Author: Jonathan Petre, Religion
Correspondent
Publication: Telegraph
Date: March 26, 2004
URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/26/narch26.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/03/26/ixportaltop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=14378
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop
of Canterbury, launched a trenchant attack on Islamic culture last night,
saying it was authoritarian, inflexible and under-achieving.
In a speech that will upset sensitive
relations between the faiths, he denounced moderate Muslims for failing
unequivocally to condemn the "evil" of suicide bombers.
He attacked the "glaring absence"
of democracy in Muslim countries, suggested that they had contributed little
of major significance to world culture for centuries and criticised the
Islamic faith.
Dr Carey's comments, in a lecture
in Rome, are the most forthright by a senior Church leader. He was speaking
on the eve of a seminar of Christian and Muslim scholars in New York, led
by his successor as archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams.
He acknowledged that most Muslims
were peaceful people who should not be demonised. But he said that terrorist
acts such as the September 11 attacks on America and the Madrid bombings
raised difficult questions.
Contrasting western democracy with
Islamic societies, he said: "Throughout the Middle East and North Africa
we find authoritarian regimes with deeply entrenched leadership, some of
which rose to power at the point of a gun and are retained in power by
massive investment in security forces.
"Whether they are military dictatorships
or traditional sovereignties, each ruler seems committed to retaining power
and privilege."
Dr Carey said he was not convinced
by arguments that Islam and democracy were incompatible, citing the example
of Turkey.
He urged Europeans and Americans
to resist claims that Islamic states were morally, spiritually and culturally
superior.
"Although we owe much to Islam handing
on to the West many of the treasures of Greek thought, the beginnings of
calculus, Aristotelian thought during the period known in the West as the
dark ages, it is sad to relate that no great invention has come for many
hundred years from Muslim countries," he said.
"This is a puzzle, because Muslim
peoples are not bereft of brilliant minds. They have much to contribute
to the human family and we look forward to the close co-operation that
might make this possible.
"Yes, the West has still much to
be proud of and we should say so strongly. We should also encourage Muslims
living in the West to be proud of it and say so to their brothers and sisters
living elsewhere."
Dr Carey said that, while Christianity
and Judaism had a long history of often painful critical scholarship, Islamic
theology was only now being challenged to become more open to examination.
"In the case of Islam, Mohammed,
acknowledged by all in spite of his religious greatness to be an illiterate
man, is said to have received God's word direct, word by word from angels,
and scribes recorded them later.
"Thus believers are told, because
they have come direct from Allah, they are not to be questioned or revised.
"In the first few centuries of the
Islamic era, Islamic theologians sought to meet the challenge this implied,
but during the past 500 years critical scholarship has declined, leading
to strong resistance to modernity."
Dr Carey said that moderate Muslims
must "resist strongly" the taking over of Islam by radical activists "and
to express strongly, on behalf of the many millions of their co-religionists,
their abhorrence of violence done in the name of Allah".
He said: "We look to them to condemn
suicide bombers and terrorists who use Islam as a weapon to destabilise
and destroy innocent lives. Sadly, apart from a few courageous examples,
very few Muslim leaders condemn clearly and unconditionally the evil of
suicide bombers who kill innocent people.
"We need to hear outright condemnation
of theologies that state that suicide bombers are martyrs and enter a martyr's
reward."
Christians, who shared many values
with Muslims, such as respect for the family, must speak out against the
persecution they often encountered in Muslim countries.
"During my time as archbishop, this
was my constant refrain: that the welcome we have given to Muslims in the
West, with the accompanying freedom to worship freely and build their mosques,
should be reciprocated in Muslim lands," he said.
Dr Carey, who initiated several
top-level meetings between Christian and Islamic leaders during his time
at Lambeth Palace, urged the West to tackle the Palestinian problem and
other inequalities in the Muslim world.
"It will do us little good if the
West simply believes that the answer is to put an end to Osama bin Laden.
Rather, we must put an end to conditions, distortions and misinformation
that create him and his many emulators."
Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary-general
of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that Dr Carey's comments "saddened"
him.
"He should be well aware that mainstream
Muslim organisations have consistently condemned terrorist acts but their
statements are often ignored by the media," he said.
"Dr Carey is trampling on a very
sensitive area by referring to the Koran and the traditions of the Prophet."
