Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

[Amatoritsero Ede]

‘Fanatical Islam’ is, again, a misconception here. Those terrorists simply hide behind the veil of Islam to commit crimes against humanity. This is why an American PEN award to Charlie Hebdo is justified and proper.  What is not justified is to offer such an award as a reproach to ‘Islamic terrorism,’ in response to cartoons which also wrongly and sacrilegiously lampoon the prophet and Islam. Again terror and Islam are not synonymous. It is the conflation of Islam with terrorism that discomfits everyone from political pundits to presidents or scholars and street side philosophers when they try to approach the subject. It immobilizes moral consensus and the world of policy in legislating against these criminals and social misfits.... http://www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial/

Amatoritsero

[Dhikru Yagboyaju]

Fantastic clarification

On 11 May 2015 13:05, "Amatoritsero Ede" <esul...@gmail.com> wrote:

‘Fanatical Islam’ is, again, a misconception here. Those terrorists simply hide behind the veil of Islam to commit crimes against humanity. This is why an American PEN award to Charlie Hebdo is justified and proper.  What is not justified is to offer such an award as a reproach to ‘Islamic terrorism,’ in response to cartoons which also wrongly and sacrilegiously lampoon the prophet and Islam. Again terror and Islam are not synonymous. It is the conflation of Islam with terrorism that discomfits everyone from political pundits to presidents or scholars and street side philosophers when they try to approach the subject. It immobilizes moral consensus and the world of policy in legislating against these criminals and social misfits.... http://www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial/

Amatoritsero

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The  Inspiration, Goals and Methods of Islamic Terrorism

Islamic terrorism is terrorism inspired by Islam.

It is very real.

Recognizing this reality is most vital in countering the ideological and military initiatives of this kind of terrorism.

Terrorism, particularly sustained terrorism, is invariably based on an ideology, a coherent ideology, and is not merely the expression of criminal minds, although such minds could flourish within the violent culture of terrorism.

Declaring that Islamic terrorism is merely the efforts of criminals hiding under the veil of Islam is akin to describing Nazism as simply the efforts of criminals hiding under a convenient ideology.

Nazism is an ideology, a coherent and deadly one, rational and persuasive within its own context.

The same with Islamic terrorism.

In what way is Islamic terrorism rooted in Islam?

The Islamic roots of this kind of terrorism consists in interpretations of the Koran as justifying the actions of the terrorists.

The Koran is a significantly militant work, being composed by a merchant, Muhammed,  who became  a warrior, some of the compositions that make up the Koran emerging in the course of Muhammed's  military struggles to establish and expand the geographical  and political framework of the new religion he had created.

The militant character of the Koran is demonstrated in the many passages that enjoin military response to various situations Muslims are involved in.

Islamic terrorism is based on a style of interpreting the Koran that sees these calls to military action as fundamental for the Muslim at all times, in all places.

In its most virulent form, this interpretive approach understands the Muslim as ideally living within an Islamic state in obedience to the revealed law of Allah as received by the Prophet, a goal that needs to be pursued by compelling others through violence.

This is the vision of ISIS, of the Malian Muslim rebels, of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and of  Boko Haram in Nigeria, and I expect, of Al-Shabbab in Somalia and  Kenya.

The Al Qaeda brand of Islamic terrorism made its name by rallying Muslims against what it describes as Western imperialism in the Muslim world.

Islamic Terrorism as an Expression of the Militant  Culture of the Abrahamic Religions

Islamic terrorism may be understood as an expression of the militant culture of the religions that trace their roots to Abraham- Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

These religions have developed, in what might be a unique way in the history of religion,  the harmony of religious absolutism and political power, political power working in alliance with military power, military power used as an imperialist tool.

Religious absolutism means a belief that the religion in question is the sole truth to the questions of existence and everyone else outside the fold is in error.

                   Judaism

This style of thought is represented at its most uncompromising in the development of Judaism as religion that saw its God as choosing the Hebrews as its own people to whom this God bequeathed  a Promised Land.

This belief  justified the slaughter of at least one entire population  and even all animals in that environment, all under the belief this cleansing was a  command of this God, thus  developing and actualizing  one of the earliest philosophies of genocide.

This genocidal action occurred in the larger context of the Hebrews attacking and taking over urban populations as they moved from a nomadic life to an urban existence- all this described as undertaken in  the conviction that these conquests represented  the acquisition  of the land promised them by God.

               Christianity

This militant  mentality emerges again,  centuries later, in the subversion of the pacifist message of Jesus, the founder of Christianity, by the blend of Christianity and Roman imperialism after Christianity became a state religion, outliving  the collapse of the Roman Empire.

The Holy Roman Empire, the Western Church, the Church in Europe, as different from the Eastern  Church, is notorious for genocide, such as against the Albigensian, for inspiring anti-Jewish pogroms and for the massacre of hundreds, if not more, of women described as witches  and others described as being non-Christian or not conforming to accepted Christian belief.

The dominance of the Church was eventually broken by the schism represented by the Reformation-within which context Protestants, such as the English king Henry the 8th, conducted their own massacres and ravaging of property , this time of Catholics- by the undermining of the Church's  claim to absolute truth by the Scientific Revolution, by the increased economic power of Europe enabled  by the Industrial Revolution and the galloping  progress of the West enabled by the growth of democracy and the fall of monarchical rule, the growth of mass literacy, mass access to advanced education, among other factors.

 

           Islam

Muhammed's  revelation and his personality are in alignment with that of the warlike Hebrew prophets, the ideological centre of Hebrew imperialist culture in describing themselves as bringing messages from God that inspired the Hebrew's imperialist activity.

This alignment is demonstrated by Muhammad's career as solder, politician and empire builder, in sharp contrast to   a pacifist like Jesus, who declared his kingdom was not of this world  and who  died for his faith rather than mobilise  his followers into combat, a military option he could have taken  in the context of the Hebrew organized resistance to Roman domination in his time, a refusal to engage in such liberating military action being described by one view  as perhaps the reason why he was betrayed by Judas, a disciple of Jesus described as  also a member of the anti- Roman resistance.

Central Difference Between Judaism, Christianity and  Islam

The central difference between Judaism, Christianity and  Islam is that Islam may be described as not having experienced fundamental ideological modification, and fundamental social changes, such as  as experienced by  Judaism after the defeat of Israel by Rome and the resulting centuries long exile of Jews,  and the great dilution of the power of Christianity  by the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution and other intellectual, social and economic  transformations  that have deeply secularized the West.

 Saudi Arabia,the central Islamic country, however, has existed for unbroken centuries as a Muslim nation, maintaining its ancient traditions.

For this reason, Islam is the only religion in the world today some of  whose adherents are consistently associated with religious terrorism and with religiously inspired violence.

Islamic terrorism is a global threat both in countries with demographically dominant Muslim populations and those without such dominant populations.

This summation demonstrates that the murderous violence of Islamic terrorism  is a demonstration  of the historical and ideological culture of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism,Christianity and Islam, a murderous culture which Judaism, and even more so, Christianity, have gone beyond, but which Islam is farther behind in overcoming.

Varieties of Response by Members of the Muslim World to Islamic Terrorism, Islam Inspired Violence and Political Violence Related to Islamic Affiliation

The Muslim world, in its contemporary form and in its development through history,  is a rich mosaic of attitudes and ideologies which one needs to engage with to gain significant understanding of.

Within this context are demonstrated various attitudes to Islamic terrorism and Islam inspired violence.

These range from rejection, to passive identification, to active identification.

These responses are made more complex by different responses by the same people to Islamic terrorism generally, to different examples of Islamic terrorism, and to Islam inspired violence outside the terrorist context, such as the recurrent religious inspired violence emerging over the decades in Northern Nigeria and the emergence of political violence carried out by Muslims in identification with a cause underpinned by ethno- religious affiliation, as demonstrated in the various anti-Southern riots in Northern Nigeria, of which the 2011 post - election riots and the 1966 massacre are the best known.

Religion's Unity of Good and Evil

 

In spite of these deadly ideologies and histories, the Abrahamic religions  are, and are likely to remain central,  to the greatest achievements of the human race in all aspects of culture, from the arts to the sciences,  and also in politics.

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Hello Toyin,

First, I hope you read all the essay to see what I disagree with lumping Islam and terrorism together. I also want to not that what you have expressed  below is what everyone seem to agree upon either vocally or silently - that Islam is the reason for terror. I am arguing that it is not. And islam and Nazism and Islam are not the same thing. Islam purports to be a religion; it has a spiritual essence; Nazism is a racist ideology. Two different things - even though both Islamic Terrorism deploy ideologies of conquest. I speak from my own experience of spiritual activity as a former Hindu Monk. All things spiritual eschews murder - because of the terrible karma that dovetails it. It is the greatest disaster that can befall a living entity to be the cause of another souls death. Hence the Hindu do not eat another living thing - like cow or goat etc. And the Bible implores: thou shall not kill. Same goes in all religions. Hence the remonstration by normal muslims that it is a religion of peace. However misinterpretation of scripture can lead any to insist of reading text literarily and committing murder. It isn that sense that they are delusional criminals, whose souls are bound for purgatory. even such a thing as religion has its building blocks, which has to be dismantled and till only the spiritual essence is left. The material conditions surrounding the rise of islam have been transcended by time. Those who want to exploit scripture behave as if they still live in the 11th century. As for your reference to other religions and the murder they commit in the name of whichever God; again it is lack of spiritual knowledge and a literal reading of scripture that is at the root of that. Those people kill on their own behalf not for God. Any God can fight for himself. 

Amatoritsero

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Oops. pardon for the typos. it is the devil's fault o!

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

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[kenneth harrow]

dear oluwatoyin
may i ask if you have really studied these religions and their histories? i am dubious that you are expert in them, that you know enough about islamic history, say, when you say it hasn't undergone the changes that the others have.
how would you assess your own knowledge of these religions and their histories?
ken

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks, Kenneth.

I have studied enough of these religions and their histories to present the summations I am making.

My first response on this post lists the various upheavals that have transformed Western civilization since its Christian centred Middle Ages and done something similar  for Judaism in terms of  the dispersal of the Jews by the Romans.

 Islam has not undergone changes of such magnitude.

Perhaps you could share a different perspective emerging from your research on Islam, as evidenced by your books on Islam and African literature and your essays on Islamic mysticism in relation to Camara Laye's The Radiance of the King, along with being Jewish yourself, if I remember correctly.

thanks

toyin

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Oluwatoyin,

You might have studied all these religions. But it would be also good if you were ever a practitioner in a significant way; do you have an insider experience of anyone of them, such that you can leaven academic discourse with lived experience? And please I would like you to read my essay in its entirety first before we discuss this further. Here is the link again:  <www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial>. You can also leave a comment about the essay on the website itself  in dialogue with other comments there - if u feel inclined. 

Amatoritsero 

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

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[kenneth harrow]

hi toyin
have to be very brief. i suspect cornelius could give us much more.
there is no account of these religions, and their thought, without their socio-historical settings, as you are doing. the vast, incredibly world shaking struggles in islam are so profound it is hard to know where to begin. the split that let to sunni and shiite came early; the differences that spawned sufi orders, everywhere on the periphery of the muslim heartland, could not have been deeper in forging antithetical beliefs (law vs love, say, in reaching to god); just in spain, look at the sea changes from the first caliphates to the subsequent almoravids and almohads, etc. and more important, all the thinkers over the centuries that changed the dominant approaches.
that's just in spain. look everywhere, from india to morocco and you will find all the historical upheavals and changes that occurred in europe or asia.
nothing remains static. the sea changes of regimes in nigeria or senegal also meant different dominant tendencies.
in the cases of all religions, under the right circumstances, militant tendencies emerged, threw themselves against others deemed enemies, and justified their regimes of violence on holy grounds. it is enough to make any sane person hate all religions. except that it isn't "religion," it is people in society: if not religion, then it is country or empire etc.
in france, the monument reads: Morts Pour La Patrie.
dead for the homeland; dead for the fatherland. might as well read, dead in defending god, or dead in defending the faith, etc etc.
necropolitics; dead for the power that sent me out on the field to fight.
believe me toyin, you won't find a people anywhere who haven't yielded to this death instinct.
ken

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Amatoritsero Ede

Discussing  this subject does not require one to have practiced any religion or spirituality.

Since you seem to want to explore how one's spiritual practice may enrich such discourse, however, I provide a profile of the various spiritualities I have practiced  and most of which I still practice

I have practiced in spiritualities developed by others

in

Classical African spiritualities

Yoruba Orisa spirituality and Yoruba philosophy 

Nigerian Benin nature spirituality

Akan Ghanaian Adinkra meditation

Asian Spiritualities

The self enquiry meditation of the Hindu and Indian philosopher Ramana Maharshi

Hindu  Yantra meditation

Hindu Srividya ritual and meditation

Buddhist guru yoga in relation to Jetsun Milarepa and the Kargyutpa school of Tibetan Buddhism

Western Spiritualities

Catholic Eucharistic spirituality (the spirituality of the Mass)

Catholic prayer and mysticism

Pentecostal spirituality
Western Hermetic magic inspired by Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie and the Golden Dawn, the seminal school of modern Western magic, integrating ancient Egyptian, Jewish Kabbalistic and other streams of thought

The magic of the Goetia of Solomon ( Not recommended, since it involves invocation of entities described as demons and the stories about practicing this system suggest significant danger zones, and after my second effort with this system the experience I had made me avoid it, beautiful as the symbols are)

Eckankar meditation

AMORC ( a school of Rosicrucianism) forms of meditation, breathing exercises, prayer and lifestyle

Meditation inspired by the Light of Truth, the central text of the Grail  Message

Spiritualities Created by Myself

Aesthetic mysticism and philosophy centred in the contemplation and critical study of aesthetic forms, including all aspects of  nature, from plants to human beings, and works of art created by human beings

Empty  Meditation, meditation without a focus on anything

Prayer of the Breath, praying in rhythm with breathing

I am also informed about the social histories and developments of thought and practice and major artistic forms of these spiritualities and have published on classical African spiritualities and Western esotericism,  both  academically and in more open contexts online, and have  written about almost all of them in open online contexts

thanks

toyin

 

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Oluwatoyin,

I did not expect a long list of your involvement with actual spiritual praxis as distinct from its academic discussion. However it is a good thing. Now in which of those religions you have listed is human sacrifice a part of the religious practice, or even ritual murder. Does any of those religions have as one of its tenets terrorism? So why must Islam be different? Explain exactly in one paragraph, please; so that we can distil the argument to its essence. 

regards

Amatoritsero

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

" Saudi Arabia,the central Islamic country, however, has existed for unbroken centuries
as a Muslim nation, maintaining its ancient traditions.
For this reason, Islam is the only religion in the world today some of whose adherents
are consistently associated with religious terrorism and with religiously inspired violence".

