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Monk threw up another debate today. Although it is about the Middle East and radical Islam, it was a lighter take into the issues. The discussion did begin convivially enough, but one shouldn't be surprised that it took on its heavier hues, though not too intense.
___ ___ ___
"The virgins are calling you," Mohamed Atta wrote reassuringly to his fellow hijackers just before 9/11.
-- Nicholas D. Kristof for The NY Times
In his column today, Mr. Kristof speaks of a burgeoning field of Koranic studies, similar to what has been applied to the Bible for the past couple of centuries. Some of these new insights could be helpful in our conflict against radical Islam:
For example, the Koran says martyrs going to heaven will get "hur," and the word was taken by early commentators to mean "virgins," hence those 72 consorts. But in Aramaic, hur meant "white" and was commonly used to mean "white grapes."
For debate: May this renewed scholarship into the Koran lead to a reformation of Islam and to lessening the threat posed by the militant Islamists?
Okay, this may be trivializing matters a bit, but I think it's a good step in a long journey. And as Krisof says:
"The world has a huge stake in seeing the Islamic world get on its feet again. The obstacle is not the Koran or Islam, but fundamentalism, and I hope that this scholarship is a sign of an incipient Islamic Reformation - and that future terrorist recruits will be promised not 72 black-eyed virgins, but just a plateful of grapes."
___ ___ ___
"The virgins are calling you," Mohamed Atta wrote reassuringly to his fellow hijackers just before 9/11.
It has long been a staple of Islam that Muslim martyrs will go to paradise and marry 72 black-eyed virgins. But a growing body of rigorous scholarship on the Koran points to a less sensual paradise - and, more important, may offer a step away from fundamentalism and toward a reawakening of the Islamic world.
Some Islamic theologians protest that the point was companionship, never heavenly sex. Others have interpreted the pleasures quite explicitly; one, al-Suyuti, wrote that sex in paradise is pretty much continual and so glorious that "were you to experience it in this world you would faint."
But now the same tools that historians, linguists and archaeologists have applied to the Bible for about 150 years are beginning to be applied to the Koran. The results are explosive.
The Koran is beautifully written, but often obscure. One reason is that the Arabic language was born as a written language with the Koran, and there's growing evidence that many of the words were Syriac or Aramaic.
For example, the Koran says martyrs going to heaven will get "hur," and the word was taken by early commentators to mean "virgins," hence those 72 consorts. But in Aramaic, hur meant "white" and was commonly used to mean "white grapes."
Some martyrs arriving in paradise may regard a bunch of grapes as a letdown. But the scholar who pioneered this pathbreaking research, using the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg for security reasons, noted in an e-mail interview that grapes made more sense in context because the Koran compares them to crystal and pearls, and because contemporary accounts have paradise abounding with fruit, especially white grapes.
Dr. Luxenberg's analysis, which has drawn raves from many scholars, also transforms the meaning of the verse that is sometimes cited to require women to wear veils. Instead of instructing pious women "to draw their veils over their bosoms," he says, it advises them to "buckle their belts around their hips."
Likewise, a reference to Muhammad as "ummi" has been interpreted to mean he was illiterate, making his Koranic revelations all the more astonishing. But some scholars argue that this simply means he was not "of the book," in the sense that he was neither Christian nor Jewish.
Islam has a tradition of vigorous interpretation and adjustment, called ijtihad, but Koranic interpretation remains frozen in the model of classical commentaries written nearly two centuries after the prophet's death. The history of the rise and fall of great powers over the last 3,000 years underscores that only when people are able to debate issues freely - when religious taboos fade - can intellectual inquiry lead to scientific discovery, economic revolution and powerful new civilizations. "The taboos are still great" on such Koranic scholarship, notes Gabriel Said Reynolds, an Islam expert at the University of Notre Dame. He called the new scholarship on early Islam "a first step" to an intellectual awakening.
But Muslim fundamentalists regard the Koran - every word of it - as God's own language, and they have violently attacked freethinking scholars as heretics. So Muslim intellectuals have been intimidated, and Islam has often been transmitted by narrow-minded extremists.
(This problem is not confined to Islam. On my blog, www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds, I've been battling with fans of the Christian fundamentalist "Left Behind" series. Some are eager to see me left behind.)
