They include, Islam: A Short History, Mu- hammad: A Prophet for Our Time; Buddha; The Great Transformation: The Origin of Our Religious Traditions and most recently Fields of Blood; Religion and the History of Violence High Level Group of the UN Alliance of Civilizations with the task of diag- nosing the causes of extremism.. In 2007 In 2008,she was she appointed was awarded by Kofi the Anan TED toPrize the and began working with TED on the Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public, crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. It was launched in the fall of 2009 and has become a global movement. Also in 2008 she was awarded the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medal. In 2013 she received the British Academy’s inaugural Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Transcultural Un- derstanding and in 2015 the ISESCO prize for educators. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Trustee of the British Museum.

Akintunde E. Akinade is professor of Theology at George- town University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He is the author of Christian Responses to Islam in Nigeria: A Contex- tual Study of Ambivalent Encounters (2014).

Myriam Benraad BA, MPhil, PhD (Sciences Po Paris, France) is a researcher specialising in the contemporary Middle East and Arab and Muslim politics. She has taught political science and Middle Eastern politics at the American Uni- versity Centre of Provence (AUCP, Aix-en-Provence). She is the author of Irak, la revanche de l’Histoire. De l’occupation étrangère à l’État islamique (Iraq: the Revenge of History. From Foreign Occupation to the Islamic State, Paris: Ven- démiaire, 2015) and Irak : de Babylone à l’État islamique. Idées recues sur une nation complexe (Iraq: From Babylon to the Islamic State. Misconceptions on a Complex Nation, Paris: Le Cavalier Bleu, 2015). 195 Barry Cooper FRSC, a fourth generation Albertan, was ed- ucated at Shawnigan Lake School, the University of British Columbia and Duke University (PhD, 1969). He taught at several eastern universities before coming to the Univer- sity of Calgary in 1981. He has published 180 articles and over 30 books, most recently Consciousness and Politics: From Analysis to Meditation in the late work of Eric Voege- lin, (St Augustine’s Press, 2016); in 2004, the University of Missouri Press published New Political Religions: An Analysis of Modern Terrorism. He publishes a weekly column in the Calgary Herald and other CanWest Global papers.

Renaud Fabbri is the Managing Editor of Adyan/Religions at the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue. He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (France) and is specialized in the Philosophy of Religion and in Political Philosophy. His book Eric Voegelin et l’Orient : Millénarisme et Religions Politiques de l’Antiquité à Daech (Paris: l’Harmattan, 2016) analyzes the spiritual and ideological roots of Islamism, Ji- hadism and Hindu Nationalism in the light of Eric Voegelin’s “philosophy of consciousness.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

Eric Geoffroy is an Expert in Islam and Professor in Islam- ic Studies in the Department of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Strasbourg (France). He also teaches at another institutions such as the Open University of Catalo-

works as well on intercultural and interreligious relations andnia (Barcelona). spirituality challengesSpecialist inin thethe studycontemporary of Sufism world in Islam, (spir he- ituality and globalization; spirituality and ecology…). He published more than ten books and directed collective works as well. He is the author of numerous articles in magazines specialized in Islamology and has written more than twenty articles in the Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd and 3rd 196 ed. (Brill, Leiden). Some of his publications have been translated into different languages.

Daisaku Ikeda (1928- ) is a Buddhist philosopher, peace- builder, poet and author. He is president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a socially engaged network of Buddhist lay believers with members in 192 countries and territories around the world; he is also the founder of a number of educational and research institutions, including the Toda Insti- tute for Global Peace and Policy Research, and Soka Univer- sity. Since 1983, Ikeda has issued peace proposals addressing critical global issues and in support of the work of the United Nations.

Grace Ji-Sun Kim is an ordained minister in the PC (USA) and Asian American theology. Kim is the author or editor ofnoted 10 books,for her mostwork recentlyin the fields Embracing of feminist, the Otherpost-colonial (2015) and Making Peace with the Earth (2016). She earned a B.S. from Victoria University in 1992; an M.Div. from Knox College in 1995; and a Ph.D. from University of Toronto in 2001.

Ibrahim Kalin, Ph. D. is curently the spokesperson for the Turkish presidency and is a fellow at the Prince Al- waleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University. He received his Ph. D. from the - tion is post-Avicennan Islamic philosophy with research interestsGeorge Washington in comparative University. philosophy, His field Muslim-Christian of concentra relations and modern Turkish history. Dr. Kalin has published widely on Islamic philosophy and the relations between Islam and the West.

Patrick Laude has been teaching at Georgetown since 1991. His scholarly interests lie in comparative spirituality, poetry, and Western interpretations of Islam and Asian contempla- tive and wisdom traditions. He has authored over ten books including: Pathways to an Inner Islam (SUNY, 2010), Pray Without Ceasing (World Wisdom, 2006), and Divine Play, Sa- cred Laughter and Spiritual Understanding (Palgrave, 2005).

