Last week, I was invited to travel to the United Arab Emirates to speak about the Charter for Compassion. The Middle East is, of course, at the center of many of our current political problems and it is obviously not easy for a region, wracked by conflict, to embrace the compassionate ideal. Yet Muslims have been especially active in the promotion of the Charter, none more so, perhaps, than TEDster Badr Jafar, Executive Director at the Crescent Petroleum group of companies, based in the United Arab Emirates.
Badr was convinced that the best way of introducing the Charter into the Middle East was through the UAE, which was far enough from the tragic cycle of warfare to take a more positive and dispassionate view. For nearly a year now, despite his massive business commitments, Badr has spread the word about the Charter throughout the UAE and the Middle East. He is a heroic ambassador of compassion.
In this part of the world, the support of a charismatic leader of known integrity can make all the difference, especially at a time when a project emanating from the West is likely to seem suspect. When Badr presented the Charter to H.H. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohamed al-Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, the Ruler, appreciating its relevance in the Middle East, became the first Arab leader to affirm the Charter, and warmly invited me to visit the UAE.
Sharjah is often called the cultural capital of the Emirates and that is in no small part due to the Ruler, whose achievements in the cause of education are already legendary and who is deeply respected in the region. In 1997, in a single year, he built the vast complex known as University City, which has become a centre of excellence in the Middle East. It includes two major universities, a medical school, a teaching hospital, and an institute of higher technology.
It is not often that I am lost for words, but when I arrived on the campus last week to give the first of two lectures and to meet with professors and staff, I was dumbfounded. Instead of the functional buildings I was expecting, I was looking at a vision of beauty. Set in landscaped grounds, almost as far as the eye could see, were white, perfectly proportioned domed buildings, marrying traditional Islamic architecture with state-of-the-art interiors.
The American University of Sharjah has recently been declared the best university in the Emirates -- some would argue in the entire Middle East. Forty-four percent of the students, who come from some 45 countries (I met undergraduates from the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia) are women. At the University of Sharjah, next door, men and women from more conservative homes study and live separately, but at my lecture they were sitting quite comfortably together. The Ruler has wisely allowed people to modernize at their own pace.
When I heard that I had won the 2008 TED prize to make a wish for a better world, I knew at once what I wanted to ask for. I asked TED to help me create a Charter for Compassion, which would restore compassion to the heart of the spiritual and moral life and counter the strident voices of hatred and extremism that endanger us all.
It has long been clear to me that unless we learn to apply the Golden Rule globally, treating all nations, all peoples, without exception as we would wish to be treated ourselves, taking their aspirations and difficulties as seriously as we take our own, we are unlikely to have a viable world to hand on to the next generation.
In Sharjah, I met this next generation. It was quite clear that I was talking to some of the future leaders of the Middle East. At both universities, the students were bright, articulate, confident, and asked some of the most intelligent and searching questions I have heard from students anywhere. They understand the global vision of the Charter, not only because University City is an international community, but because many of the students also take part in a project called Global Vision. The project brings students to work in impoverished regions in East Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. They return to their studies with new insight about the problems and pain of the world. Both universities see adopting the Charter as a step toward building a more compassionate world, and have committed to promoting it.
On the last day of my visit, I was privileged to meet H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al-Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, at his weekly Majilis in Abu Dhabi. Like the Ruler of Sharjah, the Sheikh gave the Charter his wholehearted support, which is absolutely invaluable to the Charter's reception in Abu Dhabi, and to the young people who look to Sheikh Nahyan as a religious and cultural role model.
What I learned from my time in the UAE is this: the state of the world we pass down to the next generation depends on the commitment of compassionate leaders. The Charter is essentially a summons to action; compassion is not about pity; it is not about sentiment. Compassion requires a resolute, intellectual, imaginative and moral effort to put oneself into somebody else's shoes. It requires us to refuse to inflict on others pain that we have experienced in our own lives, and to work tirelessly for a just world and a global democracy, in which all voices are heard, not simply those of the rich and powerful. Thanks to the conjunction of youth enthusiasm and the commitment of their elders, the UAE could become a global leader in promoting the Charter for Compassion.
Speaking of the duty every single one of us has to make the world a better place, Sheikh Nahyan told me a story he heard from an environmentalist. There was once a forest fire. All the animals in the forest gazed aghast, paralysed by the spectacle of the approaching inferno. But the elephant resolutely filled his trunk with water from a nearby stream and repeatedly, tirelessly attempted to douse the flames. When the other animals laughed at him, he simply replied "At least I am doing something to ward off the conflagration."
Karen Armstrong: 9/11 and Compassion: We Need It Now More Than Ever
God issued a recall on the Ten Commandments.
None of them are working.
Here are some videos to help get the ball rolling.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2250104590805018608#
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3162184064060187674#
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2708776185521607948#
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT4EWCRfdUg
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6851159367044940771#
PS
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (the Impaler) was a Christian warrior, a member of the "Oder of the Dragon"(sounds real Christian huh?) He tortured , mutilated, and murdered a great many Muslims along with anyone who he found bothersome (Research the story of the cardinal who refused to remove his hat in Vlad's presence). So it's more than a bit strange to hear you calling for peace within the religious community while you display his picture as your avatar.
Where is our compassion when daily death of women and children by our forces will not force us into streets.
Do you really do what we preach?
Is our compassion is so much better than Bush compassion?
Have Obama brought any change to ME?
Are we not on our way with a new war with Iran?
Does Obama really understand what does it mean to use nuclear bomb against Iran?
