Articles from SHARE International - Copyright 1992, All rights reserved.
Electronically reprinted with permission.
For reprint permission, contact TARA Center, UID 73437,1345, PO Box 6001,
No.Hollywood, CA 91603.
CHILDREN FIRST: BUILDING A GLOBAL AGENDA
by Audrey Hepburn
Actress Audrey Hepburn spent five years of her young life in Nazi-occupied
Holland during World War II. She survived the deprivation with a "marvellous
family," a diet consisting largely of turnips, and "wonderful conversations
about what we were going to eat after the war." When the end of the war came,
she was one of the first recipients of UNICEF aid to Europe. Hepburn could not
have known then that more than four decades later, in 1988, she would be
invited by UNICEF to take on "her most wonderful and rewarding role," as
fellow actor Gregory Peck put it
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Her compassion and commitment carry her beyond fund-raising benefits to
sometimes difficult and dangerous fieldwork in countries such as Ethiopia,
Sudan, and El Salvador. For all her efforts, she is paid by UNICEF the royal
sum of US$1 per year. Hepburn gave the following talk recently at the
Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
"Until four years ago when I was given the great privilege of
becoming a volunteer for UNICEF, I, like all of you, was overwhelmed
by a sense of helplessness when watching television or reading about
the indescribable misery of the children and their mothers in the
developing world. If I feel less helpless today, it's because I have
now seen what can be done, and what is being done by UNICEF, by many
marvellous agencies, churches, governments, and most of all, with
very little help, by people themselves.
Today we stand at the crossroads: Our world has changed dramatically
in a short time, and we must now plot a new course for the future.
I'm here on behalf of UNICEF to talk about where children fit into
the new course, to talk about priorities. We have to recognize that
children have not been our greatest priority, but they must be. And
if we seize the opportunity now before us, they really can be.
I was among the first recipients of UNICEF aid after World War II,
which is why I have such a deep, personal appreciation for UNICEF.
Mine was the first generation to live in the ominous shadow of the
nuclear age, and we were the first children to grow up with the term
"Cold War" and all its divisive and paranoid implications. We had
survived the bombing of Europe only to find ourselves, in a very real
sense, coming of age in another war, the costs of which were very
steep indeed.
Deaf ears
This conflict between East and West soon became a political framework
for the entire globe. The superpowers intervened in developing
countries in order to gain territorial advantages, and rival factions
in these countries were all too willing to choose sides in exchange
for support in their internal struggles. The prevailing world order
was marked by barricades, real and imaginary, and it fostered a
mentality of us versus them. The real losers, of course, were the
children: the children of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle
East who suffered from daily neglect. The choice between guns and
bread had never been more immediate nor lopsided as it was during the
height of the Cold War.
UNICEF, the world's leading voice for children, tried to protect
them. UNICEF reminded governments time and again that the needs of
children were urgent and the most important, but its warnings fell on
ears that were either deaf or simply too preoccupied to listen. When
I first became involved with UNICEF, the organization that had meant
so much to me and many other children in post-war Europe, I didn't
think I'd live to see the end of that bitter struggle. Like the
children of countries like Lebanon and Mozambique, who have known
little peace, I had grown up with the Cold War, and it was part of
all of our lives.
Then, and it seemed to happen overnight, the world changed
dramatically. Like the Berlin Wall and the Soviet empire, the old
order has come tumbling down. We now have something that is so rare
in the course of civilization: a second chance.
Quiet catastrophe
Now, more than 45 years after it pleaded with the world to remember
its children, UNICEF is once again making the case for our next
generation. As the new world order comes into focus, UNICEF is
reminding the world's leaders of the devastating realities. While the
world was busy fortifying the ideological chasm that divided it, the
children have been paying for it with their lives: 40,000 a day, 15
million a year. No earthquake, no flood, ever claimed 40,000 children
on a single day. Though these children are the quiet catastrophe and
never make headlines, they are just as dead. By any measure this is
the greatest tragedy of our times. They've been dying from
preventable diseases, including measles and tuberculosis. They've
been dying in wars, caught in the cross-fire of those who should have
been protecting them. They've been dying for lack of proper nutrition
when the world has more than enough food. They've been dying from
dehydration caused by diarrhea more than from any other single cause
because they don't have clean drinking water.
