Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 24, 2004
After decades of puerile rhetoric
over dialectics, deconstructionism, modernism, post-modernism, multiculturalism,
et al, Europe is finally realising that it cannot live without fidelity
to core values. For even Mammon has social roots, which is why White-dominated
multinationals meant 'free trade' in the post-World War II era, but out-sourcing
to India leads to revival of nationalism.
Pure economic determinism is proving
dissatisfying even to the materialistic West. This is understandable, as
economics is only part of a larger pattern by which communities conceive
and regulate their lives, and nation states unconsciously or self-consciously
accommodate themselves to these concerns. For Europe, weary after two World
Wars and revived by American dollars, willful amnesia to this reality was
an affordable luxury.
Today, however, Europe can no longer
delude itself in this regard, as the growing assertiveness of Islamic communities
within her boundaries gnaw at her belief systems and compel her to some
painful soul-searching. This is bound to be difficult, as there is neither
clarity nor consensus over how to proceed.
Recently, the European Union rejected
the Pope's plea to make Christianity the basis of its constitution, as
it was the rejection of Christianity as an all- encompassing faith and
the recovery of a pre-Christian heritage based on ancient Greek and Roman
philosophy, that made Europe the great exemplar of Western civilization.
Europe has since steadily lost faith in Christianity. Today, as she grapples
with challenges posed by Islam, she sees mirrored in that faith some of
the worst excesses of her medieval past, viz., tyranny of the clergy, low
status of women, ghettoisation of communities, and resistance to change
and progress.
Since the Renaissance, the legal
separation of Church and State has been an article of faith with European
nations (and by extension, America). Religion has been posited as a private
affair and the public realm upheld as too important to be subjected to
the religious realm (read clergy); hence the State must be secular (non-religious)
to best serve the common good. In my view, the Renaissance perched Europe
over a civilisational faultline, the cracks of which are opening, even
as she prepares to confront unreformed Islam. A glance at Islamic and Hindu
traditions will make my meaning clear. Islam rejects separation of religious
and political authority. Kings, dictators and elected rulers exist, but
are not legitimised by Islamic theory. Hence the ulema is a real threat
to rulers-recall the fall of Shah Reza Pehlavi of Iran, and witness the
near-certain inability of America to prevent the rise of Shia clergy in
present-day Iraq.
Hindu tradition is wholistic. Dharma
encompasses all realms- spiritual, political, economic, secular, intellectual.
Yet, the spiritual and political realms have always been kept apart. The
superiority of the former is asserted, but there is no theological subordination
of ruler to priest. This has probably saved us from the turbulence besetting
other traditions.
De-christianised Europe, however,
is a fractured society, poorly equipped to resist Islam even militarily,
as the American adventure in Iraq proves. Yet Europe has so many problems
with its rising Muslim population that it has been forced to respond to
the fundamental challenge Islam poses to its way of life. France led the
way with its decision to ban the headscarf in public schools. In Belgium,
support for the ban on the veil (hijab) came across the political spectrum,
including the once politically correct Belgian Socialist Party. A party
member explained: "It's not normal that in certain parts of Brussels there
are more women in veils than in the streets of Algiers."
Observers are surprised at the speed
with which the European Left, which swore allegiance to multiculturalism
even after 9\11, has finally begun to acknowledge that Islam represents
values sharply at variance with its own ideals. The most prominent of these
include separation of Church and State, and the human rights of women and
other groups. Growing differences over these has forced Europe to pick
up the gauntlet.
As a corollary, the hitherto-rejected
views of the late Dutch politician, Pim Fortuyn, are slowly entering the
mainstream. Fortuyn warned that the refusal of Holland's 10 per cent Muslim
population to assimilate would undermine traditional Dutch values. For
instance, Islam's intolerance of homosexuality flouts Dutch acceptance
of sexual diversity.
In Spain, women's rights groups
won a lawsuit against Imam Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, whose book, Women in
Islam, taught men the "proper" way to beat their wives. Mustafa apparently
advised husbands not to hit their wives on sensitive parts of the body,
but "on hands and feet, using a light rod so that the blows don't leave
scars or bruises." He was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for encouraging
violence against women. The presiding judge found the book "infused with
a tone of obsolete machismo... incompatible with the reigning social mores."
This is the first judicial verdict in Spain to recognise "incitement to
violence on the basis of gender" as a crime. European feminists and Leftists
are also opposing female circumcision, a cruel and painful genital mutilation
that is increasing in the West as its Muslim population grows.
Europe's immigrant Muslims have
so far refused to accommodate the liberal and secular concerns of their
host societies. This has naturally increased levels of hostility and tensions
between groups. Recently, Muslims in the Italian town, Luino, faced physical
opposition from animal rights activists as they prepared to celebrate Id
in the traditional way, by bleeding the sacrificed ram or lamb to death
after slitting its throat.
I personally feel the protestors
were being provocative. Few Western activists would dare stage a similar
protest at a Jewish festival, though the customs of the two communities
are exactly the same in this regard. Secondly, the abhorrent practices
of the Western meat industry (which feeds dead carcasses to vegetarian
animals like cows, sheep and chicken and has unleashed the most deadly
diseases upon the world) make opposition to the Islamic mode of ritual
slaughter seem like a petty prejudice.
Yet there is little doubt that a
communal confrontation is brewing in Europe, and Europe is at a disadvantage
in facing it. The separation of State and Church has deprived Europe of
moral certitude, and the current sex scandals involving Christian priesthood
across the globe has further diminished the lustre of the Church. Nor can
Europe take refuge in its rediscovered Graeco-Roman past, because its culture,
like its religion, is lifeless, fractured, partial.
In Hindu dharma, despite the so
called exclusivity practiced by the much maligned Brahmins, the sweeper
and Shankaracharya alike can speak with felicity about fundamental precepts
like karma, dharma, and nirvana. For the average Westerner, however, Graeco-Roman
culture is essentially a form of art and architecture, not a living tradition
with meaning and resonance in his daily life. A discredited religion and
a soulless culture are poor weapons against indignant, assertive, and self-righteous
Islam. That leaves Europe with secular values like liberty, equality, and
democracy. These have grown out of the struggles of different sections
of its society against entrenched power elites; and have resonated powerfully
across the globe. Yet, divorced from a larger living cultural matrix, they
can hardly prevail over Islamic obduracy. Europe cannot hope to recover
meaning from a past decimated by Christianity; to have a future, she would
do well to rediscover her old respect for Mother India.