Revisiting
a sacrilegious domain that is fraught with fear
By Jamal
Hasan
The
aftermath of September 11 tragedy has opened up the floodgate for
dissecting and scrutinizing all the available religions of humankind.
And of course, Islam is not left out in this process.
Many
pundits, religious scholars or commentators in the western world hesitated
to touch the sensitive issue of critiquing Islamic belief systems. Two
things refrained them from initiating any such discourse on the
"untouchable" subject of scrutinizing Islam.
One is the political correctness that had already evolved in
multiculturalist western societies. The other is sensitivity of the
billion plus Muslims of the world who are not used to peek into the
uncharted territory of "sacrilegious discourse," which many
Muslims thought to be injurious to their mental health.
In the
new reality of openness of dissecting Islam, quite a few western
commentators are showing overzealousness in singling out Islamic scripture
as the only religious text that still contains call to violence.
Not everybody is following this pattern though, that I must say.
In this context, allow me to cite a few lines of a recently
published essay in the Washington Times.
Jonah Goldberg wrote on October 24, 2001, "For
some, Muslim mindset leads to violence."
While discussing the violence aspect of religious texts, Goldberg
wrote, "At one time or another all religions have been nasty.
For all of the passages in the Koran that have been used to justify
violence, one can just as easily find passages in the Jewish or Christian
Bibles justifying violence. The difference is that Europeans and Americans, broadly
speaking, no longer have the desire to use religion to justify violence.
Vast numbers of Arabs, North Africans and East Asians still do.
Our inquisitions are in the past, their inquisitions happen every
day. Much of Muslim world simply lives in a different time than in the
West. Oh sure, some of the big cities, with their cars and satellite
dishes, may look modern. But
their culture is horribly behind the times."
In other words, Goldberg is implying that people of Jewish and
Christian faith may not take their respective religions quite literally.
For many of them, they may accept their texts with a grain of salt.
Unfortunately,
for millions of people of Islamic faith, blasphemy is such a buzzword that
it can trigger a violent outburst autonomously in no seconds. Some
analysts may blame this mindset as the main hindrance to progress in
Muslim societies. The Hindus
have their share of intolerance in the age-old inhuman caste system in the
societal domain. Nevertheless,
they are showing more and more signs of tolerance in theirs antiquated
belief system. When an Indian
artist of Muslim heritage drew a nude portrait of a Hindu Goddess who
personifies art and education, there was an outcry in parts of India. But
soon the controversy subsided and the artist is now alive and well roaming
freely all over India. What
could have been the aftermath if the artist dared to enter the Islamic
cultural space? One of my friends of Hindu heritage told me an interesting
story. He went to a Saraswati
Puja a few months ago. The
priest and his spouse were the guests of honor in the festivity. While the priest was busy performing the Puja, his spouse was
utilizing the time chitchatting with some of the worshipers in a different
room. The most incredible
thing was utterances that came from the priest's spouse mouth. She said to the devotees, "Ram was a homosexual and
Krishna was nothing more than a womanizer."
I asked my friend about the reaction of the devotees, if they
jumped to the priest's spouse to choke her to death. My friend's reply was
there was no negative outcome. It
seemed as if nothing extraordinary happened in the Puja Mandap.
If you
care to do an exegesis, you will observe that many of the educated Hindus
are not apologetic of Krishna's philandering escapades.
Some are even critical of Ram's social behavior especially when he
subjected his spouse Sita to undergo a test of her marital fidelity by
walking through an open fire. However,
their critical scrutinies do not throw them into atheists' camp.
Many of them still believe in the basic tenets of Hinduism. In a
sense, they are quite tolerant as far as scrutinizing their faith is
concerned.
The
other day, I was watching "Mission Impossible," the movie on TV.
In one sequence, the character played by Tom Cruise threw away a
copy of the Bible from the computer table to the floor.
He showed his casual approach to the "Holy book" as if it
was just an ordinary book. I
do not know if any evangelical Christian group raised any outcry for
showing such disrespect to the Bible.
Can you possibly imagine what could have happened if it had been a
Koran instead of the Bible? The zealots could have burned the movie theater to the ashes.
And don't kid yourself!
Let me
also do here a short exegesis of Serrano’s art that stirred a
controversy as his expression of artistic freedom touched upon
sacrilegiousnesss of the Christendom.
Believe it or not, with the able help of American taxpayers' money,
the National Endowment of Arts put the Serrano exhibit in New York City.
The controversial art that drew criticism was Jesus in a bottle of
urine (http://thefaithzone.org.uk/8jesus_activ4.html).
Many of the US lawmakers expressed their outrage and disgust in
congressional hearings. However, their opinion centered on not to get rid
of the artwork, rather not to fund such "sacrilegious" artwork
with American taxpayers' money. They
therefore drew a line of distinction. The similar situation happened in
New York City again. The
famous New York Museum of Modern Art had a display of African arts.
One of the exhibits had been Mother Mary covered with the elephant
dung. Mayor Rudolph W.
Giuliani understandably had boycotted the show; nevertheless, the
exhibition was allowed to continue. Imagine,
what could have happened if both of these art works touched upon subjects
relating to Islam! Many of
the readers may remember the famous lawsuit of the Council for American
Islamic Relations (CAIR) against U.S. Supreme Court.
The CAIR wanted to get rid of the frieze of Prophet Muhammad which
was an important Supreme Court artifact. The Supreme Court's desire to
keep the frieze of Muhammad, the Justice, prevailed. CAIR probably learned
to be tolerant a little bit, I may say.
http://www.geocities.com/khola_mon/Islam.html
http://msanews.mynet.net/MSANEWS/199703/19970313.7.html
Let me
now get to the final part of my brief exegesis on religious tolerance.
A recent PBS documentary covered the linkage between Judaism and
Christianity. The documentary
showed a dramatization of Jesus Christ's circumcision.
Jesus, a born Jew, ought to have been circumcised before third
weeks of his birth. This
ritual had been historically a social custom in Jewish community for
thousands of years. Many
religious scholars find significant similarities between Islam and
Judaism. It is as if the two
religions are two sides of a coin. How
male circumcision became part of Islamic tradition is a puzzle to many.
There is no evidence that Prophet Muhammad's ancestors of the Quraysh
tribe followed this ancient Judaic practice and there is no historical
clue to support this notion. Yet,
as male circumcision became part and parcel of Muslim social practices,
many Muslims in South Asia even fondly call it Mussalmani or Sunnat.
Although Jesus Christ was definitely circumcised, most of the
Christians of the western world did not embrace the ritual as part of
their faith. Could these contrasting scenarios be the possible flight
paths to probe another historic riddle?
------------------------------
Jamal
Hasan writes from Washington, DC.
|