By FEYZA GUMUSLUOGLU
From being a Catholic nun to being an author of books on Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)… What did you learn from this extraordinary journey?
I have learned a lot about the importance of compassion, I have learned that all great faiths, all of them without exception, have a particular genius. Each one has its own genius, each has its own difficulties. I cannot say that one is superior to another. The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religions, calling all of us to treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves.
Why do we have to convince people that Islam is a religion of peace?
There has been 9/11, as you know. That was a great turning point. It was a massive brutal attack in the US, brilliantly and horribly executed. And it goes on; now we see ISIS. Of course, that is not the whole of Islam. But there it is, that has grabbed the attention. In order to fight with Islamophobia, you need to find some creative ways to get the attention of the media. To show, to demonstrate that Islam is a religion of peace and compassion.
Can one say, “Well, Islam is peaceful but Muslims are not”?
That is a very small proportion actually if you look at the figures. The people interviewed by the largest Gallup poll conducted in 35 Muslim majority countries, where they were asked whether the 9/11 attacks were justified, 93 percent said NO. The reason that they gave was entirely religious, they quoted from the Qur’an. 7 percent who said YES, the attacks were justified, the reasons were entirely political. That statistic should be broadly reported by the media, in the West and the East. That poll shows what Muslims are really thinking, not what the enemies of Islam like to portray what Muslims are thinking.
After all that have happened with the Arab Spring, do you still have hope for the Middle East?
Well, revolutions take long time. The French revolution took 90 years before it was completed. A revolution is not completed when someone storms into the versailles, or unseats the president. That is the easy part. They have to remake a society. And we are talking about societies that have been living under autocracies for a long time, often supported by the West, and prior to that, under colonial rule. It will take a massive “jihad”, massive effort. It will be a different kind of democracy, different than what we have in the West, because the modernization process has been a different experience.
What about Muslim women? Do they seem to be suffering?
Well, I do not know. I have had a peculiar life as a woman. I have never had children, I have never got married, I do not cook and I never clean. That puts me in a tiny little percentage as a woman. I am very grateful for the opportunities that I had as a Western woman. I am hugely grateful. My forebears, my ancestors, were illiterate Irish peasants. I have had the opportunity to be educated at the level that my forebears had never dreamed of. This is happening in the Muslim world too, but it takes time. You have some extremely powerful women in the Middle East. There is nothing in the Qur’an that should militate against women. The Prophet himself, peace be upon him, very much appreciated women and the Qur’an gives women the rights of inheritance and divorce that the Western women would not have had until the 19. century. I mean the legal rights. But of course, we still have a long way to go in the West, until we get full equality. We are all on our own jihad. And Muslim women will do it in their own way. They do not need Western feminists to tell them how to do it.The Peninsula
On February 28, 2008, Karen Armstrong received the TED Prize and made a wish- to help create, launch, and propagate a Charter for Compassion. After much work and the contribution of thousands of people, the Charter was unveiled to the world on November 12, 2009.
The Charter for Compassion is a document which urges the peoples and religions of the world to embrace the core value of compassion. The charter is currently available in thirty languages, and is being translated into more.
• “Compassion lies at the heart of every single one of the world’s faiths, and is the heart of morality. I’ve become convinced now that unless we can implement the Golden Rule globally so that we ensure that all peoples, whoever they are, are treated as we would wish to be treated ourselves, the world is not going to be a viable place.
• The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
• It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.
• We therefore call upon all men and women to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate - to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.
• We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.”
For more information, visit: //charterforcompassion.org
