From Mary
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The liberal Tunisian intellectual Al-Afif Al-Akhchar published a detailed article on secularism and its necessity in the Arab and Islamic world on several liberal websites.[1] According to him, secularization and modernization are global historical processes that cannot be avoided in the long term. Secularism is the key to full citizenship for men, women, Muslims and non-Muslims and the key to healthy relationships between all elements of society. According to his analysis, Islamists think in a primitive way that is unable to accept the priority of human reason over divine reason. They seek to prevent modernization of the Arab and Islamic world and fight against secularism as one of the manifestations of modernization. Although their struggle is likely to fail, it is possible that it will not be possible to skip the stages of history and Islamic countries will have to experience Islamic rule before they despair of its false promises and adopt a secular rule.
Al-Akhchar rejects the claim that secularism is anti-religious, and holds that there is no obstacle for a secular country to have religious education, provided that it is modern religious education that has been reformed. As an example of this, he presents Tunisia, which introduced an educational reform and where modern philosophy is studied alongside Islamic philosophy. He explains that secularism will lead to a disconnection from negative phenomena that exist in Islam, such as autocracy and theocracy, but on the other hand it will renew the connection with positive elements in Islam, such as rationalistic and philosophical thought. In addition to this, he finds in the Muslim heritage traditions with elements of secularism, and claims that between the scholars of Halacha and the caliphs there was a division of labor for almost 1400 years.
Al-Ahcher clarifies that in practical terms the process of secularization will be adjusted to the reality in each of the Islamic countries, and that the promoters of the process will be the minorities and women, because they are the main victims of the Muslim theocracy. He calls on the countries of the world to denounce the religious education and the religious media that exist in Islamic countries and to publish a Security Council resolution that will ensure military intervention in the event that the Islamists use force against the weak elements in society and take over the government against the will of the citizens. Here are parts of his article:
"Most countries are in transition from theocracy to secularism
Al-Akhchar opens his article by defining secularism as the separation between religion and politics. He distinguishes between three types of states: a theocracy, a secular state, and a state in transition. Theocracy prevailed in the Middle Ages and today remains in the Christian world only in the Vatican. In the Islamic world there are several theocracies - the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and until 2002 also the Taliban state - but most countries are in the process of transitioning from a theocracy to a secular state. Nine out of ten countries in the world limit religion to the personal and spiritual sphere and leave the political sphere to the state led by institutions, laws and human values. According to Al-Akhchar, "A country that is in transition from a theocratic state to a secular state is a country whose constitution stipulates that Sharia is the first source of legislation. There is no equality in duties and civil rights between men and women and between Muslims and non-Muslims. Women and non-Muslims in these transition countries are semi-citizens and sometimes also zero-type citizens, since it is forbidden, for example, for a woman to present a candidacy for the presidency of the country or even for a lower position, because in many Islamic countries women are still treated as inferior in intelligence in matters of rule and inferior in religion in matters of worship The non-Muslim citizen is like El Ben Hashut [Ahl al-Dama] who has no connection with citizenship... The transitional state applies the law enacted by a person in certain areas and the Sharia in other areas."
Secularism will not stop at the border of Islamic countries
According to Al-Ahcher, there is no escaping the fact that the countries of the Arab and Muslim world will become secular: "History teaches us that the prevailing secularism in the world will not stop at the border of the Arab and Islamic space that has no future outside of the future of humanity. There is no cultural exception in history who struggled for a long time with the historical trend of his time. Therefore, Muslims are destined - like the rest of humanity - to embrace modernity and, as a result, secularism."
Referring to the separation between religion and politics, Al-Akhchar explains that it is a result of modernity and that the Islamists still think in a primitive way that is not capable of making this separation: "The contradiction between scientific logic and religious logic, between human rights (ie: freedoms) and the rights of Allah In relation to man (ie: his worship, his commandments and prohibitions) it is she who led the West and then the entire world to secularism, to the separation between the religious and the secular which is a condition for the progress of human civilization... The separation between sacred and mundane things is a result of modernity. As we go back in history we see that the separation between them is the rare exception while the connection between them is the rule, especially in the primitive tribes where everything is sacred: the history of the tribe is sacred, its ancestors are sacred, the rites of pregnancy, birth, mating and hunting are sacred and the daily behavior of the people of the tribe Sanctity...among these tribes the penalty for violating sanctity is death. why? Because the idea of the relativity of sacred things is accepted only by developed logic... while the minds of primitive people have not yet developed enough to be able to... accept the priority of human logic over divine logic... Less than ancestor worship among the primitives. The divine logic that the ancestors brought is everything, while the human logic of our minds is nothing..."
