Paul Kurtz

An historic conference was held in Cairo, Egypt, from 5-8 December 1994. It brought together Muslim and secular scholars to debate for the first time the ideals of the Enlightenment and secularism. The conference was organised by Professor Mourad Wahba of Cairo University; the co-presidents of the IHEU and the editors of Free Inquiry magazine worked closely with him. It took several years of hard work. We were aware that the term secularism was anathema to many in the Islamic world.

The conference was sponsored by the Afro-Asian Philosophy Association (Wahba); the Egyptian government, the League of Arab States, and the Federation of International Societies of Philosophy (the leading international philosophical organisation); among other groups. Participants arrived from Islamic countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Iran and Indonesia, and from the Western countries of Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and the United States.

Free Inquiry, myself, Vern L Bullough and Timothy J Madigan attended, as did Rob Tielman and Matt Cherry of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. When we informed our relatives and friends of our intention to visit Egypt, we were invariably warned not to do so because of the danger of attacks foreigners faced. Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman has even brought Egyptian terrorism to the United States. Some six hundred people have been killed by fundamentalists in Egypt in the past three years. Moreover, at the time of the conference Egypt’s Nobel Prize-winning novelist Naguib Mahfouz had been stabbed in the streets of Cairo and was still hospitalised.

The Cairo conference was to be held near the Olympic stadium, where President Anwar Sadat had been assassinated by extremists in 1981. Nevertheless, we found fears for our personal safety to be unwarranted; our hosts were congenial, the venue safe and the atmosphere cordial. The immediate purpose of the conference, entitled ‘Averroes and Enlightenment’ was to celebrate the approaching 800th anniversary of the death of Averroes (Arab name Ibn Rushd). This was the first of many to be held throughout the world.

Averroes was considered to be one of Islam’s greatest philosophers. He was born in Cordoba, Spain, in 1126 ad died in 1198. He lived through a period of great cultural and philosophical ferment in Spain, which was then a pluralistic society, in which three religious traditions – Islamic, Christian and Judaic – peacefully coexisted. Between the eighth and twelfth centuries the Islamic world experienced considerable intellectual creativity and it preserved many of the classical philosophical writings, which had been lost to Christianised Europe.

Averroes devoted himself to translating Aristotle into Arabic and commenting on his long-forgotten writings. His interpretations of Aristotle as a naturalistic, indeed humanistic philosopher was in sharp contrast to the theological outlook that dominated large sectors of the world at the time. Averroes argued for the autonomy of philosophical reason and science. He accepted Aristotle’s view of the active intellect, which denied the existence of personal immortality; and instead of focusing on salvation, he argued that reason can contribute to the good life and must have priority over faith.

Averroes’ books were ordered to be burned by his caliph in response to fundamentalist criticisms of them (though Averroes regained official favour before his death). His influence waned in the Islamic world in subsequent centuries for he was thought to be dangerous to the faith. However, his work had a strong influence on Jewish scholars who translated his writings into Hebrew and especially on Latin scholars in Europe between 1200 and 1600, where his writings were translated into Latin and widely read for example, by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Acqunas at the University of Paris.

At first banned because they seemed to contradict the Catholic faith, Averroes’ books had a profound impact in the West. His influence on the Italian universities, especially in Padua and Bologna, helped lead to the emergence of modern science (as Vern Bullough argued in a paper read at the conference)and these developments eventually culminated in the Enlightenment. Indeed, as Professor Wahba pointed out, had Averroes had as much impact in the Muslim world as he did in the Western world, then Muslims might have experienced a similar Renaissance, Enlightenment and scientific revolution. Instead Muslim scholarship languished and became sterile, the theologians such as Al-Ghazali attacked rational inquiry and defended the revelations of the Koran.

A New Enlightenment

The need for a new Enlightenment in the Arab world today was expressed in most of the papers delivered at the conference; for example, by Egypt’s minister of culture, Farouk Hosney; by Ambassador Osman, who read a message from the minister of foreign affairs, Amr Moussa, and by the Deputy Chief of the Arab League. Their views were the most gratifying for the participants to hear, especially since the Islamic world is in a convulsive state of confrontation with Muslim fundamentalists. Many flashpoints around the world dramatize the explosive character of the situation. We have witnessed brutal conflicts in Chechnya, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc; Islamic fundamentalists resist modernizations and securalization; they threaten governments in Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries. In Algeria the Islamic Salvation Front is carrying on a war of attrition ‘against all dialogue, all cease-fire, all reconciliation.’ Even in Turkey, the only avowedly secular state in the Muslim world, the fundamentalists are demanding an end to the secular republic established by Ataturk. Many Arab governments, including Egypt, are fearful of the rise of fundamentalism, but they are hesitant to openly attack religious fanaticism or to defend the virtues of secularism. Some pessimists believe that the fundamentalist are gaining strength so rapidly in the Islamic world that it will be difficult to overtake them.

