[ALBSA-Info] Fwd: E-newsletter of October 18, 2001

[Xhuliana Agolli]

>From: Katherine Bourdonnay <KBourdonnay at centerforinquiry.net>
>Subject: E-newsletter of October 18, 2001
>Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:23:22 -0400
>
>Educate your member of Congress!
>
>The United States House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution
>(H. Con. Res. 248) on a vote of 404 to 0 (with 10 voting present),
>expressing the "sense of the Congress" that public schools may post "God
>Bless America" signs as a show of support for the nation.
>
>It is time for YOU to call your U.S. Representative and educate him or her
>about that essential American concept of the separation of church and 
>state.
>
>
>To find out who your Representative is and to get a phone number, visit
>www.house.gov.  Please call or write after the House reconvenes on
>October 23rd.
>
>-----------------------------------
>
>Here is a feature story from Investor's Business Daily, in which Paul Kurtz
>is quoted, that you should find of interest.
>
>Thursday, September 27, 2001
>
>Behind Radical Muslim Discontent:
>Economic Failure Of Modern Islam
>By Peter Benesh
>
>A great swath of humanity 1.3 billion people, or one-fifth of the world's
>population lives in countries where Islam is the dominant or state 
>religion.
>Most are poor.
>
>They're less educated than Westerners. They live shorter lives. Infant
>mortality is higher.
>
>By any measure, modern Islam is an economic failure. Most Islamic countries
>are locked in a struggle between a glorious past and a grim present. Angry
>militants blame the U.S. and Europe for this.
>
>Scholars see a pattern based as much on psychology as theology. Radical
>Muslims blame their poverty on those with more wealth. Those who have 
>wealth
>must be taking it away from those who have less.
>
>Once Dominant
>
>Islam once dominated the world at least the world centered on the
>Mediterranean and its trade routes. Cordoba and Granada in Spain were
>ancient centers of Islamic learning, symbols of prosperity and influence.
>
>But that was 1,000 years ago. The Moors lost Spain to the Christians in
>1492. Today, Moroccans, Algerians and Tunisians sneak into Europe by boat 
>to
>find opportunities.
>
>The Ottoman Empire, rooted in what is now Turkey, once reached Vienna,
>Austria. The last vestige of Ottoman rule in Europe - in the Balkans - 
>ended
>80 years ago. Its vestiges sparked the Balkan wars of the last decade.
>
>How did a civilization that gave the world its numeric system,
>transliterated Aristotle and opened trade routes to the Orient wind up in
>such an economic mess despite its vast riches of resources?
>
>Basic Disconnect
>
>The answer lies in a brew of royalty, psychology, history, myth and
>theology, scholars say.
>
>Muslims are unable to reconcile a basic disconnect, says professor Akbar
>Ahmed of American University in Washington, D.C.
>
>"They say to themselves: 'We are not poor people. We have oil. We have
>resources. Why is it being mismanaged? Why are our leaders not able to
>organize our lives so we can live as good human beings and good Muslims?'"
>he said.
>
>One answer lies in the myth of their lost glory, he says.
>
>"Muslims have a feeling of having achieved so much over 1,000 years, up to
>the period of European colonization in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
>They expected they would take off and achieve something," Ahmed said.
>Instead, the Muslim world is falling behind.
>
>A root problem is that most of the wealth is in the hands of royalty or
>dictators, Ahmed says. "There is prosperity for some. The standard of 
>living
>there can rank with European countries. But it's all clustered at the top."
>
>That's a key cause of anger, he says. "A radical in the Muslim world is
>attacking primarily his own establishment," Ahmed said.
>
>"Fundamentalists identify their own corrupt governments with the West. They
>say to themselves, 'We have crooks ruling us and behind them you have the
>Western powers,' " he said.
>
>Reformation Wanted
>
>Economic misery is also a product of ignorance, says Paul Kurtz, emeritus
>professor of philosophy at State University of New York in Buffalo.
>
>"Islam needs a reformation, a renaissance. Islam desperately needs to come
>into the modern world," he said. "Islam is based on developments in the
>seventh and eighth centuries. It is based on nomadic and agricultural
>civilizations. Fundamentalist forces want to return to that era. For them,
>religion becomes the be-all and end-all," Kurtz said.
>
>In 46 Islamic countries, those who want to modernize are at odds with
>fundamentalists, he says.
>
>"The economic hardships they suffer result from inadequate education. 
