kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2022 5:54 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Meditations of the Perplexed Yogi
Re - " religious authority"
"does religious authority deserve having the power to make these judgments? what role should it play in the state, in governance? and what are the acceptable limits that should be placed on it" ( Kenneth Harrow)
What you are referring to as " religious authority" is that which the funda-mentally faithful believes is GOD - the ultimate - the ultimate "religious authority", the source of all religious authority, the ultimate source of the legislation known as The Torah which is also regarded as Israel's Divine Constitution when the nation Israel was born at Mt. Sinai.
Ditto, the Muslim Faithful regard - with awe, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as the ultimate, and that all " religious authority" derives from Him.
So, there are at least two answers to your question, " does religious authority deserve having the power to make these judgments?"
-
For the believers such as the answer is simply and obviously, yes.
-
For the non-believers who do not hear or obey, the answer is no
Consensus? Even here in democratic Sweden, we are hurtling into NATO membership without even a preliminary something known as a referendum.
How would Slavoj Zizek weigh in on this matter?
On a very practical level, we could look more deeply into this matter through the lenses of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. to which Nigeria is a signatory…
For a better understanding of Muslim reservations about that document, we could also take a closer look at Muslim Commentaries on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On God's planet earth ( He owns it all) come rain or shine, pestilence or drought, here are some people who don't mind if you blaspheme them …
Earlier in the day, it was. "Curious. Can anyone name one thing that is a universally accepted truth?"
From the sublime to the more mundane:
About the difficulties for Jews getting into Saudi Arabia which is historically known as one of the ancestral homelands of the early Jewish people ( just like Ukraine, more recently) and in time to come the United States ( Israel's second Jerusalem) will probably be the new Promised Land ( land of promise) and the third holy temple could well be constructed there; I've been made to understand that somewhere in New York, Borough Park, Brooklyn would be fine and that Williamsburg would also be nice. Just as things were beginning to get interesting when Uncle Sam invaded Saddam, Ali ( Sunni Muslim) was complaining to me that Baby Bush should have given the Israelis "half of Texas" instead….
In my view, the Saudi Dynasty is being true to the last wishes of the Prophet of Islam, salallahu alaihi wa sallam , whose last wish was to rid the Hijaz peninsular of Jews, in other words, to ethnically cleanse Saudi Arabia of any Jewish presence ( of course, by then the nascent Islam could already boast of quite a few converts, such as the 2nd Calif's right-hand man Ka'ab al-Ahbar, a prominent figure in Bernard Lewis' " The Jews of Islam ", and more recently Leopold Weiss who converted to Islam, became Muhammad Asad , transöted the Holy Quran into English, and soon thereafter was appointed Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations. Maryam Jameelah, another interesting Pakistani (Raises non-rabbinic questions such as what happens when a Jew converts to Islam as did e.g. Sabbatai Zevi?
Still on the mundane: Better tidings that could have been :
I daresay if Trump had been elected the Abraham Accords, specially engineered by Trump-Kushner would have been on the ascendancy.
It would seem that Iran is less hostile, maybe, infinitely less hostile to Israeli Jews than to Saudi Arabia, if one wants to compare and contrast, since, to begin with, there are at least 14, 000 Jews living peacefully in Iran today, long after the Megillah was written and long after Cyrus the Great, King of Persia started being " venerated in the Hebrew Bible as Cyrus the Messiah for conquering Babylon and liberating the Jews from captivity."
How times have changed! Frankly, I'm missing the drama and histrionics of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Robert Mugabe on the world stage. Ahmadinejad with his diatribes on "the little Satan" and "the Great Satan" and his famous quip on Iranian exceptionalism, that " there are no homosexuals in Iran!" and "the light" that was reported to have been seen enveloping him when he addressed the United Nations, in 2011. Sadly, also missing on the world stage today, Robert Mugabe's articulations at the United Nations, Tony Blair must surely remember what he said : ": Blair, keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe!"
