{"id":2361,"date":"2019-11-07T15:05:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T15:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bertderuiter.eu\/?p=421"},"modified":"2019-11-07T15:05:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T15:05:55","slug":"seeing-with-our-inner-eye-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/introduction-introduction\/seeing-with-our-inner-eye-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing with our inner eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

In book The New\nReligious Intolerance -overcoming the politics of fear in an anxious age<\/em>, the\nauthor Martha C. Nussbaum argues that in Europe\nwe are living in a time of anxiety, ugly fears and suspicions of the majority\npeople towards the Muslim minorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As examples of this new religious intolerance she\npoints to the banning of the Muslim burqa and niqab in several European\ncountries-despite the acknowledged fact that only a tiny minority of Muslims\nactually wear these garments; the ban on the construction of minarets in\nSwitzerland -despite the fact that few mosques actually have minarets (namely 4\nout of the 150); the banning of kebab shops in some regions in Italy;\ndiscrimination in employment of women wearing the Muslim headscarf in some\nNorthern European countries; the termination of serving special meals for\nMuslim children on play grounds; the cancelation of having special opening\nhours in swimming pools for Muslim women; the crimes committed by Anders\nBreivik in Norway based on the idea that Europe must fight against Islamicisation;\nand the exploitation by politicians eager to whip up aggression against\nunpopular groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could add many more examples from my own ministry\nthroughout Europe that support the Nussbaum\u2019s conviction.\nFor the past years I have been preoccupied \nwith making Christians aware of their own religious intolerance of\nMuslims and provide them with Biblical tools to deal with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nussbaum\u2019s approach to this anti-Muslim attitude combines\nthe following three ingredients:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Political\n principles expressing equal respect for all citizens. This is based on\n assumption that all human beings have equal dignity.  Governments may not violate this equal\n dignity, and ought to show respect for the equality and dignity of all its\n citizens. Because conscience is closely related to one\u2019s dignity, to\n violate conscience is an assault on human dignity.<\/li>
  2.  Rigorous and critical self-examination,\n whether or not we violate the words of Jesus  \u201cWhy\n do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother\u2019s eye and pay no\n attention to the plank in your own eye?\u201d<\/em> (Matthew 7: 3, 4) When people\n make special cases of themselves, exempting themselves from criticisms\n that they bring up when they look at other people  they violate this principle.<\/li>
  3. A\n systematic cultivation of the \u201cinner eye\u201d, which is the imaginative\n capacity that makes us ask what life if like for the other, what his or\n her emotions or ambitions are. Such empathetic imagination moves in a\n direction opposite to that of fear. Fear is a self-focused reaction to\n danger. It stems from a desire to survival and well-being in face of\n something that threatens us<\/em>. In\n empathy the mind moves outward, to include the others and their well-being\n in one\u2019s behavior and decision-making.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Although Nussbaum states that these ingredients are \u201cinspired\nby ethical philosophy in the spirit of Socrates\u201d, I believe that they are\nequally inspired by the Bible. Every Christian who loves God will all his soul,\nheart and mind, should equally love his neighbor as himself (Matthew 22:37-39).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    By loving the Muslim neighbor as ourselves, we\nrecognize his or her dignity as human beings that is entitled to freedom of\nconscience and religion. By loving our Muslim neighbor as ourselves we apply\nJesus\u2019 words in Matthew 7 to him and her and be very much aware of the plank in\nour own eyes. God who demands us to love our Muslim neighbor will through His\nSpirit in our inner being develop our inner eye, thus enabling us to move\ntowards our Muslim neighbours with genuine friendship and interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let us not be\nmistaken: respect for persons is not necessarily respect for everything they\ndo. On the other hand, disagreeing with a group\u2019s religion, and indeed its\nentire way of life, does not mean that we cannot appreciate its people\u2019s\nvirtues, or treat them as less than fully human. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The approach\nthat Nussbaum advocates \u201cdemands the bare\nbones of friendship: curiosity, listening, responsiveness, a willingness to\nacknowledge a full life and world over there, outside ourselves. Friendship is\nrarely uncritical, and friends may well differ in their evaluations and argues,\nsometimes fiercely. But to remain friends they must take the first step of\ntrying to see the situation from the other point of view. They must avoid the\nerror of making a special case of themselves. And that means that they must\navoid seeing the world through the narcissism of anxiety.\u201d  (187)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Wouldn\u2019t it be\ngreat if each Muslim in Europe would have a\nChristian friend who lives out the principles mentioned above?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Amsterdam, Bert de Ruiter <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In book The New Religious Intolerance -overcoming the politics of fear in an anxious age, the author Martha C. Nussbaum argues that in Europe we are living in a time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-introduction-introduction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharinglives.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}