AUSTIN , Texas -- Some who read Sunday's New York Times magazine on "The
Education of a Holy Warrior'' -- about a Muslim religious seminary in
Pakistan that is deeply influenced by the Taliban of Afghanistan -- found it
profoundly disturbing. As well they might. The Taliban itself is one of the
most disturbing phenomenon in the world today.
The horrors perpetrated against women there continue. The latest reports
from human rights organizations concern a wave a suicides by women deeply
depressed over their virtual enslavement.
The article by Jeffrey Goldberg, however, focused more on the ideology of
jihad, which means either holy war or struggle, depending on who is doing
the defining. Goldberg spent quite a bit of time with the students at the
Haqqania madrasa in northwest Pakistan, helpfully
armed with a considerable knowledge of the Koran himself. Osama bin Laden,
the suspected terrorist, is a great hero to these students, and most of them
said they would like to see bin Laden armed with atomic weapons.
While all this is the sort of thing our more paranoid citizens can work up
a considerable snit over, a more interesting theme in the article seemed to
several of us to be the problem of reasoning with a fundamentalist mindset.
It is difficult to have a discussion with someone who believes all truth
resides in the Bible or the Koran, or for that matter, Karl Marx, Ayn Rand
or Dianetics.
When I suggested that many examples of our native species of fundamentalist
were to be found at the recent state Republican convention in Houston, one
friend said dismissively, "Oh, those are just our local knotheads, they
don't have any impact." Actually, they're not knotheads at all, and they do
have an impact on our public life.
Two recent Supreme Court decisions -- the Santa Fe school prayer case and
another barring a Louisiana school board from requiring that the theory of
evolution be taught only with a disclaimer mentioning the biblical story of
creation -- may lead many to conclude that we are on the high road to
separation of church and state. But such decisions have the unhappy side
effect of reinforcing a sense of persecution among fundamentalist
Christians, and of strengthening their notion that the country is becoming
godless and that secular humanism, whatever it is, rules.
Jacques Barzun's new book, a brisk gallop through 500 years of Western
civilization called From Dawn to Decadence, points out an interesting
feature of history: Ideas don't appear and then disappear over time -- the
same ideas reappear in new manifestations over and over. The appeal of
certainty and Authority is timeless.
Of all people, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who led the coup in Pakistan in
October, put the counter-argument. "Yes, we do use the term 'Allah's
will,'" he told Goldberg. "We do consider God to be the supreme sovereign,
and we do consider ourselves to be his representatives on earth. We being
his representatives on earth, whatever has to be done is done according to
the teaching of Allah. But when we say 'the will of God,' that doesn't mean
we aren't using our brains, that we are trigger-happy fundamentalists." In
other words, God gave us brains so we could use them.
Since people allegedly relying on the Word of God have come to some truly
appalling conclusions over the centuries, it seems to me necessary to at
least keep the discussions going to keep our brains limber.
The problem with those who choose received Authority over fact and logic is
how they choose which part of Authority to obey. The Bible famously
contradicts itself at many points (I have never understood why any Christian
would choose the Old Testament over the New), and the Koran can be read as a
wonderfully compassionate and humanistic document. Which suggests that the
problem of fundamentalism lies not with authority, but with ourselves.
Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. To find out
more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers
and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
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