Al-Jazeera Host: Arabs Should Separate Religion And Politics, Discard Outdated Ideologies

by MEMRI

In an August 25, 2013 article in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq, Qatari journalist Faisal Al-Qassem, who hosts the program "The Opposite Direction" on Al-Jazeera TV, called to distance religion, which is pure, from  politics, which is filthy, and claimed that the West had made substantial achievements only after separating church and state and distancing itself from rigid and outdated ideologies. He stressed that, in today's world, there is no place for such ideologies, whether religious or secular, especially since modern man is interested less in ideology or spiritualism and more in fulfilling his material needs and desires. Hence, today's parties win elections not based on their philosophy, but rather based on their ability to meet the public's consumerist interests. As examples he presented the Muslim Brotherhood party in Egypt and Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party in Turkey. The former, he said, failed due to its adherence to rigid religious ideas, whereas the latter succeeded not because of its religious orientation but rather because of its economic achievements.
The following are excerpts from the article:[1]

Faisal Al-Qassem (image: Aljazeera.net)

"The West developed politically, socially, and culturally only after separating politics from the church, and the principles of this world from those of the next. [In doing so, the West] acted according to the Prophet [Muhammad's] hadith – 'You know best in matters of your world' – and began to swiftly transition from the Dark Ages towards progress and supremacy in all fields.

"China, too, would have never approached [the position of] economic world leader had it remained enslaved to [outmoded] ideological doctrines. Incidentally, most of the Chinese have no religion. The new Chinese have [also] distanced themselves from the directives of Mao Zedong and ignore them; nowadays they are like his embalmed body in Tiananmen Square [in terms of their communism] – just a body without a spirit. They have grown beyond the ossified ideals of the Party. They have begun to operate freely, far from outdated terms and ideologies, and have worked wonders. Their goal hasn't been to implement rigid slogans; rather, they have aspired to implement practical development programs that would serve the individual and would not exploit his spirit and his political, cultural, social, and religious inclinations.

"If our countries and our political, ideological, cultural, and economic elites want growth, they must distance themselves from dogmatic parties, [whether] religious or secular in their ideology. In today's world there is no room even for secular ideologies, let alone for occult ideologies that take religion in an irrelevant direction, while doing it great harm. Religion is a pure world whereas politics is a dirty one. How can something pure enter the world of filth and not sully itself?...

"Western parties have mostly become parties that adopt first-rate economic and consumer-oriented programs, while keeping themselves light years distant from the world of outdated ideologies. If we examine the parties that win elections in the U.S. and [other] Western countries, we find that they do not win based on their spiritual, ideological, or cultural orientation, but rather based on their development programs and socioeconomic [plans]. Man in this era has become a consumer, whether we like it or not. He has been programmed to consume, whether we like this and agree to this or not. It follows that he is totally inclined to vote for parties that show interest in his belly, his pleasures, and his growing socioeconomic needs. He [does not vote] for those who sell him partisan and religious slogans. We have noticed in recent years that many sectors in the West have changed their party-affiliation based on secular-consumerist interests...

"I wish Arab parties would learn from the recent Egyptian experience, in which a party with a religious orientation rose to power. Some will undoubtedly say that the [Muslim Brotherhood's] Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt was a victim of a grand plot [meant] to distance Islamists from power. This may be true, but the clear failure of this party to hold onto the reins of power following the revolution caused many Muslim Egyptians to distance themselves from it in heart and spirit, despite its Islamic slogans and religious orientation. Why? Because, in this global era, even Arabs longer buy into ideological slogans, whether secular or religious. Everyone is [now] influenced by globalization and the international media. Man has become global, and is concerned, first and foremost, with his consumerist needs before his spiritual ones. How can we expect a modern man to be spiritual when he cannot make ends meet, and when he sees the peoples of the world enjoy all that is good and delicious from among the inventions of modern culture in food, drink, and technology?

"Please, do not use Erdogan's party in Turkey as an example [of a religious-ideological party that remains in power], because the answer will be the same. The Turkish Justice and Development Party did not succeed because of its religious orientation, but rather because of its secular ones – because it brought economic growth to Turkey... This caused even atheists to vote for it, because it met many of their social and consumerist needs...

"In conclusion, we can only repeat the famous words of [the late Egyptian jurisprudent] Sheikh Al-Sha'arawy: 'I hope that religion will reach the politicians and that the men of religion do not reach politics.'"

[1] Al-Sharq (Qatar), August 25, 2013.

MEMRI

Source: http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7473.htm

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