197 Ali Lakhani graduated from Cambridge Uni- versity with a B.A. (Hons), LL.B., and LL.M. He is based in Vancouver and has practised as a bar- rister and solicitor at all levels of the courts in Canada for nearly 40 years. In 2015 he was appointed ‘Queen’s Counsel’. In 1998 he founded Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, which he continues to edit. He is the editor of the anthology, The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam (2006), which contains his prize-winning essay on 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, 'The Metaphysics of Human Governance: Imam 'Ali, Truth and Justice', and is the author of an anthology of essays, The Timeless Relevance of Traditional Wisdom (2010). An Ismaili Muslim, he has recently written a book (forthcoming) on Ismaili faith and ethics, focusing on the teachings of His Highness the Aga Khan.

Oliver Leaman teaches philosophy at the Uni- versity of Kentucky and has previously taught in the Middle East and Britain. He is the author most recently of The Qur’an: Philosophical Per- spectives, Bloomsbury, 2016 and Controversies in Contemporary Islam, Routlege 2013 and is on the editorial board of the Islamic Studies section of Oxford Bibliographies Online.

Louis Massignon (1883-1962) was a Catholic scholar of Islam and a pioneer of Catholic- Muslim mutual understanding. He

to the Catholic church's relationship with Islam. was an influential figure in the twentieth century with regard

Senad Mrahorović, PhD, is a researcher at the DICID. His research interests include Religious studies, Orientalism, Su- fism, philosophy and religious art. John Paraskevopoulos is a Shin Buddhist priest from Aus- tralia. He attended the University of Melbourne where he

Paraskevopoulos received ordination in 1994 at the Tem- was awarded first-class honours in Philosophy. Reverend a number of works including Call of the Infinite (also pub- ple of the Primal Vow (Hongan-ji) in Kyoto and has written 198 lished in French, Italian and Greek editions), The Fragrance of Light and The Unhindered Path (scheduled to appear in late 2016). He is currently engaged in a range of pastoral and scholarly endeavours.

Samuel Bendeck Sotillos the Association for Humanistic Psychology, an Ad- visor to the Institute of Traditional is a Board Psychology Affiliate and of

health, covering a broad spectrum of disorders in varioushas worked psychiatric for several settings. years inHe the has field published of mental in acred Web, Sophia, Parabola, Resurgence, Te- menos Academy Review, Studies in Comparative Religion and is the editor of Psychologynumerous journals, and the includingPerennial SPhilosophy. He lives on the Central Coast of California.

Sofia Stril-Rever: PhD in Indian studies, a writer, biog- rapher and interpreter of the Dalai Lama with whom she has co-authored 3 books: New Reality (Les Arènes, 2016), My Spiritual Journey (Harper One, 2010), translated from French into about twenty languages, and My Appeal to the World (Hay House International, 2015). As an interpreter of sacred mantras, she has also released the CD Dakinis (SometimeStudio, Paris, 2012) - tion for Peace and Universal Responsibility, based in Paris, France, www. buddhaline.netSofia Stril-Rever is the cofounder and spokeperson of P.U.R.E., the Associa

Eric Vinson, Ph. D in Political Science (Sciences Po Paris) is specialized in religious, spiritual and political issues. He teaches religiology, Buddhism and religious pedagogy in the Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP), and religious and secular

newspapers such as Le Point and Le Monde des Religions. As theculture president in Sciences of Enquete Po. As a and journalist, Growing he Together worked ,for two French non- knowledge and education, dialogue and mutual understanding in secular societies. Co-writtenprofit with NGOs, his he wife is Sophie devoted Viguier-Vinson, to the promotion his latest of religious book is entitled Jaurès le prophète, mystique et politique d’un combattant républic- ain (Albin-Michel, Paris, 2014).

199 Eric Voegelin was a German-born American political scientist and philosopher. Born in Cologne in 1901, he

Voegelin focused on the religious roots of modern politi- caldied ideologies in Stanford, such California as Communism in 1985. and In hisNazism, first works,which he initially interpreted as a form of Gnosticism. In his later works he developed a theory of consciousness and a religious phenomenology. His most important works include Political Religions, The New Science of Politics, Science, Politics, and Gnosticism, Order and History (5 volumes) and Anamnesis. They have been published in the Collected Works of Eric Voegelin (University of Missouri). The most accessible introduction to his thought remains his Autobiographical Reflections.

Elizabeth Zelensky teaches at several Washington D.C. area universities, including Georgetown University and George Mason University and has worked as a historical consultant for the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Justice. Her scholarly interests focus on the discourse of Westernization and spirituality in pre- revolutionary Russia and she has written Windows to Heaven(Brazos, 2005).

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