The implied link in the above title may not be
obvious, but let me try to explain its potential,
as I see it.
The
reform of the NI police under the influence of
the Patten Commission has been positive and significant,
and Sinn Fein I hope will in the end come around
to participating, thus removing what could be
the last obstacle to the emergence of a power-sharing
arrangement for government. It is difficult to
see how Paisley can continue to block political
progress when business interests increasingly
see the win-win advantages of the all-Ireland
market, in an all-Europe and global context.
A
working power-sharing political system, if it
were to exist, would be the makings of a creative
model alternative to the earlier system, which
basically was one tribe in a majority permanently
voting down a minority tribe. Democracy in Israel
exists, but only for Jews; this was modelled on
Craig's 'Protestant Parliament for a Protestant
people'. The ghost of Balfour's 'Loyal Jewish
Ulster in the heart of the Middle East', as the
core-idea of Zionist imperial/colonial policy
now taken over by the US, needs to be laid finally
to rest.
The
global implications of the successful working
of this pilot model are profound. There are many
similar situations in the world, of which the
currently most acute is Israel/Palestine. The
'ethnic cleansing' process up to now has been
almost a standard. Its replacement by a structured
power-sharing process gives the opportunity for
working people of differing ethnic groups to recognise
shared common interests. Marx's call to the working
people of the world to unite has up to now been
weakened or blocked by ethnic and religious divisions,
usually deliberately fomented by ruling elites.
I
have also read the Pope's controversial paper,
and was wondering how it should be dealt with
critically. Anthony
McIntyre has made a start. But somehow we
need to hold out an encouraging hand to the critical
Enlightenment process which is going on in Islamic
culture. The following initial critique, which
points out an important gap in the Pope's paper,
might perhaps initiate further critiques, in more
depth.
The
Pope's references to Islam were totally negative,
despite the opportunity presented in his historical
approach to the linked development of science,
theology and reason in European culture. He totally
ignored the fact that the European culture of
science and reason, which emerged as the key factor
in the Renaissance, was largely dependent on picking
up the link with Greek science via Islam, in which
culture science thrived when Europe was in the
Dark Ages.
Overlaid
on the Alexandrine Greek legacy conserved in mediaeval
Islamic civilization, we have the invention of
Algebra and Arabic numerals, with the importation
of the 'zero' concept and notation from the Hindu
mathematicians in India; we have the 'bain-marie',
the alembic and the art of distillation, leading
to serious chemistry; these links need to be studied
and understood; we are historically in Islam's
debt in the sciences.
The
reason science failed to develop under Islamic
culture subsequent to the Renaissance in Europe
could have been the banning of the printing press.
Thus the Islamic enlightenment was, perhaps, premature,
and was nipped in the bud by persistent feudal
practice. Also of course the insistence on Arabic
as the language of the Koran. In Europe the translation
of the Bible into the local vernacular, combined
with the printing press, were key factors encouraging
literacy, and the subsequent development and propagation
of the useful knowledge essential to European
productive skill.
We
need somehow to interact with scholarly writers
from the Islamic culture who are in a position
to state the current problems within Islam, and
who have a critical attitude to the simplisic
'clash of civilisations' view of history, which
GW Bush is obviously trying to promote, in the
interests of his military-industrial complex.