Still, there are encouraging signs. Islamic feminists are emerging to argue for religious interpretations leading to greater gender equality. An Iranian theologian has called for more study of the Koran's Syriac roots. Tunisian and German scholars are collaborating on a new critical edition of the Koran based on the earliest manuscripts. And just last week, Iran freed Hashem Aghajari, who had been sentenced to death for questioning harsh interpretations of Islam.
"The breaking of the sometimes erroneous bonds in the religious tradition will be the condition for a positive evolution in other scientific and intellectual domains," Dr. Luxenberg says.
The world has a huge stake in seeing the Islamic world get on its feet again. The obstacle is not the Koran or Islam, but fundamentalism, and I hope that this scholarship is a sign of an incipient Islamic Reformation - and that future terrorist recruits will be promised not 72 black-eyed virgins, but just a plateful of grapes.
-- Nicholas D. Kristof, "Martyrs, Virgins and Grapes"
Monk threw up another debate today. Although it is about the Middle East and radical Islam, it was a lighter take into the issues. The discussion did begin convivially enough, but one shouldn't be surprised that it took on its heavier hues, though not too intense.
___ ___ ___
"The virgins are calling you," Mohamed Atta wrote reassuringly to his fellow hijackers just before 9/11.
-- Nicholas D. Kristof for The NY Times
In his column today, Mr. Kristof speaks of a burgeoning field of Koranic studies, similar to what has been applied to the Bible for the past couple of centuries. Some of these new insights could be helpful in our conflict against radical Islam:
For example, the Koran says martyrs going to heaven will get "hur," and the word was taken by early commentators to mean "virgins," hence those 72 consorts. But in Aramaic, hur meant "white" and was commonly used to mean "white grapes."
For debate: May this renewed scholarship into the Koran lead to a reformation of Islam and to lessening the threat posed by the militant Islamists?
Okay, this may be trivializing matters a bit, but I think it's a good step in a long journey. And as Krisof says:
"The world has a huge stake in seeing the Islamic world get on its feet again. The obstacle is not the Koran or Islam, but fundamentalism, and I hope that this scholarship is a sign of an incipient Islamic Reformation - and that future terrorist recruits will be promised not 72 black-eyed virgins, but just a plateful of grapes."
___ ___ ___
"The virgins are calling you," Mohamed Atta wrote reassuringly to his fellow hijackers just before 9/11.
It has long been a staple of Islam that Muslim martyrs will go to paradise and marry 72 black-eyed virgins. But a growing body of rigorous scholarship on the Koran points to a less sensual paradise - and, more important, may offer a step away from fundamentalism and toward a reawakening of the Islamic world.
Some Islamic theologians protest that the point was companionship, never heavenly sex. Others have interpreted the pleasures quite explicitly; one, al-Suyuti, wrote that sex in paradise is pretty much continual and so glorious that "were you to experience it in this world you would faint."
But now the same tools that historians, linguists and archaeologists have applied to the Bible for about 150 years are beginning to be applied to the Koran. The results are explosive.
The Koran is beautifully written, but often obscure. One reason is that the Arabic language was born as a written language with the Koran, and there's growing evidence that many of the words were Syriac or Aramaic.
For example, the Koran says martyrs going to heaven will get "hur," and the word was taken by early commentators to mean "virgins," hence those 72 consorts. But in Aramaic, hur meant "white" and was commonly used to mean "white grapes."
Some martyrs arriving in paradise may regard a bunch of grapes as a letdown. But the scholar who pioneered this pathbreaking research, using the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg for security reasons, noted in an e-mail interview that grapes made more sense in context because the Koran compares them to crystal and pearls, and because contemporary accounts have paradise abounding with fruit, especially white grapes.
Dr. Luxenberg's analysis, which has drawn raves from many scholars, also transforms the meaning of the verse that is sometimes cited to require women to wear veils. Instead of instructing pious women "to draw their veils over their bosoms," he says, it advises them to "buckle their belts around their hips."
Likewise, a reference to Muhammad as "ummi" has been interpreted to mean he was illiterate, making his Koranic revelations all the more astonishing. But some scholars argue that this simply means he was not "of the book," in the sense that he was neither Christian nor Jewish.
