Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Riazat Butt, Mecca talks stress religious tolerance, The Guardian, June 5, 2008

More than 500 delegates from around the world gathered in the Islamic holy city of Mecca yesterday with the aim of fostering better relations between Muslims and followers of other faiths. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia opened the three-day conference in Al-Safah Palace, a stones throw from the Grand Mosque, by stressing the need for better understanding and cooperation between monotheistic religions.

The king urged his audience to promote the true message of Islam and said the Islamic world faced great difficulties in the form of extremists whose “aggressions and excessiveness” targeted the tolerance of the religion.

The event, the biannual meeting of the Muslim World League, a non-governmental organisation engaged in the propagation of Islam, has been described as an interfaith conference, although its location makes it strictly off-limits to non-Muslims. It is understood that Abdullah seeks greater unity among different Islamic schools of thought, so that summits with other religions can take place more easily. The king held talks in November with Pope Benedict XVI and in March announced plans to host a meeting between the three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam - an initiative welcomed by the president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder.

Richard Silverstein, Politics and Prose Owner Re-Invites Makdisi, Tikun Olam, June 5, 2008

Yesterday, I posted about a D.C. independent bookstore owner, Carla Cohen, who disinvited Palestinian-American author, Saree Makdisi from an author appearance. She claimed she could never be “taken seriously” if she allowed an advocate of a one-state solution to speak at her store. Besides my blog post objecting to her rejection, I wrote her an e mail in which among other things I called her a “wimp” (and believe me that was the strongest language I used). Unfortunately, the information I was provided and on which I based my post was out of date.

Ms. Cohen wrote back today that she had reconsidered her decision. Since she wrote vaguely I called the store to confirm that Makdisi has been reinvited and they are waiting for his confirmation. This is all to the good and Cohen deserves credit for recognizing her mistake and correcting it.

But I was troubled by her reply to me:

Your letter is so rude that it makes me wish that I had not reconsidered my position. If you are the kind of      “enlightened liberal” I am supposed to emulate, spare me. I was wrong, but your email is beyond insulting.

I want to tell you that the letters from Palestinians were polite and well thought out (unlike your ephitets and name calling). I have made an effort to answer them as they deserve.

I agree with Richard Silverstein that Carla Cohen, the owner of the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., should not have canceled Saree Makdisi’s appearance at her store. But Silverstein is unduly critical of her assertion that Makdisi’s advocacy of a one-state solution would alienate many Jews sympathetic to a two-state solution. The reality is that the one-state solution advocated by many well-intentioned intellectuals is a delusion that diverts attention from efforts to bring about a two-state solution along the lines of “the Geneva initiative.” Virtually no Israeli Jew would accept the idea of living in a state in which Jews would be a minority and which could end up being governed by a party like Hamas. Instead of lamenting that “it is too late for a two-state solution,” intellectuals aware of the agony of the Palestinians should do everything they can to make sure that it is not too late. Advocating a one-state solution simply plays into the hands of right-wing Israelis who also advocate a one-state solution–a Jewish state in all of the Land of Israel minus the Palestinians who currently live there.

Richard Silverstein, D.C. Independent Bookstore Bans Palestinian-American Author, Tikun Olam, June 4, 2008

I don’t usually write about events that happen locally in Washington, D.C. But Helena Cobban informed me of a controversy brewing there that involved such a betrayal of Jewish liberal values that I thought it would be worthwhile covering it.

Saree Makdisi, is a professor of English at UCLA where I completed my M.A.. He has just written a powerful and heart-rending story in Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, of the impossibility of anything resembling “normal” Palestinian life under Israeli Occupation. He just happens to be the nephew of Edward Said.

Politics and Prose is a D.C. independent bookstore which agreed to an author appearance by Makdisi to promote his book. About the store, Helena writes, “in DC’s policy-intellectual circles and amongst all my liberal friends here, P&P is a HUGE deal.” So we’re not just talking about a mom and pop bookstore in a small town somewhere. We’re talking restricting the very policymakers who you’d want to hear Makdisi’s message from hearing it at the town’s pre-eminent literary showcase.

