Images from a mosque – https://mvslim.com/one-of-the-most-beautiful-mosques-is… – built back when Islam was a faith of exultation and transcendence, which is a far cry from today’s reality.
This raises the question: is Islam, as it stands and operates today, a repressive cult?
The above words are used soberly and deliberately. There’s reason behind the madness (‘has he gone mad, talking like this?’) pointing out a brand of repression that few of us are compelled to discuss.
People are locked inside a rigid dogma controlled by the petulant few
We avoid confronting this issue to our detriment. Looking the other way, pretending not to see what happens in the name of the divine and mincing words when we broach the subject – none of it does any good to open society. The oppression, be it political, racial, gender-driven or sexuality-related, is a terrible way to deal with people. Fear and loathing are toxic on an individual and societal level.
Any way we look at it, belief systems that prey on critical thinking are traps. This includes any cultural setup where the arts and sciences are suppressed and the human spirit is contained so that people may be herded into blind-faith groupthink. Where individuals are in overall terms not allowed to express themselves, or to celebrate their creativity and humanity, or adapt to the data and to roll with the facts – where people are locked inside a rigid dogma controlled by the petulant few.
To put it another way, any system that operates as above isn’t a faith triumphant. It’s a faith militant, a faith repressant, and those who defend it in its given form are on the wrong side of history.
Note: This post is not about Islam per se. It targets religious doctrine at large, using Islam as prime example because let’s face it: is there a flourishing art scene in Iran, under the rule of the ayatollahs? Is critical thinking encouraged in Saudi Arabia and Mali? How about any place where Islamic clerics hold sway? Science, much? Diversity and pluralism? On the contrary, as a rule, the faith’s subjects are held captive by a terribly inflexible dogma, locked in spiritual cages in the name of the divine.
Some might say that this is true of most places where clerics and ‘holy people’ hold sway. Indeed, and that’s the point. At its worst, organized religion uses doctrine to crush diversity and creativity, and this is what I’m talking about.
The way forward for organized religion, as far as this author is concerned, is for its branches to finally evolve, to adapt to the data and make do.
Even Christianity and Judaism, which have made strides over the last couple of centuries – there’s a long way to go and the way ahead is getting tricky; Judeo-Christian fundamentalism is a problem again, and one hopes it won’t be allowed to resurge.
Let’s not even talk about Islam and other not-as-reformed faiths. Or better yet, let’s! So how about it? How about we add color to the scraped walls and pillars inside the mosques and every place where religion came tearing things down in the name of sanctity? How about we give space to the faithful to think, speak and create in ways that jive with the times instead of promoting sclerotic, repressive, fossilized world views that replace awe with fear, virtue with dogma, righteousness with uber-sanctimony?
Here’s a lesson the faiths of the world forgot: true power and transcendence come from overcoming one’s limitations, not from holding on to the outdated until one turns to bone.
This applies to all systems at large, with a few exceptions – there are always exceptions – such as the military, where discipline is paramount.
Yet even in the discipline-obsessed military there’s an argument to be made about latitude. The concept of individual agency – within a whole – works, especially in the age of mass media and total communication. Soldiers are taught to interpret the world in terms of facts, not wishful thinking, and their regimes just reinforce their approach. A rigid but flexible approach, so to speak.
And that’s a great attitude. Allowing people to embrace the reality of our world and express themselves, let loose, and not deem themselves ‘chosen’ and ‘destiny-driven’ – and the rest of us ‘wayward’ and ‘second-rate’ – is what separates the distinguished from the discriminating, the virtuous from the self-righteous-and-full-of-shit.
On the whole, organized religion has been a suppressant
Even prisons benefit from humanitarian and permissive approaches, to a degree.
In a nutshell, prohibiting science, art and all kinds of passionate behavior has been tried and tested over the centuries, and the results were unfortunate. Prohibition is a bane – a niche approach, at best, fit for extremely narrow situations.
Spartan attitudes, for example, were the stuff of legend during the age of Sparta’s wars. (Check out this program on the Spartan Black Broth .. https://youtu.be/oqQzWg9pXmg).
Extreme control can also be beneficial in special conditions, such as (the aforementioned) military campaigns, or on expeditions that require staunch discipline and a supreme code of conduct.
Airline pilots, for example; their profession can afford no errors whatsoever, therefore extreme discipline is in order.
The same applies to all technicians, practitioners and members of outfits responsible for high performance tasks; they can tolerate no missteps, end of story.
How about monastic deprivation – a restrictive approach practiced by monks to atone for earlier lifestyles, disengage from the mundane, and prepare oneself for the afterlife? Niche and extreme.
Beyond that, has anything great, of lasting legacy, come from having entire peoples subjected to authoritarianism over long periods of time?
Prohibition and authoritarianism failed in the Middle Ages, aka the Dark Age, leading to fear and loathing, entitlement and self-righteousness, which left us with a legacy of war and persecution.
Sidenote: Ironically it was the Church that promoted much of the arts and culture during the Dark Age. And Islam was a bastion for science and arts at the time. A paradoxical silver lining. Somewhere between the doctrine of blind faith, total obedience, social control, and the need to provide comfort to people, the big faiths came up with song, verse, art and architecture that nourished the soul (while the despots at large preyed on their subjects in the name of God.) Let’s give credit where it’s due.
Society in general hasn’t fared well under disciplinarian prohibition
But let’s not get carried away. On the whole, organized religion has been a suppressant.
Prohibition and oppression – of the secular and political persuasion – failed in East Germany, too, as they did in Romania and the entire Eastern Bloc. That chapter in history is one of the saddest and darkest in modern times.
It’s strange that we still have to point this out. Suppression of knowledge is disastrous. Wanton restrictions on art – or a certain kind of art – and the near-total restraint of passions and pleasure; and the crackdown on literature and open culture – it’s all toxic. Society in general doesn’t fare well under disciplinarian prohibition. The despots take advantage, turning their subjects into penned animals. The suppression of emotions, critical thinking, open debate, and one’s control over one’s body/diet/clothing/sexual-preferences are a sure way to undermine people at large.
Just something to think about as we continue the debate on what organized faith constitutes and how to go about it, especially when the dogma fears more than it embraces. When it represses more than it enables. When it forbids more than it uplifts and when it relies too much on social and individual control, all of which strangle life in the name of an afterlife – and which serve the interests of petty tyrants and the sick mind games they play on those unfortunate enough to seek their approval.
If only there were a second golden age. I wish Islam would in due course turn round and allow the construction and decoration of mosques such as these (see link above), signaling a constructive approach to the human condition at large.
I also wish the other big faiths would stop trying to reverse the clocks. This isn’t the time to crawl back into shed skin. For [add your favorite deity name]’s sake!
From your socratic Spin Doctor,