Toyin Adepoju






Ten Historical Points and Clarifications



1. To claim that Saudi Arabia has an unbroken history is not correct.
Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and ibn Sa'ud -
in the 18th century - lay the foundation for Wahhabism, the theology that influenced the
eventual emergence of Saudi Arabia as we know it, in the 1930s. There was a short lived
entity that the Ottomans or at least Mohammed Ali Pasha destroyed in 1818.
Even though there was a re-emergence of the state in 1824 we generally see
the amalgamation of the entities of Hijaz and Najd in the 20th century as
the decisive event.

2. The British were heavily involved in the emergence of Saudi Arabia.
The Sykes -Picot Agreement of 1916 set the stage for British
complicity and manipulations and so, too, the Balfour Declaration of 1916.
Both agreements created the context for the tumultuous destabilization of the
region- including the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. You have to take this
into consideration in understanding the exile of about two million Palestinians;
the bloody retaliations against the Jewish state by militant Islamist organizations
incalcitrance on the part of the leadership on all sides-
and the incessant bloodshed that has continued to this day.



3. If you want to paint al Qaida as being completely an Islamic affair, from start to
finish, you are wrong. Note the role of the U.S in the training and funding of
al Qaida after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This is now common knowledge,
and cannot be slandered as "conspiracy theory". References can be supplied on demand.



4. Muslims are not to blame for the massacres/ genocide of Native Americans.
In fact the Catholic priest Bartolome de las Casas was a lone wolf of moderation in the midst of genocidal clerics.
Evenso, note his role in inspiring the Atlantic Slave Trade in that era and he, too, got blood on his hands
from that episode. How many Muslims were around during the 19th century
Trail of Tears and the forced removal of Native Americans across the Mississipi-
leading to the death of millions?



5. Explore the role of the Dutch Reformed Church in inspiring and
sustaining the violence of apartheid. Some of the apartheid leaders
such as Malan were priests of the Dutch Reformed Church and vocal defenders of
Christian theology.


6. Have you looked into the various roles of Christian, Jewish and Muslim
agents & agencies in the Atlantic Slave Trade?
Are there really any religious heroes and role models in this four hundred
year saga of atrocities?


7. If you have the time look into the role of Christian missionaries in encouraging the invasion and

occupation of African territory in the 19th century- in the context of sectarian rivalry. Note the violent

military incursions that ensued.Millions of people died in the process. To give a single example:

One third of the Herero population of german occupied was murdered. Who did it?



8. No Muslims are in the picture during the genocide of Afro-Australians and the Maoris
of New Zealand since the 19th century.

9. Go back into Irish history and you will see clearly the bizarre and bloody manifestations
of sectarian violence: Catholicism vs Protestantism. What about Belfast? What about the IRA?
Why do you conveniently omit these conflicts and accompanying massacres?


10. Who caused the death of Patrice Lumumba? A Muslim fanatic or the Belgian and U.S secret agents?
On a different note, was Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by a Muslim fanatic - or was it not a Hindu fundamentalist.
Was Stalin a Muslim Fundamentalist? Millions died at his hand. The Soviet Union lost about 30 million of
its citizens during World War 2. Who caused it? The Japanese enslaved millions of Southeast Asians
between the 1920s and 1945? Was Christianity or Islam involved? I will leave Hiroshima for another day.

The world is more complicated than you would like to believe.

I like this quote from Ken Harrow:

"in the cases of all religions, under the right circumstances, militant tendencies emerged,
threw themselves against others deemed enemies, and justified their regimes of violence
on holy grounds. it is enough to make any sane person hate all religions. except that it isn't
"religion," it is people in society: if not religion, then it is country or empire etc."

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 11:40 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 2:04 PM, Amatoritsero Ede <esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Oluwatoyin,

You might have studied all these religions. But it would be also good if you were ever a practitioner in a significant way; do you have an insider experience of anyone of them, such that you can leaven academic discourse with lived experience? And please I would like you to read my essay in its entirety first before we discuss this further. Here is the link again: <www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial<http://www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial>>. You can also leave a comment about the essay on the website itself in dialogue with other comments there - if u feel inclined.

Amatoritsero

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD
Publisher and Managing Editor
Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca<http://www.mtls.ca/>

On 12 May 2015 at 05:52, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <toyind...@gmail.com<mailto:toyind...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Thanks, Kenneth.

I have studied enough of these religions and their histories to present the summations I am making.

My first response on this post lists the various upheavals that have transformed Western civilization since its Christian centred Middle Ages and done something similar for Judaism in terms of the dispersal of the Jews by the Romans.

Islam has not undergone changes of such magnitude.

Perhaps you could share a different perspective emerging from your research on Islam, as evidenced by your books on Islam and African literature and your essays on Islamic mysticism in relation to Camara Laye's The Radiance of the King, along with being Jewish yourself, if I remember correctly.

thanks

toyin

The central difference between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is that Islam may be described as not having experienced fundamental ideological modification, and fundamental social changes, such as as experienced by Judaism after the defeat of Israel by Rome and the resulting centuries long exile of Jews<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_diaspora>, and the great dilution of the power of Christianity by the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution and other intellectual, social and economic transformations that have deeply secularized the West.

Saudi Arabia,the central Islamic country, however, has existed for unbroken centuries as a Muslim nation, maintaining its ancient traditions.

For this reason, Islam is the only religion in the world today some of whose adherents are consistently associated with religious terrorism and with religiously inspired violence.

Islamic terrorism is a global threat both in countries with demographically dominant Muslim populations and those without such dominant populations.

This summation demonstrates that the murderous violence of Islamic terrorism is a demonstration of the historical and ideological culture of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism,Christianity and Islam, a murderous culture which Judaism, and even more so, Christianity, have gone beyond, but which Islam is farther behind in overcoming.


Varieties of Response by Members of the Muslim World to Islamic Terrorism, Islam Inspired Violence and Political Violence Related to Islamic Affiliation


The Muslim world, in its contemporary form and in its development through history, is a rich mosaic of attitudes and ideologies which one needs to engage with to gain significant understanding of.

Within this context are demonstrated various attitudes to Islamic terrorism and Islam inspired violence.

These range from rejection, to passive identification, to active identification.

These responses are made more complex by different responses by the same people to Islamic terrorism generally, to different examples of Islamic terrorism, and to Islam inspired violence outside the terrorist context, such as the recurrent religious inspired violence emerging over the decades in Northern Nigeria and the emergence of political violence carried out by Muslims in identification with a cause underpinned by ethno- religious affiliation, as demonstrated in the various anti-Southern riots in Northern Nigeria, of which the 2011 post - election riots and the 1966 massacre are the best known.


Religion's Unity of Good and Evil



In spite of these deadly ideologies and histories, the Abrahamic religions are, and are likely to remain central, to the greatest achievements of the human race in all aspects of culture, from the arts to the sciences, and also in politics.

On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 11:17 AM, Dhikru Yagboyaju <dayag...@gmail.com<mailto:dayag...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Fantastic clarification

On 11 May 2015 13:05, "Amatoritsero Ede" <esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>> wrote:
‘Fanatical Islam’ is, again, a misconception here. Those terrorists simply hide behind the veil of Islam to commit crimes against humanity. This is why an American PEN award to Charlie Hebdo is justified and proper. What is not justified is to offer such an award as a reproach to ‘Islamic terrorism,’ in response to cartoons which also wrongly and sacrilegiously lampoon the prophet and Islam. Again terror and Islam are not synonymous. It is the conflation of Islam with terrorism that discomfits everyone from political pundits to presidents or scholars and street side philosophers when they try to approach the subject. It immobilizes moral consensus and the world of policy in legislating against these criminals and social misfits.... http://www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial/


Amatoritsero
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[kenneth harrow]

this is the longest answer gloria has ever given
brava gloria, you nailed it on the head here.
ken

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks, Kenneth, particularly for that brief summary.

What I am doing is indicating in a very broad sense my understanding of the socio-historical and ideological contexts of these religions.

I wont pretend I am as informed about the development of Islam as I am about Christianity or even of Judaism, which is next in my degree of understanding of the three religions.

My exposure so far, however, suggests that those changes you have summed up, and the ideological orientations they demonstrate, have not challenged the Muslim world view and at its foundations,  talk less the manner in which it shapes society, as has been done by intellectual and social developments that have transformed Western civilization and its Christian heritage.

To illustrate, I'll give a few  examples.

What happened to the intellectual tradition  that gave rise to the luminaries of the Islamic world who laid foundations central to contemporary modernity, people like Ibn Sina, Al Kwarizimi and Ibn Khaldun?

Why is religiously inspired violence recurrent in Muslim dominated Northern Nigeria but almost non-existent in Southern Nigeria, even  in regions dominated by Muslims, such as Kwara State?

Thanks

toyin

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Human sacrifice has been practiced in African spiritualities.

Stories coming out of Nigeria suggest it is still practiced.

I am using spirituality a broader category than religion.

Islamic terrorism is motivated by justifications for terrorism the terrorists see  Islam as providing.

This fact is attested to by Muslim scholars such as  Khaled Abou el Fadl, as in "The Ugly Modern and the Modern Ugly: Reclaiming the Beautiful in Islam" in Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism. Ed. Omid Safi (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2003) 33-77, an essay linked in Modern Islam and attached to this post.

It is also attested to by non-Muslim scholars like Bernard Lewis, as in The Crisis of Islam.

Khaled Abou el Fadl and Bernard Lewis explore the domination of the global image of Islam by violence and terror in terms of the grip of a form of Islam that has suppressed more creative trends in Islamic history.

Lewis goes further to contrast the absolutist stance of Islam and the Abrahamic religions with that of other religions, such as Buddhism.

I hold that this absolutist mindset, in relation to the dominance of narrow minded, at times fanatical perspectives in Islam, is the source of Islam's contemporary association with violence and terrorism.

The other absolutist religions, Christianity, in particular, have overcome the violent tendencies they demonstrated in the past but Islam has not.

Christianity overcame this aspect of its culture through the dilution of its power by antithetical factors in Western history.

Judaism bcs of conquest and dispersal of Jews by Rome.

Islam, on the contrary, has not experienced  upheavals that have fundamentally challenged it from within, nor, to the best of my knowledge,  has its central power base, Saudi Arabia, been disrupted since it became the centre of Islam, unlike the experience of Israel with Judaism.

Thanks

toyin

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

" Saudi Arabia,the central Islamic country, however, has existed for unbroken centuries
as a Muslim nation, maintaining its ancient traditions.
For this reason, Islam is the only religion in the world today some of whose adherents
are consistently associated with religious terrorism and with religiously inspired violence".
Toyin Adepoju


Ten Historical Points and Clarifications


1. To claim that Saudi Arabia has an unbroken history is not correct.

Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and Ibn Sa'ud -

in the 18th century - lay the foundation for Wahhabism, the theology that influenced the
eventual emergence of Saudi Arabia as we know it, in the 1930s. There was a short lived
entity that the Ottomans or at least Mohammed Ali Pasha destroyed in 1818.

Even though there was a re-emergence of the state in 1824, we generally see
the amalgamation of the entities of Hijaz and Najdm, in the 20th century, as
the decisive event. Wahhabism is fundamentalist, extremist Islam but the Saudis

happen to be major allies of the West, ironically enough. The "atrocities" committed

by the regime are sanctioned by their allies, so if you condemn them, then offer words

of condemnation against their supportive friends.

2. The British were heavily involved in the emergence of Saudi Arabia.
The Sykes -Picot Agreement of 1916 set the stage for British

complicity and manipulations, and so, too, the Balfour Declaration of 1916.

Both agreements created the context for the tumultuous destabilization of the
region- including the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. You have to take this
into consideration in understanding the exile of about two million Palestinians;
the bloody retaliations against the Jewish state by militant Islamist organizations;

incalcitrance on the part of the leadership on all sides;

and the incessant bloodshed that has continued to this day.



3. If you want to paint al Qaida as being completely an Islamic affair, from start to
finish, you are wrong. Note the role of the U.S in the training and funding of
al Qaida after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This is now common knowledge,
and cannot be slandered as "conspiracy theory". References can be supplied on demand.



4. Muslims are not to blame for the massacres/ genocide of Native Americans.
In fact the Catholic priest Bartolome de las Casas was a lone wolf of moderation in the midst of genocidal clerics.
Evenso, note his role in inspiring the Atlantic Slave Trade in that era and he, too, got blood on his hands
from that episode. How many Muslims were around during the 19th century
"Trail of Tears" and the forced removal of Native Americans across the Mississipi-
leading to the death of millions?



5. Explore the role of the Dutch Reformed Church in inspiring and
sustaining the violence of apartheid. Some of the apartheid leaders
such as Malan were priests of the Dutch Reformed Church and vocal defenders of
Christian theology.


6. Have you looked into the various roles of Christian, Jewish and Muslim
agents & agencies in the Atlantic Slave Trade?
Are there really any religious heroes and role models in this four hundred
year saga of atrocities?


7. If you have the time look into the role of Christian missionaries in encouraging the invasion and
occupation of African territory in the 19th century- in the context of sectarian rivalry. Note the violent

military incursions that ensued. Millions of people died in the process. To give a single example:
One third of the Herero population of German occupied Namibia was murdered. Who did it?

8. No Muslims are in the picture during the genocide of Afro-Australians and the Maoris
of New Zealand since the 19th century.

9. Go back into Irish history and you will see clearly the bizarre and bloody manifestations
of sectarian violence: Catholicism vs Protestantism. What about Belfast? What about the IRA?
Why do you conveniently omit these conflicts and accompanying massacres?


10. Who caused the death of Patrice Lumumba? A Muslim fanatic or the Belgian and U.S secret agents?
On a different note, was Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by a Muslim fanatic - or was it not a Hindu fundamentalist.
Was Stalin a Muslim Fundamentalist? Millions died at his hand. The Soviet Union lost about 30 million of
its citizens during World War 2. Who caused it? The Japanese enslaved millions of Southeast Asians

between the 1920s and 1945? Was Christianity or Islam involved? In this case Shinto

seems to be the culprit.I will leave Hiroshima for another day.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Oluwatoyin,

You cannot use 'spiritualities' broadly -   unless of course you mean 'occultisms' -  because i understand the spiritual to mean 'transcending' the material,  cultic or occult. dark occult practice is what results in human sacrifice and it is based on a lack of spiritual knowledge. This is why i was asking f you have actually practiced not as a guest but as initiate in any of the religions you listed earlier. You know what happens to those who practice witchcraft and the dark arts in Africa; the witch is stoned to death - usually because the practice dark arts. True African religion - Ifa divination for example, does not incorporate human sacrifice! Holly Molly!I see that all of these is merely academic to you. 

Amatoritsero

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

[Ademola Dasylva]

Toyin, I have followed, intimately, your submission and I quite agree with your position which is historically verifiable. 

I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim.

 I suspect there are Christian preachers, too, whose preaching is clustered with verbal intolerance and violence despite the apparent measured degree ‎of dynamism and accommodativeness. 