Apparently, Carla Cohen, the owner got cold feet about the event and cancelled it. But it’s her explanation provided to a local Palestinian-American who protested that boggles the mind. There is a class of intelligent American Jewish liberal who understands most of the issues involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet for some strange almost atavistic reason, they can’t bring themselves to have the courage of their convictions. When forthrightness is called for they waffle. When intestinal fortitude is needed, they cave.

Trinity College
JUST PUBLISHED

Secularism & Science in the 21st Century
Edited by Ariela Keysar and Barry A. Kosmin

This book may be downloaded free of charge.
Also available in paperback ($10).
Copyright © 2008 Ariela Keysar and Barry A. Kosmin

I. The Evolution-Creation Conflict

Chapter 1 Science Education and Religion in America in the 21st Century: Holding the Center (Jon D. Miller & Robert T. Pennock)

Chapter 2 The Creationist Attack on Science and Secular Society (Daniel G. Blackburn)

Chapter 3 Evolution Education and the Science-Religion Conflict: Dispatches from a Philosophical Correspondent (Austin Dacey)

Chapter 4 The Cultural Particularity of Conflict between “Religion” and “Science” in a Global Context (Frank L. Pasquale)

II. Teaching Science

Chapter 5 The Competing Influence of Secularism and Religion on Science Education in a Secular Society (William Cobern)

Chapter 6 Implementing Methodological Secularism: The Teaching and Practice of Science in Contentious Times (David E. Henderson)

Chapter 7 U.S. Public Education: A Battleground from the Ivory Tower to First Grade (Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi)

Chapter 8 Toward a Clear Frontier between Science and Religion in Education (Juan Antonio Aguilera Mochón)

III. Scientific Literacy and Public Policy

Chapter 9 Why Can’t Science Tell the truth? Scientific Literacy in a Postmodern World (Jeffrey Burkhardt)

Chapter 10 The Salience of Secular Values and Scientific Literacy for American Democracy (Barry A. Kosmin & Juhem Navarro-Rivera)

Chapter 11 High School Students’ Opinions about Science Education (Ariela Keysar & Frank L. Pasquale)

MuzzleWatch  on Ha’aretz rumors, June 2, 2008

Dear friends,

The rumors and and some inaccuracies concerning my work at Haaretz, and the general interest and manifested alarm - indeed require my comments. You two have asked me directly about those rumors. So here is my answer: 1. I am on an upaid sabbatical (since March 2008). It was my request to have this leave of absence. I needed it badly, after almost 15 years of covering the Israeli occupation from within (and for a great part of this time - working up to 15 - 18 hours per day). For long periods the work was done in the stressful circumstances of military invasions, bombings and shellings, standing in front of tanks or edgy armed soldiers, curfews, strict closures, PA mainfested malcontent with any critical reporting etc. No less stressful has been life in the orwelian theater of a “peace process” - trying - usually in vain - to make the readers and my compatriots aware of the deception and the explosiveness of the situation. 2. In November 2007 i was told by Haaretz that my contract and terms of employment should be changed as i had been writing too little over the past year.

MuzzleWatch on Ha’aretz rumors, June 3, 2008

Dear Dr Raymond Leicht and Ronit Beck,

Thank you for your letter. I’ve received five similar letters today. Some of the writers noted with concern that an aggressive campaign is being conducted against the paper based on false information. It may be the case that the disinformation is being spread out by extreme right-wing circles or perhaps it is based on a simple misunderstanding.
The substantive point is that, as part of the printed media crisis, five reporters and editors are leaving the paper in consequence of the elimination of the ‘B’ section of the paper. For the record, at least two of these hold opposite views to Meron Rapoport who is mentioned in your letter. He is indeed a talented writer, but he has been working for us for only three years, since he was sacked by Yediot Acharonot. Newspapers are trying to survive and they have two choices - increase their circulation or cut down on editorial costs. The New York Times has recently sacked 7 per cent of its reporting staff (presumably some of these would have been identified as being on the Left). Closer to home, Ma’ariv has announced that it would be cutting down its stuff by 10 per cent in the course of this year. I hope that our path will take the opposite direction, that we will succeed in convincing more people to join our readers circle. Obviously, cancellation of subscriptions will have the opposite affect and force us into further cutbacks.

