Pope and Islam - by Juan Cole

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Friday, September 15, 2006

Pope Gets it Wrong on Islam

Pope Benedict's speech at Regensburg University, which mentioned Islam and jihad, has provoked a firestorm of controversy.

The address is more complex and subtle than the press on it represents. But let me just signal that what is most troubling of all is that the Pope gets several things about Islam wrong, just as a matter of fact.

He notes that the text he discusses, a polemic against Islam by a Byzantine emperor, cites Qur'an 2:256: "There is no compulsion in religion." Benedict maintains that this is an early verse, when Muhammad was without power.

His allegation is incorrect. Surah 2 is a Medinan surah revealed when Muhammad was already established as the leader of the city of Yathrib (later known as Medina or "the city" of the Prophet). The pope imagines that a young Muhammad in Mecca before 622 (lacking power) permitted freedom of conscience, but later in life ordered that his religion be spread by the sword. But since Surah 2 is in fact from the Medina period when Muhammad was in power, that theory does not hold water.

In fact, the Qur'an at no point urges that religious faith be imposed on anyone by force. This is what it says about the religions:


' [2:62] Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians-- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. '



See my comments On the Quran and peace.

The idea of holy war or jihad (which is about defending the community or at most about establishing rule by Muslims, not about imposing the faith on individuals by force) is also not a Quranic doctrine. The doctrine was elaborated much later, on the Umayyad-Byzantine frontier, long after the Prophet's death. In fact, in early Islam it was hard to join, and Christians who asked to become Muslim were routinely turned away. The tyrannical governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj, was notorious for this rejection of applicants, because he got higher taxes on non-Muslims. Arab Muslims had conquered Iraq, which was then largely pagan, Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish. But they weren't seeking converts and certainly weren't imposing their religion.

The pope was trying to make the point that coercion of conscience is incompatible with genuine, reasoned faith. He used Islam as a symbol of the coercive demand for unreasoned faith.

But he has been misled by the medieval polemic on which he depended.

In fact, the Quran also urges reasoned faith and also forbids coercion in religion. The only violence urged in the Quran is in self-defense of the Muslim community against the attempts of the pagan Meccans to wipe it out.

The pope says that in Islam, God is so transcendant that he is beyond reason and therefore cannot be expected to act reasonably. He contrasts this conception of God with that of the Gospel of John, where God is the Logos, the Reason inherent in the universe.

But there have been many schools of Islamic theology and philosophy. The Mu'tazilite school maintained exactly what the Pope is saying, that God must act in accordance with reason and the good as humans know them. The Mu'tazilite approach is still popular in Zaidism and in Twelver Shiism of the Iraqi and Iranian sort. The Ash'ari school, in contrast, insisted that God was beyond human reason and therefore could not be judged rationally. (I think the Pope would find that Tertullian and perhaps also John Calvin would be more sympathetic to this view within Christianity than he is).

As for the Quran, it constantly appeals to reason in knowing God, and in refuting idolatry and paganism, and asks, "do you not reason?" "do you not understand?" (a fala ta`qilun?)

Of course, Christianity itself has a long history of imposing coerced faith on people, including on pagans in the late Roman Empire, who were forcibly converted. And then there were the episodes of the Crusades.

Another irony is that reasoned, scholastic Christianity has an important heritage drom Islam itself. In the 10th century, there was little scholasticism in Christian theology. The influence of Muslim thinkers such as Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and Avicenna (Ibn Sina) reemphasized the use of Aristotle and Plato in Christian theology. Indeed, there was a point where Christian theologians in Paris had divided into partisans of Averroes or of Avicenna, and they conducted vigorous polemics with one another.

Finally, that Byzantine emperor that the Pope quoted, Manuel II? The Byzantines had been weakened by Latin predations during the fourth Crusade, so it was in a way Rome that had sought coercion first. And, he ended his days as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

The Pope was wrong on the facts. He should apologize to the Muslims and get better advisers on Christian-Muslim relations.