So how can the sting of intolerance and violence be done with in Islam, so that the emergent new Nigeria can be spared the agony of witnessing ceaseless shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents.

Anyhow, I share your concern Toyin, and whoever has a contrary opinion on this issue should come up with it. I want to be educated on this matter.

Ademola O. Dasylva, ‎
Proudly Nigerian.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:37 To: USAAfrica Dialogue Reply To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Oluwatoyin,

I forget to ask if you have also practised human sacrifice since you took part in some of these "African spiritualities." Have you killed someone before for ritualistic purposes? Thanks for expected clarification.

regards

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

On 12 May 2015 at 14:26, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <toyind...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

You want the man to incriminate himself? I  plead the 5th on his behalf.

Cheers.

IBK

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Professor Dasylva,
I happen to have a contrary opinion.

As you can see from the ten historical points listed below, bloody violence and genocide
were perpetrated by people who would normally be associated directly or indirectly
with Christian or "Western" ideals.

It is not about religion. It is more about the quest for power and hegemony in society,
and in some cases perceptions of deprivation.

You raise a very important question that we really have to try to address, namely,
how to prevent the shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents,
or to put it differently, to prevent the shedding of blood by a well armed band of
power hungry insurgents claiming to be of a certain religion.

This is something we all have to address - with all seriousness.

With this recent movement we are dealing with manipulation by a charismatic power hungry leader;
vindictiveness; manipulation of a pool of unemployed youth; ethnic tension between
Kanuri and Hausa perhaps ( not sure about this); perceptions of deprivation;
empire building and expectations to be in charge of a wide territorial area.
Political opportunism on the part of national leadership also played a role in
the emergence of the movement.

These are a few of my thoughts.
There are the real experts on the subject who know much more and I certainly
concede to their insights.







..............................................

Ten Historical Points and Clarifications in response to Toyin Adepoju

1. To claim that Saudi Arabia has an unbroken history is not correct.
Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and Ibn Sa'ud -
in the 18th century - lay the foundation for Wahhabism, the theology that influenced the
eventual emergence of Saudi Arabia as we know it, in the 1930s. There was a short lived
entity that the Ottomans or at least Mohammed Ali Pasha destroyed in 1818.
Even though there was a re-emergence of the state in 1824, we generally see
the amalgamation of the entities of Hijaz and Najdm, in the 20th century, as
the decisive event. Wahhabism is fundamentalist, extremist Islam but the Saudis
happen to be major allies of the West, ironically enough. The "atrocities" committed

by the regime are sanctioned by their Western allies, so if you condemn them, then offer words

11. There were numerous liberation movements in Africa in the 20th century. They were all protests against

perceived injustices. In fact some used Christian liberation theology to get rid of their oppressors
but it really was not about religion and this case a just fight for independence from colonial despotism.

I like this quote from Ken Harrow:

"in the cases of all religions, under the right circumstances, militant tendencies emerged,
threw themselves against others deemed enemies, and justified their regimes of violence
on holy grounds. it is enough to make any sane person hate all religions. except that it isn't
"religion," it is people in society: if not religion, then it is country or empire etc."







Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ademola Dasylva [dasy...@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 10:00 PM
To: Oluwatoyin Adepoju; USAAfrica Dialogue
Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Toyin, I have followed, intimately, your submission and I quite agree with your position which is historically verifiable.

I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim.

I suspect there are Christian preachers, too, whose preaching is clustered with verbal intolerance and violence despite the apparent measured degree ‎of dynamism and accommodativeness.

So how can the sting of intolerance and violence be done with in Islam, so that the emergent new Nigeria can be spared the agony of witnessing ceaseless shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents.

Anyhow, I share your concern Toyin, and whoever has a contrary opinion on this issue should come up with it. I want to be educated on this matter.


Ademola O. Dasylva, ‎
Proudly Nigerian.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:37
To: USAAfrica Dialogue
Reply To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost


Thanks, Kenneth.

I have studied enough of these religions and their histories to present the summations I am making.

My first response on this post lists the various upheavals that have transformed Western civilization since its Christian centred Middle Ages and done something similar for Judaism in terms of the dispersal of the Jews by the Romans.

Islam has not undergone changes of such magnitude.

Perhaps you could share a different perspective emerging from your research on Islam, as evidenced by your books on Islam and African literature and your essays on Islamic mysticism in relation to Camara Laye's The Radiance of the King, along with being Jewish yourself, if I remember correctly.

thanks

toyin

The central difference between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is that Islam may be described as not having experienced fundamental ideological modification, and fundamental social changes, such as as experienced by Judaism after the defeat of Israel by Rome and the resulting centuries long exile of Jews<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_diaspora>, and the great dilution of the power of Christianity by the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution and other intellectual, social and economic transformations that have deeply secularized the West.

Saudi Arabia,the central Islamic country, however, has existed for unbroken centuries as a Muslim nation, maintaining its ancient traditions.

For this reason, Islam is the only religion in the world today some of whose adherents are consistently associated with religious terrorism and with religiously inspired violence.

Islamic terrorism is a global threat both in countries with demographically dominant Muslim populations and those without such dominant populations.

This summation demonstrates that the murderous violence of Islamic terrorism is a demonstration of the historical and ideological culture of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism,Christianity and Islam, a murderous culture which Judaism, and even more so, Christianity, have gone beyond, but which Islam is farther behind in overcoming.


Varieties of Response by Members of the Muslim World to Islamic Terrorism, Islam Inspired Violence and Political Violence Related to Islamic Affiliation


The Muslim world, in its contemporary form and in its development through history, is a rich mosaic of attitudes and ideologies which one needs to engage with to gain significant understanding of.

Within this context are demonstrated various attitudes to Islamic terrorism and Islam inspired violence.

These range from rejection, to passive identification, to active identification.

These responses are made more complex by different responses by the same people to Islamic terrorism generally, to different examples of Islamic terrorism, and to Islam inspired violence outside the terrorist context, such as the recurrent religious inspired violence emerging over the decades in Northern Nigeria and the emergence of political violence carried out by Muslims in identification with a cause underpinned by ethno- religious affiliation, as demonstrated in the various anti-Southern riots in Northern Nigeria, of which the 2011 post - election riots and the 1966 massacre are the best known.


Religion's Unity of Good and Evil



In spite of these deadly ideologies and histories, the Abrahamic religions are, and are likely to remain central, to the greatest achievements of the human race in all aspects of culture, from the arts to the sciences, and also in politics.
















On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 11:17 AM, Dhikru Yagboyaju <dayag...@gmail.com<mailto:dayag...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Fantastic clarification

On 11 May 2015 13:05, "Amatoritsero Ede" <esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>> wrote:
‘Fanatical Islam’ is, again, a misconception here. Those terrorists simply hide behind the veil of Islam to commit crimes against humanity. This is why an American PEN award to Charlie Hebdo is justified and proper. What is not justified is to offer such an award as a reproach to ‘Islamic terrorism,’ in response to cartoons which also wrongly and sacrilegiously lampoon the prophet and Islam. Again terror and Islam are not synonymous. It is the conflation of Islam with terrorism that discomfits everyone from political pundits to presidents or scholars and street side philosophers when they try to approach the subject. It immobilizes moral consensus and the world of policy in legislating against these criminals and social misfits.... http://www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial/


Amatoritsero
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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

EDITED

The earlier version was sent by mistake

On Human Sacrifice

First, if I have killed anyone, I would not be talking about it in public.

My response to that question is to refer to  the English occultist Dion Fortune, whose  ideas sparked my practise of Benin nature spirituality.

She states that any one interacting with spiritual power, forms of energy related to sentience, that being my definition of spiritual power,  will encounter opportunities to use that power in corrupt ways.

In relating with sentience in inanimate nature, what is known as nature spirits, perhaps in interaction with sentience in Iroko trees for example, justly famous in Benin and Yoruba folklore and spirituality for their spiritual powers, or in engaging  with spirits in other situations, one could encounter the opportunity to do things that will enhance the quest for knowledge and power.

One of such opportunities could be human sacrifice.

Such opportunities might emerge in subtle ways, such as through telepathic communication.

In such contexts, it is wise to keep in mind the saying of Jesus-

'What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?"

Blood sacrifice generally may be said to provide energy for spirits to feed on, energy released by the outpouring of blood,  and the more complex the life form the blood comes from, the greater the degree of energy that is made available, hence the use of human sacrifice for particularly grave rituals.

Human sacrifice, however, harms those participating in the ritual because it dehumanizes them.

J.K. Rowling, in her Harry Potter magical novels, which, though fictional but demonstrate superbly particular principles of magic, describes the act of killing someone else, particularly in cold blooded motive for personal gain, as causing a split in the soul, the core of the self.

In order to create the fictional magical device known as a Horcrux in her novels, a material embodiment of the self that outlives the death of the physical body and enables the reembodiment of the self, one has to kill one person. The more times you kill, the more times you split the soul and the more times you can construct a Horcrux.

That fictional scenario projects vividly the implications of murder.

Instead of engaging in human sacrifice, some real life magicians may use their own blood, judiciously.

Others choose not to use any blood at all but to establish other sources of energy as well as other means of relating with spirits.

Some of these sources include mental and emotional energy built up over a period of time.

Surendranath Dasgupta  in the first chapter of the first volume of his History of Indian Philosophy describes a related development in terms of the movement from animal sacrifice to the cosmic intelligence to the identification of the self with that intelligence, identifying various aspects of the self with the cosmos in place of identification of the sacrificed horse with various aspects of the cosmos in the sacrificial process.

Through such contemplative activity, both mystical goals, relating to identification of self with the source of being, as well as goals relating to expansion of psychic faculties, such as moving between locations  without physical motion and interacting with others in such spaces, as is claimed for witches in witchcraft lore in Nigeria, is possible.

By imaginative connection with a concentration of spiritual energy, energy that stimulates consciousness, known as ase in Yoruba, ike in Igbo among other names in various cultures, concentrations that may occur naturally in nature, in sacred forests, at the point of a river emerging to the surface of the earth or certain trees such as Iroko trees, these demonstrations of mystical possibility and expansion of psychic capacities may be achieved.

On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <toyind...@gmail.com> wrote:

EDITED

The earlier version was sent by mistake

Thanks for these submissions.

I start from the first response by Amatoritsero.

One needs to address the relevant ideas in a  manner that recognizes their scope and complexity.

Questions On the Nature of Spirituality

What is spirituality?

What is spirit?

Does dealing with spirit necessarily involve transcending the material?

No.

If, for the moment, we see spirituality in terms of religions like Hinduism and systems like Ifa, which Amatoritsero gives as positive examples, it is evident that neither of these systems necessarily transcends materiality.

Both of them are significantly used in fulfilling  material needs and use material  forms in doing so.

Hinduism

Some schools and  practitioners of Hinduism aspire to transcend materiality even in their methods of working but such schools are only a part of the vast complex that is Hinduism.

David Kinsley, if I remember well, in his The Sword and the Flute : Kali and Krishna: Dark Visions of the Terrible and the Sublime in Hindu Mythology, describes how worship of the Goddess Kali moved from human sacrifice by her devotees, the Thugees, their Kali dedicated killing being described by the Wikipedia Kali essay,  to the more elevated forms evident today, in which context, however, Kali's association with killing in both myth and ritual remains evident in the garland of severed heads around her neck in Kali iconography, her martial character now transposed to the elimination of obstacles to enlightenment, even though she is still invoked in  situations of material conflict as Aghor Pir demonstrates in his entry on Kali from his now defunct blog Musings of a Tantric Sorcerer.

Tantra, a pervasive style of Hinduism, aspires to fulfill both material and non-material needs, such an aspiration being represented, par-excellence by the Soundaryalahari, Billowing Waves of the Ocean of Beauty, in one translation, the classic poem in honour of the Goddess Tripurasundari, in which the Godess is described as endowing the most decrepit man with such sexual allure, women race after him,  their clothes  bursting from their bosoms, yet the same Goddess embodies all cosmic possibility, conflating the erotic, seen in Indian thought as manifesting the motive force of existence, and the cognitive, so that, as one approaches the centre of cosmic possibility embodied by the Goddess, one passes through her form as kamA-karshini "She who attracts the power of lust in procreation and nurturing",  culminating in her identity as mahA-mahA-shrI-cakra-nagara-samrAjni "She who is the Great Transcendental Consciousness, Empress of the Wheel of Sri Chakra", as depicted in the great ritual text the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram.

 

Ifa

My Benin Ifa teacher, Joseph Ohomina, informed me that Ifa used to request human sacrifice, until babalawo-adepts in the esoteric knowledge of Ifa- began to present non-human substitutes for requests for human sacrifice by the oracle.

Ogboni

The Yoruba Ogboni esoteric order is understood to have engaged in human sacrifice, yet the Aboriginal or original Ogboni, as different from the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity, a later development, encapsulates some of the most profound understanding of the relationship between humanity, nature and the cosmos in Yoruba thought, as demonstrated by Susanne Wenger,Denis Williams,  Morton Williams, Babatunde Lawal and other scholars and practitioners on Ogboni.

Witchcraft

What is witchcraft,  a cognate term in Yoruba thought being aje and azen in Nigerian Benin cosmology?

Knowledge, Belief and Witchcraft by Hallen and Sodipo demonstrates part of the scope of this term in Yoruba culture and suggests it is a category of skill and knowledge extending across various specialists.

Osemwegie Ebohon in Benin once announced a global meeting of witches in Benin and offered invitations to anyone, including members of the press, who cared to attend.

Aje spirituality may also be understood as female centered spirituality from Yorubaland, as demonstrated by Teresa Washington's Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Àjé in Africana Literature   and The Architects of Existence: Aje in Yoruba Cosmology, Ontology, and Orature  as well as the Egbe Aje Iyami Temple of America and the Facebok group Rethinking Iyami : An Autonomous Yoruba/Orisa Female Centred Spirituality inspired by the work of Mercedes Morgana Bonilla, a high raking priestess in the Egbe Aje Iyami Holy Gelede Womens Society of America.

Modern Western Witchcraft is a nature centered magical religion made famous by Gerald Gardner.

This is a small summation of the breadth of understanding of witchcraft.

On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 5:28 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <toyind...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for these submissions.

I start from the first response by Amatoritsero.

One needs to address the relevant ideas in a  manner that recognizes their scope and complexity.

What is spirituality?

What is spirit?

Does dealing with spirit necessarily involve transcending the material?

No.

If, for the moment, we see spirituality in terms of religions like Hinduism and systems like Ifa, which Amatoritsero gives as positive examples, it is evident that neither of these systems necessarily transcends materiality.

Both of them are significantly used in fulfilling  material needs and use material  forms in doing so.

Some schools and  practitioners of Hinduism aspire to transcend materiality even in their methods of working but such schools are only a part of the vast complex that is Hinduism.