The following exchange between Haim Yavin and Gideon Levy occurs in the documentary “Did You See a Green Line?”, the first of the five films in Yavin’s series “The Land of the Settlers: A Journey Log” (Tel Aviv: Telad Rony Production, distributed in the US by Americans for Peace Now). This is my rough transcript based on the English subtitles–which are imperfect. It does not convey the intense outrage we hear in Levy’s voice and see on his face in the film. But it should be enough to explain why many people respect him as much as I do.

[We see Gideon Levy going up stairs in a bombed building with a notebook under his arm]

Yavin: Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy considers his job a calling. I accompany him to one of the demolished buildings near the Muqata while he’s preparing his weekly newspaper column. Few people read his reports, perhaps because of the indifference that wore off on all of us or perhaps in response to his identifying with the Palestinians.

Yavin to Levy: Why don’t you mention the atrocities they do to us?

Levy: You want to know why? Because some things simply aren’t done. Period. Without “however” or “but.” And we do things in the Territories that shouldn’t be done. Period. And all the context and relevance…. They always say I take things out of context…. It’s not relevant. Because some things simply aren’t done. And we do things that shouldn’t be done.

Yavin: But you disregard the connection.

Levy: I don’t disregard the connection. I’m telling you [pause] that part of the connection was born right here in this rubble. And some of the terror was born here. You see? Amidst these stones. Children who see and grow up with these stones are the future suicide bombers.

Yavin: I don’t understand it Gideon. I don’t understand it. Only you are righteous? Only you have a conscience? Only you walk around the Occupied Territories? There’s an equation here that says: Wait a minute, the man is detached from his own people and he only sees the suffering of the Palestinians.

Levy: I’m here because I’m an Israeli patriot who doesn’t write about the Palestinian suffering. Absolutely not. That’s a mistake. I don’t write about Palestinian suffering. I write about the Israeli occupation, about what we do to them. But since we, with our own hands, in our name, cause this atrocity, and I have no other word for it except “atrocity”….

Yavin: Aren’t you exaggerating?

Levy: I’m not exaggerating. I think the IDF is exaggerating. Israel is exaggerating.

Yavin: When you say “atrocity”….

Levy: That’s the word.

Yavin: What do you mean exactly? Be concrete.

Levy: Concrete?

Yavin: Because it’s easy to throw a word in the air.

Levy: Easy?

Yavin: What atrocity?

Levy: By the way, I wouldn’t have used the word “atrocity” five years ago. I never used those words. And I wouldn’t have said “war crime” so easily five years ago. My pen would quiver before I would write it. But today, 3.5 years after we imprison an entire nation, an entire nation cannot live a normal life for a single day, an iota of a normal life, that has to ask permission to give birth in a hospital. That has to ask permission to meet a friend. That has to ask permission to get to a funeral. A nation caged for the sole purpose of being caged. There’s no connection between these checkpoints and security. No connection.

Yavin: We’re at war.

Levy: We’re at war? Against whom? Against the entire Palestinian nation?

I hope this story is inaccurate. Levy, Hass,  Rapaport, and Eldar are great journalists.

PURGE AT HaARETZ NEWS :: www.uruknet.info, June  1, 2008

A new German owner has purchased Haaretz and a “Putsch is being carried out among reporting staff,” in the most important and liberal Zionist paper in Israel. According to inside sources, the new owner has carried out a rough, sittingroom survey that revealed that “the occupation doesn’t sell newspapers” and they are therefore concentrating on the business world ie. The Marker. Twilight Zone, Gideon Levy’s regular Friday column, has been scrapped, Amira Hass has been degraded to freelance on half salary, Meron Rapaport has been fired and Akiva Eldar has lost at least one half page a week.