About the main issue of this thread, we must take a closer look at what the learned Elders have been telling the ummah - especially the diasporic sections of the ummah in non-Muslim majority countries, including those who live in countries that are not so to speak Islamic states, governed by Sharia: the advice is that Muslims should obey the law of whatever country they are living in, provided those laws do not trample on the rights of Muslims, to live a Muslim life - according to religious, Islamic guidelines. - this is advice that is still being given and it tallies with
On a lighter note: Sonny Rollins: Sonny, Please
for a long time--and maybe even now, i don't know--jews could not get into saudi arabia.what is the point of saying, just try blaspheming there??
i don't get cornelius's point about blaspheming there. no one is interested in insulting the authorities in saudi arabia.there are a few principles at stake here, perhaps none very interesting.the laws of one country do not apply in another, even if we imagine the principles are universal. we can say free speech is universal, just as we could say punishment for blasphemy is universal. but neither is actually politically true. certain speech acts that are legitimate in the u.s. say are punishable in canada or france.a state might be sovereign and thus empowered to act as it wills; but that doesn't mean we are obliged to agree with it.i don't really think, from what was published, that i would say this girl blasphemed. but even if she did, her lynching was abominable. we don't need lectures on how horrible it is to insult the prophet to understand the principle or what was at stake. if i were to guess how nigerians on the whole felt about this act, i'd guess the vast majority disapproved of what happened.we are shifting between two concepts: does religious authority deserve having the power to make these judgments? what role should it play in the state, in governance? and what are the acceptable limits that should be placed on it.in the end, theocracies are abominations; but so are oligarchies. i return in my thinking to moses's ideal of states governed by consensus, which i would want to frame as ranciere did, where the demos or people become the basis on which the power of the state resides.ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 21, 2022 5:52 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Meditations of the Perplexed YogiFreedom of speech? Ojogbon Falola likes making fun of me. I'm not exactly complaining. I suppose that he has a quiet laugh and writes his mischievous hyperboles and understatements, with a smile on his face. Ditto Don Harrow. In his case, he likes to provoke me and here's an example of one of his latest provocations, my comments in dark black :
" i know it disturbed cornelius, and perhaps others, when i do not take the position that blasphemy is a crime that merits punishment ( the death penalty) like that which the poor student deborah had to suffer. no one likes blasphemy ( like hell no one likes blasphemy) especially in these days of islamophobia, which we have to find ways to oppose."
This much should be quite clear: It's not going to be Professor Harrow playing the role of Chief Justice or Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala attorney-general or chief prosecutor
in the Hereafter, on the Day of Judgement.
Islam is explicit about the punishment for Blasphemy, and if Professor Harrow doesn't believe me, he should go and commit some blatant acts of wanton blasphemy ( for example, say the sort of things that Deborah Yakubu is reported to have said) in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or for the same test purpose, he should travel to Mashad in The Islamic Republic of Iran, and commit the same blasphemies there, in the hope that Sleepy Joe Biden will save him. The fact is that in such a case Sleepy Joe won't be able to do jack anything. In either country, they'd love to make some halal kebab out of him, to teach him and other would-be blasphemers a lesson. If he chooses Iran as the place to test the waters, in no time at all, we will be reading here that an infidel has been arrested and is awaiting execution as a blasphemer and as an Israeli spy. Pa Biden will cry " Israeli spy? For goodness sake, the Brother's an American citizen!". whilst back in Tehran & Qom the Mullahs would be remonstrating, " LIke hell, " An American citizen", and what was Jonathan Pollard? Ang, who indeed was Eli Cohen?" Obviously, the Mullahs haven't been reading any Rush-die, but have been reading a lot of Holy Quran & Al-Kafi, a lot of John le Carré too, probably cut their teeth on George Smiley or "The Little Drummer Girl"
I'm also as much against the death penalty as Danny Glover is but crying oceans of tears wouldn't make Kenneth Harrow come back. Not even nuclear threats from Alabam or preachments from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. So, knowing all this, the would-be blasphemers should exercise more self-control at the basic minimum, and the uttermost self-restraint in order to save their own skin.
This much is also certain: In the philosophy department of a Western type University, a discussion of blasphemy (atheism/agnosticism/heresy is not regarded as criminal or as a crime…
For my birthday in 2008 - and this was from a close relative who knew I would be more amused than offended, I got a copy of Christopher Hitchens' magnum opus titled " God Is Not Great" which turned out to be really, quite trite!