Later in the article, Al-Akhchar develops this idea and explains: "Every time we go back in history, we find that the sacred things cover everything...everything is sacred and man is a game of the gods who arbitrarily control everything big and small. why? Because human reason, meaning science and technology, was still in its initial stages of development and was unable to understand, interpret and change the world... However, the historical trend has always turned to the opening of the human mind to wider areas... Just as human reason limited the absolute rule of the kings, it also limited the absolute rule of divine logic so that it is reduced to spiritual matters... How did human logic reach these secular achievements in our modern world? Through the science and technology that helped human reason to understand and interpret what previously seemed to man to be a miraculous matter..."
Islam has not yet undergone the reform that Judaism and Christianity have undergone
Secularism as a complete political system never entered the Arab world, Al-Akhchar explains, adding that the Arab world's encounter with Europe, through colonialism, introduced it to a certain degree of modernity and resulted in it giving up several aspects of the theocratic Islamic state, such as corporal punishment and collecting a skull tax [Jizya] from non-Muslim citizens. In Saudi Arabia, which did not know colonialism, on the other hand, these corporal punishments are still applied:
"Secularism has so far failed in its attempt to enter the Arab world, because Islam has not yet undergone the necessary religious reform that Judaism and Christianity underwent in Europe. A reformed religion is a modern religion that recognizes the separation between domains and agrees to be reduced to the religious domain and for the state to be responsible for national affairs. The second reason for the failure of secularism to enter [the Arab world] as a complete political method is the cowardice of the political leaders. Islam was not reformed in Turkey... and despite this, under the leadership of the Muslim Kemal Atatürk, the end came to the Ottoman theocratic state - the caliphate - and on its ruins a secular state was established that is not ashamed of its secular identity."
Secularism is not anti-religious
Al-Akhchar refutes the claim that secularism is anti-religious and states: "A person has to be ignorant of the definition of secularism in the dictionaries of Europe, the homeland of secularism, or have bad intentions like many of the leaders of political Islam, to say that secularism is anti-religious" . Thus, for example, France's secular approach to religion does not prevent it from building mosques. In a similar way, he believes that the secularity of the future Arab state will not prevent it from helping all its citizens in an equal way and it will behave like secular Turkey, whose constitution instructs it to establish houses of worship for its citizens of all religions.
In the same way, Al-Akhchar explains, there is no obstacle for a secular country to have religious education, provided that it is modern religious education that has undergone reform. In order for religious education to be modern and revised, "the student must study religion with the help of modern sciences: comparative history of religions, sociology of religions, psychology, religious anthropology, interpretation of sacred texts and philosophy, in order to develop critical thinking in future generations. In Tunisia, the students at the Al-Zithuniya Religious University study Islamic philosophy and modern philosophy for the entire four years of study. The science students, including the medical students, study modern philosophy throughout the study period. There is nothing like philosophy and human sciences to inoculate thought against the religio-political propaganda of the Islamists. Revised and modern religious education of this kind is not only a desirable thing on behalf of the secular state in the Arab and Islamic region, but it is mandatory, because the secular state must reconstitute the traditional Islamic consciousness and inoculate the consciousness of future generations against fanaticism, terrorism and religious discrimination..."
Secularism renews the connection with the positive aspects of Islam
In addressing the question of whether secularism is a break from Islam, Al-Ahjhar explains that secularism is a break from the negative autocracy and theocracy that exist in the Muslim world, but on the other hand it renews the connection with other elements in Islam, such as the Mu'tazilite [rationalist] and philosophical thought that subordinated the The founding holy text for the interpretation of the intellect and such as the Sufi and Druze Islam already in the Middle Ages abolished corporal punishment and separated religion from government.
