The Great Debate UK

from FaithWorld:

World’s top Muslims list appears with Erdogan only #3. Who should be #1?

(King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (R) and Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (L) pose for pictures before a meeting in Ankara August 8, 2006. REUTERS/Umit Bektas)

An annual list of the world's 500 most influential Muslims has appeared and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, the man who made Turkey's "Muslim democracy" a model for many Arab Spring protesters, did not win the top spot. Not #2 either. Erdogan came in at #3, a notch down from his 2010 ranking as number two.

The Muslim 500: The 500 Most Influential Muslims 2011, the third list in this series started in 2009 by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, named Saudi Arabian King Abdullah as the #1 Muslim in the world and Morocco's King Mohammed VI as #2. It said the Arab Spring had had no impact on Abdullah's influence, had boosted Mohammed's and had no effect on Erdogan's. Fourth and fifth places in the list went to Jordan's King Abdullah and Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei.

The list is available here as a PDF download or a hard copy to order. Give us your view on the  “most influential Muslim of 2011” in the poll at the bottom of this post.

In this year of enormous change in the Arab world, I think Erdogan should have been #1. And it seems I'm not alone. In its 2011 Arab Public Opinion Poll published on Nov 21, the Brookings Institution in Washington wrote: "Turkey is the biggest winner of the Arab Spring. In the five countries polled, Turkey is seen to have played the 'most constructive' role in the Arab events. Its Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, is the most admired among world leaders and those who envision a new President for Egypt want the new President to look most like Erdogan. Egyptians want their country to look more like Turkey than any of the other Muslim, Arab and other choices provided."

My choice for #2 was actually ranked sixth -- Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. The Muslim 500 spells out its reasons for saying his influence rose during the Arab Spring in a description so clear that should have merited him the second spot. It said the emir "has driven much of the Arab Spring through the coverage given by Al-Jazeera, the financial support given to protesters and political support to Libya. He is arguably the biggest enabler of the Arab Spring." The entry on him also notes that Qatar had jet fighters flying with NATO to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya and also won the 2022 soccer World Cup.

from FaithWorld:

Was it ethical to show gruesome images of the dying dictator Gaddafi?

(ATTENTION EDITORS - VISUAL COVERAGE SCENES DEATH OR INJURY The body of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is displayed at a house in Misrata October 20, 2011/Thaier al-Sudani)

The threshold for publishing gruesome images like those of Muammar Gaddafi's death is falling as the internet and social media make many of the editorial decisions that used to be left to a small group of professional journalists. The shaky video footage of Gaddafi's last moments was such a dramatic end to Libya's months-long struggle against its former dictator that many television stations around the world rushed to broadcast much of what they received.

Newspapers followed up on Friday morning, some splashing graphic photos of the bloodied former Libyan leader across their front pages while others opted for pictures of victorious anti-Gaddafi troops or file shots of Gaddafi in his heyday. Showing images of a person in the throes of death used to be a newsroom taboo, but even this is now giving way under the pressure of instant internet publishing and -- thanks to camera phones -- the increasing availablility of strong news footage.

"Over the past 10 years, whatever your society's standards were, they're notching towards more gruesome images," said Kelly McBride, ethics expert at the Poynter Institute journalism training centre in St Petersburg, Florida.

In many cases, she said, news organisations now deal mostly with the question of how to publish a graphic but newsworthy picture rather than whether they should run it at all. "News editors are very aware that these images are available anyway," said Ivor Gaber, professor of political journalism at City University in London.

Steven Barrett, professor of communications at London's Westminster University, said there was no doubt the images would be used. "This was a momentous event in world history," he said. Showing it was "not just to boost ratings". Showing the footage was especially important in Libya and the Middle East, since the lack of such photographic proof of Osama bin Laden's death prompted many people in the region to ask whether the al Qaeda leader had really been killed.

from FaithWorld:

Luther rehabilitated? Catholics and Protestants disagree

(Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder, painted in 1529)

Among Catholic-Protestant splits on display during Pope Benedict's visit to Germany is a disagreement over whether Martin Luther, the 16th century reformer who launched the split in western Christianity, has now been rehabilitated.

