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Ginan Rauf's "Homecoming" |
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Written by Ginan Rauf
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Wednesday, 09 November 2005 |
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Page 3 of 3
Looking to the future one notices books on humanist wedding ceremonies
and funeral rites. Like any good mother I dream for my boys and then
resist the temptation to dream for them and remind myself that every
awakening has it jahaliya and every enlightenment its reign of terror
and every human being his or her uncanny stranger.
There is always the danger that secular fundamentalism can turn into a
caricature of itself and that skeptics can become living embodiments of
the bigotry they loathe. Being around a lot of hard- core atheists and
agnostics can be healthy insofar as it helps us grapple with the
strangeness lurking within, insofar as it enables us to contain the
explosive eruptions of which all humans are capable. At the conference
I often thought tenderly of my friend Laury Silvers and wished she were
there to offer a more nuanced understanding of Islam and to reaffirm
our mutual commitment to an open dialogue based on a fundamental
respect for pluralism.
If faith divides us and sectarian divisions threaten to undo us in
places like Iraq and Paris, then, human intelligence requires us to
think seriously about how we can overcome the narcissism of small
differences and enlarge our areas of commonality. During the conference
I found myself adopting the perspective of my progressive Muslim
friends not so much because I shared their beliefs or bought their
arguments but perhaps more crucially because I wanted to understand
what antagonized them and contributed to the breakdown of civil
discourse. The new Enlightenment needs to be more critically engaged
with its latent Eurocentrism just as we must unearth overlapping
histories of faith and disbelief the world over.
That critical perspective is necessary lest we fall into the rigidity
of certitude. Given our propensity as a species to act insanely we must
all strive to curb the forces of insanity that lie within as well as
without. It is time to abandon the blame game and acknowledge that
the specie has committed atrocities in the name of religion and in the
name of secular ideologies, has oppressed the downtrodden in the name
of Islam and in the name of Western democracy. Secular humanists must
grapple with the demons of their colonial past, face their dictatorial
history, confront their sexist and racist exclusions and above all stop
patronizing believers even as they insist on popularizing scientific
knowledge and extending universal educational. In short, it is time to
take the elite critique seriously and consider how we may be
contributing to the proliferation of lethal conflicts and ignoring
majority concerns. The new Enlightenment has the daunting task of
incorporating the diverse views and varied experiences of its multiple
Calibans.
In the end, the human family inhabits an ever-shrinking planet with
diminishing resources and proliferating conflicts. The most pressing
questions facing humanity require not just global cooperation but a
vitally connected and highly conscious world population. We are not
unlike the family gathered around a Thanksgiving dinner table and our
collective challenge is to strengthen the mediating forces and critical
self-knowledge that may keep us from impoding as a rapacious species.
Whoa!!!!!!!!
For that opportunity I thank Ilan and Laury for the wisdom to provide
us with this space that we may evolve into more compassionate human
beings and more sophisticated thinkers.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 11 November 2005 )
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