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For Quran, even Killing One Person is Genocide


based on a very clear verse in quran killing one person by anybody (whether muslim or non-muslim) and for any reason but self defence is "genocide". this is the meaning of genocide in my faith and that's why i love quran when says:


 


" For this reason We decreed to the children of Israel that whoever killed a self, whether for revenge or for corruptive aims in the land/earth, so (it is) as if he killed the people all together, and who revived (saved) it, so as if he revived (saved) the people all together, and Our messengers had come to them with clear arguments, then that many from them [extrimists, violators and terrorists], certainly keep acting extravagantly in the land. (5:32)


"And Allah invites [all] to the abode of peace and guides whom he/she pleases into the right path" (Yunes 26)


 

14.7.05 03:58


A turning point for Muslims?

Speak Out Or Be Condemned For Your Silence




How can peace be established with bombs and suicide attacks and kidnappings? How can peace be spread through killing peaceful civilians?











14.7.05 02:58


Losing to Islamic Populism: The Self-made Failure of Governmental Reformism in Iran


Losing to Islamic Populism: The Self-made Failure of Governmental Reformism in Iran


Ahmad Alehosseinfficeffice" />


 


"Reformism from above is dead", "reformism has reached an impasse"; these are claims vociferously declared by iranian intellectual reformists like Said Hajarian, the so-called ideologue of the Iranian reformism, just about two years before the election. "A president is not more than a supplementer for the system" is an assertion passively stated by Khatami, and popularized by the reformist media, just less than one year before the election. Despite these acknowledgements revealed by reformists when they were questioned by critics about their malfunctions, during the recent election they sharply changed their voices and started disallowing their inabilities. While criticizing the interventions of the supreme leader in the executive and legislative matters, Moin, the progressive reformists, and his supporters paradoxically accepted the interference of the leader in favor of himself, when leader wanted the Guardian Council to include Moin into the list of candidates. These sort of very paradoxical behaviours, regardless of many sophisticated justifications behind them, worked against the reformists’ authenticity in the eyes of many of their potential supporters, if any plausibility had been left after 8 years ignoring the most subsistent demands (whether material or non-material) and values of multitudes of lower middle class, marginalized and disadvantaged people.


In terms of resources for campaigning in 2005 election, reformists were definitely more powerful than in the 1997 election in which Khatami won his conservative competitor without having any newspaper, the TV's support and even supports from the moderate opposition groups from within like Nehzate Azadi. Khatami was experiencing a weaker situation on that time than his prospective successor Moin this year. However many people, whether from middle class or working class, voted for him since they in order to snub his alternative, a conservative clergy, Nateghe-Noori, who didn't initiate neither serious comments on, let alone reformist programs for, a fairer resource redistribution nor democratic changes. In this year election, the situation of reformists was comparable with the situation of Nateghe-Noori in 1997 in some essential respects. They failed to convince people of how to manage getting out of the impasse, they avoided criticizing or even reflecting upon their failures, and mistakes; from the beginning, as they themselves shamelessly depicted, people had been considered just ‘levers for pressure from below to run negotiations on the top’ (a very instrumentalist concept of democracy). They failed to render any clear program about how to tackle the structural obstacles Khatami's government used to mention as excuses for his failures, in order to convince pro-reform but disappointed students and intellectuals. Even they failed to address the material and economic needs of people, the very important issue of corruption and social discriminations in their mottos; they used to postpone these to time when democracy is completely realized. They expected millions of unprivileged people to forgo their very basic and immediate needs mainly for the sake of continuing a very long-term, exhausting course of realizing luxurious-like needs of middle class such as freedom of speech for moderate reformist journalist who had never raised the very essential demands of them. Even many of those who dedicated their votes to the reformists this year aimed to avoid the very creepy hardliner's victory. ‘Fighting with fatal bureaucratic corruption and inequality in the redistribution of resources’, ‘containing the grave economic inflammation’, and ‘impeding discriminations’ were just a set of very simple but effective slogans that Ahmadi-Nejad a man less recognized as a serious conservative by many disadvantaged and traditional families employed to win the election by attracting just 36 percent of the whole eligible voters against those who's slogans and programs were not addressing the needs of or convincing more than 20 percent. Ahmadi-Nejad's voting machine should not have reasonably been able to make him a winner in the second round if any of other candidates were able to convince the gray voters to support in the first round. Based on the official reports, 45 percent did not vote in the second round. The active participation of many of this part of population which included many students and intellectuals could be very crucial for the reformists’ victory. They cannot be simply described under political apathy.