>Unless
>they develop science, technology and expand university curricula to include
>all subjects and allow freedom of inquiry, they'll find it difficult to
>advance," he said.
>
>"Look at Egypt. The population is growing by leaps and bounds. The
>government would like to modernize, but fears the mobs spurred by the
>fundamentalists," he said.
>
>A key factor is the union of theology and government, he says. "There's no
>separation of mosque and state except in Turkey, which became secular in
>1923. But even there the military is always on guard against Islamic
>fundamentalists," he said.
>
>Militant Islamists are driven by a vision of their faith that goes back
>almost 1,500 years, Kurtz says. "Thirty years after Mohammed (570-632) 
>died,
>his followers took Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Within 80 years they had
>reached both the Atlantic and the Indian oceans."
>
>Missionary Zeal
>
>"Now it's a missionary religion. The principle of jihad is that, in the 
>name
>of Allah, you can kill anything that endangers Islam," Kurtz said.
>
>A chance for economic improvement in Islamic countries rests with the
>children of Muslim families in the West, Kurtz says.
>
>"With 7 million Muslims in France, 3 million in Germany and 7 million in 
>the
>U.S., I hope their kids who go on to university will find enlightenment and
>take their knowledge back," he said.
>
>It's not a certain thing, he says. "Some of the second generation are
>breaking away, but some are going back to Islam."
>
>The oil sheiks proclaim their wealth as a benefit from God, says John Voll,
>professor of Islamic history at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
>That belief sustains an elite and hinders development, he says.
>
>Whose Oil Is It?
>
>"The elite see oil as God's gift of prosperity to the royal families in
>Saudi Arabia and the (United Arab) Emirates. They claim it is Islamic to
>keep that wealth to themselves because God gave them the stuff," he said.
>
>"Muslims have a sense that something went wrong. They have tried to do
>something about it. There was a century of reform in the 19th and early 
>20th
>century," he said.
>
>He cited Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) and Gamel Abdel Nasser (1918-1970).
>Ataturk, Turkey's first president after the Ottoman Empire's fall, 
>separated
>mosque and state.
>
>Nasser deposed Egypt's monarchy and seized the Suez Canal. His bid to 
>launch
>a union of Arab states failed.
>
>At Your Own Peril
>
>Modernizing an Islamic country is risky. Radicals killed Egyptian President
>Anwar Sadat on Oct. 6, 1981, for his efforts.
>
>"They tried to do something, but what they tried to do didn't do them much
>good," Voll said. By the 1970s people in the Islamic world saw that they 
>had
>failed, he says. "They felt they had been defeated by the West."
>
>How did they make that leap?
>
>"They tried radical socialist and Marxist ideology. That didn't work," Voll
>said. "Then they tried hard-nosed entrepreneurial reform. That didn't work.
>So they thought maybe they were wrong to try copying the West."
>
>"They learned it wasn't about just copying technology but also ways of
>thinking," Voll said.
>
>"This drove the intellectuals to say, 'Maybe we are weak because we copy
>somebody else. Let's go back to our roots,' " Voll said.
>
>That led to a universal human tendency - blaming others for their own
>misfortunes, Voll says. "European and American imperialism became the
>scapegoat," he said. And the shift to fundamentalism only made matters
>worse.
>
>"Conservative religious rigidity, whether indigenous tribal, old-fashioned
>Christian or Muslim have been hindrances to economic development," he said.
>
>The Malaysian Example
>
>One Islamic country is different, he says. That's Malaysia. But it's far
>from the Middle East and has a long history of trade.
>
>"Embedded in the concept of a traditional Islamic society in Southeast Asia
>is a cosmopolitan tolerance and pluralism," he said.
>
>Malaysia is building an economy based on technology and education. Why is
>Malaysia not a model for the rest of the Islamic world?
>
>"Malaysia is viewed by Muslims throughout the Islamic world as interesting
>but marginal," Voll said. There's no one to tell all Muslims to follow
>Malaysia's example.
>
>Islam is vague, Voll says. "It has no papacy and no church. It has mullahs
>who issue fatwas (edicts), but no formal institution to define what Islam
>means or says."
>
>Why Are We Behind?
>
>The Muslim countries of the Middle East are shackled by their view of
>history, says Jere Bacharach, professor of international studies at the
>University of Washington, Seattle.
>
>"Arabic-speaking Muslims believe God revealed his final truth in Arabic.
>Their influence once stretched from Spain to Central Asia. They said to
>themselves, 'Clearly God favored us,'" Bacharach said.
