Delaware County Community College hosted its third religious dialogue on Nov. 24th at 11:15 a.m., welcoming Islamic, Jewish, and Christian scholars to speak in the large auditorium on the roots of religious extremism in their respective faiths.
The event was presented by the college’s Institutional Diversity Committee, Campus Life, and the Black and Women’s History Committee. The event was open to anyone who wished to hear the discussion.
Symbols of Christianity, Judaism and Islam appear on a board that introduces the topics being discussed. (Photo by Joseph Giordano) Dr. Francesco Bellini, an assistant professor of comparative religions at DCCC, presented the speakers to the audience, and explained the theme of the discussion, which was the matter of religious extremism within the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian faiths.
Bellini announced that two questions would be posed for the three scholars to answer: what is their religion’s traditional stance on war and what is the difference between extremism and traditional orthodox beliefs.
The first to speak was Rabbi Reba Carmel, who works with the Interfaith Center in Philadelphia. She has dual American-Israeli citizenship and has taught Judaic studies in Israel, the United States, and Australia.
Carmel explained that the Jewish faith traditionally believes in peace, which is the goal of Shalom (Hebrew for ‘peace’ and ‘completeness’). However in the Jewish faith, there are two distinct types of conflict. There is commanded and permitted warfare.
According to Carmel, commanded warfare was described as being a direct order from God to conquer land. These are known as ‘wars of Mitzvah’ or commandment. All examples of commanded warfare though were written hundreds of years after the fact and no actual records were kept at the time of combat.
As far as permitted warfare, one of the earliest examples that Carmel shared involved King David who used warfare as a way to keep Jewish control over conquered land.
The next speaker, Dennis Feltwell, is a professor of religions at Holy Family University and with La Salle University’s graduate theology program.
Feltwell indicated that from the traditional Christian point of view, the stance to be taken is pacifism.
“Christian pacifists believe in loving one’s neighbor, even if they are the enemy, and living in solidarity with everyone.” Feltwell said.
As Feltwell related, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, George Fox, had claimed that war takes place at the fall of humanity and that humans engage in dishonest and sinful activity during times of conflict.
Dr. Supna Zaidi, represented the Islamic position on war. Zaidi is the Assistant Director of Islamist Watch at the Middle East forum in Philadelphia and the editor in chief of Muslim World Today.
“War was war,” Zaidi said. “It was a part of life during the early days of Islam.”
Zaidi went on to discuss how in Islam’s infancy, it was a persecuted religion in what is now Saudi Arabia. Many of the texts in the Koran were related to the struggle against the rulers of Arabia at the time.
Zaidi explained that the term “Jihad” has become misunderstood, especially in today’s society. As she said, Jihad means “inner struggle.” Some militant groups interpret this is as a way of basing their extremist views upon.
“In Muslim countries, religion still plays a major role and will always be an important element of everyday life.” Zaidi said.
There is a broad view among Muslims, according to Zaidi, that current Middle Eastern governments fail to care about the individual and do nothing to empower the people. She stated that Egyptian extremist Sayyid Qutb wrote the book “Milestones” after his disgust at seeing Egypt become subservient to the west. Milestones itself became an important book in the eyes of many Islamic extremists.
A second discussion topic was posed which asked “Where do you draw the line between fundamentalism and traditional orthodox beliefs?”
Dennis Feltwell spoke first, comparing and contrasting traditional beliefs to the extremism that came about during the Crusades of the middle ages.
“During the time of the Crusades, there was the notion of military service and political pressure,” said Feltwell “Pope Urban II in 1095 wanted the Christians to stop fighting each other and unite against a common enemy.”
Feltwell explained that one of the earliest forms of martyrdom in religious extremism developed during the crusades
“Heaven was guaranteed to all crusaders who died in battle against the Muslim armies.”
On the other hand, as Feltwell explained, the Quaker movement preferred to stay more faithful to the Christian ideals of pacifism and strictly prohibited participating in war. Their belief was that God’s authority was greater than civic authority and to take no part in violence.
Dr. Zaidi made an example of the 1979 terrorist attack on the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia. Extremists attacked and took over a mosque, believing that the Saudi government was corrupt and inefficient. Rather than follow along with traditional teachings of Islam, they took it upon themselves to blur the line by committing a major act of violence.
Zaidi said that extremism can also be a result of coercion or even peer pressure from social groups. Young people can be pressured into going along with what a group wants and how they distort traditional beliefs into extremism.
Reba Carmel stated that “Upholding God’s will at the expense of peace is a misplaced value,” and, “If you have a person who has only enough resources to light either the Sabbath or the Hanukkah candle, he should choose [to light] the Sabbath one, in the name of peace.”
Contact Joseph Giordano at
communitarian@mail.dccc.edu