Pope Leo X cast Luther out of the Roman Catholic Church in 1521 with a vociferous decree branding him "the slave of a depraved mind" and calling his followers a "pernicious and heretical sect." But his present-day successor, Benedict, spoke so positively of Luther's deep faith during a visit to the monk's old monastery in Erfurt on Friday that Germany's top Protestant bishop announced Luther had effectively been rehabilitated.

"Luther has experienced a de facto rehabilitation today through this appreciation of his work," Bishop Nikolaus Schneider, head of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), announced to journalists on Friday after talks with Benedict. "We heard this very clearly from the mouth of the pope," he said. "What follows now formally is another question ... but that's not so important for me."

Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi begged to differ on Saturday. “To say that would be exaggerated," he told journalists in Freiburg, the last stop on the pope's four-day tour of his homeland. "What this is about is having deep faith and I think it emphasises the commonalities we have in our love of faith.”

What happened 490 years ago is taking on new significance in Germany because Protestants here are preparing to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Luther's 95 Theses of 1517, the manifesto of dissent that eventually led to the Reformation. The Protestants would like Catholics to say Luther was not a heretic but a major Christian theologian. "It would be nice if they could declare him a doctor of the Church," Erfurt's Lutheran Bishop Ilse Junkermann told Reuters.

from FaithWorld:

September 11 highlighted radical faith; Can it be defused?

(The World Trade Center burns after being hit by a plane in New York on September 11, 2001/Sara K. Schwittek)

When Henry Kissinger published "Diplomacy," his study of international relations, in 1994, it had no index entries for Islam or religion. Ten years later, another secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, wrote her own study on world affairs: "The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs." Almost half the book dealt with Muslims and Islam.

The contrast between the two books highlights the way the world changed after 19 Muslims flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001, claiming to be acting in the name of God. The attacks brought religion back into public affairs for many western countries where faith had largely faded into the private sphere.

"9/11 showed religion can no longer be ignored," Scott Appleby, a historian at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, told a seminar on religion after September 11 at Cambridge University. "It is a critical element in many national systems and in radical and extremist movements, but also in movements oriented to human rights, peace-building and civil society," he said.

Since that day, governments and researchers in North America and Europe have turned to sociology, psychology, anthropology and other disciplines trying to understand religiously motivated violence and work out how to prevent it.  The results are mixed. Religion's exact role in radicalism is unclear. Psychology and group dynamics may drive extremists more than faith. The Arab Spring could become a democratic option that trumps the jihadist ideology of al Qaeda.

Read the full story here.

from FaithWorld:

Pakistan’s patchy fight against Islamist violence sows confusion

(A man takes a nap next to a poster of Osama bin Laden at the Chauburji monument in Lahore May 13, 2011. The message written on the posters read: "The prayer absentia for martyr of Islamic nation is a duty and a debt"/Mani Rana)

At the rehabilitation center for former militants in Pakistan's Swat valley, the psychiatrist speaks for the young man sitting opposite him in silence. "It was terrible. He was unable to escape. The fear is so strong. Still the fear is so strong." Hundreds of miles away in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, a retired army officer recalls another young man who attacked him while he prayed - his "absolutely expressionless face" as he crouched down robot-like to reload his gun.

Both youths had been sucked into an increasingly fierce campaign of gun and bomb attacks by Islamist militants on military and civilian targets across Pakistan. But there the similarity stops.

One is now being "de-radicalized" in the rehabilitation center in Swat, the northern region which only two years ago was overrun by the Pakistani Taliban and has since been cleared after a massive military operation. He will be taught that Islam does not permit violence against the state and that suicide bombing is "haram" or forbidden.

The other had attacked the minority Ahmadi sect, declared non-Muslim by the state and subject to frequent attacks in Punjab, where many of them live. Though he was arrested after being overpowered by the retired army officer, survivors said many of their neighbors celebrated his act of violence with the distribution of sweets.

