Basic Fundamentals about Islam - Essay Example

Reaction papers History 2007 Letter 5. Basic fundamentals about Islam. The letter by the Ottoman sultan Selim to his enemy Ismail I contains a number of references to the essential Muslim beliefs. Moslems worship Allah, the God, who is the only god over the people. They deny the trinity offered by Christianity as the distortion of the divine truth. It is believed that Muhammad was the last prophet, whose task was to tell the truth about God to people. The words of Muhammad were put down in a book called Quran, which is written in ancient Arabic, while the translations are treated as interpretations of Quran. This holy book teaches that only true believers will be rescued on the day of the Last Judgment, while the rest will burn in the hell-fire, suffering from the eternal torments. The laws of God are unalterable. He sees every man and knows all the deeds and thoughts of people. People come to this world in order to improve themselves and serve the good. Man is the greatest of the divine creatures, the living image of God, while the nature of god is unidentified and mysterious. Islam is divided into three denominations: Sunni, Shia and Sufi (mystic Islam). The major difference between Sunni and Shia Islam is in their vision of the role of caliphs and Imams. Shias believe that only Muhammad’s descendents have the divine appointment and obey Imams, while Sunni accept the elected system of caliphate. Selim accuses Ismail of his going against the true religion and other Muslim people, tyranny and oppression directed towards the true believers and the rejection of the Caliphs. Selim believes, that by these actions of his, Ismail undermines the essential beliefs of the Sunni and repudiates the Quran. Selim also views himself as the noble protector of the true religion and prosecutor of all the unfaithful. War is against divine laws, teaches Quran. Conflicts must be first reconciled by the words. That is why Selim writes a letter to Ismail, trying to turn him to the right path of faith and informing him that otherwise he will have to commence war. It is obvious from the letter, that Selim pursues not only religious, but also state interests, trying to return back the territories captured by Ismail. Letter 8. Revolutions Reshape the World. There was a century between the Glorious Revolution (1688) in England and French revolution of 1789-1799, yet both events had the same results: establishment of the Parliamentary, constitutional monarchy. Bill of Rights, accepted by the British Parliament in 1689, which is still a part of the British Constitution, was one of the first documents declaring the rights of man and putting the country onto a path of democratic development. It restricted the rights of the monarch and fixed a number of political and civil rights for the people. French revolution was obviously one of the greatest events in the modern history, reshaping the whole course of European political development. The constitution was one of the program documents of the revolution. Just like in England, it restricted the rights of the king and introduced the division of branches of power. In both cases it was done in order to stop the aristocratic tyranny and despotism. As in England, the king of France was to be the representative of the people, swearing an oath to them; he could not collect any taxes for Crown or keep regular army during peaceful intervals. The French parliament was even more democratic than that of England: the representatives from all the parts of the country were to be elected. Constitution of 1791 fixed the legislative base for finance, agriculture, treatment of criminals, and religion. These laws are common to the modern ones. Their purpose was to protect the citizens from the monarchal arbitrariness, putting legislative and judicial power in the hands of the people’s representatives. Only executive power belonged to the king. The Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by the National Assembly on August 27, 1789, was grounded on the traditions of the English constitutionalism and American Revolution, guaranteeing the protection of the middle-class’s rights from the dominance of the aristocrats and clergy. Bill of Rights and French Constitution became the predecessors of the modern Declaration of Rights of the Man, we are protected by today. Letter 9. In the Age of Imperialism. It is always interesting to trace the origin of historical and political phenomena. Imperialism was one of those realii that changed the course of the development of the colonial and colonized countries. French imperialism started with the premiership of Jules Ferry. Ferry explained his ardent strive for the colonization by three reasons: economic, political and civilizing. First, the policy of the colonial expansion provided an opportunity for the export market expansion. France had little entrance to the neighboring markets. Moreover, the U.S. industries began occupying French domestic market. Ferry did not care much of the fact that the colonized nations were forced to buy French production. He thought of the interests of his country. Besides, he believed that this way France brought civilization to the barbarians. The objections of his opponents were fair: such views resembled of the slaveholders’ philosophy. The history also showed that those views also had the same deteriorating consequences. The colonized people were oppressed and viewed as the inferior nations. Colonization has become the reason of stigmatization and marginalization of the colonized people, while Europeans did their best to obtain dominance over natives, treating them as “dirty and lazy”, inferior and dumb and teaching next generations to treat them so. As a result, the colonized nations lost respect to their culture and history, feeling their “defectiveness” in comparison with any representative of the western civilization. Many of them lost their cultural identity. The attitude originated from the firm belief of Europeans in the universal rightfulness of their views and inability to accept other worldviews as equal. Yet there was also the third reason: the conditions of the naval warfare. At the times of Ferry, ships needed coal, but could not carry more than a 14-days worth of it. Ferry hoped to use the colonized territories as military bases in case of conflicts. As a result, France was really involved in war. It happened later, in the twentieth century, when the colonized nations started fighting against the oppressor for their freedom. Letter 10. Ultranationalism in Italy, Germany and Japan. Fascism, to my mind, had the same psychological and anthropological roots as slavery and racism. We are accustomed to curse Mussolini and Hitler, forgetting that their stories were not the first or the last. Simply that time nationalism and the nation’s superior positioning became a terror for the white population of the world, which was unusual (slavery and colonization had been perceived as normal things, though being of the same nature). As far as I’m concerned, fascism was not supported by the majority of the population in any of the fascist countries: Nazis used terror and violence to achieve their aims. All the three fascist countries were the results of the similar historical conditions: they were newly formed independent states with poor economical development and weak notions of democracy. Hitler with his “Mein Kampf” became the central figure of the fascist movement, the embodiment of the evil. In fact, his ideas of the superiority of his race over others, the danger of blood mixture and assimilation of the Aryans with the inferior races resemble much of the Americans’ attitude towards the black. We can also trace the notes of racism in the discussed speech of Ferry. Being a weak and good-for-nothing man, Hitler strived for the power. Unable to make his road in life due to intellectual abilities or other talents, Hitler appealed to the natural human instincts: when hungry and unhappy, people tend to become angry and want blood, when wretched, people keep together to feel stronger, and the crowd does not think, but has its opinion and is ready to fight against other groups. Rejecting the value of human life, fascists announced the common good as the superior target. They persuaded the nation that the reason of their hardships was the deterioration of the nation due to the assimilation with other races and that the only decision was to expand the territory, destroying other “inferior” nations and converting them to slaves, who were to serve the superior race. As a result, millions of Jews and Egyptians were killed, as well as representatives of other nations. Fascism, just like racism and nationalism, continue to be one of the most disturbing phenomena in the modern society, it is not dead: its manifestations can be found all over the world, even among the black African population. That is why it is significant to remind people of the horrors of the Second World War. The history must not repeat. Read More