>
>"Now they ask, 'Why are we so far behind?' The reason, they say, is, 'We
>don't have the faith of our founders. If we go back to the values of the
>founders, we will have the glory we once had.'
>
>"Of course, they cannot go back to the early 700s," he said.
>
>------------------------------
>
>Reprinted with permission from Investor's Business Daily © 2001 Investor's
>Business Daily, Inc. The content contained in this presentation and all
>affiliates of this company are not endorsed, reviewed by or affiliated with
>Investor's Business Daily. For more information on Investor's Business 
>Daily
>please visit www.investors.com <http://www.investors.com>.
>
>*     *     *     *     *
>
>Chicago Tribune Column Quotes Humanist Manifesto
>
>We all know how difficult it has been to get any coverage in the media for
>our philosophy in the aftermath of the tragedy of September 11th.
>Therefore, when we do get a nod from a journalist it is worth calling it to
>everyone's attention.
>
>In the October 13th issue of the Chicago Tribune, columnist Eric Zorn
>chastised the City Manager of Ringgold, Georgia, who had decided to post
>framed copies of the 10 Commandments and the Lord's Prayer next to an empty
>frame for those who believe in nothing.
>
>Zorn wrote," I'd like to inform Mr. McMillon that just because someone
>doesn't believe in God - his or someone else's - doesn't mean he believes 
>in
>'nothing.'"  Zorn then went on to quote extensively from the Humanist
>Manifestos.  "You may not agree with them, but you can't call them 
>nothing."
>
>To read the entire article, please go to www.chicagotribune.com and see
>Columnists, Zorn, recent articles.
>
>                                           ------------------------
>
>
>		Historic International Humanist Conference Held in Africa
>
>		Ibadan, Nigeria (October 15, 2001)-The Nigerian Humanist
>Movement hosted the first international humanist conference in sub-Saharan
>Africa from October 8-10, 2001. The theme of the conference was "Science,
>Humanism, and the African Renaissance." It was held at the University of
>Ibadan, Nigeria's premier university. Humanist scholars, writers, and
>activists from Nigeria, Uganda, and the U.S. were in attendance.
>
>		The conference opened with the students choral group from
>the Mayflower school, one of the leading secondary schools in Nigeria. The
>school was founded by the late Tai Solarin, a major humanitarian, social
>critic, and secular humanist activist. Following the choral group was an
>amazing dance performance by the Osogbo Cultural Ensemble.
>
>		Sheila Solarin, the widow of the late educator and the
>proprietress of Mayflower, is the matron of the Nigerian Humanist Movement.
>She delivered the inaugural speech. She discussed the benefits of embracing
>a human-centered life stance. "I am free to make my own decisions. I do not
>need to say, 'it is the will of Allah,' or 'we must leave everything in the
>hands of God.' I have only to assess the circumstances and make my mind up
>as to what is right to do and go ahead with doing it," she said.
>
>		Wole Soyinka, the first Black writer to win a Nobel Prize
>for literature, could not attend the conference. But he submitted a lengthy
>letter in support of the movement and its aims. He bemoaned the religious
>violence between Muslims and Christians that is now plaguing Nigeria. The
>author maintained that religion and government must be separate if peace is
>to come to Nigeria.
>
>		Other papers presented include the following:
>
>*	"Superstition and Health," by Adewumi Adeoye, M.D.
>*	"Dispelling Superstitious Beliefs in African Philosophy," by Dr.
>George U. Ukagba
>*	"Combating Superstition in Artificial Human Reproduction," by Peter
>F. Omonzelele
>*	"Biotechnology and the Fight against Hunger in Africa," by Dr. Sanya
>Olutogun
>
>		Many humanist groups exist in Nigeria and other African
>nations. They provide non-religious people with an attractive alternative 
>to
>religion. "There is a strong hunger for humanism in Nigeria," said Leo 
>Igwe,
>the charismatic and eloquent Secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement.
>"The people are tired of religious extremism."
>
>		Many in attendance were very enthusiastic. The Nigerian
>Humanist Movement will publish some of the papers from the conference in a
>book. They will host a national conference in December, and a Nigerian
>humanist group has promised to host the next international conference next
>year at the University of Benin.
>
>		The Council for Secular Humanism and African Americans for
>Humanism (AAH) sponsored the conference. The Buffalo, New York based groups
>have had close contacts with African-based humanists since 1988. The 
>council
>publishes Free Inquiry magazine and the AAH Examiner quarterly newsletter.
>
>
>
>
>
>


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