Traders in Dubai

I came back from dubai today, and the only thing worth talking about is the Hotel. Located within 15 minutes of Dubai International Airport and close to the traditional Deira business centre, Traders Hotel, Dubai is the 4-star brand of Shangri-La offering a quality deluxe hotel that has the efficiencies, warmth, comfort and consistent personalised service of a Shangri-La hotel. The building is low rise and portrays an Arabic feel in its exterior. The interior of the hotel reflects a modern, clean, contemporary look throughout all guest rooms and public areas.

Additionally, they serve excellent food, truely the facinating Shangri-La style. It is a fairly small hotel and reasonably priced. When i say reasonably priced, it is only 200 USD/night. This price tag is really reasonable when compared to the staggaring accomodation cost prevailing now a days in dubai. 3 weeks back i was in Abu-dhabi Sheraton (5 starts), but honestly speaking, i think that Traders is a better hotel, 2 week before that, i stayed at Dubai Crown Plaza (another 5 starts) and you know what, does not stand a chance. These 5 start have big conference facilities and ball rooms, other than that, i favour Traders

what is always annoying with visiting dubai is that if you have to return to Amman - Jordan via Royal Jordanian, you have to go to the airport at 5:30 AM, which, does not only get me bugged for lack of sleep, but also having to pay the $200 for no value

Ammar Sajdi
www.e-ammar.com

IBM Redbooks

Dimensional Modeling in Business intelligence Environment, an IBM RedBook.
(http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg247138.html?Open)
I came across this book some 3 months back, IBM RedBook series never cease to amaze me for the quality and clarity of their publications. In fact, back in 1999-2000, REALSOFT (where i am a co-founder), was awarded our first Data warehouse solution for the ministry of national economy in Oman social and economics indicators database. Guess what, IBM RedBook came to our rescue with their excellent data modeling techniques for data warehouse (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg242238.html?Open) , it was THEE book that laid down the ground for our understanding of data warehousing concepts and design.

www.e-ammar.com
Ammar Sajdi
Realsoft Advanced Application

Knowledge

Knowledge

IBM RedBook

Dimensional Modeling in Business intelligence Environment, an IBM RedBook.
(http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg247138.html?Open)
I came across this book some 3 months back, IBM RedBook series never cease to amaze me for the quality and clarity of their publications. In fact, back in 1999-2000, REALSOFT (where i am a co-founder), was awarded our first Data warehouse solution for the ministry of national economy in Oman social and economics indicators database. Guess what, IBM RedBook came to our rescue with their excellent data modeling techniques for data warehouse (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg242238.html?Open) , it was THEE book that laid down the ground for our understanding of data warehousing concepts and design.

Amman Stock exchange reaction to Nov 9th blast

The Amman Stock exchange continued its upward trend and is closing above the 9000 mark. The market possibly underwent some fluctuations, but it could be attributed to normal market correction. The market is still very strong, and i can say that the reaction was positive as if people are trying to say that such events shall not affect the investment env in Jordan

Ammar Sajdi

Follow up on Jordan stock market

In my blog on Monday, August 08, 2005
Ammar Stock Exchange math or myth in which i was discussing the price of two companies; namley AEIV and REAL

The stock prices were then AEIV 18 JD and REAL 40 JD
The stock prices are (as of Nov 8) is AEIV 23.5 JD and REAL 67 JD

The Question is

How will the Amman stock exchange react to the recent blast of the 3 Jordanian Hotel on Nov 9th , 2005

Bill Gates in Jordan

tomorrow , the 26th of Oct, Bill Gates will pay a short visit to Jordan.

Under the patronage of Kind Abdulla Second, The minister of Information Technology Ms Nadia Saeed is inviting him over Dinner (Ramadan Iftar) at the Dead Sea.

Guess what, i am invited for this party, plus i will attend a 15 minutes round table discussion with Bill Gates himself. Many people will find it hard to believe, if only i can take a picture with him!

