The Hazards of Scientific Thinking in a Religious Society

This fascinating paper by Alper Bilgili illustrates the challenges faced by those trying to assimilate modern scientific indeas into cultures with a fundamentally faith-based outlook. The paper also gives a good, if rather sketchy, summary of the history leading to the formation of the Turkish republic.

I think that the main point illustrated by analyses such as these is that the modern "scientific" outlook developed in the West during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and subsequently spread to other modern societies, is a uniquely remarkable and fragile feat of psychosocial emgineering. It does not come naturally to human societies, which are invariably invested in mythologies, origin stories, religious orthodoxies and cultural traditions. The principle of discovering truth through purely material investigation is difficult for societies to accept en masse because it clashes with the normal basis of human mental orientation, which is affective and experiential rather than material and analytical. Even in Western societies, after centuries of conditioning in secular scientific ideas, it is easy to sway large parts of the populace toward anti-science attitudes such as climate change denial by appealing to emotion. The challenge is infinitely greater in societies where faith remains a bedrock of identity, and where words such as "secular", "materialist" and "rational" are easily equated with a heretical mindset. And yet, changing minds in precisely such societies is the most urgent need of humanity today.

Of all the things going on in the world of science, the work on elucidating the material basis of mental function is perhaps the most important in this regard. As we understand - and make clear to the non-scientific public - that mental phenomena regarded as transcendental or mystical can be explained and, very importantly, manipulated by purely material means, attitudes may well change - though recent experience with vaccines should inject some caution into this calculation.

The Emperor and the Dancing Girl

Rana Safvi's interesting and illuminating piece on the possible origins of Aurangzeb's mirthless cruelty as emperor...

Shakespeare and Islam

This piece by Matthew Dimmock on OUPblog raises the interesting issue of how elements from contemporary Islamic cultures may have influenced Shakespeare. While the article makes for interesting reading, it becomes clear that, in spite of the author's claims, any Islamic elements play at best a minimal role in Shakeseare's work. Most of the examples are incidental, and some like the mention of luxury fabrics, is a clear stretch. The one big exception, of course, is Othello, wherte the central character has a strong connection with the world of Islam, and is explicitly identified as "the Moor". However, even here, it is hard to say that the "Moorishness" of Othello is used in any deep way beyond serving the function of "otherizing" him to increase the complexity of his tragedy. The writers of overt "Turk Plays" were much more invested in themes and attitudes from the world of Islam.

As Prof. Dimmock points out, Shakespeare was writing in a time when Europeans were exploring the world and supercharging the process of cultural interaction. Given that environment, it is somewhat surprising how little he connected with foreign themes in his plays. His gaze was fixed firmly on European and English history. Even Othello was the Moor of Venice, not Cairo and Kairouan, though, of course, Shakespeare's characters are human beyond time and place.

Life and Death in Gaza

Published on Brown Pundits - August 4, 2014

This article was written during Istael's last military invasion of Gaza which was exceptionally brutal. Given the emotions aroused by the events at the time, many readers complained that the article was a case of blaming the victim. But the goal in writing this piece was to take an analytical rather than an emotional look at the situation, and reading it today, I think all the points I made then remain valid today.

Excerpt:

"On the Israeli-Palestinian issue, unfortunately, we seem to be trapped in a nightmare. Unless one of the parties changes its stance radically, we are likely to see escalating cycles of violence, initially with mutually facilitated radicalization, and eventually reaching mutually assured destruction. And while most of the deaths will no doubt occur on the Palestinian side, Israel would do well to remember that there are ways of dying other than losing one’s life."

The full article can be read here.