Sadly, in the case of Deborah Yakubu, I don't think that it was necessarily a deliberate series of provocations on her part, It must have been that in the palaver that ensued, the argument escalated and - in ignorance and oblivious of the fact that she was standing on very shaky & dangerous ground, she said the things that she said, adding insult to injury and reaped the consequences.
I would like to ask Christians who love to preach the Christian doctrine of "Love your enemies", how would Jesus have dealt with this matter?
Would he have said that everyone who threw a stone at Deborah should be
Hanged?
Crucified?
Executed by the stroke of a sword?
Face the wrath of a firing squad?
--On Saturday, 21 May 2022 at 11:45:44 UTC+2 Kenneth Harrow wrote:
thanks toyin.
i think sublime in the kantean sense means something that exceeds what we can put into language/discourse/rational thoughtthe ordinary sense is wonderful. but this larger sense is closer to the biblical "terrible," "wondrous", "fearful" etc, and really evokes such moments as moses on the mountain, hidden in the cleft, as god passes by before him.i always found african religious thought to be much much closer to our jewish biblical thought than any other approach.
as for islam, you are right. my first book was Faces of Islam in African Literature, where i evoke the sufi thought in camara laye and cheikh hamidou kane and tayib saleh. the second book of essays, the Marabout and the Muse, was an attempt to complete the regional converage of islam.i know it disturbed cornelius, and perhaps others, when i do not take the position that blasphemy is a crime that merits punishment like that which the ppor student deborah had to suffer. no one likes blasphemy, especially in these days of islamophobia, which we have to find ways to oppose.
i am very very sensible to the insults against and demeaning of islam in the west, and build my political values around that struggle. i wish we could all be on the same page.
but it is one thing to say that this is regarded as an unacceptable act in islam; another to condone killing the offender. the line really must be clear.ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2022 10:39 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Meditations of the Perplexed YogiAn unusual kind of sublimity. Would like to read that speech.
Thanks Ken.
I still find it strange referring to you by your first name, since Nigerians don't do that with people far ahead of them, recalling as I do that paper of yours I might have mentioned more than once, "A Sufi Interpretation of Le Regarde de Roi," perhaps my first encounter with a discussion of Islamic mysticism in African literature, in the basement of the Ugbowo library of the University of Benin, at the beginning of my academic career.
You've moved on from that long ago orientation, including the collection Islam in African Literature, if I recall the title correctly, with a superb essay on Mahmoud Dib, Turareg poet, that being possibly the correct name of the poet, but it's that Islamic mystical strand I will always associate with you.
Thanks
Toyin
--On Thu, May 19, 2022, 15:28 Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
--beautiful reflection, but the antithesis of kantian sublime which transcends the beauty and humane spirit of the buddha. when 9/11 occurred, spivak came to our university and described the event as sublime, in the kantian sense
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2022 6:52 AM
To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Meditations of the Perplexed Yogi--
For years, I have lived the ascetic life.
Seated at the entrance to this cave, I see the valley below and the town within it.
In the far distance after this natural space and the human habitation nestled within it, is a mountain range.
Beyond the mountain range, towering to the farthest height of sight, is the sky.
Beyond the sky is the sun.
The sun is setting,gloriously red in it's circular splendour, seeming to rest in a gap between the mountains.
My fellow humans. Myself. The sun. The rhythm of it's rising and setting. Our rhythms of being and becoming.
What is beyond this?
" One thing do I preach brother, now and always, suffering, and deliverance from suffering" the Buddha declared, describing desire as the root of suffering.
Without desire, without the tension between ideal and fulfillment, without the pain of indequacy of the world, what would life be worth?
I withdraw from the quest for freedom from pain.I withdraw from the rejection of desire.
"As long as space abides, as long as the world abides, so long shall I abide, destroying the sufferings of the world," declares Santideva in his Boddhicaryavatakara.
Sublime.
But, which suffering? Of physical health? Of pain in the dissatisfaction with reality?
How meaningful would a perfect world be?
"We must be still and still moving, into another intensity, for a further union, a deeper communion " T. S. Eliot.
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