Charter for Compassion

All CiF lovers - and there are many many of us - should head straight to Simon Tisdall's latest piece. He's noticed that there's a great deal of anti-Christian violence in the Muslim world nowadays...Egypt, Algeria, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iraq. Indeed it would be hard to miss. I posted something myself the other day. So what's it all about? Well, read it for yourselves, but this, perhaps, is the central message:

Yet hostility also arises, in a fundamental sense, from Muslim perceptions of western aggression against Islam, be it the war in Afghanistan, domineering western economic and cultural behaviour, attempts to ban veils, offensive cartoon caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, airline and immigration profiling, or systemic, unchecked and arguably worsening discrimination and harassment of Muslim minorities living in western nations.

To have a chance of overcoming this widening gulf, the west may have to put its own house in order first.

You knew it'd come to that, didn't you? It gets better though. How does Simon believe we might solve this problem?

One proposed path is wider adoption of Karen Armstrong's new Charter for Compassion, a "spiritual document for the world", whose guiding idea is that while almost every religion has a history of intolerance, all have traditions of compassion that rise above hatred.

For faithful believers of all descriptions, the charter offers a golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Yep, that's it.

It's a Guardian classic.

Comments

[DaninVan]

We do the over-the-top multi-cult, thing and this is the appreciation we receive ...
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/750586---canada-will-be-shut-down
Note the "...Canada pulling its troops out of Afghanistan because they're not tough like the British and the Americans." We can thank the media for that particular meme.

[DaninVan]

And to REALLY make my day, this bit from 'Economist.com':
"The UN reported that the number of civilians killed by the war in Afghanistan in 2009 climbed by 14%, to more than 2,400. The vast majority were victims of Taliban attacks."

Such nice people; so misunderstood...

[Libertyphile]

On any post to do with Islam there is a huge gap between Guardian Cif and its readers.

Invariably the majority of comments on the posts are against whatever line the poster is spinning (especially if its Inayat Bunglawala!) and the recommendations on comments overwhelmingly so.

Just for starters see:

http://libertyphile2.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-compatriots-vote-to-ban-minarets-is.html

http://libertyphile2.blogspot.com/2010/01/committee-against-islamophobia.html

It would be fascinating to know what Guardian Cif editors think they are doing. Perhaps one day they will come down from their ivory tower and let us know.

Have they ever analysed the statistics? [I note that their website doesn’t allow you to index comments by the votes they get – which The Times does, for example.]
 
Is it part of some cunning plan? It actually attracts readers who like to let off steam!
 
Possibly it isn't the people who buy the newspaper, so they don't care!
 
Is it to give a “balanced” picture? Do they believe the likes of Mr Bunglawala must be given a platform? If so, they need to publish a heck of a lot more that gives the Islamosceptic case.
 
Do they believe the nonsense that these third rate posters come up with? Is it the Guardian view of the world?

[David Gillies]

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Except even this wishy-washy version of the Golden Rule is nowhere to be found in Islamic teaching. Any idea of the universality of mankind is quite explicitly disdained.

[DaninVan]

David; Ahhh, you'd be looking for the Arabic translation then..."Do unto others BEFORE they do unto you."
;)