One of the threats to the hard won freedoms of the West ....
.... are the attacks on secularism.
People forget how hard won are these freedoms, including those to not to be controlled by a church or other religion, and are often far too willing to compromise and let the religious bigots reimpose that control again.
Before you jump to conclusions about where this might be going, let me say straight up that although in the UK, its the Muslims and their calls for 'Sharia Law' to be recognised and for 'Islamic' schools, who are the threat to secularism, elsewhere in Europe, its not necessarily Islam that's the threat to secularism.
In Europe, Russia is now greatly influenced by the Russian Orthodox churches views on society, and their opinions on questions of morality, such as homosexuality, single mothers etc are now also largely the view of the Russian state on these, and other matters of commonality.
In Greece, up until May 2000, the National Identity cards defaulted to say Greek Orthodox for 'religion' .... this despite people being atheist's, or Muslim or even other Christian denominations. In fact so total was this, that nearly one hundred per cent of native-born Greeks ID's were registered as Orthodox. The removal of the religion section from the ID's resulted in a mass campaign by the church to get it reinstated, and the Church collected more that 3 million signatures to get the decision reversed. They claimed that it was an effort by some government members to de-Christianize the country .... the Government said that as ten per cent of the population are not Greek natives, as well as two per cent being Muslim Turkic, these peoples rights had to be respected.
In Spain and Italy, the Catholic Church held great power and influence for many decades. In Spain, it was only with the death of General Franco that the Churches power to influence domestic social policy started to wane. The governments direct state subsidy of the Catholic church in Spain only ended in 1990, but even now a citizen can designate a portion of their income tax to the Catholic church. In Italy, the church influence waned after the defeat of Mussolini in World War Two, but as around 80% of the Italian population is stated as Catholic, its influence, whilst not direct, constitutes soft power.
In Ireland, the picture was similar to that in Spain. Éamon de Valera's 1937 Irish constitution, which granted freedom of religion to all citizens, also recognised the "special position of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church." Even now, with 78 per cent of the population identifying as Catholic, there is some soft influence, although the child abuse scandal has weakened the churches moral position.
Elsewhere in Europe, the former communist states all exhibit some Christian church influences to some degree or other, from Armenia and Georgia, to Slovenia and Croatia. This is because in most of these smaller countries, it has been the local nationalist church that has helped keep these peoples national identity under various occupations, from the Turks, through the Russians and the USSR/Communism.
Perhaps the greatest was in Poland, where when it gained independence it did so with a very strong Catholic Church influenced government. The church was seen as defender of Polish identity under various occupations, including Russia, Germany, and the USSR .... this influence has waxed and waned in recent times, but 92 per cent identify as Polish Catholics.
In the UK, Northern Germany, Holland and France various historical events, from the rise of Protestantism, to the removal of monarchs, have led to perhaps the most secular states in the world. We often assume that this will remain the case forever .... but that assumption is false.
It only requires a majority, or a very aggressive minority, to push aside the freedoms won by blood and deaths, and place us all under the rule once again of a group of religious zealots. Some examples of what we could one day be facing, are easy to find.
Turkey was edging itself towards being a secular state, and even a European Community member during the 1960's, right through to the start of the new millennia. Then Recep Erdoğan's new Justice and Development Party won 34% of the vote in the general elections of 2002. Erdoğan became Turkish prime minister in March 2003 after the Gül government ended his political ban .... he has since swung the country back towards Islamic nationalism, whilst manipulating the constitution to maintain his hold on power. Criticism of him, his party and or Islam nearly always result in arrest and often long spells of imprisonment.
India is a nominally a secular state (but not exactly as we understand the term), it has increasingly interfered in the religious affairs of it inhabitants. In particular, there has been a promotion of Hinduism as a history for schools, basis of science, and a social way of life and worship. Not only does this lead to claims by India's other religions (especially Muslims), of persecution, but it also leads to ridiculous claims such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, making reference to the Mahabharata hero Karna not being born from his mother’s womb, and that this suggested that knowledge of genetic science existed during that period thousands of years ago.
He also suggested that elephant god Ganesh’s head was an indication that India also invented plastic surgery. This and other examples such as the invention of rockets, air-planes and other scientific wonders, meant that India could take pride in its past achievements in medicine and science.How it lost all this knowledge is never explained.