It is very easy to be compassionate in articles, but does a real compassionate person can tolerate so much pain?
Does UAE have any compassion for her own population and slave workers from around the world over there?
Give me a break!
Religion gives us people who fly planes into buildings, blow up city busses, hack of female genitalia, and kill female family members who’ve been raped. It gives us lynching, “blood atonement,” “honor killings,” fatwas, murders of gays, and persecution of Jews and other ethnic minorities. It gives us hacked-off hands and death for religious transgressions, and it gives us a church that got away with child molestation for generations because people could not reconcile their beliefs with the facts before them. Religion used to give us the dunking and stoning and crushing and hanging of witches in Massachusetts Bay Colony, but we’ve come a long way since then, no?
Religion gives us people who order their lives around fear and hatred: fear of sex; hatred of The Other; fear of divine retribution; hatred of people whose religious beliefs are a hair’s difference from their own; fear of intellect; hatred of societal openness and progressiveness; fear of science that contradicts their faith; hatred of free thought.
I hope you’re not going to try to negate all this by saying that Stalin was an atheist, as though this were the key to all understanding on matters of religious faith and atheism. You know, because of the Mao thing. We get a lot of that.
"The response of the ecclesiastical powers that be, once outright denial became untenable, has all along been an unsatisfactory mixture of contrition and irritation".
I think that applies here too. A simple and heart felt apology goes a long way. The Palestinians had nothing whatsoever to do with the Holocaust and they have borne most of the follow-up suffering. Acknowledge that and you will be closer to peace than ever before.
If you think that is old news... ? Is the holocaust old news? I rest my case.
The response to that fear? An extremism in the American Christian community that is equal to and opposite that which they believe exists throughout the Muslim world.
As an atheist advocating moderation and reason to anyone who will listen, I increasingly see religion itself as a threat to us all.
It should be a reason to live, but has become a reason to die.
It should be a reason to love, and has become a reason to hate.
It should be a way to understand, but has become a way to judge.
As I see it practiced, religion is a net negative.
I dressed in a respectful manner, according to western standards; my arms were covered, my neckline was high, but I had on slacks and nothing on my head.
Mind you, this was one of the poorest sections of Cairo. I turned a corner and coming at me was a large crowd of men. Nothing but men. They had just gotten out of mid-day prayers. Every one of them as they passed me looked at me with friendly eyes. Not one of them was shocked at my presence or was in anyway judgmental.
I'll never forget that experience because as the men kept passing me I myself began to feel that I had put myself in a problematical situation.
But only kindness was in every one of those men's faces -- a look that I NEVER see in U.S. Certainly never on men's faces. Ever.
Any spiritual discipline that evokes genuine sweetness from men is something to respect. But as a liberated woman I'm sorry that discipline comes at such a high social price -- and is so tribal.
Islam has within it all the compassion it needs to turn around the intractable problems of the middle east. If it wants to use it.
I spent quite some time in Israel as well, and dicovered that, despite many people around the world assuming they are rabid Torah-thumping, Arab-hating, land grabbing sadists. This also is far, far from the truth. They are, in the vast majority, intelligent, love their families, are understanding, and highly tolerant.
I think of this and I think there is so much hope for peace... but then I hear about a terrorist bomb on a bus or a helicopter rocket attack on a school, and I look at my daughter, and I think: I am a Christian, but if it were my little girl that was killed when I bus exploded I would be able to think of nothing but killing all of them. And if it was my little girl that died of a simple staph infection because the border troops wouldn't allow in medicine, I would be able to think of nothing but killing them all.
Is there a solution to the hate?
But is it really about how kind hearted people are...it doesn't seem to be that easy or we would not be here.
I posted a link below which gave me a glimpse of just how deep-rooted beliefs are. It is an extremely accurate account of the true heart and soul of the Muslim world. The writers have grasped the threat we in the Christian world must come to grips with and not to roll over to thoughtless anti-war activists for the sake of peace at all costs (even though we all agree that peace is what we want). The Muslim does not think as we do and is much more patient then we are in the West. Rather than a quick fix to problems, he is content to use whomever and whatever necessary to achieve his end, as so clearly pointed out in this endless jihad. This plays out every day in Saudi Arabia as they tolerate our presence, accept our protection from Iran, and buy our and the other western powers weapons of war, while at the same time standing away from us to appease the rest of the Muslim world and their own population, which has them very nervous.
I hope their is a solution...for our children's sake...but who can you trust...and what do you believe...it is such an intricate web...so delicately balanced.
People who actually believe the lies they're told by the Republicans have already made up their mind. They prefer to live in a world of hate and fear. They're content to find one Muslim as narrow-minded as they are, and run with it. It's called b i g o t r y.
Seriously -- all kidding aside -- what would Christ do here? It's become a pretty trite thing to say -- but I don't know why. I think: He would forgive ANY shortcomings, turn the other cheek, and do *anything* possible to arrive at PEACE.
It's not up for dispute: When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus said (Mark[12:28–34] and Matthew[22:34-40]):
"1. One should love God with one's entire heart, soul, mind, and strength
2. One should love one's neighbor as one would love oneself"
Does that not apply to you here somehow?
Tthe Muslim religious tension, which is very significant and ingrained; that of Sunni vs. Shia sects of their faith. Except for Iran, a Shia theocracy, which the rest of the Muslim world greatly fears is why we (US) have access. Most, if not all of the Muslim government leaders are Sunni – Wahabis being the most fundamentalist, while the poor and oppressed (near majorities) of their countries are Shias. Secret police and close observance of their countrymen is common.
My father was in Baharain...