World Summit for Children
In September of 1990, when the old world order was showing signs of
collapse, UNICEF hosted 71 heads of state at the World Summit for
Children in New York to address the appalling situation of children.
The summit yielded a historic agreement on specific goals to help
children by the year 2000. In its latest message to the world's
leaders, UNICEF released its 1992 State of the World's Children
Report. In this year's report, UNICEF offers 10 agenda items for the
formation of a new world order.
I won't talk about all the specific propositions, but I would like to
mention a few of them:
a) That the promises of the World Summit for Children be kept. These
include a one-third reduction in child deaths, and a halving of child
malnutrition by the year 2000.
b) That demilitarization should begin in the developing world, and
that falling military expenditures in the industrialized countries
should be linked to increased, unconditional international aid and
the solving of global problems. Currently, developing countries spend
about $150,000 million on arms each year. Meanwhile, the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council sell 90 per cent of the
world's arms. What does this mean? It means that we are entrenched
as a global community in a destructive cycle of weapons
proliferation. Achieving all of the summit goals would require some
$20,000 million a year, an amount equal to two-thirds of the
developing world's military spending, and just 1 per cent of that in
industrialized countries.
c) That the growing consensus around market economies be accompanied
by a commitment to a strong investment in people, especially
children. Simply put, this means that there are things that a free
market alone cannot do. Governments must combine free-market forces
with assurances of health and education for all, especially children,
even in bad economic times. The importance of this proposition is not
limited to developing countries. As UNlCEF's report also points out,
the situation of urban and poor children in the United States
continues to worsen. Child poverty is on the rise, and the real value
of Aid to Families with Dependant Children has dropped 40 per cent in
the last 20 years. Even here, in the country that is the world's
model of a free economy, we are slow to realize that all children do
not benefit from that system. We must build what amounts to a safety
net to catch these children before it is too late. There are some
encouraging signs that the world's leaders may listen this time. The
World Summit for Children is clearly one of them. The United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child has now been ratified by 107
countries, and more than 30 others have signed it with the intention
to ratify.
Miracle of the decade
Last October I was at the United Nations with President Carter and
other dignitaries when UNICEF and the World Health Organization
certified to the Secretary General that they and the world's
governments had achieved their goal of universal child immunization
by 1990. This is the miracle of this decade. This does not mean that
we have immunized every child or that every country is winning the
battle with vaccine-preventable diseases. It does mean that 80 per
cent of the world's one-year olds have been immunized against the six
major child-killing diseases: measles, tuberculosis, tetanus,
whooping cough, diphtheria, and polio. This effort is saving some 3
million young lives each year.
In 1974, less than 5 per cent of the developing world's children were
vaccinated. It's difficult to grasp the full meaning of these
successes until you've looked into the eyes of these children who can
too often be numbers. Rather than share with you the horrors I've
witnessed, I prefer to remind you of how easy it is to reach out and
help these children. There has never been a better opportunity to
give our children the future they deserve. We have low-cost
technologies like immunization and oral rehydration therapy. We have
ample resources made available due to the end of the Cold War, and we
have the commitment of the world's leaders. What remains is for us to
change our attitudes as a society, to build a movement for children,
and to ensure that the promises of the World Summit for Children are
kept.
Twenty years ago, few people thought about recycling their
newspapers, few people worried about the effect of hair spray on the
ozone layer, few people questioned the amount of pollution their cars
were spewing into the atmosphere, but slowly and effectively the
environmentalists in this country and around the world built a
movement that could not be ignored, and they have brought about a
fundamental change in the way we live our lives and the way we see
our planet. We have taken responsibility for our neglect. So too must
we take responsibility for the neglect of our children. So too must
we effect a basic change in our priorities and concerns. We must
resolve ourselves as a community to put the needs of children first
in war and in peace, in good times and in bad.
