RELIGION
AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT-INDEPENDENT-06-01-2012
PoorBest
Friday,
06 January 2012
Author
/ Source : Kazi Anwarul Masud
Several
scholars have tried to develop a connection between growing religious activism
and visibility of private ecclesiastical organizations with religious extremism
that not only produced the terrorist events of 9/11 but have practically
resulted in the division of the world in two camps¬, Muslim and
non-Muslim, as if the age of the crusades long gone from the minds of the
people and only to be read in history books has again become a reality. Cesare
Merlini states (Survival April-May 2011) that the decline of traditional
European Christianity has been paralleled in the last few decades by
neo-Protestant confessions like the Evangelists, Pentecostal, and others who
have led the growth of global religious revival.The consistent American support
for Israel has been attributed to the belief of the American Christian Zionists
in the “return of the Israelites’ children to the Holy Land as a precondition
for the second coming of Christ to restore the Kingdom over the Judeans”.
It appears that despite the writings of cosmologist Stephen Hawkins and Oxford Professor Richard Dawkins questioning the existence of and the hand of God in the creation of the universe and men through scientific reasoning has been lost on the vast majority of people of the world who continue to believe in an entity who rules the destiny of mankind.
But then, if one glances at the history of mankind one would find the men have always bowed his head to phenomenon that he could neither understand nor control. Throughout the pages of history we read of people praying for rain or relief from natural disasters instead of taking preventive actions or trying to understand that climate change, for example, is man-made and its adverse effects would be irreversible unless actions on emission of green house gas are brought under control.
Why, one may ask, if the Renaissance had brought in the age of reason and creativity, that a large portion of the globe, both literate and illiterate, still believe in the supernatural? Is it because the knowledge is not yet unbounded and many questions remain unanswered or because, as some scholars have argued that religion is bred in the bone?
Be that as it may there is no doubt of religion’s comeback as a decisive actor on the national and international scene. Euro-American debate over the presence of the Muslim Diaspora in their countries and the immigration control placed though not on religious ground yet the subtext of the regulations leave little doubt (ban on building mosques in Switzerland or regulation on wearing Hejab in France), particularly in Europe which is believed to house too many Muslims, testify to the presence of religion in the conduct of public affairs.
So as German philosopher Jurgen Habermas postulates, a “post-secular age” has arrived distinct from British philosopher Charles Taylor’s (A Secular Age} description of an age in which declining belief and religious practices and social sustainability of non-belief in God were possible.
Religion now has spread its wings in the social arena of many countries as evidenced by fatwa or religious edicts pronounced by the religious leaders in villages in developing countries in matters involving marriage, divorce and acts of “immorality”.
Unfortunately many of these edicts are wrongly given and go mostly against women. The reason behind the implementation of these edicts are pervasive illiteracy among the villagers resulting in the denial of justice to the wronged who mostly belong to the marginalized sections of the people having neither political/muscle power nor money to get justice.
On a national and international level fundamentalism is not peculiar to Islam but has made in road into Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism as well. The term “fundamentalism” which basically means going back to the fundamentals of any religion and does not necessarily connote terrorism.
Yet the process of going back to the fundamentals may include coercion and those refusing to follow the strict code provided by the religion are called apostates and punishment for such “waywardness” may be harsh.
Besides sectarianism in Islam between the Shias and Sunnis, the two main sects of Islam¬, is often confrontational as one can see in the sectarian violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan resulting in the loss of life and limbs of innocent civilians.
Cesare Merlini His areas of expertise include transatlantic relations, European integration, nuclear non-proliferation and, more recently, the impact of societal change on international relations. His background is in nuclear science has written about steady drift towards confessionalism by the State of Israel requiring oath of loyalty to a Jewish state. Recent incidents involving harassment of school going girls for wearing “immodest” dress by Jewish extremists have been reported widely in the international media.
Besides Israel is the only country in the world that gives citizenship to people of other countries if they are of Jewish faith. Israeli politico-economic injustice meted out daily to the Palestinians is well known while the Western world silently watches by.
The caste based discrimination in Hinduism is comparable to the treatment that was meted out to the blacks in the US till a few decades back. But the election of Barak Obama, an African-American, to the US Presidency is a testimony to the social evolution of American society though the number of African-Americans in the US prisons and unemployed far outnumber the white community in proportion to their composition in total population.