Why It May Be Different This Time

Published on Brown Pundits - June 26, 2014

This piece was written when ISIS was just becoming known in rest of the world. The fears expressed in it have proved to be all too real, though ISIS has not really proved to be as strategically mature as I had feared. Above all, its strategy of using extreme violence to achieve its ends is ultimately self-limiting. Successful enterprises need to be attractive, and the attraction of ISIS is severely constrained by its violence (though see the viewpoint of Scott Atran). It is worth noting that we have also had a significant ebola epidemic since the writing of this article, so perhaps the ISIS virus is even more dangerous than it seemed"

"The jihadis will truly become an existential threat to the rest of Muslim society the day they turn away from mindless violence and start building social capital. That's why ISIS, with its financial resources and organizational savvy, is so especially dangerous. Because of the large area they have already acquired, the sympathy of a significant population based on deep resentment and, above all, their very deep pockets, ISIS is the first jihadi force that may actually be able to create a de facto state in the name of their ideology."


The whole article can be read here.

The Mapness of King George

Apparently, King George III - that "old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king" - was an avid collector of maps!

Now the British Library has digitized them for all to see....

http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/31/british-library-digitizes-george-iiis-massive-map-collection/

The Saudi-Iran Conflict and the Resonance of History

A brief piece  in the Atlantic on Shaykh Nimr al-Nimr, whose execution by the Saudis has led to the latest crisis with Iran. This article barely scratches the surface on the deep and complex issue of the Shi'a population of Saudi Arabia and the significance of the state's current crackdown on it.

Here I want to comment on a side issue raised briefly in the early part of this article: The idea of a centuries old conflict between Shi'as and Sunnis. As the article points out, this idea has been "debunked" by several writers, and there is ample justification to reject the simplistic, black-and-white version of this notion that one often finds in the Western media. However, I think that it is problematic - even dangerous - to paper over the issue completely and pretend that ancient history plays no role in the problems we're seeing -- that they are purely of modern origin, e.g., triggered by the Iranian revolution or the rise of Hezbollah, or even a little older and grounded in the emergence of Wahhabi-Saudi power. All these factors are major contributors to what we see today, but so is a longstanding historical context that is both real and alive. Much of Islam's early political, intellectual and doctrinal history was shaped by the dialectic between Shi'a and Sunni views of the world and how God acted in it. And though the Shi'a have always been outnumbered numerically, Shi'a dynasties have held sway over various parts of the Muslim world for significant periods, and exerted strong cultural and intellectual influence. Indeed, successful theocracies in the history of Islam have tended to be Shi'a rather than Sunni for a variety of plausible reasons. Outbreaks of sectarian conflict at various levels has been a regular feature of the history of Islam in its core region (Iran to Morocco), culminating in the long, cruel and civilization-shaping conflict between the Ottomans and the Safavids.

It is true that, throughout the centuries of intermittent conflict, Shi'a and Sunni Muslims have lived together, interacted socially, intermarried, and often dissociated themselves from the rigid views of their religious scholars and political leaders. However, the resonance of history cannot be ignored. This is especially true on the Shi'a side, which has a fundamentally more history-centered worldview with a highly developed eschatology. It is also more rooted in the ideas of charismatic leadership, struggle against oppression, and martyrdom. These ideas do exist among Sunnis as well, but mostly in a diffuse, inchoate form due to the lack of formalization by an organized clergy. By colonial times, most Sunni populations in the Muslim world had settled into political and social systems they found themselves in, with only minor outbreaks of historically-driven zealotry. However, that has now changed. Several of the Sunni revivalist movements that have emerged in the last few centuries -- including Wahhabism -- do have a more history-centered worldview, albeit with none of the sophistication that has developed in this regard on the Shi'a side. Thus, it is not surprising that these two worldviews with strong ideas about the very nature of history and world order should find themselves in conflict. But it is also important to accept that this current conflict connects readily with the historical memory and symbolism of Shi'a-Sunni conflicts through the centuries, and supercharges them with an existential significance. Cynical firebrands may exploit this symbolism for narrow purposes, but the emotional effect of the symbols is all too real. Yes, ordinary Shi'as and Sunnis have lived together in harmony in South Asia and the Middle East for centuries, but when the specter of history -- or worse, the specter of mythology -- begins to loom large in minds, people often forget about human relationships.

Let's hope that the present outbreak of hostilities turns out to be a footnote rather than a new chapter in a long and terrible history.