So today, I speak for children who can't speak for themselves,
children who are going blind from lack of vitamins, children who are
slowly being mutilated by polio, children who are wasting away in so
many ways from lack of water. I speak for the estimated 100 million
street children in this world, who have no choice but to leave home
in order to survive, who have absolutely nothing but their courage,
their smiles, their wits, and their dreams; for children who have no
enemies, yet are invariably the first tiny victims of war, wars that
are being waged through terror, intimidation, and massacre; for
children who are therefore growing up surrounded by the horrors of
violence; for the hundreds of thousands that are refugees; and for
the rapidly increasing number of children suffering from or orphaned
by AIDS.
The great task ahead
The task that lies ahead for UNICEF is ever great, whether it's
repatriating millions of children in Africa or Asia, or teaching
children how to play who only have learned how to kill. Children are
our most vital resource, our hope for the future. Until they can be
assured of not only physically surviving the first fragile years of
life, but are free of emotional, social, and physical abuse, it's
impossible to envisage a world that is free of tension and violence.
It is up to us to make it possible. Charles Dickens wrote: "In their
little world, in which children have their existence, nothing is so
finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice" injustice which we
can avoid by giving more of ourselves. Yet we often hesitate in the
face of such apocalyptic tragedy. Why, when the way and low-cost
means are in place to safeguard and protect these children? It is for
leaders, parents, and young people - young people who have the purity
of heart which sometimes age tends to obscure - to remember their own
childhood and come to the rescue of those who start life against such
heavy odds. Simply because they are children, every child has the
right to health, to education, to protection, to tenderness, to life.
Interview with Maitreya's associate
Two journalists, working independently, regularly contribute articles
to Share International based on interviews with one of Maitreya's close
associates. This month we received a contribution from Brian James.
The whole world is becoming bankrupt
by Brian James
29 May 1992
World Collapse - It is not only large financial institutions which are
tumbling into bankruptcy, the whole world is becoming bankrupt - mentally
and spiritually, said Maitreya's associate. The world is going through a
huge crisis and all the medicines have been tried and failed. Maitreya
says that the tumour has got to burst open before the healing can begin,
he said.
The world is in such a chaotic state that it could happen at any time.
The politicians and the generals can do nothing to stop it - everything
they have tried to avert disaster has failed.
The Tokyo Stock Market has been turned by the politicians and
businessmen into a giant monster serving only a culture of greed. Now it
is crashing like everything else. Even the United Nations is being forced
to serve the interests of the strong and the greedy. Only charitable
institutions, like Oxfam, are caring for the weak and the needy;
governments are too caught up in killing and destroying.
Scientists have become like witches - brewing up new creatures through
genetic experiments to make money.
Crime is on the increase throughout the Western world. Look at the faces
of the politicians, they have no sparkle. What is happening is beyond
their comprehension. The world is like a volcano waiting to erupt - in
fact it is only a matter of time before it bursts open. America - The
disintegration that is taking place in the former Soviet Union is now
happening in America. The Los Angeles riots are not an isolated outburst.
Every state is crumbling and it is worsening day by day, said the
associate.
The states are desperately turning to the Federal Government for aid,
but it is not forthcoming. The associate claimed that America was
suffering in retribution for that country's indiscriminate bombing of
Iraq.
Britain - This country faces the same disintegration as America. Are
the people happy? No, there is no happiness here, there is so much
friction and confusion, said the associate. There is going to be a
massive revolt as people take to the streets and demand action to bring
back harmony and justice. Not even the police or the military will be
able to control it. Japan - The Japanese are sitting on a time bomb.
The destruction would be far worse than in any other Western country,
said the associate. Yugoslavia - Why didn't the American, British and
other Western powers send in military forces to stop the Yugoslavian army
from slaughtering innocent people? It is because they could not see any
gain in doing so, unlike their need to protect their oil interests in
Kuwait. They only evaluate humanity on a material level, said the
associate.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
by Benjamin Creme
Q. I should be more than interested to know whether, following the
report of the appearance of Maitreya in Nairobi in 1988, further
appearances have been reported in other parts of the world.
A. As regular readers of Share International will know, Maitreya has
made, since June 1988 in Nairobi, a series of appearances in like manner
_ that is, appearing (and disappearing) before large (until now, orthodox
Christian) gatherings in different parts of the world, on which we still
await media comment and reaction. These have been, so far: September
1991, Mexico City; January 1992, Mexico City; 1 March 1992, Moscow; 22
March 1992, Leipzig, Germany; 5 April 1992, Hanover, Germany; 26 April
1992, D*sseldorf, Germany; and 24 May 1992 in Switzerland. These
appearances will continue until media investigate and report on the
phenomenon.
