August the 15th is an important religious holiday for Greeks - it marks the Dormition of the Theotokos, i.e. the Virgin Mary, who is held in high esteem as Mother of Jesus and as a symbol of motherhood by Orthodox Christians. Many religious symbols and relics are associated with Mary, many convents and places of worship too, and Maria is the most common name among Greek women. Panagiotis and Despina, two other very common names, are also derived from Mary (Panagiotis being the masculine form of "Panagia", i.e. all-holy, and Despina meaning "Lady"). One of the most important places for Virgin Mary's worship was the Monastery of Panagia Soumela, situated in the Pontos region in today's Turkey, which was a center of worship for the Christians of Greek origin living at the perimeter of the Black Sea ("Pontiacs"); almost all of them were part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey that took place in 1923, following the Treaty of Lausanne. Since that exchange took effect, the Monastery would no longer function as a place of worship, but rather as a tourist attraction and the Pontiacs who came to Greece built a new Panagia Soumela Monastery on Vermion Mountain. It is apparent that references to the original Monastery very often carried nationalistic undertones and last year a crowd of nationalistic politicians gathered at the original Monastery and sought to perform Mass there; the Turkish authorities, who had not granted such permission (and no such permission, to my knowledge, was ever requested), intervened and the matter ended after some mild protestations, which failed to gain any traction.
This year, however, the Turkish government (of mildly Islamist leanings, no less) decided to allow worshippers to hold Mass at the Monastery; and, indeed, the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, led the Mass on August the 15th. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's decision and declaration that no harm was caused by the religious worshippers (quoted in an excellent editorial in the Hurriyet Daily News newspaper) was a statement of an authority at ease with itself (and made by a Prime Minister who brandishes his Muslim piety, as opposed to his declaredly secular predecessors), making reference to the religious tolerance of the Ottoman Empire, and of religious and national confidence.
Contrast Turkey's stance with the debate over whether a Muslim Community Center should be built near the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks - and notice the phobic reactions by the so-called conservatives. The essence of their arguments is ably refuted in William Saletan's article on Slate magazine, but I would like to put my two cents in: the most sensational (and appealing to the sentiment) claim is that, by putting a place of Muslim worship so near Ground Zero, terrorists will have consolidated their 9/11 "triumph" and be able to rub it in everyone's (the victims', their relatives', New Yorkers', Americans') face; as if allowing Muslims to worship at the place of their choosing is something American Democracy should view as a defeat (not to mention that any such notion would equate the people worshipping in the Center with the 9/11 terrorists only by virtue of their appeal to a common religion). Quite the contrary: by allowing Muslims to freely worship even on Ground Zero America would be able to rub in Al Qaeda's face that 9/11 achieved nothing its masterminds hoped for - that America is the place, where, better than anywhere else, people of any nationality or creed can publicly and (why not?) proudly display their religious affiliation, their national heritage, any part of their identity they consider important, so long as they do not cause harm to others. On the contrary, Al Qaeda (as Saletan correctly indicates) is the real enemy of Muslims everywhere, threatening and executing those, who do not share is perverse interpretation of the Qur'an.
To those, who doubt that the Qur'an would lead to a civilization that could be considered enlightened by today's standards let me only point out that, at the 8th and 9th centuries AD (that is only a couple of centuries after Islam was founded) the best physicians and mathematicians (algebra is an Arab word, after all) would be found in the Arab world (from Baghdad to Alhambra) - and that it is Muslim scholars who preserved ancient Greek texts (most profoundly Aristotle) from the fanaticism of the Christians of the time.
The United States of America is a country much more powerful than Turkey and its tradition of tolerance and separation between religion and State is rooted much deeper into the American traditions and way of life. One can only hope that America follows Turkey's example, displays the confidence of Prime Minister Erdogan, and upholds these traditions, so central to its very character, even in the face of phobic demagogues.
Update: This Washington Post article raises some very interesting points.
2 comments:
Ground Zero Mosque
I am not familiarized enough with the Qur'an and other teachings to convince myself that Islam is so different from Christianity (in the name of which many people have also been slaughtered), as to merit a different treatment. But I happen to have met and known people who are Moslems, who really wish no harm to the infidels and do not require of women to be subjugated to the will of men. They must read from the same holy books as the Al Qaeda fanatics, I guess - intolerance is not unique to Islam, I fear. But I would like America, as the very symbol of diversity, to be sending the message that it is acceptable (and not even a matter of discussion most of the time) to belong to any faith one wishes and practice it openly, so long as the basic norms of its society are not violated. I do not care for Harris' argument, that Muslims will boast a victory if the Mosque is actually built as planned. It is much more a testament to Western civilization's embracing of all creeds and its institutionalized freedom to worship than to any concession made under duress (supposedly from the 9/11 attacks).
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