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Title: Forging New Jewish and Islamic Democratic Identities


1
Forging New Jewish and Islamic Democratic
Identities
  • Democracy Matters Winning the fight against
    Imperialism
  • Cornel West
  • Chapter 4

2
Islamic political ideals are the same as
western political ideals
  • Mahmoud Mahamed Tara wrote in 1987 that the good
    society is based on 3 equalities
  • Sharing of wealth (socialism)
  • Sharing in political decisions (democracy)
  • Lack of social classes and no discrimination
    based on color, sex, faith, or race (equal
    opportunity)

3
Not only fighters affected by war
  • Rarely discussed are the politically weak and
    extremely poor inhabitants of the Middle East
  • The ordinary working Israelis and Arabs and the
    Kurds and the Turks whose lives are poor and
    difficult

4
Who brought Conflict to the Middle East?
  • British empire
  • Cold war struggle between the Soviet empire and
    the American empire
  • Central presence of American imperial support for
    Israel

5
Oil
  • Main reason imperialists interested in Middle
    East, quest to secure oil led to three major
    challenges to overcome
  • Arab bigotry - Need to procure oil drives a
    shameful disregard for the radically
    undemocratic character of oil-rich autocratic
    Arab regimes, who are hostile to Israels
    existence
  • Justice for Palestinians - 37 year occupation of
    Palestinian lands by Israel violated
    international law and humanitarian ethics
  • Security for Israelis - Guarantee of Israel
    security amongst barbaric Palestinian suicide
    bombers that murder innocent civilians is
    necessary

6
American Policies
  • Must be changed for peace to be brought to the
    Middle East
  • Deeply flawed planning for the postwar period in
    Iraq has resulted in chaos and continued war
    (Bush administration either did not understand
    the possibilities or did not care)
  • Bush administration has shown irresponsible lack
    of commitment to regime it set up in Afghanistan
  • America props up some tyrants and takes out
    others (for example, America first propped up
    Sadam Hussein and then took him out)
  • America ignores Israels bad treatment of
    Palestinians and displays lack of understanding
    of Palestinian situation in designing a peace
    plan
  • The result of the unprincipled US power plays
    backfire against America when they produce
    regimes hardened against us and a general
    anti-American feeling in the Middle East

7
Peace and Democracy in Middle East
  • US government and public understanding must
    change to see the complexities of the Middle
    Eastern people and become aware of elite power
    plays (both Middle Easterners and Westerners)
  • US must recognize extremist thinkers in Middle
    East and not support them, but instead work with
    and encourage those that support democracy

8
The Israel-Palestine situation
  • American media and politics distort the truth
  • It is possible to find solutions that are
    pro-Israel and pro-Palestine

9
The Jews invented the prophet found in the Bible
  • Compassion to human suffering
  • Kindness to strangers
  • Refusal to allow power to silence justice
  • Refusal to allow might to trump whats right

10
The Leaders
  • Leader of Jewish people is Sharon and of
    Palestinian people is Arafat
  • Neither follow Jewish principles stated on last
    page
  • They are arrogant and stubborn
  • Violence is escalating
  • They manipulate deep fear and paranoia of their
    people to stay in power

11
Major obstacles to peace in Middle East
  • Autocratic rule of Arab elites and their support
    of anti-Jewish terrorism (suicide bombers)
  • Relationship and support between US and Israel
  • Israeli violence towards Palestinians

12
American relationship with Israel
  • Population of Israel is only 6.5 million
  • Israel receives 33 percent of the entire American
    foreign aid budget (3 billion/year)
  • Egypt receives 20 percent of the budget in
    payment not to attack Israel
  • While the average African receives only 10
    cents/year from America, the average Israeli
    receives 500 per year
  • America ranks last among the 22 wealthiest
    countries in dollars given to needy countries
    compared with GNP (gross national product) only
    0.2 percent (two tenths of one percent)
  • Americas foreign aid has made Israel a military
    giant (with nuclear weapons)
  • But now Israel has no peace or security
  • Israel supported the most morally indefensible
    (bad) policies of the US during the cold war
    (like supporting Somozas dictatorship in
    Nicaragua, apartheid in South Africa, and juntas
    in Guatemala)

13
Some American Jews Dont Support Peace
  • American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
    60,000 members and annual budget of 20 million
    supports Israel and works to support American
    candidates for Congress who support Israel and
    torpedo those who dont
  • Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
    Organizations - heads of 51 Jewish organization,
    including the largest Jewish religious groups
    but the head of this organization does not
    encourage peace with the Palestinians, but
    instead, justice and punishment.
  • American Media Moguls like Mort Zuckerman (head
    of Conference of Presidents of Major American
    Jewish Organizations and owner of US News World
    Report magazine and New York Daily News
    newspaper)
  • Martin Peretz, co-owner of the New Republic
    magazine, defends hard line policies towards the
    Palestinians
  • Dominant Jewish voices have given up their
    history of prophetic voices to help the down
    trodden, and have embraced the support of
    evangelical Christians, who are anti-Semitic!
    Evangelical Christians believe their support for
    Israel pave the way for the second coming of
    Christ.