The participants at the conference deplored this violence and they defended the ideals of the Enlightenment and secularism. Ambassador Osman told the conferees that Egypt is becoming a secular society, and he welcomed it. ‘We need to modernize,’ he said, ‘if we are to compete and to participate in a rapidly changing world; and if we are to raise our material and cultural standards of life. Although Egypt is an Islamic state, we wish to proclaim democracy and human rights, and we oppose any kind of terrorism.’ The revival of Averroism is all for the good, he said, for it is important that Arabs appreciate the rich Islamic philosophical tradition and the roots of the Enlightenment in Averroes. These views were reported in the press. Indeed, I was interviewed on Egyptian television, where I made the same points. Defending an Islamic scholar who lived eight centuries ago, however, is not viewed as dangerous as publicly defending secularist ideals.

Freedom of Inquiry

Before the establishment of the state of Israel, Egypt had a large Jewish community. Most Jews have since fled. However, an ancient Christian Copt community of six million persons still remains in Egypt; they feel beleaguered by the surrounding larger Islamic population. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Secretary-General of the United Nations is a Copt, and is incidentally married to a Jewish woman. And Professor Wahba, our host, is also of Copt background. There is a powerful impulse among Egypt’s influential Christian minority to defend pluralism, freedom, tolerance and human rights. If Egypt and other Islamic countries are to solve their severe problems of rapid population growth and poverty, they need to emphasize education, cultural enrichment and scientific research, but this can only be pursued where there is freedom of inquiry. If economic growth is to be stimulated, then Egypt must enter into the modern world. These advanced views are shared by many educated Egyptians. Unfortunately, there is tremendous opposition to them by dogmatic Islamists.

Mona Abousenna, secretary of conference and Professor at the University Ain Shams, has written that freedom of inquiry has a long way to go in the Muslim world. If there is to be an advance, then the Koran itself needs to be read as any other book, and so there is a vital need for Koranic criticism analogous to the kind of biblical/literary criticism that thrives in the West. Freedom of inquiry into the foundations of the Muslim religion and the claims of Muhammad is almost impossible to attain in Arabic culture, she said, but if there is to be progress, she argued, it needs to be not only permitted, but encouraged. Professor Ioanna Kucuradi, Secretary General of the Federation of Philosophical Societies and commissioner for human rights in Turkey, was also forthright in her defence of freedom of conscience and the need for an Islamic Enlightenment. Although the West hears the loud voices of militant fundamentalists from Islamic countries, it does not hear the views on behalf of freedom, which are more often than not muted by intimidation. There is great fear of possible retaliation from fundamentalist forces.

At a summit meeting of the fifty-two member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) which convened in Morocco just after our conference, a plea was made for moderation in the Islamic world. The conference began by stating that there is a need to an ‘alternative image to a Western world whose perception of Islam is being dominated by the fundamentalists and not by the forces of development and moderation.’ On 13 December 1994, Moroccan King Hassan II (a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad) attacked Muslim extremists. He said, ‘no one in authority is entitled to….. take the path of extremism and resort to aggression.’ Speaking of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, he said, ‘in Islam, nobody can tell you what to believe.’ Clearly, there are liberal forces I the Muslim world who welcome rapproachment and peace. Moreover, with the peace process underway between the Israelis and Palestinians, perhaps an era of mutual coexistence and prosperity can develop in the Middle East, and perhaps a new Islamic Enlightenment, long overdue, can emerge. But it is an uphill struggle against powerful opposition.

In my view, significant liberalizing of Islam will come from growing Islamic minorities in Western countries. There are an estimated twenty million Muslims living in the West – five million in the United States, four million in France, three million in the UK and significant minorities in Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia and elsewhere. These minorities are asking for equal rights. In some countries, where the state funds Christian or humanist schools, Muslims are demanding equal support of their schools. When I petitioned the Congress as a secular humanist to open the House and Senate with a nonreligious statement six years ago, I ws denied that right by a federal court, because I did not to engage in prayer. But one can ask if Christians and Jews can open the Congress with a prayer, should not the same right be accorded to mullahs to into intone the Koran? What will fundamentalist Baptists or conservative Catholics who consider the United States to be a Christian state say to that?

With the rise of Islam, perhaps the merits of secularism, where the state is neutral about religion, will be better appreciated. In many Western countries Muslim women now demand the right to wear the head scarf in classes. In France this had been denied by the government, which is defending France’s secular tradition in the public schools. At an inauguration of the Grand Mosque of Lyons in France, recently, it was encouraging to read that the Mosque’s leaders praised the French Revolution and its ideals of tolerance and human rights. Is this not a great opportunity to defend the separation of church and state and also to cultivate a respect for secular principles among a new generation of young people of Islamic descent in Western democratic countries? We hope this same respect will in time spread to the rest of the Arab world.

This issue is especially important for secular humanists in Islamic countries, for Islamic fundamentalists have refused to extend the right of non-belief to them – as the cases of Taslima Nasreen in Bangladesh and Salman Rushdie so poignantly demonstrate. Blasphemy is considered the cardinal sin, punishable by death. But how can Islam be a full participant in the world community without recognising the right of individuals to express dissenting opinions?

The Cairo conference was a significant though very modest first step in bridging the barriers between Islam and secularism. At the very least, it stands as a symbol of the need to moderate the shrill voices of Islam and allow people from the Islamic world to enter into the broader planetary community, a community in which the ideals of humanism and democracy prevail and which the basic human right of freedom of conscience – the right to believe or not to believe – is a cherished first principle.