Understanding Islam conference: The fact that the oil business was concentrated in places such as Texas and Saudi Arabia where Islamic and Christian fundamentalisms flourished was not "wholly accidental", a conference on understanding Islam heard yesterday.
While a modernising, knowledge-based society, such as Ireland, "cannot afford to hold on to elements of scripture", Texas and Saudi Arabia just had to "pull the oil out of the ground", Dr Malise Ruthven, an independent scholar based in London, told the conference at Dublin Castle.
Christian and Islamic fundamentalisms were similar in their apocalyptic view that the world was going to end, Dr Ruthven said.
All fundamentalisms had a problem with pluralism, and suffered anxiety at the possibility of choice. Another similarity was the "constant anxiety" about gender relations and sexuality issues. There was also their language of nationalism which was generally "the language of religion, not the empirical language of politics".
Dr Ruthven said the depiction of US Secretary of State-designate Dr Condoleezza Rice's depiction of the war against terrorism as one waged by modern, enlightened forces against religious obscurantist fanatics who wanted to take away Western freedoms, was "a curious paradox."
"Bush's re-election benefited from the votes of three million evangelical Christians, most of whom hate the freedoms associated with Western liberalism."
The conference also heard that the afterlife was "a very hot topic" in Islam today. Prof Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, of Georgetown University in Washington DC, said "Muslims believe in human perfectibility" through faith, actions, and intentions underlying those actions. Pure intention had to underlie a good action, otherwise it was void.
Muslims saw life as an interregnum between pre-life and eternity. It was " a period of testing". When Muslims died they went to "the garden" (Paradise) or "the fire" (Hell). Believers who sinned were eternally damned while last-minute repentance was "not efficacious. It must be genuine," she said.
Sins of omission could also lead to damnation if, for instance "one day you passed by an oppressed person". She also pointed out that the Koran forbade suicide, promising hell to such people, and that there was no basis in Islam for claiming suicide bombers were greeted on arrival in the afterlife by 72 virgins.
In a question and answer session later, Mr Bob Collins, former director general at RTÉ, commented that "even if the past generation [ in Ireland] had divested itself of many of the things of faith," the similarities between Islam and an older Ireland were striking.