 Iranian reformism from above assured its death when got married with ‘structural adjustment programs’, ‘privatization’, and the World Bank advises that had been proved to be ineffective in many third world countries, and even in Iran during Rafsanjani’s term, due to the increasing social inequalities and even democratic accountability of political and economic institutions. Rather it helped the emergence of a young network of militarist-merchant groups who enjoyed tremendous rise of financial allocations in the reformist budgets. Finally, this network challenged its old founder, Rafsanjani, by involving the issues of inequality and poverty in their populist slogans. Today, reformists have no chance to reconstruct their potency through representative mechanisms, since the Iranian society is getting into a historical stage where the gap between civil societal forces and the state is getting widened and hopes for reforming the system regarding the structural-constitutional limits are being waned; the limits based on which even the issue of referendum looks as an unfeasible strategy. Developing underground single issue movements, establishing networks of resistance, organizing pockets of civil disobedience which are deeply linked with the immediate concerns and indigenous egalitarian-autonomous values - inherited from the very long history of Iranian resistance against the oriental despotism - are the initiatives one may expect as the bases of upcoming stories from the inside in the background of inter-state clashes with the West.


photo from: http://www.payvand.com/news/04/feb/iran-election1.jpg

8.7.05 02:15


8.6.05 00:46


Neuroscience, the Person, and God: An Emergentist Account



Author: Clayton P. 1


Source: Zygon, September 2000, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 613-652(40)


Publisher: Blackwell Publishing


 




Abstract:


Strong forms of dualism and eliminative materialism block any significant dialogue between the neurosciences and theology. The present article thus challenges the Sufficiency Thesis, according to which neuroscientific explanations will finally be sufficient to fully explain human behavior. It then explores the various ways in which neuroscientific results and theological interpretations contribute to an overall theory of the person. Supervenience theories, which hold that mental events are dependent on their physical substrata but not reducible to them, are explained. Challenging the determinism of “strong” supervenience, I defend a version of “soft” supervenience that allows for genuine mental causation. This view gives rise in turn to an emergentist theory of the person. Still, I remain a monist: there are many types of properties encountered in the world, although it is only the one nature that bears all these properties. The resulting position, emergentist monism, allows for diversity within the context of the one world. This view is open at the top for theological applications and interpretations while retaining the close link to neuroscientific study and its results. Theology offers an interpretation of the whole world based on a yet higher order of emergence, although the notion of God moves beyond the natural order as a whole. It therefore supplements the natural scientific study of the world without negating it.

25.5.05 09:48



Universal values like justice, democracy, civilization, civility, have been abused throughout the history to justify interventions, colonization, and exploitations of others. Non-westerners for a long time have been conceptualized as un-civilized people (by powerful states) as those who need to be disciplined. Many movements have been critical of abusing the human rights (say the rights of being sovereign or autonomous) "in the name" of very broadly universalized values like democracy (say in the case of ffice:smarttags" />Iraq). Today the imperialist interventions are mainly directed through imposing economic codes by WTO, IMF etc, on under-developed or developing countries. these codes are designed to direct economic relations in uneven ways between the North and South in favor of the Rich and to make more pressures on the labour in both global south and north (and of course more on the southern workers, women, elderly, children etc.) and again all of these are justified by some universal, so-called humanist values, behind development, liberalist, and democratic discourses. fficeffice" />


