IEP21 Forum

Note from the Hosts: We received this essay by Ram Punyani, General Secretary of the All-India Secular Forum. We welcome responses. (Email to iep21@seachanges.net.)

During the last two decades World has seen the rise of politics based on religious identity. Particularly after the 9/11 2001 WTC disaster there is a widespread feeling that Samuel Huntington?s thesis, that after the end of cold war the current time is the one of Clash of Civilizations, is true. One has witnessed many a controversies where religion has been dragged into the murky world of politics. Osama bin Laden talked of Jihad and George Bush responded to the WTC attack by uttering that it is going to be Crusade for him. He and his associate Blair both gave divine reasons for attack on Iraq. Multitude of controversies veered around Danish cartoons, Pope?s statement about Islam, the banning of burqa in some Western countries, the rise of acts of terror in the name of Islam with the epithet coming that all terrorists are Muslims, has become popular in the social thinking at broad layers. Superficially it is projected as if it is the clash between the Islamic culture and the Western civilization. Here in India also attempts were made and are underway to project Islam as a religion of violence and Muslims being fanatics out to stick to the medieval social norms. The overall impact of the events and acceptance of this Clash thesis by Huntington has worsened the problem and is widening the intercommunity rifts.

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Assuming that philosophy of ethics has not changed, and therefore definitions of virtue and vice have remained the same, it is possible to imagine the following:

In regards to the first question, it will be always that a vice action will divide the two. It just happened that the current issues which divide the two are of politico-economical nature. The battle of accumulating the dearest natural resources, such as oil, gas, gold, iron and so on, by force, or transactions based on interest!

Secondly, it is the virtuous actions that will always bring the two closer or even together. All actions of worship, such as: praying, working towards equality of race, justice, safety and so on.

Finally, it is very unfortunate that the people of both cultures, especially the Westerners, are going through the process of changing their cultural values. For instance, in the last few years the wearing fashion in the West has dramatically changed, and therefore became unsuitable for Islamic culture and its values.

Assuming that philosophy of ethics has not changed, and therefore definitions of virtue and vice have remained the same, it is possible to imagine the following:

In regards to the first question, it will be always that a vice action will divide the two. It just happened that the current issues that divide the two are of politico-economical nature. The battle of accumulating the dearest natural resources, such as oil, gas, gold, iron and so on, by force, or transactions based on interest!

Secondly, it is the virtuous actions that will always bring the two closer or even together. All actions of worship, such as: praying, working towards equality of race, justice, safety and so on.

Finally, it is very unfortunate that the people of both cultures, especially the Westerners, are going through the process of changing their cultural values. For instance, in the last few years the wearing fashion in the West has dramatically changed, and therefore became unsuitable for Islamic culture and its values.

One may conclude that if this process continues from either side it will be a question of whether there will be any cultures, for much longer?

Sejad Mekic, BA, Islamic Studies, Ph.D., Theology and Religious Studies
Imam and Khatib (Orator), Cambridge Muslim Welfare Society,
Cambridge, U. K.