David Kinsley, if I remember well, in his The Sword and the Flute : Kali and Krishna: Dark Visions of the Terrible and the Sublime in Hindu Mythology, describes how worship of the Goddess Kali moved from human sacrifice by her devotees, the Thugees, their Kali dedicated killing being described by the W to the more elevated forms evident today, in which context, however, Kali's association with killing in both myth and ritual remains evident in the garland of severed heads around her neck in Kali iconography, her martial character now transposed to the elimination of obstacles to enlightenment, even though she is still invoked in  situations of material conflict as Aghor Pir demonstrates in his entry on Kali from his now defunct blog Musings of a Tantric Sorcerer.

Tantra, a pervasive style of Hinduism, aspires to fulfill both material and non-material needs, such an aspiration being represented, par-excellence by the Soundaryalahari, Billowing Waves of the Ocean of Beauty, in one translation, the classic poem in honour of the Goddess Tripurasundari, in which the Godess is described as endowing the most decrepit man with such sexual allure, women race after him,  their clothes  bursting from their bosoms, yet the same Goddess embodies all cosmic possibility, conflating the erotic, seen in Indian thought as manifesting the motive force of existence, and the cognitive, so that, as one approaches the centre of cosmic possibility embodied by the Goddess, one passes through her form as kamA-karshini "She who attracts the power of lust in procreation and nurturing",  culminating in her identity as mahA-mahA-shrI-cakra-nagara-samrAjni "She who is the Great Transcendental Consciousness, Empress of the Wheel of Sri Chakra", as depicted in the great ritual text the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram.

 

My Benin Ifa teacher, Joseph Ohomina, informed me that Ifa used to request human sacrifice, until babalawo-adepts in the esoteric knowledge of Ifa- began to present non-human substitutes for requests for human sacrifice by the oracle.

The Yoruba Ogboni esoteric order is understood to have engaged in human sacrifice, yet the Aboriginal or original Ogboni, as different from the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity, a later development, encapsulates some of the most profound understanding of the relationship between humanity, nature and the cosmos in Yoruba thought, as demonstrated by Susanne Wenger,Denis Williams,  Morton Williams, Babatunde Lawal and other scholars and practitioners on Ogboni.

What is witchcraft,  a cognate term in Yoruba thought being aje and azen in Nigerian Benin cosmology?

Knowledge, Belief and Witchcraft by Hallen and Sodipo demonstrates part of the scope of this term in Yoruba culture and suggests it is a category of skill and knowledge extending across various specialists.

Osemwegie Ebohon in Benin once announced a global meeting of witches in Benin and offered invitations to anyone, including members of the press, who cared to attend.

Aje spirituality may also be understood as female centered spirituality from Yorubaland, as demonstrated by Teresa Washington's Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Àjé in Africana Literature   and The Architects of Existence: Aje in Yoruba Cosmology, Ontology, and Orature  as well as the Egbe Aje Iyami Temple of America and the Facebok group Rethinking Iyami : An Autonomous Yoruba/Orisa Female Centred Spirituality inspired by the work of Mercedes Morgana Bonilla, a high raking priestess in the Egbe Aje Iyami Holy Gelede Womens Society of America.

Modern Western Witchcraft is a nature centered magical religion made famous by Gerald Gardner.

This is a small summation of the breadth of understanding of witchcraft.

and

First, if I have killed anyone, I would not be talking about it in public.

My response to that question is to refer to  the English occultist Dion Fortune, whose  ideas sparked my practise of Benin nature spirituality.

She states that any one interacting with spiritual power, forms of energy related to sentience, that being my definition of spiritual power,  will encounter opportunities to use that power in corrupt ways.

In relating with sentience in inanimate nature, what is known as nature spirits, perhaps in interaction with sentience in Iroko trees for example, justly famous in Benin and Yoruba folklore and spirituality for their spiritual powers, or in engaging  with spirits in other situations, one could encounter the opportunity to do things that will enhance the quest for knowledge and power.

One of such opportunities could be human sacrifice.

In such contexts, it is wise to keep in mind the saying of Jesus-

'What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?"

Blood sacrifice generally may be said to provide energy for spirits to feed on, energy released by the outpouring of blood,  and the more complex the life form the blood comes from, the greater the degree of energy that is made available, hence the use of human sacrifice for particularly grave rituals.

Human sacrifice, however, harms those participating in the ritual because it dehumanizes them.

J.K. Rowling, in her Harry Potter magical novels, which, though fictional but demonstrate superbly particular principles of magic, describes the act of killing someone else, particularly in cold blooded motive for personal gain, as causing a split in the soul, the core of the self.

In order to create the fictional magical device known as a Horcrux in her novels, a material embodiment of the self that outlives the death of the physical body and enables the rembodient of the self, one has to kill one person. The more times you kill, the more times you split the soul and the more times you can construct a Horcrux.

That fictional scenario projects vividly the implications of murder.

Instead of engaging in human sacrifice, some real life magicians may use their own blood, judiciously.

Others choose not to use any blood at all but to establish other sources of energy as well as other means of relating with spirits.

Some of these sources include mental and emotional energy built up over a period of time.

Surendranath Dasgupta  in the first chapter of the first volume of his History of Indian Philosophy describes a related development in terms of the movement from animal sacrifice to the cosmic intelligence to the identification of the self with that intelligence, identifying various aspects of the self with the cosmos in place of identification of the sacrificed horse with various aspects of the cosmos in the sacrificial process.

Through such contemplative activity, both mystical goals, relating to identification of self with the source of being, as well as goals relating to expansion of psychic faculties, such as moving between locations  without physical motion and interacting with others in such spaces, as is claimed for witches in witchcraft lore in Nigeria, is possible.

By imaginative connection with a concentration of spiritual energy, energy that stimulates consciousness, known as ase in Yoruba, ike in Igbo among other names in various cultures, concentrations that may occur naturally in nature, in sacred forests, at the point of a river emerging to the surface of the earth or certain trees such as Iroko trees, these demonstrations of mystical possibility and expansion of psychic capacities may be achieved.

 

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thank you very much for this insightful summation, Ademola Dasylva-

"I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim."

Although I would prefer to modify the last sentence to "Southern Yoruba Islam  and  Northern Fulani/Hausa Islam" since there exist Northern Hausa/Fulani Muslims who dot not share such negative tendencies.  

The question would now be- why does Southern Yoruba Islam demonstrate greater civility and accommodativeness than Northern Fulani/Hausa Islam?

I suspect its bcs the cultural cleansing created by the Jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio in the North did not take place in the South, bcs of the distance of Yorubaland from the centre of the Fulani Jihad, enabling the survival of the more pluralistic classical attitudes of Yoruba religious culture  even in such Islamic bastions as Kwara State.

thanks

toyin

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

I want to respond to  Gloria's first response before her second one.

Is it realistic to decouple Islam from terrorism by people describing themselves as Muslims?

What are we to say to the recurrence of murderous violence in defense of Islam by Muslims in Northern Nigeria from even before Nigerian Independence to the present day?

These Islam dedicated  inspired murderous riots have occurred in response to the Reinhard Bonke crusade, the Danish anti- Muhammed cartoons, the beauty pageant  incident, among others, including various individual killings.

All this outside the context of the Islamic terrorism of Maitasine and later Boko Haram.

This recurrence of religion dedicated violence does not occur in Southern Nigeria.

On Boko Haram, did the group in its earlier years not thrive in the Muslim North largely by feeding on the culture of murderous religious fanaticism evident in the region?

thanks

toyin

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[kenneth harrow]

i'd add one or two brief comments.
the recruits to boko haram are paid money. in cameroon, the payments are
considerable.
the recruits to isis are paid money, or, in the case of iraq, are sunnis
who resent the abuses of shiite rule, and had formed a coalition of
forces in power under saddam hussein. the recruits in syria are part of
another coalition.
in short, it isn't simply fervent religious belief that is determining
who joins.
probably the vast majority of those fighting, on both sides in iraq,
have roughly, or even closely, the same religious beliefs.
it is power, and money, and then the ugly side of having free available
sex--all justified by the leaders on religious grounds.
for me it is repulsive, but not unique to islam.
if you don't think george w. bush wasn't unleashing what he called a
"crusade" after 9/11, you weren't listening.
and even after he took back the word, you'd have to be blind not to see
the unleashing of islamophobia in the country, which continues unabated.
people are people.
not always pretty
ken

har...@msu.edu

[kenneth harrow]

i haven't watched any harry potter movies, but i've read the work of peter geschiere on witchcraft, and it is highly recommended
ken

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Oluwatoyin,

When you focus on the dark material energies that is sometimes attached to otherwise transcendental devotional activity, like hinduism, christianity or traditional African religion, then I see that we are using the word, "spiritual" in a different way. By 'Spiritual' i refer to that which does not have an interest in sense gratification either through sex or material acquisition or wellbeing.  spirituality for me means selfless religious activity geared towards raising the level of consciousness so that the living entity can unite with a universal force towards stopping the cycle of birth death and rebirth that is material life. 

And I asked you if you have been involved in ritual killing for you to see how weird it is to ascribe its practice to any religion, rather than to understand it as the corruption of religion. People exploit religion material occultic uses but that is not the goal of any spiritual practice. They exploit it for illicit power to gain material pleasure and desire.  You approach to religion is purely material then - and cerebral/academic. 

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

I am addressing Gloria's  points by aggregating them first, before taking them one by one.

Her central argument is in support of Harrow's position-

                  "in the cases of all religions, under the right circumstances, militant tendencies emerged,
                   threw themselves against others deemed enemies, and justified their regimes of violence
                   on holy grounds. it is enough to make any sane person hate all religions. except that it isn't
                   "religion," it is people in society: if not religion, then it is country or empire etc."

Harrow's point, however,  is not sustainable.

It is not sustainable bcs it refuses to recognise the ideological roots of mass movements.

Human groups  needs an articulated rationale to motivate them,and that rationale is provided by ideology.

Religious, nationalistic, economic  and other forms of ideology emerge that motivate groups of people.

These ideologies are both inspired by and feed on  human orientations  and magnify them.

Why is Harrow eager to dissociate negative human behavior from its  ideological orientations but is not doing the same for positive human qualities?

The Hebrews developed one of the earliest philosophies of genocide and of religiously   inspired land theft and imperialism but the same Hebrews are responsible for some of the greatest religious expressions in history, in relation to the same God whom they described as commanding them to decimate  an entire animate population and steal people's lands through violence in the name of fulfilling God's prophecy  of a Promised Land.

Yet the same Hebrews composed some of the most awesome expressions of the majesty and transcendence of God and of human response to the cosmic context of existence.

Should we describe those lofty religious attitudes as justifications of something else, as Harrow is trying to describe religiously motivated violence as using religion as a smokescreen  for deep rooted human negativity?

Is it really possible to disentangle the passion that inspires such lofty poetry as the Book of Psalms from the fanatical fervor of the Hebrew prophets, the 'voices of God' who claimed to be speaking for God  in commanding genocide?

Is it possible to disentangle the extreme devotion represented by the description of Abraham's obedience to the commandment to sacrifice his own son before he was stopped,  from the  demonstrations of the carrying out of such religious dictates in other contexts?

Is it realistic to decouple human nature and its ideological motivations?

Are we not referring to  two phenomena that feed each other ?

Along those lines, therefore, should we not ask why it is that all other religions are no longer known for the recurrence of murderous violence  but Islam continues  to be so known?

Can we ignore the fact that worldwide, individual and group acts of murder or aspiration to murder are associated with Islam at a much higher scale than with other religions?

These range from the killing of Van Gogh for his film critical of Islam, to the fatwa agst Salman  Rushdie, to the various murderous riots in Northern Nigeria in response to the Danish anti-Muhammed cartoons, the Reinhard Bonke crusade, the beauty pageant crisis, among others?

Why is the global terrorist threat, from Boko Haram and Al Shabbab in Africa, to the Taliban in Asia and Al Qaeda in the Middle East, Europe and North America all consisting of Islamic groups?

Why has there been practically  no Christian terrorist group in recent years apart from the Lord's Resistance Army?

Why are people able to lampoon Jesus Christ and get no response yet the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists are killed by Muslim defenders  of the faith and global riots ensue over the Danish anti-Muhammed cartoons leading to the killing of non-Muslims in Nigeria?

Now, lets examine the points made by Gloria Emeawgwali :

"1.  To claim that Saudi Arabia has an unbroken history is not correct. Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and Ibn Sa'ud - in  the 18th century   -  lay the foundation for Wahhabism,    the theology that influenced the eventual emergence of Saudi Arabia as we know it,  in the 1930s.

There was a short lived entity that the Ottomans or at least  Mohammed Ali Pasha destroyed in  1818. Even though there was a re-emergence of the state in 1824,  we generally see  the amalgamation of  the entities of Hijaz and Najdm,  in the 20th century, as the decisive event. Wahhabism  is fundamentalist, extremist  Islam but  the Saudis happen to be major allies of the West, ironically enough. The  "atrocities" committed
by the regime are sanctioned by their allies, so if  you condemn them, then offer  words of condemnation against their supportive friends."

I stated that Saudi Arabia, and, refining this now, the region that became Saudi Arabia,  has been under Muslim rule since the time of Muhammad, and has not suffered a foundational change of the kind suffered by Israel in the defeat by Rome and subsequent dispersal of the Jews.

This assertion may be modified with reference to British colonialism but the colonial rule seems to have kept the traditional institutions intact, and did not seek to subvert the culture they represented, a strategy similar to what they did in Northern Nigeria unlike in the South where cultural deracination through  the unity of Christianity and Western education  and education was the norm.

This is a very simple summation of the much larger role played by the British in the Middle East but it sums up the situation through comparison with another historical context that is part of the  question being explored.

Gloria describes Wahhabism, as a fundamentalist, extremist  Islamic theology that influenced "the eventual emergence of Saudi Arabia as we know it" and Khaled Abou El Fadl in  "Islam and the Theology of Power" argues that the alliance of Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism is the central source for extremist and uncreative attitudes dominant in  contemporary Islam.

"2.       The British were heavily involved in the emergence of Saudi Arabia.
The Sykes -Picot Agreement of 1916 set the stage for British
complicity and manipulations,  and so, too, the Balfour Declaration of 1916.
Both agreements created the context for the tumultuous destabilization of the
region-  including the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. You have to take this
into consideration in understanding the  exile of about two million Palestinians;
the  bloody  retaliations against the Jewish state by  militant Islamist organizations;
 incalcitrance on the part of the leadership on all sides;and the  incessant  bloodshed that has continued to this day."

The West cant be blamed for retrogressive attitudes dominant in Saudi Arabia bcs Saudi Arabia is a sovereign, non-Western nation that the British may have facilitated its building but the cultural identity of the country is not significantly shaped by the West.

"3.      If you want to paint al Qaida as being completely an Islamic affair, from start to
finish, you are wrong. Note the role of the U.S in the training and funding of
al Qaida after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This is now common knowledge,
and cannot be slandered as  "conspiracy theory". References can be supplied on demand."

