Globalization.. and....Humanism

A very interesting recent blog by wa7ed mn masr entitled " ""...مأزق الأديان.. بين " التخلى عن..." و "التوحد urged me to comment the following (you may want to read his blog first):

Wa7ed.....I will start at the end of your statement:
Wa7ed said:"أظننا بحاجة إلى إجتهادات دينية جديدة للخروج من المأزق الحالى الذى يبدو أنه سيتفاقم فى المستقبل القريب ،إجتهادات قادرة على تلبية ذلك الجزء الروحانى داخل البشر بدون تحويله إلى "تابو" ، إجتهادات تستطيع أن تقف في وجه الظلم و الإستغلال و تشيئ البشر، إجتهادات تبشر بإنسانية الإنسان فى زمن أوشكت ...هذة الإنسانية أن تضيع"

Your closing statement puts everything in the right perspective....It is true, it is all mainly about the HUMANISM of our HUMANITY....actually this statement is much more profound when uttered in Arabic.." Ansannat al Ensan..".... I agree with you whole-heartedly about that point.

I believe the past two centuries in human history have been exactly about that new emerging paradigm (or syntagm to be more precise): how to reconcile the needs, aspirations and evolving undersatnding of huan's place in the universe with the a critical part of our human heritage; i.e. religions. In this regard, it is safe to say that the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) has had more difficulty with that process than other world religions.

The process of separating the quintessential spiritual needs of humans from the historical accumilations of "religious" understandings, interpretations and dogmatic petrification of the relationship between the human and the divine....the sacred and the secular...Europe had gone through its own painful process of separation between "church and state", which is clearly not over yet, and I blieve will remain a central issues in human affairs for a time to come.

The Arabs (and Muslims in general) have begun that process much later for many historical reasons, some of which are external, and most are internal to the Arab mind and Arab consciousness.It is an oversimplification to reduce the issue to that tired concept of "separation of church and state" or Politics and religion, becuase in the case of Islam and the Arab condition does not apply exactly in the way it does in the European or Western model, although "true" Islam and Christianity may agree on many moral issues, the European and Arab historical experiences vary tremendously.In my opinion, your statement about the "....Change ,as the only fixed condition.." in the current state of human affairs, shouldbe : change has been, throughout history, the essential constant factor in human affairs.

It is only recently that our awareness of CHANGE has become immediate and simultaneous. That, my friend, brings us to the point of Globalization: I beg to differ with you about your portrayal of that phenomenon as"..cruel globalization.." "..لم تقدم الأديان حتى الأن أطر قيمية قادرة أن تقف فى وجه عولمة متوحشة تزيد الأغنياء غني و تزيد الفقراء فقرا ً ، عولمة تكرس قيم الإستغلال و الإستهلاك و تشيئ البشر...."
Your usual level of accuracy and clear and thorough analysis of issues makes it more necessary for me to stop at this point and elaborate in some detail. ......Bashing globalization has become a sport and a popular trend. But it is precisly that this unstoppable phenomenon that makes the process of "ansannat al ensan" (humanizing humanity) more and more readily available to the largest segement of our human race. I think we need to be careful and not "throw the baby with the bath water". Indeed my friend there are SOME negative aspects of globalization, like all other phenomna of CHANGE and human culktural evolution. yes there are some aspects of Globalization when misused and abused by multi-national corporations, can lead to (and have led to) exploitation and economic injustice. But...and here is the big BUT...we cannot practice a wholesale condemnation of this phenomenon.Globalization and the Information Revolution are insepararable phenomena.

That very tool that we are both using now to exchange our views is nothing but a direct result of the globalization of communication tools and the globalization of access to information. Globalization is the natural historical step of Modernism. I use the term of Modernism in its ideological and sociological wider sense (not in its limited techincal sense). The past two centuries have been characterized by the extend with which one culture or another were capable of "enduring" that phenomenon of modernism. Enduring Modernism, as in: a culture's capacity to endure the hardship of.....and modernism that is, inexorably, enduring. That my friend is at the crux of the matter, and is applicable to your intelligent statements about the inevitability of change.The Arabs have been struggling with for quite some time and since the rude awakening of the French / Napoleonic Expedition to Egypt.

In coming face to face with universla Humanist values, albeit being commingled with clear clonialist aspirations and schemes.It is very interesting to observe that the current debate about Fundamentals of Islam nad the spirit of the age was very similar to the sociopolitical debates that engulfed Egypt after the French Expedition. Although, under very different International "order" and very different regional and local ploitical realities, but the essentials of the debates were similar to those we are still witnessing today.

Even this issue of "Sharia'a and Constitution" that you just raised, is not entirely new and I agree with you totally about it being "a constitution inside a constitution".I also agree with the need to fulfill that which is "spiritual" in our humanness, but clearly without having to confuse spiritality and dogma.

I salute you my friend for putting your finger on the essential predicament of our fellow human beings, especially in the Arab world.