Bangladesh started off as a secular state way back in 1972. However this was cancelled in 1977 when a revised constitution replaced the reference to secularism with a statement of the states "absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah" ..... and sure enough Islam became the state religion in 1988. This remains the case, although confusingly, following a high court ruling, secularism also remains as one of the four fundamental principle of the state policy. But, words are one thing, and actions are another. Once you start pushing a religion to the forefront of civil society, extremists start to act upon this idea.
Avijit Roy, a US Bangladeshi blogger and atheist who advocated secularism, and who lived part time in Bangladesh, was murdered in February 2015. His Bengali-language blog, Mukto-mona (Free Mind), promoted secular views, science and social issues. He defended atheism, calling it a "rational concept to oppose any unscientific and irrational belief".
Obviously, some religious nutters disagreed and decided to counter logic in the only way they know how .... they ambushed him and his wife as they walked back from a book fair. At least two of the attackers hit the couple with meat cleavers, killing him and wounding his wife.
Oddly, in an article written before, but published shortly after his murder, Mr Roy likened religious extremism to a "highly contagious virus". His murder is part of a string of killings of non religious figures in Bangladesh, including the killing in early 2013 of another secular blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider.
Freedom of thought, especially from the religious dogmas promoted by any religion has to be defended, sometimes fiercely. Once lost it won't be returned freely, and not without a great deal of bloodshed, from the ideological zealots who stole it from you.
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| The Age Of Reason Is Being Challenged ..... |
.... are the attacks on secularism.
People forget how hard won are these freedoms, including those to not to be controlled by a church or other religion, and are often far too willing to compromise and let the religious bigots reimpose that control again.
Before you jump to conclusions about where this might be going, let me say straight up that although in the UK, its the Muslims and their calls for 'Sharia Law' to be recognised and for 'Islamic' schools, who are the threat to secularism, elsewhere in Europe, its not necessarily Islam that's the threat to secularism.
In Europe, Russia is now greatly influenced by the Russian Orthodox churches views on society, and their opinions on questions of morality, such as homosexuality, single mothers etc are now also largely the view of the Russian state on these, and other matters of commonality.
In Greece, up until May 2000, the National Identity cards defaulted to say Greek Orthodox for 'religion' .... this despite people being atheist's, or Muslim or even other Christian denominations. In fact so total was this, that nearly one hundred per cent of native-born Greeks ID's were registered as Orthodox. The removal of the religion section from the ID's resulted in a mass campaign by the church to get it reinstated, and the Church collected more that 3 million signatures to get the decision reversed. They claimed that it was an effort by some government members to de-Christianize the country .... the Government said that as ten per cent of the population are not Greek natives, as well as two per cent being Muslim Turkic, these peoples rights had to be respected.
In Spain and Italy, the Catholic Church held great power and influence for many decades. In Spain, it was only with the death of General Franco that the Churches power to influence domestic social policy started to wane. The governments direct state subsidy of the Catholic church in Spain only ended in 1990, but even now a citizen can designate a portion of their income tax to the Catholic church. In Italy, the church influence waned after the defeat of Mussolini in World War Two, but as around 80% of the Italian population is stated as Catholic, its influence, whilst not direct, constitutes soft power.
In Ireland, the picture was similar to that in Spain. Éamon de Valera's 1937 Irish constitution, which granted freedom of religion to all citizens, also recognised the "special position of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church." Even now, with 78 per cent of the population identifying as Catholic, there is some soft influence, although the child abuse scandal has weakened the churches moral position.
Elsewhere in Europe, the former communist states all exhibit some Christian church influences to some degree or other, from Armenia and Georgia, to Slovenia and Croatia. This is because in most of these smaller countries, it has been the local nationalist church that has helped keep these peoples national identity under various occupations, from the Turks, through the Russians and the USSR/Communism.
Perhaps the greatest was in Poland, where when it gained independence it did so with a very strong Catholic Church influenced government. The church was seen as defender of Polish identity under various occupations, including Russia, Germany, and the USSR .... this influence has waxed and waned in recent times, but 92 per cent identify as Polish Catholics.
