Boreal

FADE TO BLACK

Triumph of the Irrational

Democracy, Liberty and Western Art as Blasphemies

The title of this chapter is also the title found in my out-of-print Canada – The Fractured Nation Interviews in which I first wrote about a resurgent Islam more than twenty years ago in a book about the future of Canada.

A prominent Ottawa producer said he would consider producing The Interviews if I removed the interview with the Ayatollah. Wasn’t about to happen. Even then, there was concern about brutal retaliation. He said “I don’t want to open my front door one morning and find a guy with a bomb. I have kids.”

Following is what a Calgary Herald columnist wrote about The Interviews.

Dear Canada:

It might seem strange to write a letter to a country rather than a person, but there's a first time for everything. I'm writing because next Sunday is our 140th birthday, and I figured that it was a big enough number to deserve a birthday present. That's why my perfect birthday present to Canada would be to help start a national discussion about the Canada we want to see for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I recently found a stimulant for that kind of national discussion. It is a book written by Bernard Payeur and published by Trafford Publishing in Victoria called Canada: The Fractured Nation Interviews. It imagines a world where Canada has been broken up for almost 10 years.

The book uses a series of five imaginary television interviews to trace the root causes of the breakup. Do not read this book if you want to continue in the comfortable national doze. Read it only if you are prepared to think -- really think -- about tomorrow's Canada.

Les Brost, For The Calgary Herald, June 25, 2007

That fictitious interview is even more relevant today than it was then. What I consider the most relevant segment for this book, I have included here. A character by the name of Johnny MacDonald is the interviewer and the Ayatollah goes by the name of Muhammad.

Johnny: Perhaps you could enlighten me and our viewers on why the so-called Greco-Roman Civilization, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment were all, in your opinion, big mistakes.

Muhammad: Again, it is not an opinion, it is a fact. Take the Greeks’ poisoned gift of democracy. If Allah, The Fashioner of Forms, had wanted the masses to make decisions he would not have given us the Prophets, the Mullahs, the Imams, thousands of holy men to instruct the faithful about what Allah, The Subtle One, expects of them. Greco-Roman philosophy! If Allah, The All-Embracing, The All-Knowing, had wanted the masses to question his creation he would not have given us the Koran. As to liberty being the most precious possession? One of the meanings of Islam in Arabic is to surrender your will to God so the Greek’s definition of liberty is so much nonsense.

Johnny: Nonsense?!

Muhammad: The western concept of Godless liberty is alien to Islam. In Islam there is no liberty except for the liberating experience that comes from living according to the dictates of the Koran and by the sayings and examples of the Prophet Muhammad, the peace and blessings of God be upon him.

Johnny: What about ethics and morality that come from within?

Muhammad: If you believe that then there is no hope for you, no hope for you at all. Hell is definitely your final destination. If there is one idea that illustrates the depth of depravity and lack of scholarship of the Greek philosophers it is this idea. This abhorrent idea that ethics and morality does not have to be God inspired; that you can be ethical and moral and not believe in God. One of the Prophet’s, the peace and blessings of God be upon him, greatest contribution to civilisation was to remind us that morality is what Allah, The King, The Sovereign says it is. The Prophet, the peace and blessings of God be upon him, exposed the shallowness of Greek thinking for what it was. Imagine a philosophy that claimed that humans have rights simply because they are human beings – that they have human rights. The Prophet, the peace and blessings of God be upon him, reminded us that we have “no rights” except those that Allah, The Generous One is willing to grant us.

Johnny: What about the Enlightenment, the philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to question accepted doctrines and traditions?

Muhammad: You call enlightened, a movement that promoted so many misguided, so-called humanitarian reforms. This wicked Enlightenment philosophy was an invitation to question dogma, something the Prophet Muhammad, the peace and blessings of God be upon him would have considered blasphemy, an affront to Allah, The Lord of Majesty and Bounty. This shallow philosophical movement, like others that came before and others that would follow, advanced notions that were not that much different than those put forward by these same second-rate Greek philosophers and their wrong-headed notion of human rights.

Johnny: Surely the Renaissance, which marked the end of the Catholic Church’s dominance in Europe, allowing for a flowering, a renaissance of the arts and sciences was a good thing?

Muhammad: The Renaissance, what a foolish mistake. Islam forbids all realistic representations of people or animals. The Prophet, the peace and blessings of God be upon him, said that on the day of Judgment, God will command people to put life into what they have fashioned. They won’t be able to do so and God will have a good laugh before condemning them to an eternity in hell for disobeying Him. The Renaissance encouraged all those painters and sculptors to create those graven images expressly forbidden by Allah, The Preventer. They even invented perspective to make those images stand out; adding insult to blasphemy. Need I say more?

Johnny: It’s not that I disagree with you, but I have difficulty imagining a world without Michelangelo and his David; the Mona Lisa of Leonardo de Vinci; the Greeks statues celebrating the beauty of Venus and athletes of ancient Greece; the figures carved in stone in remembrance of the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, not to mention the lion with the human face – the Sphinx; the statues and art of the Roman empire; the paintings on the cave walls at Lascaux … I have difficulty imagining a world whose art is confined to geometric art combining circles, lines, squares, triangles so as to avoid any representation, any resemblance, no matter how remote, to the human or animal form.

Muhammad: What you call the geometric art form is the only type of art that Allah, The Fashioner of Forms, approves of therefore it is the only type of art that is to be allowed. All other form of decadent art must be ruthlessly eradicated as was done by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Johnny: Yes, the almost two thousand years old Bamiyan Buddhas.

Muhammad: The Western press completely misinterpreted the action of the Taliban. Islam demands the destruction of idols or graven images only if there are no worshippers of these blasphemies close by. They were no Buddhist worshippers in the vicinity of the statues therefore the Taliban were not only in their right it was their duty, their sacred duty to destroy them. Any representation of the human and animal form will not be obliterated as long as there are people within the vicinity who revere these blasphemies. Only when Islam is triumphant worldwide, when no one will have any objections – we will all be Muslims – will we see the systematic obliteration of these ignominious creations of depraved minds.

Johnny: Something to look forward to.