14
American Jews That Support Peace
  • Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig criticizes
    Zionism and puts the critique of idolatry
    (idolizing land and power) at the center of his
    thought
  • Albert Einstein and Leo Baeck
  • The Jews that led the civil rights movement and
    fought for human rights for American blacks

15
Irony of Supporting Israel
  • Americans and Jews who support Israel lead to
    another idolatrous and dangerous situation,
    funding the war being fought with US helicopter
    gunships that patrol and bomb the Palestinian
    West Bank
  • One danger Israelis view America as the Jewish
    Promised Land even though Americans have deep
    anti-Semitic impulses
  • Another danger American empire favors Israel
    for political and geostrategic reasons, but the
    US could abandon Israel for the same reasons if a
    different location became more of a political
    advantage
  • Remember the long ugly history of Jews in the
    Diaspora Spain, Egypt, Germany living in
    false security and illusions when they supported
    imperialists who later conducted genocide against
    them
  • Another danger what happens when the US must
    choose between oil and Israel?

16
Traditions
  • Islamic traditions also emerge from the prophetic
    traditions that support democratic principles
  • Many current Islamic writers call for the need to
    confront the Islamic traditions, including
    peace, modernity, and democracy

17
Dialogue between US and Israel
  • Avoid crude clash of civilizations
  • Avoid empire building and imposition of one
    culture on the other

18
To create an Islamic Democratic identity
  • Create the genealogy (history) of Islamic legal
    thought, theology, mysticism, and Philosophy that
    relate to democratic principles an enormous
    task
  • Counter and challenge the Islamic clerics that
    fight modern movements undermine the authority
    of the Muslim clerics on both Islamic and
    democratic grounds

19
Three basic efforts that the Islamic world can do
to support democracy
  • Show the Islamic conceptions of justice are
    compatible with democratic concepts of justice
  • Eliminate all appeals to Islamic law. Muslim
    women support this because it does away with the
    patriarchal character of Islamic law and results
    in less rules to obey.
  • Promote the writings of the Islamic leader
    Mahmoud Mahmed Taha (who was murdered in the
    Sudan for his visionary and courageous works) He
    wrote The Second Message of Islam)

20
Where are the best examples of democracies today?
  • Not with Americans who are mistreating Iraqis and
    arresting them by putting bags over their heads
    and performing other deeds of humiliation on
    Iraqis
  • With the subjugated impoverished Palestinians and
    Iraqi and Turkish Kurds, who are the most
    democratic Muslims in the world and have
    sustained democratic practices in the face of
    atrocities and repression.

21
The Crisis of Christian Identity in America
  • Democracy Matters Winning the fight against
    Imperialism
  • Cornel West
  • Chapter 5

22
A Threat to Democracy in the US
  • Religious fundamentalists. Threat in US and in
    foreign countries
  • They gained too much power in the political
    system
  • They have the hearts and minds of too many
    citizens
  • They have too great an influence on our
    governments policies in the Middle East
  • Their actions violate the fundamental principles
    of the Constitution
  • They provide support and cover for the
    imperialist aims of empire building Americans

23
The Devouring of Democracy
  • Three dogmas are leading the imperial devouring
    of democracy in America
  • Free market fundamentalism
  • Aggressive militarism
  • Escalating authoritarianism

24
Christian Fundamentalists
  • Christian fundamentalists subvert the following
    Christian principles
  • Live with humility
  • Love thy neighbor as thyself
  • Do unto others as we would have them do unto us

25
Battle for the soul of US Christianity
  • Battle for democracy in America is also the
    battle for the soul of American Christianity
  • Tolerance and openness is necessary for
    sustaining a democracy
  • 80 percent Americans call themselves Christians
  • The battle is echoed in the battle between
    prophetic Christianity and Constantinian
    Christianity
  • Jesus taught a prophetic Christianity of love,
    humility, and kindness
  • The Romans saw Jesus and Christianity as a threat
    to the authoritarianism and militarism of the
    Roman state, so they crucified Jesus.
  • Later, the Roman Emperor Constantine incorporated
    Christianity into his empire and robbed it of
    prophetic fervor. He converted in AD 312. He
    decriminalized the Christian religion in the
    Edict of Milan in 313, and used Christianity to
    extend his power. He targeted some Christian
    sects for annihilation to consolidate his power.
    This corrupted the Christian faith based on
    tolerance and compassion. He established the
    terrible merger of church and state.
  • Later, mergers of church and state led t barbaric
    crusades to exterminate Jews, the horrors of the
    Inquisition, and the ugly bigotry against women,
    people of color, and gays and lesbians.

