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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear All,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If it is not a sin to circulate
articles containing sort of content </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>as
the one below, then please do avail some time to read this
short article from the daily, Guardian, London. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I agreed with the argument in it all the way
through.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Best Wishes,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mustafa Hussain</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>External Lecturer,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dept. of Social Science, RUC, Roskilde</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dept. of Political Science, Copenhagen
University.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [asiapeace] FW: Fwd. Unholy strictures By Karen Armstrong
[The Guardian]</DIV></DIV>
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<TD width=298><FONT size=-1><A href="http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups">My
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<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR></SPAN></FONT><STRONG><B><FONT
face=Arial color=black><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Unholy
strictures</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR><STRONG><B><FONT
face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It is wrong - and dangerous - to
believe literal truth can be found in religious
texts</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR><STRONG><B><FONT
face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Karen
Armstrong</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR></SPAN></FONT><st1:date
Year="2005" Day="11" Month="8"><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Thursday August 11
2005</SPAN></FONT></st1:date><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR><STRONG><B><FONT
face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The
Guardian</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><BR><BR><BR>Human beings, in nearly all
cultures, have long engaged in a rather strange activity. They have taken a
literary text, given it special status and attempted to live according to its
precepts.</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> These texts are
usually of considerable antiquity yet they are expected to throw light on
situations that </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=red size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">their authors could not
have imagined</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. In times of crisis,
people turn to their scriptures with renewed zest and, with much creative
ingenuity, compel them to speak to their current predicament. We are seeing a
great deal of scriptural activity at the moment.<BR><BR>This is ironic, because
the concept of scripture has become problematic in the modern period. The Scopes
trial of 1925, when Christian fundamentalists in the
</SPAN></FONT><st1:country-region><st1:place><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">United
States</SPAN></FONT></st1:place></st1:country-region><FONT face=Arial
color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> tried to ban the
teaching of evolution in the public schools, and the more recent affair of The
Satanic Verses, both reveal deep-rooted anxiety about the nature of revelation
and the integrity of sacred texts. People talk confidently about scripture, but
it is not clear that even the most ardent religious practitioners really know
what it is.<BR><BR>Protestant fundamentalists, for example, claim that they read
the Bible in the same way as the early Christians, but their belief that it is
literally true in every detail is a recent innovation, formulated for the first
time in the late 19th century.</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> Before
the modern period, Jews, Christians and Muslims all relished highly allegorical
interpretations of scripture</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">.
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The word of God
was</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=red size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
infinite</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> and could not be tied
down to a </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=red size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">single</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
interpretation.</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> Preoccupation with
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=red size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">literal
truth</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> is a product of the
scientific revolution, when</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=red size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
reason</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> achieved such
spectacular results that </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=red size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">mythology
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">was no longer regarded
as</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> a
valid</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> path to
knowledge.<BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR>We tend now to read
our scriptures for accurate information, so that the Bible, for example, becomes
a holy encyclopaedia,</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> in which the faithful
look up facts about God. Many assume that if the scriptures are not historically
and scientifically correct, they cannot be true at all. But this was not how
scripture was originally conceived.</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> All the
verses of the Qur'an, for example, are called "parables" (ayat); its images of
paradise, hell and the last judgment are also ayat, pointers to transcendent
realities that we can only glimpse through signs and
symbols.<BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We distort our
scriptures if we read them in an exclusively literal sense</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. There has recently
been much discussion about the way Muslim terrorists interpret the Qur'an.
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Does the Qur'an really
instruct Muslims to slay unbelievers wherever they find them? Does it promise
the suicide bomber instant paradise and 70 virgins?</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=red size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">If
so,</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Islam is clearly
chronically prone to terrorism. </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">These
debates have often been confused by an inadequate understanding of the way
scripture works.<BR><BR>People do not robotically obey every single edict of
their sacred texts. If they did, the world would be full of Christians who love
their enemies and turn the other cheek when attacked. There are political
reasons why a tiny minority of Muslims are turning to terrorism, which have
nothing to do with Islam. But because of the way people read their scriptures
these days, once a terrorist has decided to blow up a
</SPAN></FONT><st1:City><st1:place><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">London</SPAN></FONT></st1:place></st1:City><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> bus, he can probably
find scriptural texts that seem to endorse his action.<BR><BR>Part of the
problem is that we are now reading our scriptures instead of listening to them.
