The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 6, 1980 Page: 4 of 20
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VOICES FROM THE TOWER/a faculty forum
by Camille Jones
This week's Voices focuses on the
emerging role of religious groups in the
international political arena. We talked to
Dr. Niels Nielsen, Chairman of Rice's
Religious Studies Department, on the
subject.
Nielsen, author of various hooks on
contemporary religious thought, published
a volume on the religion of Jimmv Carter in
1975.
Thresher: What do you think is the real role
of religion in the political struggles for
control of a state? Do you think it's more
frequently a tool used by leaders to
manipulate a group for their own benefit, or
do you see it as generally more sincere?
Nielsen: Religion runs the whole range of
uses that you have identified. There certainly
are situations when it's used by persons
whose primary motive is expediency; a very
pragmatic, even cynical kind of approach in
the same state under the same
circumstances. It may involve persons of
very great sincerity and of sensitive political
insight and competent understanding, or
persons who are certainly amateurs and are
being used by others. Religion runs the
whole gamut.
I would want to indicate that I think
religious factors continue in political
situations even where there is a separation of
church and state. One interesting example of
that is our own President, whom I would not
charge with insincerity religiously, and, at
the same time, in his own tradition affirms
the separation of church and state. This is
not to indicate a blanket endorsement of his
policies, but to say that probably religion is
one very significant factor that is part of his
past and even feeds to a certain extent into
his contemporary thinking.
One has to make a distinction between
situations in which religion is established—
the pattern in a holy book like the Koran (in
which religious and political factors have
been unified since the time of
Mohammed) -from a more secular kind of
policy. The purpose of a secular policy, as—
in the American tradition—influenced by
the Enlightenment, is not necessarily the
destruction of religion, but the possibility of
its more individual kind of expression.
In the history of Christendom, church and
state have often been together. This must be
distinguished from the modern totalitarian
state that often is explicitly atheistic or anti-
religious although it may have a pseudo-
religion of its own.
In regards specifically to the Koran and its
role, the Ayatollah Khomeini, according to
some religious scholars, is guilty of gross
distortion and manipulation of the Koran in
his efforts to unite Iran against its
oppressors. Do you agree, and, if so, do you
feel that purity in adherence to religious
Professor Niels Nielsen
dogma is not the major concern of the
groups which legitimize his power?
1 think one ought to be careful not to
underestimate the importance of clerical
leadership in the Iranian situation. I've been
to other Moslem countries. I've not been to
Iran, but I think that reports are clear: much
of the leadership of Khomeini's group has
come from clerics, more specifically mullahs
that the shah's regime was not able to enlist,
much less to control.
As for the charge of his manipulating the
Koran, one has to say that there's always
been a tension between Shi'ite and Sunni
Moslems. The Shi'ite group has a larger base
in Iran and has given a larger place to clerical
leadership that the Sunni have. Both unite
chuch and state, but certainly the Sunni
would be critical of Shi'ites.
I would not regard Khomeini as an
opportunist; he has at times done some
things that seem rather shrewd politically.
It's no mean feat to overthrow a regime with
modern weapons, with the support of other
major powers, to do it from Paris and then
to be taken back to Iran. That kind of man is
not entirely stupid; it might be better to say
that this is a man who perhaps lives in the
past or with models of an earlier time, not
those of a secular democracy.
One of the problems of Islam is that it
joins the political and religious factors. But
in a modern world, a certain amount of
secular leadership is necessary in statecraft
and warfare to use technology. This type of
leadership may already be appearing in Iran,
but it's too simple to charge Khomeini with
either insincerity or sheer hypocrisy. The
Koran supplies other norms than are
common to the western secular state and has
other values for the political and social life.
Khomeini is a man with different kinds of
norms and world views from those of secular
—Bruce Davies
society and / or the journalists who have been
reporting on him. This makes him a more
complex kind of phenomenon to
understand.
Purity of doctrine, of course, as far as
Islam is concerned, means the establishment
of a Moslem kind of regime. In this respect,
Khomeini would seem to be very much on
target. When you study how Islam
establishes itself politically, you see various
schools of the law: you use the Koran, the
Hadith (the sayings of the prophets),
tradition, reason, consensus, etc. Different
Moslem countries pick one emphasis more
than another to interpret the basic kind of
religious tradition. It isn't possible to run a
country just on the word of the Koran, but
there is an attempt to parallel it and to
remain as faithful to the teachings of Islam
as possible.