According to al-Akhchar, in the Muslim heritage there are traditions that separate religion from trivial matters and elements of secularism can be found in it. As an example of this, he mentions a tradition according to which the Prophet saw the owners of date plantations pollinating their trees and suggested that they stop doing so. They followed his advice and the palms were damaged. They complained to the prophet and he replied: 'I am your prophet in matters of religion only. In the affairs of this world you and I are equal.' In other words, from Bahir al-Akhchar, the Prophet recognized the separation between religion and agriculture. Another example he cites is that at the Battle of Badr [624 AD] the Prophet asked his army to camp somewhere he thought was fortified. A military expert from among his friends asked him if he proposed to camp in that place because of a divine inspiration he received or because of military rituals. The prophet admitted that he made his proposal for military reasons and then the military expert told him that the place is not suitable for parking and that they must bypass the water source in the area so that they can drink and their enemies will be denied access to the water. The Prophet accepted his opinion and indeed, explains Al-Akhchar, the thirst of the Quraysh tribe was one of the most important reasons for their defeat in the battle against the Muslims. In other words, the prophet also recognized the separation between religion and strategy.
Al-Akhchar adds that since the days of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya [680-661 CE], the caliphs stopped praying at the head of the public and appointed imams in their place, except in religious Iran where the presidents of the Islamic Republic still lead the prayer. According to him, for 1400 years there has been a division of labor between the scholars of Halacha who are responsible for the religious affairs of the Muslim nation and the caliphs who are responsible for secular affairs, with the exception of Wahhabi Islam which does not recognize the natural separation between religion and politics as well as political Islam represented by the "Muslim Brotherhood" organization and its affiliates who established a religious party - Politically, which aims to restore the caliphate and form a government of clerics for the first time in the history of Sunni Islam.
It is precisely the Islamists who may make the Islamic world sick
According to Al-Akhchar, the Islamists are fighting modernity and they consider secularism to be heresy because it is "one of the foundations of modernity which is the pinnacle of democratic rationality." They are afraid of global modernization and allowing it to enter the Islamic countries, and according to Al-Akhchar, their fears are in their place because "modernization today is a historical trend that cannot be stopped, and it will reach us as it reached the Eskimo tribes." Furthermore, according to Al-Ahchhar, it is precisely the Islamists who may be the ones who will introduce secularism into the land of Islam. He explains that after 25 years of the Islamic Republic in Iran, 75% of the people and 86% of the students stopped praying. Mosques in which 3000-5000 people prayed during the Shah's era, today only 10 pray in the morning and twenty-five in the afternoon. Only 2% fast in Ramachan, when before the appearance of the Islamic State they fasted much more. From this Al-Akhchar draws the following conclusion: "The secularists should not fear the Islamist takeover of the government in the Islamic countries... Some countries will not [be able] to become secular in a reasonable time, that is, they will not [be able] to skip the jihadist and fundamentalist political Islam, but If they apply it [first] and taste its bitter taste, then they will despair of it."
Secularism will allow all elements of society to live together in peace
Secularism is necessary for Arab societies, states Al-Akhchar and explains that this is the way that allows all the elements of society to live together: "Most societies in the world consist of a large number of religions, sects and religious schools that contradict each other and sometimes fight each other. If the state adopts one religion, sect, or school of thought of any group among its citizens, the other excluded citizens will feel disappointed, because they will not be able to find themselves and their identity in the state's religion or sect, and thus they will remain outside the framework of full citizenship. The way out of this impasse that provokes religious wars, is for the state to be secular. In a secular state, the civil relationship is not based on religion, sect or school of thought, but on a social relationship, that is, on human logic and the interests of the citizens... Therefore, the secular state derives its legitimacy from the social relationship and not from religion in order to organize social life and achieve internal peace between religions and the cultures... It is logic, that is, the common interest, that can establish public life in the national society and in the world society together...
The secular state intervenes when individuals or groups violate the law enacted by a person in the name of their faith. It does not allow the marriage of girls in the name of the Pharaonic traditions nor the beating of adulterers and other barbaric punishments in the name of Sharia. The implementation of Islamic Sharia... will undoubtedly provoke protest among followers of other religions and then there will be a civil war. In addition to this, the laws and punishments of the Sharia are ancient and conflict with the spirit of modern laws that oppose corporal punishments such as beating, hand amputation, beating and murdering a person who disbelieves in his religion. Therefore, there is no escape from turning to the law enacted by a person to avoid these dangers. When the government chooses traditional and jihadist Islamic education, it provokes non-Muslim citizens and the secular and enlightened Muslims. Also, the Islamic sciences 'Sharia sciences' are so ancient that studying them instead of a modern education would be a form of masochism, of enjoying self-punishment by staying at the bottom of the ladder... there is no escape from adopting the global moral system..."
on the need for modern education and secular communication
"Secularism is the key to political modernity... The believer's faith belongs to him and his private conscience and has nothing to do with his rights and duties as a citizen. The believer maintains his private faith in a mosque, synagogue or church, while the citizen exercises his citizenship - his rights and duties - within the borders of the entire homeland... The question is how to achieve the necessary separation between believer and citizen, that is, how to achieve modern citizenship that recognizes only belonging to the homeland? How [to achieve this] that the state in the Arab and Islamic region will judge its citizens by laws enacted by human hands and according to international criteria? The means for this are many, chief among them: modern education and reform of Islam through reform of religious education... Second, an effort to acquire a secular satellite channel that will compete with the jihadist Islamic Al-Jazeera channel... While waiting for such a channel, one must multiply and use all media platforms and websites...