 


In my country, 27 years ago, we had a revolution to stop these interventions and to gain our autonomy-sovereignty by relying on our traditional, Islamic values, and our indigenous, national culture. However, the revolution was hijacked by Islamic fundamentalists who justified their brutality by these traditional values. Now after a century being completely disempowered by both corruptive "secular" and "theocratic" regimes, we are tired of both the so-called spiritual and humanist values. We (people like me and I) can no longer trust religious institutions and secular ideologies (isms). They both have restricted our creativity. Think you want to say a poem inspired by a religion or ideology. And now compare your ability with the time you are free from both.


 



 


People like me have two options: (1) simply rejecting humanist-secular values (under which we have been exploited) together with spiritual-religious values under which we were disempowered. (2) Starting from criticizing the history of both modern and traditional movements and their ideological basics to achieve an alternative, or a synthesis instead of just mixing them in a contradictory way. Now I can say that Islamic humanism is a critical philosophy that starts from de-constructing both the histories of Islam (my culture) and humanism (the World's modern history) to understand their deviations from their original values and then to re-construct a synthesis based on which we can build a new life for ourselves. Both of them have been real historical experiences and worth to be reviewed.


 


Reviewing the history of Islam against its original massages has opened new perspectives for us: in Islam unlike Islamic scholasticism, humans by discovering and realizing the attributes of god (like honesty, mercy, compassionate, justice)in relation to other humans can reached to a level very closed to God (it is called me'raj. God has given humans self-autonomy and self-consciousness (we call it khalifattollahi- human is the caliph of God on the earth), God is the process of creation itself, therefore humanity is included in this process and the relation between humanity and god is not like a slave and a master. Therefore there is no mediator in original Islam between God and human, clericalism has no legitimacy in original Islam. Islam itself was a movement for secularizing-humanizing  the religion (by reducing so many gods to one God which is omnipresent everywhere even inside the humanity, by destroying religious institutions and building self-autonomous communities known as Shura, by rejecting clerics and clericalism, by turning the attention of people to material life based on justice and evenness etc). Therefore Islamic humanism inspired by these original principles, while stressing on human autonomy and freedom as its central principle and unlike secular humanism, does not isolate humanity from the nature and the whole existence by giving him an ultimate omnipotence.


 


Unlike Islamic scholasticism and traditional Islam, Islamic humanism believes that God has shared his/her omnipotence with human beings to be autonomously able to reach the ultimate goals of life. Secular humanism by giving ultimate centrality to humanity against the Mother Nature and moral life has caused lots of damage in the environment and in morality. The supremacy of humanity in secular humanism gives him permission to over-exploit the nature. Women are turned into commodities for sale, share and sexual exploitations etc. unlike some other religions, spirituality in Islamic humanism is not something practicable in isolation from societal responsibilities. "The way to God passes only through the masses". Just by struggling for justice, freedom and moralities, we can realize God in ourselves, and we may reach to the highest level of eternality. Body and soul (say 'mind' or 'morality' in Islamic humanism) are created together and will die together and will be again revitalized in new formats in after life.


 

25.4.05 03:10


- A Statement for Reconstructing Islam -

Islam is a NON_DELEGATORY religion


(stop further prophecy, mulla!)




- A Statement for Reconstructing Islam -


From a general point of view, Islam like any other religion must be considered as a non-deliberative (non-delegatory) school of thought/faith. This means that No one may represent or make decisions or speak on its behalf, no statement, interpretation, command, fatwa, or platform can be exclusively issued in its name. Prophecy is ended 1400 years ago by the death of prophet Muhammad who had direct link with Allah. ANY interpretation or understanding must be considered as a particular understanding of Islam and can be questioned, criticized, falsified, or endorsed by other Muslims.



then how to achieve the truth about islam?