By and large Islam has not been
influenced by Greek thought to the extent
that Christendom has—it's a religion not as
sectarianized as Christianity. What you have
is this part of the world opening up with
dramatic new suddenness to technology, to
secularization, to new forms of family life, to
new status for women, to new modes of
literacy coming in very hard and fast. People
often react with considerable defensiveness
against this as Khomeini assuredly does. The
problem, of course, is to reach a middle
ground. Political scientists give less
importance to the religious factors in many
respects and identify Islam as something
that preserves established culture. I think
one needs to look at that as well.
How powerful do you believe the concept
of the religious state is compared with
political ideologies like that of the Soviets or
in totalitarianism? If confrontation occurs,
what actions are likely to be taken by the
religious state?
The Marxist group is assuredly sensitive
to modern science—that's what they try to
base their materialism on. It's an open
question, though, whether-in the long run
the religious imp 'se of something like Islam
may not prove as powerful or more
powerful. Everyone in the Middle East, both
the Soviets and the West, fears Moslem
power whereas the communist ideology, if
one considers Solzhenitsyn or others not as
anti-Marxist as he is, may be spent.
It's a very real possibility that the Moslem
revival of religious interests is by no means
past. It's joined by something not like Greek
or Enlightenment rationalism, but with a
fervent kind of nationalism (something
learned from the West). When you join
theocracy, nationalism, and religion, that's a
very powerful and very dangerous mix. It's
been the experience in many places—China
or the Soviet Union, for example—that the
Moslem group has often been the hardest
group to destroy or eliminate in persecuiton,
so its religious power ought not to be more
underestimated.
Let's turn our attention to the West and
the rest of the world as well. How important
will U.S. and international recognition of
religiously autonomous groups be in the
political future? Do you think that the
repercussions of Iran will serve to incite
more religiously motivated political action?
How will it affect American foreign policy?
American foreign policy at times has
underestimated the importance of the
religious factor. Mr. Carter, particularly,
underestimated the potential for revolution
of Iran. Carter, a Southern Baptist of
pious conviction, was in Teheran only a
couple of years ago celebrating New Year's
and praising the stability of the regime.
Someone made a mistake.
The trouble, simply put, is that when the
Americans talk of freedom of religion in
their secular democratic policy, they mean
freedom for all religion, for a plurality of
Protestant groups, for Catholics, etc. By and
large when Moslem leaders in the U.N. talk
of freedom of religion, they mean freedom
for Islam to dominate the society, for
Christians and Jews in their society to
occupy a second place, and for unbelievers
not to be allowed at all.
But the whole mix of traditional
theocracy and nationalism and concern for
traditional values are being torn up by
technology, which makes a very complex
situation. From the time of the discovery of
America, Islam has not been culturally
expansive—it tended to turn in upon itself.
Western society's more rapid advance than
Moslem society's produces a sort of
inferiority complex and desire to catch up.
Tied in with nationalism and the religious
state, this makes a very powerful situation
whose full end can not yet be seen.
RICE UNIVERSITY
SUMMER PROGRAM
OF HISPANIC STUDIES
SEVILLE
MADRID
SPAIN
June 1 - July 12
LANGUAGE AN!) CIVILIZATION COURSES(beginning and advanced)
All courses taught by Rice Professors. Six to eight credits.
GRADUATE COURSES IN HISPANIC LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
Up to six credits.
LOCATION AND ITINERARY
Classes will be held ior four weeks in Seville and two weeks in Madrid.
Participants will stay with families in Seville. In Madrid, they wilt
live at the Ciudad Universitaria. The program includes excursions to
various Spanish cities (see below). An optional trip to Portugal will
be arranged for the third weekend in.June (tentative total cost: $70):
COST*
Does not include:
Transportation US-Spain-US
-"Trip from Madrid to Seville
- Books and personal
expenses
450 includes:
- Twit ion for up to b semester hours
(K for students of Spanish 103a)
- Room and board in Seville f, Madrid
Trips to Cdrdoba, Granada, Toledo,
Malaga, Segovia, Avila, La Granja
• Trip Seville-Madrid by chartered bus
- Tickets to museums f, sj>ecial events
- Rice insurance (required)
* Partial scholarships available. Transatlantic charter flight available
if desired; the approximate New York round-trip fare is $390.
for application forms and further information contact:
Dr. Maria Teresa Leal
Director, Sunmcr Program in Spain
ftept. of Spanish
Rice University
Houston, Texas 77001
William :tarsh Rice University admits students of any race, color and national
or ethnic origin.
Deadline for \nr>l icat toil: Anri
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Muller, Matthew. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 6, 1980, newspaper, March 6, 1980; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245432/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.