The different responses to the two are symptomatic of Pakistan's compartmentalized approach on counter-terrorism and counter-extremism. In some parts of the country - like Swat - violent Islamists are crushed and their beliefs confronted. In others - like Punjab, the heartland province far more important to the stability of Pakistan than the more talked-about tribal areas bordering Afghanistan - they are tolerated while their ideology of religious extremism flourishes.

from FaithWorld:

Pope slams selfish food speculators, urges curbs on world commodity markets

(Traders in the Corn options pit at the CME Group signal orders shortly before the closing bell in Chicago, February 11, 2011/Frank Polich )

Pope Benedict said on Friday financial trading based on "selfish attitudes" is spreading poverty and hunger and called for more regulation of food commodity markets to guarantee everyone's right to life. "Poverty, underdevelopment and hunger are often the result of selfish attitudes which, coming from the heart of man, show themselves in social behaviour and economic exchange," the pope told a U.N. food agency conference.

"How can we ignore the fact that food has become an object of speculation or is connected to movements in a financial market that, lacking in clear rules and moral principles, seems anchored on the sole objective of profit?" he asked.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) food price index hit a record high earlier this year, reviving memories of soaring prices in 2007-08 that sparked riots in developing countries. That gave fresh urgency to the debate about how to improve a global food system that leaves some 925 million people hungry.

There is controversy over how much a new wave of investments by funds into commodities has contributed to pushing up prices. The issue has pitted French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who blames speculators for surging food prices and unrest in some countries, against other countries who see little interest in more market regulation.

In June, G20 farm ministers struck a deal that paved the way to more global cooperation on agricultural issues but steered clear of concrete regulatory measures.

from FaithWorld:

“If I were Pope Benedict, this is what I’d tell them in Berlin …”

(The Reichstag building, seat of the German Bundestag in Berlin, where Pope Benedict will deliver a speech on September 22. Picture taken on November 22, 2010/Pawel Kopczynski )

Have you ever wanted to write a major speech for Pope Benedict to deliver? What would you say? How much leeway would you have if you were chosen to be the papal ghostwriter?

Benedict is not about to let outsiders write the landmark speech he will deliver to the German Bundestag in Berlin during his visit to his homeland on September 22-25. But the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), a think-tank affiliated with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), wants to test out this idea before he leaves Rome for the visit.

The KAS office in the Italian capital has just announced a contest called "Ghost writer for the pope!"  This is not an invitation to write anything heretical. The announcement on its website says KAS will only consider entries that reflect Pope Benedict's thinking "in theology, form and content."  It suggests that papal speechwriters in spe should use his address in London's Westminster Hall last September as a model. Maximum length 5 pages, deadline August 26. The winner will be invited to hear the pope's actual speech in the Bundestag on September 22.

"The choice will be made by a jury of KAS staffers in Rome, Catholic theology professors, journalists (Radio Vatican and L'Osservatore Romano) and religious dignitaries," it warned. "The choice is not subject to appeal."

One last condition -- all entries must be submitted in German. We'll keep an eye out for the results to report how innovative -- or imitative -- the winning text may be.

from FaithWorld:

Vague agenda fuels doubts over real aims of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

(The Sphinx at the great pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo, February 25, 2011/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Few things better sum up Egypt's uncharted future than the vague policy platform of the Muslim Brotherhood, a long-repressed Islamist movement poised to become a decisive force in mainstream politics. With the country's military rulers reluctant to push through major reforms without a popular mandate, all eyes are on the emerging political class set free by the overthrow in February of veteran leader Hosni Mubarak.

None is likely to mobilise as much grassroots support as the Brotherhood, which has won the sympathy of millions of poor Egyptians by railing against venal politicians and campaigning for an Islamic state free of corruption. But with parliamentary elections looming, the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party has sketched only the broadest outline of a manifesto. A pledge to do nothing that might harm Egypt's floundering economy has barely reassured nervous investors.

"The Brotherhood has always been unclear on all its policies ... It makes people wonder what is its real goal, and what to believe," said Nabil Abdel Fattah, a researcher in the al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

The Brotherhood's secular liberal enemies say the policy vacuum is understandable because telling the truth would betray an extremism that would make it unelectable. They say it would quickly ban alcohol consumption, sending an already troubled tourism sector into a tailspin, reverse women's rights and deepen tension with Egypt's Christian minority by enforcing a strict Islamic code, the first step towards a Muslim theocracy.