My point is that Al Qaeda is a terrorist Islamic organization that demonstrates qualities central to other Islamic terrorist and oppressive militant organizations , from Al Shabbab, to ISIS, to the Taliban and the Boko Haram and the Malian rebels, as demonstrations of a current phase of Islamic history.

The fact that the Taliban, was once a militant group engaged in the anti- Soviet war in Afghanistan and funded by the US as the Taliban also might have been does not change that.

The central issue is the role Al Qaeda and the Taliban assumed after the end of the Soviet invasion.

They became terrorists  intent on forcing their harsh vision of Islam on the Afghans through the use of terror or at tacking the West for the Wests perceived anti-Muslim activities.

4-10     Summation- massacres/ genocide of Native Americans, the Dutch Reformed Church and  apartheid, the various roles of Christian, Jewish and Muslim agents & agencies in the Atlantic Slave Trade, the role of Christian missionaries in  encouraging the invasion and occupation  of African territory in the 19th century-   in the context of sectarian rivalry,the genocide  of Afro-Australians and  the Maoris of New Zealand since  the 19th century, the bizarre and bloody manifestations of  sectarian violence:   Catholicism vs Protestantism. the death of Patrice Lumumba,  Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by  a Hindu fundamentalist, Stalin, World War 2. Who caused it? The Japanese enslaved  millions of Southeast Asians between the 1920s and 1945.

Rich survey but does not address the point I am making.

I am not stating that Muslims who commit evil acts are the only examples of evil in history.

My point is that, at the present time

Islam inspired violence, both at the level of individuals and general groups as in riots,  is the only recurrent form of religious violence in today's  world.

Islam inspired terrorism is the most widespread, consistent and destructive in the world today.

Almost the only religion that has terrorists who derive inspiration from it in today's world is Islam.

The question is

Why?

[kenneth harrow]

dear toyin
i am going to pull a gloria and respond very briefly.
whey i say "it is country or empire," i am attributing the militant actions and violence precisely to ideology.
nationalist ideology, imperial ideology. what did you think i meant when i used those terms? people ally themselves to causes, generally turning beliefs and power on the same grill so as to cook up rationalizations for their actions.
sure, religions can inspire wonderful things. i was addressing the rationalization for violence on religious grounds, which i thought was the topic of the thread
ken

-- 
kenneth w. harrow 
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
har...@msu.edu

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Sure it is realistic to decouple Islam from terrorism by people describng themselves as Muslims.
Any group can give itself a name.

A group can get engaged in widespread kidnapping and sexual slavery
and give itself a religious name.

As for your reference to " Muslims in Northern Nigeria from even before Nigerian Independence to the present day"
I have to frankly tell you that I am not getting involved in that kind of discussion - which is essentially
an attempt to fan the fires of separatism.

Someone else can take it up from here.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:00 PM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

africahistory.net<http://africahistory.net>
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Ademola Dasylva [dasy...@gmail.com<mailto:dasy...@gmail.com>]

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To: Oluwatoyin Adepoju; USAAfrica Dialogue

Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Toyin, I have followed, intimately, your submission and I quite agree with your position which is historically verifiable.

I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim.

I suspect there are Christian preachers, too, whose preaching is clustered with verbal intolerance and violence despite the apparent measured degree ‎of dynamism and accommodativeness.

So how can the sting of intolerance and violence be done with in Islam, so that the emergent new Nigeria can be spared the agony of witnessing ceaseless shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents.

Anyhow, I share your concern Toyin, and whoever has a contrary opinion on this issue should come up with it. I want to be educated on this matter.


Ademola O. Dasylva, ‎
Proudly Nigerian.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:37
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

Reply To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost


Thanks, Kenneth.

I have studied enough of these religions and their histories to present the summations I am making.

My first response on this post lists the various upheavals that have transformed Western civilization since its Christian centred Middle Ages and done something similar for Judaism in terms of the dispersal of the Jews by the Romans.

Islam has not undergone changes of such magnitude.

Perhaps you could share a different perspective emerging from your research on Islam, as evidenced by your books on Islam and African literature and your essays on Islamic mysticism in relation to Camara Laye's The Radiance of the King, along with being Jewish yourself, if I remember correctly.

thanks

toyin

On 11 May 2015 13:05, "Amatoritsero Ede" <esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>>> wrote:
‘Fanatical Islam’ is, again, a misconception here. Those terrorists simply hide behind the veil of Islam to commit crimes against humanity. This is why an American PEN award to Charlie Hebdo is justified and proper. What is not justified is to offer such an award as a reproach to ‘Islamic terrorism,’ in response to cartoons which also wrongly and sacrilegiously lampoon the prophet and Islam. Again terror and Islam are not synonymous. It is the conflation of Islam with terrorism that discomfits everyone from political pundits to presidents or scholars and street side philosophers when they try to approach the subject. It immobilizes moral consensus and the world of policy in legislating against these criminals and social misfits.... http://www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial/


Amatoritsero
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--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
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east lansing, mi 48824

ph. 517 803 8839<tel:517%20803%208839><tel:517%20803%208839>
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[Amatoritsero Ede]

Ken,

Yes, indeed the rationalization of violence through religious is the topic. Oluwatoyin, seems, to me, to be continuing the same rationalizations by insisting that Islam is rooted in violence, without 'properly' historicizing that assertion. I am going to post the essay which initiated the thread because not once has Oluwatoyin referenced it. He read my excerpt of it here and went off. I want folks to see my argument for insisting that Islam has been the mule for all kind of political ideologies for ever and that such abuses of this particular religion intensified in the late 20th/ early 21st century. 

Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Amatoritsero Ede

Contemporary democratic ideals about Freedom of Expression are distilled into that metonymic and tired but valid catchall, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” It is usually buried amongst other common aphorisms – buried, that is, but not forgotten. This is because flowers have grown over that ‘grave’ expression and yielded overgrown fruits. Some of the most round and constipative of them (for human rights violators) are the numerous PEN centres around the world or Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. All are part of about eighty sundry rights NGOs, which make up the umbrella group, International Freedom of Expression Exchange or IFEX.

The Cartoonists Rights Network International is of urgent concern here, even if only indirectly – by way of the Parisian cartoon publication, Charlie Hebdo. It is in support of that lively organ belonging to the body of the aforementioned sister NGO that the American PEN centre suddenly finds itself in ‘cartoonish’ skirmishes in which individual writer-members disagree fiercely in the public and throw large darts – oversized poisoned pens –  at each other across different ideological streets. This is the ghost of the matter – because this situation resurrects the dozen dead French cartoonists cut down in a bitter hailstone of bullets by two  ‘Islamic’ terrorist siblings on 7 January 2015.

It is in the mourning of human rights – twelve times felled – and in showing moral support for, and solidarity with, Charlie Hebdo that American PEN honours that publication during its annual Gala this year. That organization performs its obligation and executes its mandate to protect Freedom of Speech and recognize bravery, fatal and otherwise, and the expressing of the same wherever it appears. Why then does PEN’s traditional salute to Freedom of Expression become the occasion for a divided house? I think that the problem has to do with a confusion arising out of the deployment of the wrong language in describing the right phenomenon. This is ironic for an organization whose membership consists mainly of writers – Poets, Essayist and Novelists (PEN)  – who happen, in this instance, to have been defeated by language. Witness the argument of a small but significant group of protesting American PEN writers:

[o]ur concern is that, by bestowing the Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award on Charlie Hebdo, PEN is not simply conveying support for freedom of expression, but also valorizing selectively offensive material: material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the Western world.

The over-two-hundred signatories to that letter from which the above excerpt is taken have a valid but problematic argument against American PEN as a representative body and against Charlie Hebdo, both of whom, in turn, equally have valid but questionable opinions in this matter. Everyone is right and wrong at the same time and simply talk past each other.

On the one hand, protesting American PEN writer-members suggest, in the language of their letter,  that Charlie Hebdo continues a French colonial ethos of demonizing the Other in a supposedly postcolonial and global world. On the other, the publication’s official position is that its caricatures are a “equal opportunity offense,” which neither discriminates between races nor cherry picks the personalities, institutions or religion it mocks. Charlie Hebdo insists on its right to satirize violence against personal opinion no matter how distasteful. That is irrespective of whether the protest against it provides as evidence the cartoonists’ apparent negation and demonization of the ‘Maghreb’, ‘Islam’ or ‘Arab.’ However, the protesters ignore the fact that a very large population of World Muslims – some Asian, some African, and others European – are not Arabs nor do they live in, or identify with, the Maghreb. Of course, those substantives could stand in as metonymies for the entire Muslim world. But that would ignore the fact that identities are more and more fluid and complex in a global world and that a small crowd, no matter how loud, cannot represent the multifarious population of Muslims in the world – East-meets-West-meets-South and collides with North.

In deploying a binary divisive ‘we-them vs. you-you’ language in their letter, the protesting PEN members unwittingly fall into the trap of a discredited clash of civilization rhetoric reminiscent of Samuel P. Huntington. And all of that because Western relationship to Islam is mediated by a language that seems to have remained static since the Middle Ages when King Richard I (the Lion Heart) of England did battle with Muslim Saracens led by the Sultan Saladin during the Third Crusade. Basically there is an urgent sociolinguistic and theological need to separate the word Muslim or ‘Islam’ from ‘terrorism’ because, by a spiritual equation, a Muslim cannot be a terrorist at the same time. That is irrespective of the fact that some self-proclaimed Muslims interpret the “sword verses” in the Al Quran literally and devoid of historical context for their own political goals – hence another unfortunate and confusing term, ‘political Islam.’ While religion and real-politics can form a toxic and explosive mix, the spiritual is totally anti-political and not at all enamoured with the inordinate material desire for which ‘political Islam’ is a tool.

Cultic behaviour as an ill social force, its admixture with illicit power and the neurotic  and its propensity for evil ought to be re-appraised as 'corrupt religion.' There is a need to stop confusing gross religion with spirituality – whether of the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist variety. Inferior, empty and ritualistic religion – in other words, the cult – is a confine within which some, or groups, of people in the “lunatic fringe” hide and commit acts of terrorism, depravity, dark occultism or demonic behaviour, all of which eschew the spiritual. Such individuals or groups should be seen for what they are – religious and psychic criminals and spiritual outlaws but certainly not Muslims – or Christians or Hindu. To do otherwise is to give these outlaws political legitimacy. To refer to terrorists as 'Muslims' is to aid them in their terrorism.

For example, the cultic American Pastor, Jim Jones, who perpetuated the "Guyana Tragedy" was definitely not a Christian but a cultic thug. That psychotic character murdered over 914, including 200 children, through cyanide poisoning under some mad delusion of a need for instant and collective rapture. He was never seen as a ‘Christian terrorist’ but as a sick criminal and leader of a cult. Nor was David Koresh, the loony, cultic 'prophet' of the Branch Davidians sect seen as a 'Christian terrorist;' he was just a criminal exploiting the Christian religion. That some exploit Islam for dark deeds and declare that they act on behalf of Allah does not make them Muslims. And it does not matter how 'normal' or widespread such behaviour has become. We need new concepts and a new language for describing it. 'Muslim terrorist', 'Islamic terrorist' or 'political Islam' are lazy concepts; collectively they are a confusing and imprecise oxy-moron! This is because murder is against all esoteric laws within any religion. It is 'irreligion' - a deep and frightening ignorance of spiritual matters.

No one, perhaps, is better placed than Salman Rushdie to warn us about the dangers of misconstruing and misunderstanding the nature of terror. For writing the Satanic Verses a fatwa and bounty was placed on his head by a terrorist and cultic irreligious mullah posing as a Muslim. It is imperative to listen to an innocent man forced to hide from terror for many years. In this Charlie Hebdo affair he insinuates the need for a distinction between religious criminals and hijackers of Islam in admonition to the protesting American PEN writers:

“[t]his issue has nothing to do with an oppressed and disadvantaged minority [muslims]. It has everything to do with the battle against fanatical Islam, which is highly organised, well funded, and which seeks to terrify us all, Muslims as well as non Muslims, into a cowed silence.”

‘Fanatical Islam’ is, again, a misconception here. Those terrorists simply hide behind the veil of Islam to commit crimes against humanity. This is why an American PEN award to Charlie Hebdo is justified and proper.  What is not justified is to offer such an award as a reproach to ‘Islamic terrorism,’ in response to cartoons which also wrongly and sacrilegiously lampoon the prophet and Islam. Again terror and Islam are not synonymous. It is the conflation of Islam with terrorism that discomfits everyone from political pundits to presidents or scholars and street side philosophers when they try to approach the subject. It immobilizes moral consensus and the world of policy in legislating against these criminals and social misfits.

And while, Charlie Hebdo appears to be right in satirizing the perceived institutional support for terrorist activity, namely Islam, its prophet and other related icons, that magazine's action lies on the borders of hate speech – if not sacrilege – because of the same problem of definitions pervading the whole affair. All parties involved, including American PEN, are right and wrong at the same time in their different positions. What unites these actors is their failure to re-think the language with which Islam is discussed in the public sphere – a situation which further problematizes popular imaginations of the Islamic and colours political discussions and analyses about Islam, Muslims and radicalism. Everyone seems to have developed a blind spot to the atrophy or inadequacies of the usual language of address where that religion is concerned. Is the terror group, Isis an Islamic group for example? Definitely not; it is a band of criminals which murders Christians as well as Muslims. Their excesses prove the point that Islam and terrorism have nothing in common.

The dissenting writer-members and their representative body, American PEN have been deceived by language. They are both victims of the trickster Yoruba god, Esu, who sets two friends upon each other by sending a man to walk between them wearing a traditional cap coloured totally white on one side and totally black on the other. Both friends see different sides of the same hat and therefore have different languages for describing the same phenomenon. One insists it is white and the other swears it is black. So do these two close friends engage in total battle and so begin the greatest enmity amongst bosom friends. In this wrong-headed PEN family quarrel only the criminal terrorists have won. They must be laughing, re-energised, to their next suicide mission! Is the PEN then mightier than the terrorist sword?

 Amatoritsero

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

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[kenneth harrow]

amatoritsero
your conclusion w eshu is great.
look at the incredible "confusion" now in syria, in iraq, and flaring in egypt etc; the trickster is laughing at humankind's serious effort to kill each other.
i know one thing about eshu now, that i didn't know when i was younger--it is something that makes me call upon cornelius, but i call on everyone on the list who is old enough to be called old: the violent killings don't create anything that lasts. it is folly. maybe the folly of youth or middle age to imagine they can create a  permanent edifice by building on death, but the tower is tilted and won't remain standing.
it is very sad to see people die, sacrificied, to a meaningless cause.
if that sounds harsh, i come back to eshu who asks, what do you think you are accomplishing by fighting? when you are in the fight, you think you know. when you stand outside, that knowledge seems ephemeral.
ken

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

thanks Ken, for the peter geschiere reference on witchcraft

the harry potter books are very good in the first 2 and the rest are very imaginative though not as well written as the others

some of the best work on magic is from Western magical fantasy

toyin

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

"By 'Spiritual' i refer to that which does not have an interest in sense gratification either through sex or material acquisition or wellbeing."

