always loath to call their coreligionists “apostates,” because they believed that God alone knew what was in a person’s heart. But the practice of takfir has become common in our own day, when Muslims once again fear foreign enemies. When Muslims attack churches and synagogues today, they are not driven to do so by Islam. TheQuran commands Muslims to respect the faith of “the people of the book.” 1 One of the most frequently quotedjihad verses justifies warfare by stating: “If God did not repel some people by means of others, many monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, where God’s name is much invoked, would have been destroyed.” 2 This new aggression toward religious minorities in the nation-state is largely the result of political tensions arising from Westernimperialism (associated with Christianity) and thePalestinian problem. 3
It is simply not true that “religion” is always aggressive. Sometimes it has actually put a brake on violence. In the ninth century BCE,Indian ritualists extracted all violence from the liturgy and created the ideal of ahimsa, “nonviolence.” The medievalPeace and Truce of God forcedknights to stop terrorizing the poor and outlawed violence from Wednesday to Sunday each week. Most dramatically, after the Bar Kokhba war, the rabbis reinterpreted the scriptures so effectively thatJews refrained from political aggression for a millennium. Such successes have beenrare. Because of the inherent violence of the states in which we live, the best that prophets and sages have been able to do is provide an alternative. The Buddhistsangha had no political power, but it became a vibrant presence in ancient India and even influenced emperors.Ashoka published the ideals of ahimsa, tolerance, kindness, and respect in the extraordinary inscriptions he published throughout the empire. Confucians kept the ideal of humanity ( ren ) alive in the government of imperialChina until the revolution. For centuries, the egalitarian code of theShariah was a countercultural challenge to theAbbasidaristocracy; the caliphs acknowledged that it was God’s law, even though they could not rule by it.
Other sages and mystics developed spiritual practices to help people control their aggression and develop a reverence for all human beings. In India,renouncers practiced the disciplines of yoga and ahimsa to eradicate egotistic machismo. Others cultivated the ideals of anatta (“no self”) and kenosis (“self-emptying”) to control the “me first” impulses that so often lead to violence; they sought an “equanimity” that would make it impossible for one to see oneself as superior to anybody else, taught that every single person has sacred potential, and asserted that people should even love their enemies. Prophets and psalmists insisted that a city could not be “holy” if the ruling class did not care for the poor and dispossessed. Priests urged their compatriots to draw on the memory of their own past suffering to assuage the pain of others, instead of using it to justify harassment and persecution. They all insisted in one way or another that if people did not treat all others as they would wish to be treated themselves and develop a “concern for everybody,” society was doomed. If the colonial powers had observed theGolden Rule in their colonies, we would not be having so many political problems today.
One of the most ubiquitous religious practices was the cult of community. In the premodern world, religion was a communal rather than a private pursuit. People achieved enlightenment and salvation by learning to live harmoniously together. Instead of distancing themselves from their fellow humans as the warriors did, sages, prophets, and mystics helped people cultivate a relationship with and responsibility for those they would not ordinarily find congenial. They devised meditations that deliberately extended their benevolence to the ends of the earth; wished all beings happiness;
It is simply not true that “religion” is always aggressive. Sometimes it has actually put a brake on violence. In the ninth century BCE,Indian ritualists extracted all violence from the liturgy and created the ideal of ahimsa, “nonviolence.” The medievalPeace and Truce of God forcedknights to stop terrorizing the poor and outlawed violence from Wednesday to Sunday each week. Most dramatically, after the Bar Kokhba war, the rabbis reinterpreted the scriptures so effectively thatJews refrained from political aggression for a millennium. Such successes have beenrare. Because of the inherent violence of the states in which we live, the best that prophets and sages have been able to do is provide an alternative. The Buddhistsangha had no political power, but it became a vibrant presence in ancient India and even influenced emperors.Ashoka published the ideals of ahimsa, tolerance, kindness, and respect in the extraordinary inscriptions he published throughout the empire. Confucians kept the ideal of humanity ( ren ) alive in the government of imperialChina until the revolution. For centuries, the egalitarian code of theShariah was a countercultural challenge to theAbbasidaristocracy; the caliphs acknowledged that it was God’s law, even though they could not rule by it.
Other sages and mystics developed spiritual practices to help people control their aggression and develop a reverence for all human beings. In India,renouncers practiced the disciplines of yoga and ahimsa to eradicate egotistic machismo. Others cultivated the ideals of anatta (“no self”) and kenosis (“self-emptying”) to control the “me first” impulses that so often lead to violence; they sought an “equanimity” that would make it impossible for one to see oneself as superior to anybody else, taught that every single person has sacred potential, and asserted that people should even love their enemies. Prophets and psalmists insisted that a city could not be “holy” if the ruling class did not care for the poor and dispossessed. Priests urged their compatriots to draw on the memory of their own past suffering to assuage the pain of others, instead of using it to justify harassment and persecution. They all insisted in one way or another that if people did not treat all others as they would wish to be treated themselves and develop a “concern for everybody,” society was doomed. If the colonial powers had observed theGolden Rule in their colonies, we would not be having so many political problems today.
One of the most ubiquitous religious practices was the cult of community. In the premodern world, religion was a communal rather than a private pursuit. People achieved enlightenment and salvation by learning to live harmoniously together. Instead of distancing themselves from their fellow humans as the warriors did, sages, prophets, and mystics helped people cultivate a relationship with and responsibility for those they would not ordinarily find congenial. They devised meditations that deliberately extended their benevolence to the ends of the earth; wished all beings happiness;
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