26
Todays Constantinian Americans
  • They are unaware of their support of imperial
    American rulers
  • They are sincere in their faith, but do not know
    Christian history
  • They support disinvestment of urban centers,
    cutbacks in public education and health care
  • They support hard-line militaristic policies of
    todays Israeli government
  • They sell their souls for a bowl of imperial
    pottage
  • They are not compassionate towards people of
    color so they dont do much to help the 30
    million Africans with AIDS

27
Prophetic Christians
  • The most influential Americans for social justice
  • These Christians have been part of the
  • Abolitionist Movement
  • Womens Suffrage Movement
  • Trade-union Movement
  • Civil Rights Movement
  • They can help democracy by
  • Embracing other religions and working with them
  • Supporting public service
  • Promoting care for the poor
  • Maintaining separation of church and state
  • Opposing intrusions of fundamentalist Christians

28
Voices in Prophetic CHristianity
  • Walter Rauschenbusch who wrote the book
    Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907)
  • He wrote that Christians should fight social
    injustice and capitalist greed
  • Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement
    founded in 1933 during the Great Depression to
    bring relief to the homeless and the poor
  • Phillip and Daniel Berrigan founded a group of
    clergy against the Vietnam War and were
    persecuted
  • Rev William Sloan Coffin, Chaplain of Yale
    University during the Vietnam War, spoke out
    strongly against that war and became president of
    the largest peace and justice organization in the
    US, SANE/FREEZE
  • Martin Luther King, Jr promoted non-violent
    resistance
  • David Walker was a free-born anti-slave protestor
  • Black prophetic Christians (Frederick
    Douglas)remind us of prophetic Christianity

29
Shortcomings of US Christians
  • Vast majority of white American Christians
    supported slavery
  • Free market fundamentalism makes an idol of money
  • Constantinian Christians dont support separation
    of church and state

30
Other Democratic Values
  • Non-Christian citizens must have the same rights
    and liberties under the law as Christian citizens
  • Freedom of speech
  • Tolerance for other cultures and traditions, even
    gays

31
Battle against Constantinanism
  • What is necessary
  • Re-empowerment of prophetic Christianity
  • Question secular liberals who would not tolerate
    religious discourse radical secularism

32
Jeffrey Stout
  • A secular thinker who believes that secular
    activists should join forces with prophetic
    Christians because
  • They value a human being based on who he/she
    chooses to be rather than the amount of
    commodities possessed
  • They support decency and integrity
  • They dont support nihilism
  • They are suspicious of all forms of idolatry (eg,
    worship of money)

33
Rise of Constantinian Christians
  • Ecumenical groups that spoke out against
    intolerance of rights of people of color,
    workers, gays lesbians, and women were targeted
  • Voices of moderation were discredited
  • Prophetic Christian voices were labeled liberal
  • Labeled liberal seminaries as the sinful havens
    of freaks, gays, lesbians, black radicals, and
    guilty white wimps.
  • Slander cowed the Christian Left and erased them
    from the political map
  • Consolidation of power by aligning with
    well-organization political action groups (eg,
    the Christian Coalition and the Moral Majority)
  • Support nihilism of the American Empire
  • Value worldly success power, might, size,
    status, and material possessions
  • In summary, commercialization of Christiantiy

34
Prophetic Christians speaking out
  • Jim Wallis, who leads the activist group
    Sojourners
  • Rev James Forbes, Riverside Church in New York
    City
  • Sujay Johnson Cook of the Hampton Preachers
    Conference
  • Rev Charles Adams of Hartford Memorial Church in
    Detroit,
  • Rev Jeremiah Wright of Trinity Church in Chicago
  • Quite a few more

35
Democracy matters require that we remember to
  • Fight bigotry, especially when racist propaganda
    is combined with nihilistic quests for power and
    might
  • Strive for moral consistency and ethical
    integrity
  • Love wisdom, love justice, love freedom
  • Live dangerously, honestly, freely
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