Amatoritsero Ede

We need to distinguish between attitudes to the material world between and within various spiritualities.

Ede's focus is on a particular orientation in Asian thought, particularly in Hinduism and Buddhism  that regards the material universe as largely negative, to put it in a basic sense.

That is only one orientation within those systems however.

Another  orientation recognizes the unity of the absolute  and the world of matter.

This perspective is summed up in the two famous expressions, one from Buddhism and the other from Hinduism.

Buddhism

The Buddhist expression states "Nirvana is in Sangsara and Sangsara is in Nirvana"

Sangsara may be seen as the material universe or the awareness that is limited by the material universe or both.

Nirvana may be understood  as the awareness  of the state of being that is the source of existence.

Older Buddhist thought repudiated the world and the senses as leading to attachment to the impermanent, as represented by the Buddha's famous Fire sermon, in which he declares that the entire world is on fire, the fire of desire kindled by the senses, desire leading to attachment to the necessary impermanence of what delights the senses, when in fact one should strive for what is permanent, beyond change, and which can only be reached through introspective contemplation, enabling  cognitive penetration into nirvana, the state of ultimate awareness.

Later developments emerged  in Buddhist thought that held that what is at stake is the awareness of the cosmos as a manifestation of ultimacy, rather than seeing the material word and the senses and nirvana as being sharply divided.

Hence, nirvana and sangsara coexist in this point of view.

This perspective may lead to renouncing the world to discover ultimate reality in the self and the details of daily experience, as with Zen Buddhist monks or Milarepa, the famous hermit of Tibetan Buddhist, or it may lead to living in the world in pursuit of  the same goal, as with Milarepa's teacher Marpa.

Christmas Humphrey's  Buddhism, I expect, and countless other discussions of the development of Mahayana Buddhism after the earlier emergence of Theravada Buddhism, describe these developments.

Hinduism

This expansive understanding is correlative with the classic expression from the sublime Hindu Soundaryalahari, the Billowing Waves of the Ocean of Beauty,  translated by Dr.Rama Venkatraman and Dr. Uma Krishnaswamy:

When Siva is enjoined with Sakti, he

is empowered to create.

If the lord is not thus, he is indeed

unable to even move.

In which Shiva is understood as the transcendent absolute, beyond time and space,  and Shakti his manifestation as the creation and sustenance of the cosmos. 

Abhinavagupta, in line 66 of volume one of the magnificent Tantraloka, Light on the Tantras,as translated by Mark Dycskowski and adapted here,  states

"It is said in the Kamikagama : "Shiva is (both) formless and omniform, just like water or a mirror (and the images reflected in them). He pervades all things both moving and immobile (and he assumes their form)".

Describing Shakti as the power of Shiva, in line 70 , he declares

"Just as (there is no difference between) the fire's (capacity) to burn and cook (and the fire itself), similarly what difference is there in reality between the various aspects of Shiva (and Shiva himself) conceived by the sentient subject?"

From this platform platform, Abhinavagupta is able to move in his famous chapter 29 to describing the Kula ritual,  an erotic ritual in which the male figure assumes the role of Shiva and the female practitioner that of Shakti, the resulting intensification of  sense perception leading to a penetration to the reality underlying the senses, the absolute that is Shiva, that being my understanding so far of that ritual.

These ideas of the 11th century Abhinavagupta are themselves foreshadowed by the Upanishads, a work at the fountainhead of Indian thought, as in the sublime passages from Book V of the  Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1st millennium BCE)   that identifies each aspect of the physical universe and major aspects of human values  with an aspect of the material and mental  constitution of the human being, and links this complex with  absolute reality-

earth: the body

water: human seed

fire : speech

wind : breath

sun : eye

the [ four] quarters : the ear (s)

moon : mind

lightning: light of the body

thunder : voice

air : hollow of the heart

law: law in the body

truth : truth in the human being

humanity : the Self in the human being

Self that is everywhere : the Self in the human being

 

concluding-

This Self is the Lord of all beings

as all spokes are knit together in a hub

all things, all gods, all men, all lives, all bodies

are knit together in that self

further declaring in the Katha Upanishad that

When a person understands himself,

understands universal Self

the union of the two kindles the Triple Fire

offers the sacrifice then shall they

though still on earth

break the bonds of death

beyond sorrow

mount into heaven

Those example of the various ways in which  Hindu recognition of the unity of the absolute and the contingent is demonstrated. 

Ifa

Ifa and the complex of Orisa spirituality to which it belongs address material needs in a very serious manner.

The bulk of ese ifa, Ifa literature, dep;yct the Orisa or deities in human contexts, as in the story of  of how Orunmila, the male Orisa or deity who is a source of Ifa along with the feminine deity Odu, stole the wife of Death (Wande Abimbola-Ifa Divination Poetry), how his struggles to win a wife at Iwo led to the word for wife in Yoruba- Iyawo- which translatesin this context as "my sufferings at Iwo' (Cromwell Ibie-Ifism), of his flight from his enemies in which stumbling across the house of a single woman who wanted a child, and sharing her bed with her as he slyly steals his way to her side of the bed, leading to her impregnation ( Abimbola- Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa) and other stories of everyday human life, suggesting the scope of the challenges Ifa helps people meet.

Ese Ifa also address issues beyond the details of human experience, but this may be seen as operating  more in terms of the beautiful creation story quoted by Akinsola Akiwowo in `Contributions to the Sociology of Knowledge from an African Oral Poetry" which the world comes to be through the descent of myriad elements that come together to constitute the various forms on earth, suggesting both cosmological and social unity as a primary values, as one might see it, or the one where Orunmila encounters a awesome naked woman in the depths of the forest so as to learn about feminine power as the pivot of existence,  or a great one depicting the Orisa  Esu in terms of the transcendence of laws of nature' Esu throws a stone today and hits a bird yesterday' (Abimbola -Sixteen

The focus of Orisa tradition is not on transcendence of material reality, but may be described as being on the cultivation of ase, the cosmic power that enablers being and becoming through which reality may be understood and shaped as well as of oju inu, the inward eye through which the essential nature of phenomena is perceived, as described by Rowland Abiodun ( Yoruba Art and Literature :Seeking the African in African Art), Babatunde Lwal ( "Representing the Self and its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art" ) Pemberton et al, (Yoruba :Nine Centuries of African art and Thought), among other works.

 

Ifa, which Ede had used as an example  non-material spirituality, earlier,  is primarily a  materially based spirituality,

His description of spirituality " selfless religious activity geared towards raising the level of consciousness so that the living entity can unite with a universal force towards stopping the cycle of birth death and rebirth that is material life" applies only to  Buddhism  and Hinduism, not all spiritualities or religions.

Christianity does not belive in reincarnation.

Classical African sapiritualities  believe in reincarnation but not see rebirth as a negative vde

 schools bcs the idea of

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

To Gloria-

'As for your reference to " Muslims in Northern Nigeria from even before Nigerian Independence to the present day"
I have to frankly tell you that  I am not getting involved in that kind of discussion  -  which is essentially an attempt to fan the fires of separatism.'

A more realistic approach is to take steps to make sure these murderous riots, often inspired by religious contexts,  that are recurrent in Northern Nigeria are brought to an end.

Ignoring them will not eliminate them.

'Sure it is realistic to decouple Islam from terrorism by people describing themselves as Muslims. Any group can give itself a name.

A group can get engaged in widespread kidnapping and  sexual slavery and give  itself  a  religious name'

So, you wish to reduce Boko Haram, Al-Shabbab, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS  and the Malian  rebels to groups who are engaging in terrorism and giving themselves religious names as a cover.

Is that not ignoring the massive evidence that demonstrates a global occurrence of groups with the same or similar ideologies derived from the same religion, Is?

Does it not ignore the history of these groups?

Does it not ignore the question of why these groups, in different regions of the world, are all presenting themselves as all inspired by the same religion?

Does it not ignore the testimonies from members and former members who describe themselves as attracted by the ideologies of the groups?

Does it not ignore the destruction of Islamic and non-Islamic monuments and cultural treasures by the Taliban, the Malian rebels and ISIS bcs they see these as anathema according to their brand of Islam?

Reality cannot be wished away bcs one does not like it.

It has to be confronted at its roots.

One of such necessary confrontations is the deradicalizing or discouragement of radical Islam.

That is being done in Nigeria and England, for example.

In Nigeria, the government has built schools combining Western and Islamic education in order to empower the students of the Almajiri schools who were left incapable of participating in society through the limitations of their Islamic education, this new educational system  making the students  less susceptible to brainwashing and recruitment for violence.

In England, Muslims are enjoined to report any one trying to inspire terrorist sympathies in the Muslim community.

Muslim and non-Muslim scholars in the US, such as Khaled Abou el Fadl and Bernard Lewis and elsewhere  are working hard to educate Muslims and the world about the denigration of the possibilities of Islam represented by Islamic terrorism.

Khaled Abou el Fadl  does this  by countering the ideology of the terrorists with other perspectives from Islamic thought and history and other sources.

These scholars  therefore acknowledge the reality and fight it from within and without.

thanks

toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

To Kenneth-

 'people ally themselves to causes, generally turning beliefs and power on the same grill so as to cook up rationalizations for their actions'

Which comes first- the religious or other ideological inspiration or the resolve to engage in the action?

Does religious violence not emerge from communities and people who practice those religions as a way of life, with violence being one offshoot of that way of life?

To Ede-

'Yes, indeed the rationalization of violence through religious is the topic. Oluwatoyin, seems, to me, to be continuing the same rationalizations by insisting that Islam is rooted in violence'

I am stating that Islam and Judaism enjoin violence in their scriptures.

The scriptural evidence is clear.

Judaism has gone farther away from those crude beginnings than Islam  has.

thanks

toyin

[Amatoritsero Ede]

To Adepoju,

"I am stating that Islam and Judaism enjoin violence in their scriptures."

Those calls to violence in any scripture occur according to time circumstance and place. They are, and ought to be, redundant in the modern world. It is instructive that the Old testament of the Bible has been replaced by the new after the coming of Christ. That underscores the need to contextualize scriptural violence. Adherents of specific religions need not behave as if we still live in the 11th century. But some insist on reading sections of the scripture that suits their political ( violent ) goals. Religion, like society, undergoes improvement and modernization. Hence some women have just been ordained catholic priests, not nuns, priests. The new pope understands that religion is meant for society and as society develops and changes, religious dogma has to change as well and be more progressive.  See http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/ordained.htm

Ama

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Oluwatoyin,

My first name is Amatoritsero or you can use the short form, Ama. It is weird you  typing 'Ede' all the time.

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

[kenneth harrow]

here is a short answer to your main point, toyin:
the militant, jihadist groups you refer to below are in conflict with the vast majority of mainstream muslims.
not only that, that has been true largely from the beginning. the only one of them who has positioned itself as primarily against the west and western secularism is al qaeda, and that was run by an outsider--osama bin ladin, a saudi--who lived in exile from his home country, living in a country, afghanistan, struggling against a russian led rule, and supported by the cia.
do you think that represented mainstream islam?

as for the muslim  brotherhoods, as in egypt, whom do you think they were targeting if not the u.s. supported mubarek dictatorship. their home country ruler.

you are misleading us if you think these groups represent mainstream islam, no matter how much they might claim religious authority.
mali? is it really necessary to rehearse these obvious points, that it was touareg who were fleeing libya, armed and able to overcome malian forces. the banner was muslim, the cause was touareg.
syria? etc.
isis and iraq, etc.

there is a real issue here, behind the attacks on these militant groups, and that is islamophobia. all these readings of islam as fundamentally different, and militaristic, compared with other world religions is not only incorrect historically, but a misreading of how religion develops historically.
it is meaningless to look at its foundational texts, and then cite passages as though it gave definition to the actual historical understandings of the religions, which changed enormously over time. religions are nothing but historically constructed understandings, and why ask of someone in the past to read the world in terms that fit what would be the future for them?

everyone is opposed to the ugly abuses practiced by these groups in the name of islam--and no one is more opposed than other muslims. but when the attack against those groups turns into attacks on muslims--as is the case in the west, everywhere--then that makes it extremely difficult for muslims to both defend themselves and to combat the extremist elements within their ranks. that's when we have the sad spectacle of young muslim men heading off to syria, despite their poor families.
ken

har...@msu.edu

[kenneth harrow]

hear, hear.

[Dhikru Yagboyaju]

Im excited by these dispassionate views on Islam and Muslims.Like I always say it'll be wrong to crucify all followers of Christ because of the character of Judas Iscariot or what Dimka did in Nigeria in 1976

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

"A more realistic approach is to take steps to make sure these murderous riots, often inspired by religious
contexts, that are recurrent in Northern Nigeria are brought to an end.
Ignoring them will not eliminate them."

Adepoju

Agreed but speak to political actors and agencies such as the Jonathan regime for refusing to confront
the violence in a meaningful and timely fashion, and for engaging in political opportunism until the very last moment of his regime.

If you take Plateau State, for example, one of the underlying causes of the conflict is land and resource sharing.
Some of the " indigenes" of Plateau believe that they are not getting a fair peace of the economic pie as compared
to Hausa/ Fulani migrants.The conflict is really fundamentally an economic one couched in religious and theological
dogma on all sides.

" Does it not ignore the question of why these groups, in different regions of the world, are all presenting
themselves as all inspired by the same religion? Does it not ignore the testimonies from members
and former members who describe themselves as attracted by the ideologies of the groups?"

Adepoju




Now these are interesting questions, asked with impressive rhetorical and oratorical flourish.



The last question is the most important. Why do these movements get recruits? Once you try to answer the

question of recruits and recruitment,with an eye on the sociological and historical context of these movements,

then you get closer to the solution. Theological niceties actually retreat into the background.





Let us briefly take the groups you cited, individually:

Al-Shabbab, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, the Malian rebels and finally Boko Haram.





Al- Shabab



(a) Destabilization of the Somali economy during the dictatorship of Siad Barre
(b) IMF World bank demands for the complete removal of subsidies that led to increased pauperization
and the exponential growth in unemployment
(d) Enhanced unemployment due to the depletion of fisheries in the Red Sea area as a result of toxic dumping etc
(c) The emergence of power driven groups successful in
the manipulation of countless of unemployed young males and former pirates

Al Qaeda, the Taliban & ISIS

(a) Proxy wars involving the coldwar antagonists
(b) US training and funding aimed at destabiling Russia during Soviet occupation
(c) Rise of a demagogue and psychopath in the form of Bin Laden
(d) Recruitment of unemployed youth on the margins of society
(e) The Palestinian- Jewish factor; resentment at the" unauthorized" creation
and " imposition" of the state of Israel in 1948 by the former colonial power, Britain
(f) In the case of ISIS, initial US funding aimed at destabilizing the Assad regime -
viewed as an ally of Iran, hostile to its ally Israel .
(g) Note also the recruitment into the renegade movement of ISIS by
disgruntled and marginalized European citizens, lured
into the terrorist network by generous funds.
(h) The destabilization of Iraq following the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein
would also facilitate ISIS recruitment

Malian rebels

(a) Tuareg nationalism and separatism.
(b) Ethnic tension between the Malinke and Tuareg.
(c) Unemployment enhanced by environmental degradation, Sahel dessication,
and inept policy making and governance on the part of the central government.
(d) Political opportunism and duplicity of the Sarkozy
and Hollande.
(e) The Gadaffi factor: armed returnees from a destabilized Libya.