Brotherhood leaders, mindful of a deep-rooted fear of social chaos, insist they would never force major change upon a country already struggling with the instability that followed Mubarak's overthrow. "Investors should not worry. We want to participate with other groups to achieve the best outcome for our country," said Osama Gado, a former parliamentarian and founding member of Freedom and Justice.

from FaithWorld:

Will the Arab Spring bring U.S.-style “culture wars” to the Middle East?

(From left: Olivier Roy, Cardinal Angelo Scola and Martino Diez of the Oasis Foundation at the conference on San Servolo island, Venice, June 20, 2011/Giorgia Dalle Ore/Oasis)

Where is the Arab Spring leading the Middle East? What will be the longer-term outcome of the popular protests that have shaken the region since the beginning of this year? Of course, it’s still too early to say with any certainty, even in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt that succeeded in toppling their authoritarian regimes. Some trends have emerged, however, and they’re on the agenda at a conference in Venice I’m attending entitled “Medio Oriente verso dove?” (Where is the Middle East heading?). The host is the Oasis Foundation, a group chaired by Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Roman Catholic patriarch of this historic city, and guests include Christian and Muslim religious leaders and academics from the Middle East and Europe.

In one of the most interesting -- and hotly debated -- presentations, the French Islam specialist Olivier Roy described the Arab Spring as “a break with the culture and ideologies that dominated the Arab world from the 1950s until recently.” It marks a clear change in the demographic, political and religious paradigms operating there, he said. The old dichotomy of the authoritarian regime or the Islamist state has broken down, he argued, and Islam is taking on a new role in the political process. In the end, the region -- or at least the states where the Arab Spring brings real change -- could see democratic politics marked not by major efforts to establish an Islamic state but by Muslim “culture war” controversies not unlike the way hot-button issues such as abortion and gay marriage emerge in U.S. political debates.

(Newly wed Egyptian anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 10, 2011/Dylan Martinez)

The first trend Roy cited to back up this thesis is the sharp drop in fertility levels in the Arab world since the late 1980s and the 1990s. Several Arab countries, especially those in North Africa, now have birthrates of around two children per woman, close but still above the European average. Tunisia’s birthrate is actually lower than France's.  “The generation that is now on the job market is the last generation of big families,” said Roy, who is now director of the Mediterranean Programme at the European University Institute in Florence. “It’s a generation that has many fewer children and marries much later.”

from FaithWorld:

Pakistan’s booming female madrassas feed rising intolerance

(Covered Pakistani female madrassa students take part in an anti-government demonstration in Islamabad August 27, 2004 after a government raid in their mosque and Islamic seminary/Mian Khursheed)

Varda is an accountancy student who dreams of working abroad. Dainty and soft-spoken, the 22-year-old aspires to broaden her horizons, but when it comes to Islam, she refuses to question the fundamentalist interpretations offered by clerics and lecturers nationwide.

Varda is among more than a quarter of a million Pakistani students attending an all-female madrassa, or Islamic seminary, where legions of well-to-do women are experiencing an awakening of faith, at the cost of rising intolerance. In a nation where Muslim extremists are slowly strengthening their grip on society, the number of all-female madrassas has boomed over the past decade, fueled by the failures of the state education system and a deepening conservativism among the middle to upper classes.

Parents often encourage girls to enroll in madrassas after finishing high school or university, as an alternative to a shrinking, largely male-orientated job market, and to ensure a girl waiting to get married isn't drawn into romantic relationships, says Masooda Bano, a research fellow at the British-based Economic and Social Research Council.

But, like Varda, many students at the 2,000 or so registered madrassas are university students or graduates looking for greater understanding of Islam, as well as housewives who, like others in Pakistani society, feel pressured to deepen their faith.

Asked about the killing of a governor earlier this year because he opposed the country's controversial blasphemy law, Varda, without hesitation, said Salman Taseer's murder by his own bodyguard was the right thing to do. "If people ... call themselves Muslims and they are members of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, then they should not be criticizing this law," she said. "I am sorry to say this, but this is what he deserved."