Any understanding or conception of Islam must be the subject of free dialogue and discussion relied on the most reliable knowledge of this religion and its history. Insofar as an interpretation can gain consensus out of such open spaces of dialogue (Ejmaa') among Muslims, it can claim validity and reliablity as a framework for conduct by those who are convinced about it, until it be confronted with new challenges in new conditions. The relations between Islamic scholars (any body who is trying intentionally to understand the original messages of Islam with or without necessarily formal certifications) and Islam is similar to the relationship between a social scientist and society, a Natural scientist and Nature. Just through discussions and dialogue on the words of Allah, the truth of Islam can be realized. The Sunna, the sayins-conducts of Muhammad (SWA) that are in accordance with the principles of Islam (in Quran) and with strong historical evidences, regarding thier particularities and historical contingencies, should be employed to better comprehend the verses of Quran. The dialogue is required to be free from any coercion and exclusion. Of course, in an open public forum free from coercion in which no body has any link with the political and economic sourses of power, those who have more knowledge  will direct the discussion and those who are rationally weak will be loosers. Just those claims out of such free-democratic forums of scholars can be trusted as something close to the will of Allah.


The first and the most urgent duty of progressive muslims in the world is to defend their faith and identity, and thereby their own rights, by establishing, defending and securing such open spaces for practicing free Ijtihad. This, of course, requires strong direct actions against any oppressive power in Islamic societies. The Emancipation of Muslims depends upon the Freedom of producing Islamic Knowledge and Information, as the Emancipation of Humanity has been partially achieved through freeing the scientific knowledge. Such open spaces of Ijtihad based on democratic Ejma' must be grounded in civil society that is deliberately autonomous/independent from both government and business. Autonomy, openness, equality of rights in questioning and raising issues, self-reflexivity, democratic consensus (Ejma') are the principles. Lack of these principles questions the validy of claims. The whole above process can be employed in dialogue with other cultures/faiths/civilizations to incorporate their humanitarian achievments in extracting/updating Islamic laws for soveriegn Islamic societies.



_________________
"I desire nothing but reform so far as I am able, and upon none but Allah does my success rely" (Quran, Hood, 88)


<comments are welcomed>

11.4.05 06:41



 


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7.4.05 00:17


The General Knowledge Structure of Islamic Humanism

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Praxis:

 

What is to be done?How to fulfill ideals

 

in relation to the politics, economy, culture, society, and nature

ffice:word" />

Motivating/ practical frame

 


 

 

Analytical knowledge:

 

What is going on and why it has happened in a given context?

 

Inferences, reasonings, explanations and interpretations of reality, the hypothetical structure of cognition

 

 

 

 

The conception of self in a particualr historical context

 

Who we are and who we are not?

 

 

Self-definition, self-thematization, and conceptualization of identity (individual and collective)

 

 

Normative knowledge:

 

What is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable, just or unjust in a given society?

 

Value-judgments, (de)legitimations, (de)moralizations, idealized society and self, rights (human and nature)

 

 

 

       Diagnostic and prognostic (intellectual) frames for in-praxis theorization of context

 

 


 

 

 

Social ontological assumptions:

 

What is real in general?

 

Conception of humanity, reality, world, life, the existence, history, society

 

 

Social epistemological assumptions:

 

What is true in general? and how can it be realized?

 

Certainty, uncertainty, truth, skepticism, against relativism, essentialism, foundationalism, justification, and dejustification criteria, validity of knowledge and methodology

 

 

 

Social axiological, ethical and moral assumptions:

 

What is just and ideal in general?

 

 

Conception of emancipation, resistance, empowerment, participation, moral, justice and so on, against dualisms like

Materialist/postmaterialist values, how to balance dualities in mind and practice

 

Underlying, basic (worldview) frames of in-praxis cognition (mainly implicit)

 

4.4.05 06:56


1.4.05 04:43


1.4.05 04:41


31.3.05 10:41


31.3.05 10:39


31.3.05 10:37


31.3.05 10:36


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