Islam has a tradition of vigorous interpretation and adjustment, called ijtihad, but Koranic interpretation remains frozen in the model of classical commentaries written nearly two centuries after the prophet's death. The history of the rise and fall of great powers over the last 3,000 years underscores that only when people are able to debate issues freely - when religious taboos fade - can intellectual inquiry lead to scientific discovery, economic revolution and powerful new civilizations. "The taboos are still great" on such Koranic scholarship, notes Gabriel Said Reynolds, an Islam expert at the University of Notre Dame. He called the new scholarship on early Islam "a first step" to an intellectual awakening.
But Muslim fundamentalists regard the Koran - every word of it - as God's own language, and they have violently attacked freethinking scholars as heretics. So Muslim intellectuals have been intimidated, and Islam has often been transmitted by narrow-minded extremists.
(This problem is not confined to Islam. On my blog, www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds, I've been battling with fans of the Christian fundamentalist "Left Behind" series. Some are eager to see me left behind.)
Still, there are encouraging signs. Islamic feminists are emerging to argue for religious interpretations leading to greater gender equality. An Iranian theologian has called for more study of the Koran's Syriac roots. Tunisian and German scholars are collaborating on a new critical edition of the Koran based on the earliest manuscripts. And just last week, Iran freed Hashem Aghajari, who had been sentenced to death for questioning harsh interpretations of Islam.
"The breaking of the sometimes erroneous bonds in the religious tradition will be the condition for a positive evolution in other scientific and intellectual domains," Dr. Luxenberg says.
The world has a huge stake in seeing the Islamic world get on its feet again. The obstacle is not the Koran or Islam, but fundamentalism, and I hope that this scholarship is a sign of an incipient Islamic Reformation - and that future terrorist recruits will be promised not 72 black-eyed virgins, but just a plateful of grapes.
-- Nicholas D. Kristof, "Martyrs, Virgins and Grapes"
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-04 07:12 pm (UTC)From:Remember that for much of Islam's history, moderate Islam was more the rule than it is now: I recall an excellent article on Iran (perhaps one you linked me? I can't remember) that talked about how Islam used to be more of a provincial religion than it is now: enriched, adapted, and carried by local customs and treated in a reverently casual way (one way to compare it, I suppose, would be to look at how Catholicism has easily survived in certain hearty, full-of-life cultures in Europe).
Fundamentalist Islam may thrive off of the half-education of its followers, but it's the social and political situtations of the areas in which it breeds that it depends on the most.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-04 07:34 pm (UTC)From:The hope is that with more liberalization the social and political situation will get better.
But I appreciate this isn't the silver bullet to get us out of our current crises. I think of this has putting in some of the work for the long term.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-04 07:36 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 10:02 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 11:48 am (UTC)From:Be that as it may, I can see how the Cold War may have blinded the US to retard the development of secular and progressive institutions - favoring safe US-leaning despots rather than 'dangeriously leftist' parties. This would make for a tragic theme, though it certainly doesn't mean that the US is responsible for the dysfunctionally religious rule of the past centuries in these Muslim Mideast countries either.
It may be late, but I think the lesson has been brought home that it's not a good idea to coddle sycophantic tyrants when they are brewing a radical fundamentalism among the population Our experience in Afghanistan really demonstrates the tragedy of this shortcoming.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 01:39 pm (UTC)From:I certainly wouldn't blame the United States or any other western country for the power religious leaders traditionally have had in that part of the world. At any rate I expect you're probably right. Fundamentalism (at least muslim fundamentalism) has taken the place of "enemy #1"
no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 03:45 pm (UTC)From:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=703&e=3&u=/ap/20040805/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_mccain
" I think George Bush served honorably in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War"
I still think that this is horseshit. McCain's been co-opted somehow, I swear it.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 04:10 pm (UTC)From:I suppose this is what they mean by politics making strange bedfellows. I suspect McCain is trying to maintain his position as a fair, non-partisan stateman, giving equally to both sides - even if we don't believe both sides are equal. Still, it's even harder to swallow, when you consider the crap that McCain took from the Bush campaign - and for his service, the nerve!
I don't know. But this is part of what makes politics a great spectator sport.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 04:15 pm (UTC)From:But I wouldn't be surprised if Rove had some hand in getting this third-party to go for gold with their attacks...
As far as I'm concerned, I think McCain was promised something for his cooperation... were we talking earlier about that Defense Secretary position? That seems to be the only rationale for how someone who so clearly loathes Bush can participate in his campaign.