When, for example, Christian fundamentalists argue about the Bible, they hurl
texts back and forth competitively, citing chapter and verse in a kind of
spiritual tennis match. But this detailed familiarity with the Bible was
impossible before the modern invention of printing made it feasible for
everybody to own a copy and before widespread literacy - an essentially modern
phenomenon - enabled them to read it for themselves.<BR><BR>Hitherto the
scriptures had always been transmitted orally, in a ritual context that, like a
great theatrical production, put them in a special frame of mind. Christians
heard extracts of the Bible chanted during the mass; they could not pick and
choose their favourite texts. In
</SPAN></FONT><st1:country-region><st1:place><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">India</SPAN></FONT></st1:place></st1:country-region><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, young Hindu men
studied the Veda for years with their guru, adopting a self-effacing and
non-violent lifestyle that was meant to influence their understanding of the
texts. In Judaism, the process of studying Torah and Talmud with a rabbi was
itself a transformative experience that was just as important as the
content.<BR><BR>The last thing anyone should attempt is to read the Qur'an
straight through from cover to cover, because it was designed to be recited
aloud. Indeed, the word qur'an means "recitation". Much of the meaning is
derived from sound patterns that link one passage with another, so that Muslims
who hear extracts chanted aloud thousands of times in the course of a lifetime
acquire a tacit understanding that one teaching is always qualified and
supplemented by other texts, and cannot be seen in isolation.
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The words that they
hear again and again are not "holy war", but "kindness", "courtesy", "peace",
"justice", and "compassion".<BR><BR>Historians have noted that the shift from
oral to written scripture </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">often
results</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> in strident,
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=red size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">misplaced
certainty</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">.</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
</SPAN></FONT><st1:City><st1:place><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Reading</SPAN></FONT></st1:place></st1:City><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> gives people the
impression that they have an immediate grasp of their scripture; they are not
compelled by a teacher to appreciate its complexity. Without the aesthetic and
ethical disciplines of ritual, they can approach a text in a purely cerebral
fashion, </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">missing the emotive and
therapeutic aspects of its stories and instructions.<BR><BR>Solitary reading
also enables people to read their scriptures too selectively</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, focusing on isolated
texts that they read out of context, and ignoring others that do not chime with
their own predilections. Religious militants who read their scriptures in this
way often distort the tradition they are trying to defend. </SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Christian
fundamentalists concentrate on the aggressive Book of Revelation and pay no
attention to the Sermon on the Mount, while Muslim extremists rely on the more
belligerent passages of the Qur'an and overlook its oft-repeated instructions to
leave vengeance to God and make peace with the enemy.<BR><BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We cannot turn the
clock back. Most of us are accustomed to acquiring information instantly at the
click of a mouse, and have neither the talent nor the patience for the
disciplines that characterised pre-modern interpretation. But
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">we can counter the
dangerous tendency to selective reading of sacred texts. The Qur'an insists that
its teaching must be understood "in full" (20:114), an important principle that
religious teachers must impart to the disaffected young.<BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Muslim extremists have
given the jihad (which they interpret reductively as "holy war") a centrality
that it never had before and have thus redefined the meaning of Islam for many
non-Muslims. </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">But in this they are
often unwittingly aided by the media, who also concentrate obsessively on the
more aggressive verses of the Qur'an, without fully appreciating how these are
qualified by the text as a whole. We must all - the religious and the sceptics
alike - become aware that there is more to scripture than meets the cursory
eye.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><STRONG><B><FONT face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Karen Armstrong is the
author of The Battle for God: A History of
Fundamentalism</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><B><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR></SPAN></FONT></B><FONT
face=Arial color=black size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR>karmstronginfo@btopenworld.com<BR><BR>Copyright
Guardian Newspapers
Limited<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV><BR>----------------------------------------------------------<BR>IMPORTANT
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