Boko Haram


(a) Recruitment from masses of unemployed school leavers and others due to economic inadequacies.
(b) Rise of local demagogues with ambitions of empire building in the Lake Chad region.
(c) External Funding from countries with trans- regional aspirations such as Qatar.
(d) Complicity of local political opportunists.
(e) The Gadaffi destabilization factor, and the massive flow of skilled militants and weapons
into the Niger/Chad/Nigerian/Cameroonian zone.
(f) Possibility of Kanuri- Hausa ethnic tension ( Not sure about this).
(g) Initial group perception of undue persecution of leadership.


Please, don't forget to place your analysis in a historical and sociological context before arriving at
the conclusion that you eventually take.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com]

Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 7:25 AM

To: USAAfrica Dialogue
Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

To Gloria-

'As for your reference to " Muslims in Northern Nigeria from even before Nigerian Independence to the present day"
I have to frankly tell you that I am not getting involved in that kind of discussion - which is essentially an attempt to fan the fires of separatism.'

A more realistic approach is to take steps to make sure these murderous riots, often inspired by religious contexts, that are recurrent in Northern Nigeria are brought to an end.

Ignoring them will not eliminate them.

'Sure it is realistic to decouple Islam from terrorism by people describing themselves as Muslims. Any group can give itself a name.

A group can get engaged in widespread kidnapping and sexual slavery and give itself a religious name'

So, you wish to reduce Boko Haram, Al-Shabbab, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS and the Malian rebels to groups who are engaging in terrorism and giving themselves religious names as a cover.

Is that not ignoring the massive evidence that demonstrates a global occurrence of groups with the same or similar ideologies derived from the same religion, Is?

Does it not ignore the history of these groups?

Does it not ignore the question of why these groups, in different regions of the world, are all presenting themselves as all inspired by the same religion?

Does it not ignore the testimonies from members and former members who describe themselves as attracted by the ideologies of the groups?

Does it not ignore the destruction of Islamic and non-Islamic monuments and cultural treasures by the Taliban, the Malian rebels and ISIS bcs they see these as anathema according to their brand of Islam?

Reality cannot be wished away bcs one does not like it.

It has to be confronted at its roots.

One of such necessary confrontations is the deradicalizing or discouragement of radical Islam.

That is being done in Nigeria and England, for example.

In Nigeria, the government has built schools combining Western and Islamic education in order to empower the students of the Almajiri schools who were left incapable of participating in society through the limitations of their Islamic education, this new educational system making the students less susceptible to brainwashing and recruitment for violence.

In England, Muslims are enjoined to report any one trying to inspire terrorist sympathies in the Muslim community.

Muslim and non-Muslim scholars in the US, such as Khaled Abou el Fadl <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Abou_El_Fadl> and Bernard Lewis<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Lewis> and elsewhere are working hard to educate Muslims and the world about the denigration of the possibilities of Islam represented by Islamic terrorism.

Khaled Abou el Fadl <https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/khaled-m-abou-el-fadl/> does this by countering the ideology of the terrorists with other perspectives from Islamic thought and history and other sources.

These scholars therefore acknowledge the reality and fight it from within and without.

thanks

toyin










On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 8:32 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@mail.ccsu.edu<mailto:emea...@mail.ccsu.edu>> wrote:
Sure it is realistic to decouple Islam from terrorism by people describng themselves as Muslims.
Any group can give itself a name.

A group can get engaged in widespread kidnapping and sexual slavery
and give itself a religious name.

As for your reference to " Muslims in Northern Nigeria from even before Nigerian Independence to the present day"
I have to frankly tell you that I am not getting involved in that kind of discussion - which is essentially
an attempt to fan the fires of separatism.

Someone else can take it up from here.


Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050

africahistory.net<http://africahistory.net>
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com<mailto:toyind...@gmail.com>]

Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:00 PM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

africahistory.net<http://africahistory.net><http://africahistory.net>
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos><http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>>] On Behalf Of Ademola Dasylva [dasy...@gmail.com<mailto:dasy...@gmail.com><mailto:dasy...@gmail.com<mailto:dasy...@gmail.com>>]

Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 10:00 PM
To: Oluwatoyin Adepoju; USAAfrica Dialogue

Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>>; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>>; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Toyin, I have followed, intimately, your submission and I quite agree with your position which is historically verifiable.

I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim.

I suspect there are Christian preachers, too, whose preaching is clustered with verbal intolerance and violence despite the apparent measured degree ?of dynamism and accommodativeness.

So how can the sting of intolerance and violence be done with in Islam, so that the emergent new Nigeria can be spared the agony of witnessing ceaseless shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents.

Anyhow, I share your concern Toyin, and whoever has a contrary opinion on this issue should come up with it. I want to be educated on this matter.

Ademola O. Dasylva, ?

Proudly Nigerian.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:37
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

Reply To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost


Thanks, Kenneth.

I have studied enough of these religions and their histories to present the summations I am making.

My first response on this post lists the various upheavals that have transformed Western civilization since its Christian centred Middle Ages and done something similar for Judaism in terms of the dispersal of the Jews by the Romans.

Islam has not undergone changes of such magnitude.

Perhaps you could share a different perspective emerging from your research on Islam, as evidenced by your books on Islam and African literature and your essays on Islamic mysticism in relation to Camara Laye's The Radiance of the King, along with being Jewish yourself, if I remember correctly.

thanks

toyin

On 11 May 2015 13:05, "Amatoritsero Ede" <esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>>>> wrote:
'Fanatical Islam' is, again, a misconception here. Those terrorists simply hide behind the veil of Islam to commit crimes against humanity. This is why an American PEN award to Charlie Hebdo is justified and proper. What is not justified is to offer such an award as a reproach to 'Islamic terrorism,' in response to cartoons which also wrongly and sacrilegiously lampoon the prophet and Islam. Again terror and Islam are not synonymous. It is the conflation of Islam with terrorism that discomfits everyone from political pundits to presidents or scholars and street side philosophers when they try to approach the subject. It immobilizes moral consensus and the world of policy in legislating against these criminals and social misfits.... http://www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial/


Amatoritsero
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[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Beautiful-

'They are, and ought to be, redundant in the modern world. It is instructive that the Old testament of the Bible has been replaced by the new after the coming of Christ. That underscores the need to contextualize scriptural violence. Adherents of specific religions need not behave as if we still live in the 11th century. But some insist on reading sections of the scripture that suits their political ( violent ) goals. Religion, like society, undergoes improvement and modernization.'

May the Islamic extremists assimilate  this message.

toyin

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks, Gloria Emeagwali.

Your social contextualization is rich but  focuses purely on sociological and historical contexts that you choose to privilege, while ignoring the role of religious  ideology, a central dynamic in the lives of the communities in question, shaping extremism and catalyzing destructive responses to situations.

Examples- the first Nigerian terrorist was the so called pants bomber bcs his bomb got stuck in his pants.

He was a Muslim and  the son of a very rich man.

What negative social contexts motivated him?

Why are Christians or traditional religion worshipers in Nigeria not engaging in recurrent murderous riots decade after decade in Nigeria but Northern Nigerian Muslims do?

Why are Southern Nigerian Muslims not known for such activity?

It cant be all Northern Nigerian Muslims who engage in such activity, but it has become so consistent and attracts practically no response from the Northern Nigerian Muslim society generally, that such destructive activity can be described as part of the culture of the Muslim North.

On the Federal Government's Response to Boko Haram

The Nigerian government's military  response to Boko Haram emerged in three  stages-

1.Through  urban combat,   using the Joint Task Force, combating the Islamic terrorists in their embedding in the Northern Nigerian Muslim population from which they bombed churches and attacked govt installations on a regular basis- 2011-2013

2. The institution of the state of emergency which enabled greater powers of searching and apprehension, and, with the help of Northern  Civilian Joint Task Force, leading to eventual uprooting of the terrorists from their urban entrenchments , pushing the terrorists to the outskirts of Borno state and the Sambisa forest , thereby greatly reducing their attacks - 2013-2014

3. The response to the Chibok sabotage by the Borno state governor who kept the Chibok school open, contravening the fed govt's order that all schools in those remote regions remain closed for security reasons, thereby enabling the Chibok kidnap story.

The govt's  response was in  increased mobilization of neighboring countries in the war agst Boko Haram , the purchase of arms in the face of opposition from the US and her allies and the further decisive onslaught on the terrorists-  2014- 2015

All these initiatives were made more difficult by the ambivalence of the Northern Nigerian Muslim elite, who, at various times since the 2011 Boko Haram escalation after President Jonathan was sworn in

declared Boko Haram were  fighters for justice- Bamanga Tukur-then PDP chairman

that Boko Haram was the outcome of Northern poverty emerging from inadequate allocations to the North while some Southern states had more money than they could judiciously use- Lamido Sanusi- then CBN governor, a position addressed by Ugochukwu Ogubuariri in "Boko Haram Insurgency And The Myth Of Northern Marginalization"

that  war agst Boko Haram was a war agst the North- Muhammadu Buhari

all this agst the background of  leading Northern Muslim politician Abubakar Atku's 2010/2011  declaration that  PDP's refusal to field a Northerner, meaning a Northern Muslim,  as their  2011 Presidential candidate meant that 'those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable", a threat shown in the shot below from his Twitter page


                                                                                       
​

the attitude demonstrated by Atiku Abubakar being germinal to the integration of Boko Haram in the Northern Muslim population from 2011 - 2013, presenting themselves as Muslim warriors fighting an infidel govt and Christians in support of Muslims, gaining them some support reinforced through terror created by killing informers agst them, info on informers being leaked to them through moles in the security services.

Among other initiatives from members of the Northern Muslim elite which did not help the situation- demands by the Borno elders that the Joint Task Force be withdrawn from Borno state, that Ihejerika, who led the successful push agst Boko Haram be removed, that Boko Haram be negotiated with and offered amnesty, which the group eventually rejected, that National Security Adviser Azazi who had identified the Boko Haram escalation as ignited by disappointments over who became PDP Presidential candidate be replaced by Dasuki ( if I remember well why Azazi was replaced), who led negotiations that did not work etc

Summation-

Dogmatic religion, such as Islam currently is, inspires fanaticism and makes people open to mobilization by people who are seen as belonging to the same religion.

Other dogmatic religions do not have the political reach, the ideological purity or the depth of adherence, among other intrinsic factors  that makes Islamic terrorism possible, whether it is seen as primarily

Thanks

toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks, Kenneth Harrow.

I am stating that these terrorist groups and recurrent acts of violence, often murderous, in support of Islam by Muslims are extreme  demonstration of tendencies in the religion's scriptures and history.

Islam is a religion of both peace and violence.

Christianity and Judaism are religions of both peace and violence.

These  two tendencies are demonstrated in their scriptures and history.

Other religions, including Hinduism, its scripture the Rig Veda declaring that some human beings were formed from the feet of God, leading to their being  treated as the lowest class, if I remember well, and which had a tradition of wife burning on the dearth of her husband in imitation of the Goddess Parvati who immolated herself in protest agst ill treatment of her husband Shiva, also encodes violent and peaceful attitudes in both its scriptures and history.

Islam, however, is the only religion in today's world whose members are known for recurrent murderous violence in defense of the religion, whether as individuals, in civilian group riots or religious terrorism.

This is fact, and insisting on acknowledging and addressing  this fact is not the same as Islamophobia.

Its also not the same as stating all Muslims are violent and terror prone.

Its a recognition of a problem unique to a particular religion at this point in time, and which erupts periodically across the globe, either in Muslim elite responses like the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, the deaths that followed the fatwa, the unrest and deaths over the anti-Muhammed cartoons, murderous riots in Northern Nigeria bcs of a crusade, a beauty pageant, elections, the 1966 counter coup  etc.

'everyone is opposed to the ugly abuses practiced by these groups in the name of islam--and no one is more opposed than other muslims.'

Not necessarily true.

A variety of responses to these developments are demonstrated by Muslims.

One is justification in the name of 'provocation'.

Another is selective rejection.

Another is complete rejection.

Another is complete identification.

This range of  responses is  reported in the news and demonstrated in less prominent actions on social media and other contexts.

I have encountered all these responses personally.

thanks

toyin

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Oluwatoyin,

The Islmaic extremist will never assimilate it by themselves. We have to make them do it by taking away their  religious legitimacy they give themselves by separating the word 'Islamic' from 'extremist.' We give them power by agreeing with them that they are muslim, islamic etcetera. "We need names" as Noviolet Bulawayo titles her novel.

Ama

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

[kenneth harrow]

toyin, you wrote: "Islam, however, is the only religion in today's world whose members are known for recurrent murderous violence in defense of the religion, whether as individuals, in civilian group riots or religious terrorism."

we have war on the left hand and war on the right hand. in all cases, those pursuing the war justify it on the grounds that they are defending their own--their own land, people, interests.

if you read althusser he argues that secular education has replaced religion as the dominant basis for ideology throughout the west. it is probably the case throughout the world. no one teaches medieval or ancient medicine; everyone flies these days.

so where is this islamic exceptionalism? in nigeria christians kill muslims just as muslims kill christians; churches are bombed, mosques are blown up. as everyone knows the plateau region around jos is a place of killings and counter killings.

the same conflict, couched in communities that identify themselves as christian and muslim is occurring in the central african republic.
when the acholi sought to resist musaveni, their militant wing was called "the lord's resistance army."

or maybe you want to tell me about the beautiful, transcendental, intellectually superior religion called buddhism, whose devotees would never attack other people.
except in sri lanka; except in cambodia; or the case of the muslim rohinyas now being slaughtered in myanmar by the buddhist regime.

what religion is it that leads putin to slaughter muslims in chechnya if not the religion of today called nation-statism. when chechnyans resist, they are called terrorists. hmmm, where have i heard that word before?
when muslims attempt to rally their supporters in a region against their antagonists, they can appeal to a regional identity, a religious identity, or both. christians do the same--although the christian identitarian appeal against muslims in the u.s. is more muted, it clearly lies behind the self-righteous attacks on muslims.
in france that self-righteous attack is called secularism, so the extremist muslim response is to attack the secularists.

as i read it, you want to claim that loving your religion, if it is islam, is different from loving your country. sorry, the bombs can't tell the difference.
the identity politics that lead people to identify themselves as jewish or muslim or christian is the same as that which leads people to identify as americans or french or nigerians, and the appeal to fight and die for the country, for one's country, pour la patrie, is celebrating the Arcs de triomphe, with monuments, with national holidays, with memorials, etc etc. etc.

even on this list, i read with some sorrow when Israel and Jew are confounded, as when gloria cites the conflict between palestinians and jews.
it is israel, not jews. but israel has worked hard to identify itself as a "jewish state," so when there are palestinian rockets, it is both israelis and jews, with a few occasional christians, who are identified as victims.

the examples that belie the claim of islamic exceptionalism are endless. how about the 20 yr war in lebanon? who was fighting the muslims? (answer, the christians). and if it is muslim against muslim, as in syria (not counting the regime's christian allies), does that demonstrate muslim militancy? if so, how do you account for the slaughter of muslims, peace loving muslims, in bosnia? by whom? you don't want to hear--christian croats or serbs.

there are also illustrative cases where christian and muslim get along, but they are complicated. i am thinking of senegal; but thinking more of the work i have to get done now, and how i have to stop
ken

[Amatoritsero Ede]

Ken,

Like others here, you give this debate perspective by questioning of "islamic exceptionalism."  A bomb is a bomb is a bomb. The appeal to Althusser is apt. 

