Cartoon by Mike Luckovich
(Thanks to Truthdig.com)
Imagine this ad on a NYC bus:
Is a priest groping you?
Quitting Christ?
or this one:
Were you circumcised against your will?
Want out of Judaism?
No way, right? So then why is this one on buses in Miami and San Francisco as well as New York?
Pamela Geller, the reactionary millionaire financing this ad campaign, seems to think she’s the evangelical equivalent of Joan of Arc, protecting Christian America with her “Stop the Islamization of America” campaign ( its website a horror of phobia and paranoia). Coexist with Islam? No way. Geller has donned her financial armor to spearhead opposition to a proposed new mosque near Manhattan’s Ground Zero — a mosque conceived entirely in the spirit of reconciliation by The Cordoba Initiative, named in honor of the ‘Golden Age’ of intellect and faith in medieval Spain that came to a screeching end with the Inquisition.
Do I really have to point out that the use of the phrase “fatwa on your head” is nothing but demagogery? What fatwa? The phrase appeals to Islamophobic stereotypes, nothing more. And do I really need to say that Geller doesn’t give a damn about coerced Muslim women? Like French lawmakers banning the burqa, she’s using fake feminism as a vehicle for Islamophobia.
I’m an agnostic Jew, averse to any form of orthodox monotheism, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, but these bus ads disgust me. Even more disgusting is the fact that public transportation authorities in three of America’s largest cities saw no reason to reject them.
Just how blind can we be when prejudice is staring us in the face?
Nancy McClelland says: I am astonished, repulsed, perplexed and saddened by this outrageous ad, which I’m guessing will serve more to encourage ignorance and bigotry than to assist anyone in finding “the right path”, whatever that may be. I need time to digest and articulate — I keep writing down my initial reactions and backspacing; they are simply not appropriate comments.
Pietra says: When I was a young girl being sent to Cathechism, one thought took root from what I was told: by the time I was in my 50s, religions would all have faded away. They’ve only become stronger and stranger and more dangerous. The few steps we’ve taken away from the cave were baby steps; we have so far to go it makes me tired to think of it.
Yes, that’s something I want to explore at some point. I mean, the main raison d’etre for religion was once as an explanation for the physical world: sun, rain, drought, floods, earthquakes, etc. Now we have facts instead, so it would seem, rationally, that religon had served its purpose. Unless, of course, we, in our hyper-rationalism, completely understand the many purposes it does in fact serve…
Lavrans says: I don’t know Lesley- I think Judaism and Christianity and Islam came about as a response to living in cities and close communities of strangers. There were other city-religions before, but those are the three Western religions that remain, and what they do is provide the rules of living in this type of place, where the rulers and important decisions are made entirely by people who have nothing to do with the land or the physical world, really.
Christianity, especially, does little to explain the natural world in the way that, say, the Greek religions did, for example. Few of the natural religions persist, and none are international (well, except by emigration).
So it does make more sense to me why religions persist so well even in the face of reason and technology. And why they can push something of that sort on a bus- for the believers, it’s their religion that shows how to operate in society. Those people don’t know how to operate in the natural world; they haven’t ever had to (think Geller has ever hunted or fished or farmed subsistence?).
Good point — all three monotheistic religions did indeed develop in urban settings, and I agree were, in part, responses to the divorce from the natural world. Pantheism has always made sense to me — my inner pagan, maybe.
Chad Tabb says: Lesley, Thank you for your great insights. As an agnostic Muslim (if there is such a thing!), I appreciate the knowledgable, intelligent understanding you have and agree with most of your thoughts. I have just been introduced to your website 2 days ago, and plan on reading your books. I have a question. As a psychologist, what do you think of the idea that the human psyche needs religion or some form or spirituality? Is it true? or is it a “sensation” that can be substituted for by eating chocolate, hearing good music?
Hi Chad — can eating chocolate or listening to great music be a religious experience? I think so. That is, in the sense of transcendence, of taking you beyond your usual well-defined self, bringing you into a state of “cosmic consciousness” or “oceanic feeling” or any of the other terms that try to express the inexpressible and therefore miserably fail, then yes. Okay, so maybe not chocolate. But music definitely. We’re talking about far more than sensation here. We’re talking major changes in felt experience and awareness as well as in muscle tone and brain waves. In fact I doubt if any religion could survive for long without music — and yes that includes Islam, with its musical recitation of the Quran. Which then leads me to start wondering if religion is really a desire for music. I’ve argued before that the essence of religious experience is poetry, and poetry is a form of music, and so… Maybe music is what the psyche really longs for, and religion acts as a vehicle for music? Or to put it another way, music and poetry are what carry religion as anything more than dogma. Take them away, and all you have left is the deadly dross of fundamentalist puritanism. Just puttering around with thoughts here, and may or may not think further on it (maybe even more coherently…)
Chad Tabba says: Wow! Definitely something to think further about! I have reached that oceanic feeling listening to music (not pop music obviously), much more often than religiously. I think that idea is well realized by some muslim religious extremists, who have claimed that Islam forbids music. Maybe they wanted to “own” access to that “oceanic feeling”. Music seems very important in Islam, not just in the musical recital of Koran, but also in the daily calls to prayer. Also witness the dervishes who also add a dizzying dance to the music to reach that state. Also, Islam notes 99 names or descriptions of god, which are sometimes sung. I’m sending you the link of a youtube video of these names and their translation. Note the musicality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAyAw_j1EpY&feature=related
Chad Tabba says: I like your thought that the psyche longs for music, and religion may be its vessel, but I think its really that the psyche longs for that oceanic feeling. So religion “uses” music to get the person to that stage. I wonder if anyone has really studied that effect of music, and why oriental music has a stronger effect than Western music. What’s in Oriental music that makes it special that way, and why has Western music drifted away from that towards pop music. Have people stopped yearning for that feeling?
Hmm — this all feeds into something I’ve been thinking lately about prayer, breathing, and rhythm. Will post about it once I find out what it is I’ve been thinking. Thanks — L.
I wonder why no one’s complaining that they still have prayers in Oklahoma City?
Hallowed ground and all that.
Right?