The first major task is reforming Islam
Through reforming religious education and religious discourse... the second task is to destroy the religious narcissism that sees Islam as the only religion in the world. Judaism and Christianity [according to this view] are only two laws that preceded Islamic law and it abolished them and replaced them... This reference... is one of the most important religious reasons for Islamic terrorism and the resistance of a wide sector among Muslims in the West to adapt to the secular societies with Christian traditions in which they live. Studying the dialogue between religions as an obligation... is a basic task of a religious school that promotes reforms... deepening the dialogue with Judaism and Christianity through religious and scientific conferences and through satellite channels and joint discussions in the media is a guarantee for establishing a dialogue between religions that will awaken Muslim awareness of the fact that Islam is one religion among religions and not The only religion that cancels all previous religions and laws. Translation of studies dealing with other religions... will expand the religious horizons of the Muslim and make him understand his religion in a historical and relational way within the framework of the global religious phenomenon..."
The process of secularization will be adapted to the different reality in each of the countries
Al-Akhchar does not ignore the differences between Islamic countries and explains that the process of secularization will take these differences into account: "Each Muslim country will adapt to the principles of secularism in accordance with its social and cultural reality, but while maintaining the basic characteristics of these principles. The first principle is the recognition of full citizenship that will allow women to present their candidacy for a position that includes control over men and will allow a non-Muslim to present his candidacy for a position that includes control over Muslims. At first this may be a symbolic right, but with the penetration of secularism into the Islamic consciousness it will become a real right... The second principle is the right of all citizens to observe their religious rituals... and recognition of the construction of their mosques, churches and places of worship without discrimination... The third principle is the application of laws enacted by human hands in all areas ...Furthermore, I suggest that the intellectuals in the Arab world demand that the world civil society, the United Nations, the world media and international diplomacy treat Islamic corporal punishment as a crime. This is what I demanded in 2001 in 'Al-Jazeera' and as a result Emir Khaled bin Sultan decided to stop my writing in 'Al-Hayat'. The fourth principle is establishing the principle of freedom of conscience and the freedom to choose one's religion. The meaning of freedom of conscience is that a person has the right to belong to any religion or not to belong to any religion... The fifth principle is a reform of religious education... In addition to the study of human rights as was done in Tunisia... The application of these five principles is the content of secularism in Islamic countries..."
The need for a global front to spread secularism in Islamic countries
Asked who can promote secularism in the Muslim world, al-Akhchar explains that the Arab regimes should not be trusted to do so, but those with an interest in secularism. Those who have the greatest interest in separating religion from the state and separating religion from science are, according to him, "the national minorities, the religious minorities and the women from whom the theocracy denied full civil rights. To them must be added the writers, scientists, researchers, artisans, inventors and people who are attentive to them, that is, the learned and enlightened sector in the Arab and Islamic societies." Al-Akhchar does not ignore the fact that these forces are still weak in Muslim society and therefore sees great importance in creating a "global front to spread secularism in Islamic countries". He emphasizes that the world also has an interest in spreading secularism, because it is interested in "drying up the springs of terror". Al-Akhchar therefore calls on the international authorities "to treat the religious education prevalent in most Arab and Islamic countries as an incitement to terrorism and to treat the prevalent religious media as an incitement to hatred and religious discrimination." In addition, he suggests that "the partnership agreements between Europe and the Arabs and between the United States and the Arabs will include clauses prohibiting religious discrimination against women and against non-Muslim citizens."
In order to change the reality in the Islamic countries and bring their secularism closer, al-Akhchar calls for the publication of a resolution by the Security Council for military intervention in four cases: if the Islamists start stoning women, if they organize massacres against religious and national minorities, if they disperse the civilian armies to bring in Islamic militias in their place and if they oppose the peaceful transfer of power after the public has experienced them and given up on their promises.
They knew mysticism and its dangers
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