In the UK, Northern Germany, Holland and France various historical events, from the rise of Protestantism, to the removal of monarchs, have led to perhaps the most secular states in the world. We often assume that this will remain the case forever .... but that assumption is false.
It only requires a majority, or a very aggressive minority, to push aside the freedoms won by blood and deaths, and place us all under the rule once again of a group of religious zealots. Some examples of what we could one day be facing, are easy to find.
Turkey was edging itself towards being a secular state, and even a European Community member during the 1960's, right through to the start of the new millennia. Then Recep Erdoğan's new Justice and Development Party won 34% of the vote in the general elections of 2002. Erdoğan became Turkish prime minister in March 2003 after the Gül government ended his political ban .... he has since swung the country back towards Islamic nationalism, whilst manipulating the constitution to maintain his hold on power. Criticism of him, his party and or Islam nearly always result in arrest and often long spells of imprisonment.
India is a nominally a secular state (but not exactly as we understand the term), it has increasingly interfered in the religious affairs of it inhabitants. In particular, there has been a promotion of Hinduism as a history for schools, basis of science, and a social way of life and worship. Not only does this lead to claims by India's other religions (especially Muslims), of persecution, but it also leads to ridiculous claims such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, making reference to the Mahabharata hero Karna not being born from his mother’s womb, and that this suggested that knowledge of genetic science existed during that period thousands of years ago.
He also suggested that elephant god Ganesh’s head was an indication that India also invented plastic surgery. This and other examples such as the invention of rockets, air-planes and other scientific wonders, meant that India could take pride in its past achievements in medicine and science.How it lost all this knowledge is never explained.
Bangladesh started off as a secular state way back in 1972. However this was cancelled in 1977 when a revised constitution replaced the reference to secularism with a statement of the states "absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah" ..... and sure enough Islam became the state religion in 1988. This remains the case, although confusingly, following a high court ruling, secularism also remains as one of the four fundamental principle of the state policy. But, words are one thing, and actions are another. Once you start pushing a religion to the forefront of civil society, extremists start to act upon this idea.
 |
| Martyred For Secularism And Atheism ..... His Wife Appeals For Help. |
Avijit Roy, a US Bangladeshi blogger and atheist who advocated secularism, and who lived part time in Bangladesh, was murdered in February 2015. His Bengali-language blog, Mukto-mona (Free Mind), promoted secular views, science and social issues. He defended atheism, calling it a "rational concept to oppose any unscientific and irrational belief".
Obviously, some religious nutters disagreed and decided to counter logic in the only way they know how .... they ambushed him and his wife as they walked back from a book fair. At least two of the attackers hit the couple with meat cleavers, killing him and wounding his wife.
Oddly, in an article written before, but published shortly after his murder, Mr Roy likened religious extremism to a "highly contagious virus". His murder is part of a string of killings of non religious figures in Bangladesh, including the killing in early 2013 of another secular blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider.
Freedom of thought, especially from the religious dogmas promoted by any religion has to be defended, sometimes fiercely. Once lost it won't be returned freely, and not without a great deal of bloodshed, from the ideological zealots who stole it from you.
The February 2015 killers of Avijit Roy, have been handed death sentences for hacking him to death. The killers are said to be members of Ansar al-Islam, which is believed to be linked with al-Qaeda.
ReplyDeleteSo as usual from extreme practitioners of the religion of peace, killing someone innocent of no crime is proof of the superiority of their beliefs.
Lawyers for the defence plan to appeal, so this will drag on for many years more ....
Sadly that doesn't mean that they won't end up walking free later. British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was accused of involvement in a number of terrorist offences including the kidnapping of four tourists - three British and one American in 1994 (he was freed in India after terrorists hijacked a plane in 1999, and demanded his release).
DeleteHe found refuge in Pakistan, but has been accused of transferring money to one of the militants involved in the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US. Finally he was accused of involvement with and the masterminding of the kidnapping of US citizen Daniel Pearl who was later killed.
He has now been freed (along with three others), due in part to an inept legal case and the usual shenanigans in Pakistan ... nothing is ever as it seems in these countries. Thanks for comment/update.