 

Amatoritsero Ede, PhD

Publisher and Managing Editor

Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS

at www.mtls.ca

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[kenneth harrow]

right, and a bomb isn't a rose!!
ken

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

"Why are Southern Nigerian Muslims not known for

such activity?" Oluwatoyin

This is where your entire argument collapses on the floor
like an empty sack of rice.

If it is all about Islam, the religion,
as you have been arguing, then there should be no difference between
northern and southern Muslims . Right?

Methinks that you are really arguing about
regionalism and ethnicity. That is why I ran to the hills initially, you may recall.

I appreciate your erudition, though, and think you should be in a department
of philosophy. Thanks also for the handy update on BH.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com]

Sent: Friday, May 15, 2015 5:53 AM

To: USAAfrica Dialogue
Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Thanks, Gloria Emeagwali.

Your social contextualization is rich but focuses purely on sociological and historical contexts that you choose to privilege, while ignoring the role of religious ideology, a central dynamic in the lives of the communities in question, shaping extremism and catalyzing destructive responses to situations.

Examples- the first Nigerian terrorist was the so called pants bomber bcs his bomb got stuck in his pants.

He was a Muslim and the son of a very rich man.

What negative social contexts motivated him?

Why are Christians or traditional religion worshipers in Nigeria not engaging in recurrent murderous riots decade after decade in Nigeria but Northern Nigerian Muslims do?

Why are Southern Nigerian Muslims not known for such activity?

It cant be all Northern Nigerian Muslims who engage in such activity, but it has become so consistent and attracts practically no response from the Northern Nigerian Muslim society generally, that such destructive activity can be described as part of the culture of the Muslim North.

On the Federal Government's Response to Boko Haram

The Nigerian government's military response to Boko Haram emerged in three stages-

1.Through urban combat, using the Joint Task Force, combating the Islamic terrorists in their embedding in the Northern Nigerian Muslim population from which they bombed churches and attacked govt installations on a regular basis- 2011-2013

2. The institution of the state of emergency which enabled greater powers of searching and apprehension, and, with the help of Northern Civilian Joint Task Force, leading to eventual uprooting of the terrorists from their urban entrenchments , pushing the terrorists to the outskirts of Borno state and the Sambisa forest , thereby greatly reducing their attacks - 2013-2014

3. The response to the Chibok sabotage by the Borno state governor who kept the Chibok school open, contravening the fed govt's order that all schools in those remote regions remain closed for security reasons, thereby enabling the Chibok kidnap story.

The govt's response was in increased mobilization of neighboring countries in the war agst Boko Haram , the purchase of arms in the face of opposition from the US and her allies and the further decisive onslaught on the terrorists- 2014- 2015

All these initiatives were made more difficult by the ambivalence of the Northern Nigerian Muslim elite, who, at various times since the 2011 Boko Haram escalation after President Jonathan was sworn in

declared Boko Haram were fighters for justice<http://www.punchng.com/news/boko-haram-fighting-for-justice-tukur/>- Bamanga Tukur-then PDP chairman

that Boko Haram was the outcome of Northern poverty emerging from inadequate allocations to the North while some Southern states had more money than they could judiciously use<http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/sanusi-links-boko-haram-to-derivation/108039/>- Lamido Sanusi- then CBN governor, a position addressed by Ugochukwu Ogubuariri in "Boko Haram Insurgency And The Myth Of Northern Marginalization<http://saharareporters.com/2012/04/16/boko-haram-insurgency-and-myth-northern-marginalization-ugochukwu-raymond-ogubuariri>"


that war agst Boko Haram was a war agst the North<http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/buhari-military-offensive-against-boko-haram-anti-north/149256/>- Muhammadu Buhari

all this agst the background of leading Northern Muslim politician Abubakar Atku's 2010/2011 declaration that PDP's refusal to field a Northerner, meaning a Northern Muslim, as their 2011 Presidential candidate meant that 'those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable", a threat shown in the shot below from his Twitter page

[cid:ii_i9pd90rj0_14d56c5b2acb7a46]

africahistory.net<http://africahistory.net>
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com<mailto:toyind...@gmail.com>]

Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 7:25 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

africahistory.net<http://africahistory.net><http://africahistory.net>
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos><http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________

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Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:00 PM
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Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>>; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>>; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

africahistory.net<http://africahistory.net><http://africahistory.net><http://africahistory.net>
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos><http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos><http://vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________

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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Toyin, I have followed, intimately, your submission and I quite agree with your position which is historically verifiable.

I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim.

I suspect there are Christian preachers, too, whose preaching is clustered with verbal intolerance and violence despite the apparent measured degree ?of dynamism and accommodativeness.

So how can the sting of intolerance and violence be done with in Islam, so that the emergent new Nigeria can be spared the agony of witnessing ceaseless shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents.

Anyhow, I share your concern Toyin, and whoever has a contrary opinion on this issue should come up with it. I want to be educated on this matter.


Ademola O. Dasylva, ?
Proudly Nigerian.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:37
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost


Thanks, Kenneth.

I have studied enough of these religions and their histories to present the summations I am making.

My first response on this post lists the various upheavals that have transformed Western civilization since its Christian centred Middle Ages and done something similar for Judaism in terms of the dispersal of the Jews by the Romans.

Islam has not undergone changes of such magnitude.

Perhaps you could share a different perspective emerging from your research on Islam, as evidenced by your books on Islam and African literature and your essays on Islamic mysticism in relation to Camara Laye's The Radiance of the King, along with being Jewish yourself, if I remember correctly.

thanks

toyin

On 11 May 2015 13:05, "Amatoritsero Ede" <esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>>><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com><mailto:esul...@gmail.com<mailto:esul...@gmail.com>>>>> wrote:
'Fanatical Islam' is, again, a misconception here. Those terrorists simply hide behind the veil of Islam to commit crimes against humanity. This is why an American PEN award to Charlie Hebdo is justified and proper. What is not justified is to offer such an award as a reproach to 'Islamic terrorism,' in response to cartoons which also wrongly and sacrilegiously lampoon the prophet and Islam. Again terror and Islam are not synonymous. It is the conflation of Islam with terrorism that discomfits everyone from political pundits to presidents or scholars and street side philosophers when they try to approach the subject. It immobilizes moral consensus and the world of policy in legislating against these criminals and social misfits.... http://www.mtls.ca/issue19/editorial/


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[Mensah, Edward K]

Good question, my sister!!

Kwaku Mensah
University of Illinois at Chicago

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[Chidi Anthony Opara]

“If it is all about Islam, the religion, as you have been arguing, then there should be no difference between northern and southern Muslims. Right?” (Emeagwali Gloria).

 “I suspect its bcs the cultural cleansing created by the Jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio in the North did not take place in the South, bcs of the distance of Yorubaland from the centre of the Fulani Jihad, enabling the survival of the more pluralistic classical attitudes of Yoruba religious culture  even in such Islamic bastions as Kwara State.” (Oluwatoyin Adepoju)

 

CAO.

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadi...@googlegroups.com> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadi...@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com<mailto:toyind...@gmail.com>]

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadi...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadi...@googlegroups.com>> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadi...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadi...@googlegroups.com>>] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com<mailto:toyind...@gmail.com><mailto:toyind...@gmail.com<mailto:toyind...@gmail.com>>]

Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:00 PM
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Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 10:00 PM
To: Oluwatoyin Adepoju; USAAfrica Dialogue

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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Toyin, I have followed, intimately, your submission and I quite agree with your position which is historically verifiable.

I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim.

 I suspect there are Christian preachers, too, whose preaching is clustered with verbal intolerance and violence despite the apparent measured degree ?of dynamism and accommodativeness.

So how can the sting of intolerance and violence be done with in Islam, so that the emergent new Nigeria can be spared the agony of witnessing ceaseless shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents.

Anyhow, I share your concern Toyin, and whoever has a contrary opinion on this issue should come up with it. I want to be educated on this matter.


Ademola O. Dasylva, ?
Proudly Nigerian.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:37
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

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This is the vision of ISIS, of the Malian Muslim rebels, of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and of  Boko Haram in Nigeria, and I expect, of Al-Shabbab in Somalia and  K...

[kenneth harrow]

i believe...that historical forces, material conditions, are the major factors in shaping what marx called superstructure, i.e., ideology, beliefs, including religious beliefs which change with material conditions. that is totally the opposite from the notion that ideas, let's say those of a shehu who lived and died 200 years ago, shape patterns of thought or belief.
i am not talking about determinism, but the basic way historical forces work.
and i find it beyond belief that that 200 years that intervened, with colonialist conquest, occupation, formation, and then departure, followed by almost 60 years of postcolonialism, would not have continued to shape and reshape the material conditions, the ideological thought, during all that time

i also believe that things change, more or less quickly, including the ways people live and believe, the ways they interact with others, everywhere on earth.

that's why i do not believe that uthman dan fodio, or george washington, who lived at the same time, had the slightest thing to do with today's people, or their beliefs.
secondly, if i picked up anything about islam in the north, it is that there are enormous divisions between the northeast and northwest, which are antagonist with each other. the focus on north south occludes that more important site of regional struggle.

ken

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[Anunoby, Ogugua]

Are ideas not critical factors in the articulation, bundling, and unfolding of historical forces and in many cases material conditions too, that human beings and not the physical environment are most directly responsible for?

I am inclined to believe that other than the physical environment, the human agency is responsible for the other environments- cultural, economic, political, social, and others. All human actions start as human thought which become ideas down the road.

 

oa  

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyind...@gmail.com<mailto:toyind...@gmail.com>]

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Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:00 PM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

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Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 10:00 PM
To: Oluwatoyin Adepoju; USAAfrica Dialogue

Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>>>; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>>>; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Toyin, I have followed, intimately, your submission and I quite agree with your position which is historically verifiable.

I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim.

 I suspect there are Christian preachers, too, whose preaching is clustered with verbal intolerance and violence despite the apparent measured degree ?of dynamism and accommodativeness.

So how can the sting of intolerance and violence be done with in Islam, so that the emergent new Nigeria can be spared the agony of witnessing ceaseless shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents.

Anyhow, I share your concern Toyin, and whoever has a contrary opinion on this issue should come up with it. I want to be educated on this matter.


Ademola O. Dasylva, ?
Proudly Nigerian.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:37
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

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[kenneth harrow]

well, that is the debate between idealism and materialism. it all started between marx and hegel, and grew since then.
i like raymond williams's approach, or stuart hall's approach. the generate the leftism of cultural studies, and makes the most sense to me when asking the questions you raised. from them i go to mouffe and laclau.
i'd be curious to know what are the major intellectual influences for others on the list. i mean, i like many thinkers, from foucault to mudimbe to mbembe to butler to ferguson etc. but the foundational thinkers who created cultural studies seem crucial to me.
ken

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Gloria Emeagwali,

I salute you, as one seeker of knowledge to another.

You could not have given me the level of attention you have if you did not respect my approach, even though you disagree with my views.

thanks

toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Chidi,

“If it is all about Islam, the religion, as you have been arguing, then there should be no difference between northern and southern Muslims. Right?” (Emeagwali Gloria).

 “I suspect its bcs the cultural cleansing created by the Jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio in the North did not take place in the South, bcs of the distance of Yorubaland from the centre of the Fulani Jihad, enabling the survival of the more pluralistic classical attitudes of Yoruba religious culture  even in such Islamic bastions as Kwara State.” (Oluwatoyin Adepoju)

 

CAO.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

toyin

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Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:00 PM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>>; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>>; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>>> [usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>>>] On Behalf Of Ademola Dasylva [dasy...@gmail.com<mailto:dasy...@gmail.com><mailto:dasy...@gmail.com<mailto:dasy...@gmail.com>><mailto:dasy...@gmail.com<mailto:dasy...@gmail.com><mailto:dasy...@gmail.com<mailto:dasy...@gmail.com>>>]

Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 10:00 PM
To: Oluwatoyin Adepoju; USAAfrica Dialogue

Cc: toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu><mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu<mailto:toyin....@mail.utexas.edu>>>; Akinjide Prof. OSUNTOKUN; Kehinde; Patrick Edebor; Redeemer's University Vice-Chancellor; REGISTRAR REGISTRAR; samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk><mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:samade...@yahoo.co.uk>>>; Adebola Adebileje; Victor Broda Adetimirin Prof

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Charlie Hebdo's Ghost

Toyin, I have followed, intimately, your submission and I quite agree with your position which is historically verifiable.

I am not sure your intention for posting this historical facts was to deride Islam , but rather to express a genuine concern for its rigidity and refusal to, like other major religions of the world, accommodate any form of dynamism which has characterized every human culture. It foregrounds Islam's apparent volatility, intolerance and bloody violence. People of Islamic faith who neither share nor support the religious-induced violence do so, not because Islam does not teach intolerance and violence, rather they do so because of their individual level of exposure to civility and accommodativeness which contemporary civilization encourages globally. The puritan-Islamists, so to say, are the ones prone to violence and barely tolerate people of other faith. It explains the difference between a Southern Yoruba Muslim and a Northern Fulani/Hausa Muslim.

 I suspect there are Christian preachers, too, whose preaching is clustered with verbal intolerance and violence despite the apparent measured degree ?of dynamism and accommodativeness.

So how can the sting of intolerance and violence be done with in Islam, so that the emergent new Nigeria can be spared the agony of witnessing ceaseless shedding of innocent blood on account of religious insurgents.

Anyhow, I share your concern Toyin, and whoever has a contrary opinion on this issue should come up with it. I want to be educated on this matter.


Ademola O. Dasylva, ?
Proudly Nigerian.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:37
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

Reply To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com>>>

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