جلعاد

Gel3ad is an area to the north west of Amman close to Maeen.
Two days ago, we were contracted by HP to Arabize their new iPAQ PDA (Personal digital assistant). To celebrate the event, we left the office and headed to Gal3ad! There is a nice horse back riding club called "Country riding club of Jordan" نادي الريف لركوب الخيل. It is in the middle of the hills, i never new that such thing existed in this area. We did not ride the horses, instead we played basket ball (half court available). I bet the location would be breath taking during spring time. Even if you do not ride, it is worth checking it out, especially during the afternoon

Where else to go

They wanted to Go, so i took two days off (From work) and went with them to the city of "Is there any other alternative" Aqaba.

During the course of my life, i went many times, and must less frequently lately.
We stayed at the new InterCont. It is a nice Hotel and probably the best in Aqaba so far. They gave us "Parking Lot View" actually, it was the parking lot of the Hotel next door, Aqua Marina. The landscape is very nice, the pools and the beach, as well however, it still stands no chance when compared with Sharm El-Shiek. We negotiated 95++ rate per night, our friends next door were charged 100 ++ for no obvious reason (same room cateegory)

I once went to the Sharm for 350 JD, 6 days to Grand Hyyat.

At Aqaba City, limited choices of "eating out" places, even in the best places, you stand a chance of having 'not so good' food. If you want to go to the Souqq, all the locals are laid back nastily watching female tourist (Ammani girls definitely fit within this criteria) and it is not like Brad bitt giving you sweat eyes; i could tell u that all females in the group noticed it and got annoyed.

On the way back, we stopped by a new mall called City center. It is almost empty, poor air-conditioning in the hall ways; at the food corner, two places where open we had a meal at chili way or whatever, and the food was terrible. Generally, unpleasant experience.

in conclusion, Aqaba as a city has nothing to offer if marketed as a tourist attraction area, The Beach waters are shallow, barely any waves, the Port is close to the beach area and therefore, limiting its expansion. To do any kind of snorkeling or water diving activities, you need to depart the Hotel and go about 15Km south. Still, i think that the new InteCont. is very good.

Ammar Stock Exchange math or myth

Amman Stock exchange witnessed an amazing growth this year. I ll just give a few example and leave to you to decide

Today 8th of August closed at 7961, it has been fluctuating for the past two weeks between 7500 and 8200

The first example show the price change of Arab East Investments (Ticket = AEIV)
Two years ago the stock price was 0.85 JD, Three weeks back it hit 18 JD 2000% increase in just two years. Simply stated if you had a chance to invest 850 JD to buy 1000 Shares, you could have cashed 18000 JD three weeks ago (13000 JD today, still not bad at all)




Last Year Arab East Investment spun another company called Arab East for Real Estate investiment (Ticker = REAL). The price was set to 3.30 JD during the first day of trading by forces of demand and supply. Last week it was trading at a staggering value of 46 JD (Today it is trading at around 40 JD), surpassed by the Arab Bank only.

Is Amman really Clean?

By Ammar Sajdi

When visitors come to Amman , they say Amman is clean, you look at it, yes it looks clean
If the Amman Municipalities workforce (garbage collectors) go on strike, will it look clean? The definite answer is NO.
Just to get a feel, visit Swuified at 5 in the Morning.
I was once in the Municipality of Greater Amman (MOGA), and the undersecretary told me that MOGA spends 12 Million JD each year in salaries for individuals who clean the streets. Mind you that is not for Garbage Collection for Garbage containers. This is a recurrent cost, every single year.

If the people of Amman are clean, then you save 12 Million a year. If they have the sense or responsibility not to litter, they save 12 Million a year. By the way, the total yearly revenue sustained by MOGA stands at 120 Million JDs.

Then for Amman to really become clean, its people should become clean. How can this come about?

MOGA can spend the first 12 Million JD in campaigns (TV, Newspapers, Satellite etc ...), and then a law can be passed to seriously fine those who litter.

This way, you do not have to spend 12 Million every day, and Amman will be genuinely clean without faking visitors

Ammar Sajdi

oraclejo.blogspot.com

www.realsoft-me.com
www.e-ammar.net