Basically the reason for the backwardness of the African-American community vis-à-vis the Whites are due to the greater opportunity available to the whites than their black compatriots for higher education, as Michael Spence (Foreign Affairs¬ July/August 2011) explains that employment opportunities and income are high and rising for the highly educated people at the upper end of the tradable sector of the US economy. Besides education gender equality ensuring equal opportunities to females to become full contributor to the national GDP is essential. In this respect religion can play a vital role. South Korea, the 13th largest economy in the world with a GDP of $1.3 trillion and per capita income of $30000/- has almost half the population of 50 million who profess no religion. This strengthens the argument that a degree of secularity is needed for economic development. Unfortunately, if not the religion of Islam, but the practice of Islam in many Muslim countries provide for an inferior status to women in society and they are discouraged from going to school or to look for a job lest they become independent in Muslim patriarchal society. Lesson for countries like Bangladesh in a globalized world that basically means integration of worldwide markets is to be competitive through better education and lesser stress on religion by making it more personal, as religion has emotional and spiritual content, but denying religion political space would arrest socio-economic development of the country.The writer is former Secretary and ambassador
It appears that despite the writings of cosmologist Stephen Hawkins and Oxford Professor Richard Dawkins questioning the existence of and the hand of God in the creation of the universe and men through scientific reasoning has been lost on the vast majority of people of the world who continue to believe in an entity who rules the destiny of mankind.
But then, if one glances at the history of mankind one would find the men have always bowed his head to phenomenon that he could neither understand nor control. Throughout the pages of history we read of people praying for rain or relief from natural disasters instead of taking preventive actions or trying to understand that climate change, for example, is man-made and its adverse effects would be irreversible unless actions on emission of green house gas are brought under control.
Why, one may ask, if the Renaissance had brought in the age of reason and creativity, that a large portion of the globe, both literate and illiterate, still believe in the supernatural? Is it because the knowledge is not yet unbounded and many questions remain unanswered or because, as some scholars have argued that religion is bred in the bone?
Be that as it may there is no doubt of religion’s comeback as a decisive actor on the national and international scene. Euro-American debate over the presence of the Muslim Diaspora in their countries and the immigration control placed though not on religious ground yet the subtext of the regulations leave little doubt (ban on building mosques in Switzerland or regulation on wearing Hejab in France), particularly in Europe which is believed to house too many Muslims, testify to the presence of religion in the conduct of public affairs.
So as German philosopher Jurgen Habermas postulates, a “post-secular age” has arrived distinct from British philosopher Charles Taylor’s (A Secular Age} description of an age in which declining belief and religious practices and social sustainability of non-belief in God were possible.
Religion now has spread its wings in the social arena of many countries as evidenced by fatwa or religious edicts pronounced by the religious leaders in villages in developing countries in matters involving marriage, divorce and acts of “immorality”.
Unfortunately many of these edicts are wrongly given and go mostly against women. The reason behind the implementation of these edicts are pervasive illiteracy among the villagers resulting in the denial of justice to the wronged who mostly belong to the marginalized sections of the people having neither political/muscle power nor money to get justice.
On a national and international level fundamentalism is not peculiar to Islam but has made in road into Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism as well. The term “fundamentalism” which basically means going back to the fundamentals of any religion and does not necessarily connote terrorism.
Yet the process of going back to the fundamentals may include coercion and those refusing to follow the strict code provided by the religion are called apostates and punishment for such “waywardness” may be harsh.
Besides sectarianism in Islam between the Shias and Sunnis, the two main sects of Islam¬, is often confrontational as one can see in the sectarian violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan resulting in the loss of life and limbs of innocent civilians.
Cesare Merlini His areas of expertise include transatlantic relations, European integration, nuclear non-proliferation and, more recently, the impact of societal change on international relations. His background is in nuclear science has written about steady drift towards confessionalism by the State of Israel requiring oath of loyalty to a Jewish state. Recent incidents involving harassment of school going girls for wearing “immodest” dress by Jewish extremists have been reported widely in the international media.
Besides Israel is the only country in the world that gives citizenship to people of other countries if they are of Jewish faith. Israeli politico-economic injustice meted out daily to the Palestinians is well known while the Western world silently watches by.
The caste based discrimination in Hinduism is comparable to the treatment that was meted out to the blacks in the US till a few decades back. But the election of Barak Obama, an African-American, to the US Presidency is a testimony to the social evolution of American society though the number of African-Americans in the US prisons and unemployed far outnumber the white community in proportion to their composition in total population.
Basically the reason for the backwardness of the African-American community vis-à-vis the Whites are due to the greater opportunity available to the whites than their black compatriots for higher education, as Michael Spence (Foreign Affairs¬ July/August 2011) explains that employment opportunities and income are high and rising for the highly educated people at the upper end of the tradable sector of the US economy. Besides education gender equality ensuring equal opportunities to females to become full contributor to the national GDP is essential. In this respect religion can play a vital role. South Korea, the 13th largest economy in the world with a GDP of $1.3 trillion and per capita income of $30000/- has almost half the population of 50 million who profess no religion. This strengthens the argument that a degree of secularity is needed for economic development. Unfortunately, if not the religion of Islam, but the practice of Islam in many Muslim countries provide for an inferior status to women in society and they are discouraged from going to school or to look for a job lest they become independent in Muslim patriarchal society. Lesson for countries like Bangladesh in a globalized world that basically means integration of worldwide markets is to be competitive through better education and lesser stress on religion by making it more personal, as religion has emotional and spiritual content, but denying religion political space would arrest socio-economic development of the country.The writer is former Secretary and ambassador
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