dogma 052 mar 2008 - page 1

mon 11 feb Faisal Devji: The Militant and the Mahatma ICA

Caliphate (Definition from Wikipedia) “A caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfah), is considered by many Muslims as the ideal Islamic form of government representing the political unity and leadership of the Muslim world. As (Caliph), the political leader of the community (Ummah) has a position based on the notion of a successor (the Quranic and initial meaning of "caliphate") to Muhammad's political authority. ”

Beleif in the re-establshment of a caliphate is the somewhat surprising link between Ghandi and Bin Laden explored by Faisal Devji. The last holder of the caliphate was the Ottoman Empire which collapsed at the end of World War One. In the decades that followed Ghandi embraced (although he eventually rejected) the idea that a strong, confident and tolerant islamic political entity could be a a pure, religious, idealistic, non materialistic movement to unify muslims sects as well as muslims and hindus, but that could only be formed by pure motives and personal sacrifice. He eventually came to realise that people couldn't give the required sacrifice, but nonetheless he had still beleived in the idea. Osama Bin Laden has only recently begun to talk aboout the re-establishment of a caliphate as an aim of Al-Queda.

Akmal Asghar from radical Islamic political organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir, replied that caliphate is a strong tradition in Islamic history, Al Queda have only recently stared talking about it probably because it ’s a very popular concept accross the whole Islasmic world.

Recent polls show strengthening support for some kind of caliphate. The end of the Ottoman Caliphate has lead to fracturing of islam - allowing any group or corrupt leaders of failed states to claim they are acting in the name of Islam.

It’s not surprising that the caliphate is a popular concept - although Hizb-ut-Tahrir have a specifically worked out theory of what it should look like, it's also a very nebulous utopian concept that means very

different things to different people (although that’s probably true of the fundamental concepts behind most secular states - such as justice, democracy, freedom etc).

It seems to me that while the European Christian theocratic empire gradually gave way to a variety of states with a mix of philosophies and religions, the Islamic empire crumbled without leaving a collection of ideologies in a process of developing politics and religion. Perhaps if Islamic culture was able to rebuild a caliphate it would provide the arena for competing versions and approaches to develop?

tue 12 feb Kingian nonviolence in action St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. Film From Montgomery to Memphis and discussion. Yehoeshahfaht Ben Israel from the Dr Martin Luther King Institute for a New Humanity introduced the film by suggesting that it would help us to get behind King the icon to the man and and his method. Montgomery of the title is the bus boycott of 1955 started when Rosa Parkes refused to give up her seat; Memphis is where, 13 years later, King was shot dead. The film is formed entirely by archive footage and the only narration is contemporary recorording mostly from King ’s speeches including the whole of ‘ I have a dream’. For this reason I think the film failed to get behind the myth as, for me, the icon is summed up in the incredibly powerful and musical repeated

performance of the those four words. For most people that is King. But the film and background from Ben Israel hints at a calculating strategist that had read widely on campaign strategy. He flattered America and its constitution, broke the law when it was necesary and unjust but strictly followed the law when it supported his cause, as it mostly did. In fact what the film shows is that perversely King’s civil rights struggle was an easy campaign - with support from the top of government, the supreme court the constitution and a large proportion of the people against a small and unprepared local elite in the southern states who were amateurishly defending a plainly unjust situation. In many ways King remains an icon because he died before things got really difficult, although we see a hint of that in the riots in Chicago.

thu 14 feb I Smell Love Danacentre. I often criticise the Danacentre for its events trying too hard to be ‘fun’ or ‘relevant’, but I think in this case I’ll allow it, as an alternative valentine’s night this ‘sniff dating event’ was pretty good. Of course it could have had a bit more substance, perhaps another speaker more focussed on the genetics, evolution and mechanisms of human and other animal scent signals, and I would probably have preferred it that way but on the whole Dr George Dodd did a good job just with the help of the enthusiastic host Amy. I learned that the human sense of smell is, contrary to popular belief, almost as strong as other animals, and that it ’s one of the most diverse parts of our genetic make up that gives us a unique profile both of smells we give out and can sense - meaning that, in theory at least, smell is as direct a window into our genes as we have.