As my Master reveals in His article in this [printed] issue of Share
International, they are being accompanied by mysterious and miraculous
events which have yet to reach the ears of the general public. Already,
at Tlacote, not far from Mexico City, a spring of water has surfaced with
amazing healing properties. Similar manifestations will be found in due
course, near the cities at which Maitreya has appeared - further signs of
His presence.
Q. (1) There are plans for a major international Christian festival
in Birmingham, UK, featuring Reinhard Bonnke, one of the world's leading
evangelists. Crowds of up to 35,000 are expected to attend the meetings
at the end of July. Is this the type of gathering at which Maitreya would
make an appearance? (2) Has He made such an appearance at a gathering at
all in England?
A. (1) These meetings in Birmingham in July might well seem ideal
opportunities for Maitreya to appear before large gatherings of people
with, most probably, media coverage as well. We can be sure, too, that
Maitreya is not unaware of this fact. However, it is my information that
He has no plans to appear there. Working strictly within the Law
governing our free will (which conditions the pace of His emergence), His
aims at present are less ambitious: so far, apart from Nairobi in June
1988, He has been appearing to groups of between 500 and 900 people.
However, with Maitreya, everything is fluid and mobile, and, if
circumstances permitted (due to humanity's action for the better), I have
no doubt He would avail Himself of wider opportunities to make His
presence known in this way.
(2) To Christian groups, no; but since 1977, He has spoken to large
audiences within the Asian community, not, however, appearing and
disappearing but in the ordinary way.
Q. Is Maitreya 'in on' the "One World Government" of President Bush
and the infamous "Tri-Lateralists"? I pray that the two are not the same.
A. President Bush's vision of a "New World Order" and "One World
Government" envisages an order in which the US, and therefore capitalism,
dominates and celebrates its triumph over a defunct communist ideology.
As I understand it, this is certainly not consistent with Maitreya's
predictions of a new political process (neither capitalism nor communism)
in which the voice and will of the peoples of the world are given
expression; in which consensus rather than confrontation and competition
will be the hallmarks; and in which a new political/economic structure -
Democratic Socialism or Social Democracy, symbolized by the reunification
of East and West Germany - will become the norm throughout the world.
Q. Could you give the point in evolution and ray structure of the
science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1920 -1992)?
A. Soul 3; Personality 4, sub-ray 6; Mental 7, sub-ray 3; Astral 4,
sub-ray 6; Physical 3, sub-ray 7. He was 1.6 degrees initiate.
Q. Was Rasputin overshadowed by any of the Masters? If so, were they
trying to bring about reforms to defuse an explosive situation which led
to the downfall of the Tsars and the ruling aristocracy?
A. No.
Q. In one of your books you say that the astral is only an
illusionary level of consciousness. I don't quite understand that.
A. The astral planes, the emotional/astral planes, exist as energy. The
function of our astral-emotional body is to act as a physical-plane
expression or vehicle for 'buddhi'. Buddhi is the second of the three
planes of the spiritual triad. The nature of atman, of the Self, is
spiritual will, spiritual love/wisdom and spiritual intelligence, and
these are reflected in the soul as atma, buddhi and manas. They all need
a vehicle, and the vehicle for buddhi (love/wisdom or group
consciousness, - intuition, group awareness) is the purified
astral/emotional body in the advanced individual, particularly, of
course, in a Master.
The average individual is still caught up in the desire, rather than the
spiritual, principle. Desire governs the function of the personality and
the vehicles of the personality (the physical body, the astral-emotional
body and the mental body); but the physical body purified, the
astral/emotional body purified, and the mental body purified eventually
become the vehicles for atma, buddhi and manas. Until that point is
reached the person is swept along by the illusions of the astral plane
which are created by the thoughtform-making process of humanity.
We have a physical body with an etheric sheath. The physical body dies
and is put in the ground or burned, but the etheric counterpart of that
body is a sheath which, normally within three days, dissipates and
returns to the ocean of etheric matter which surrounds us all. We are
then left in our astral sheath in which we exist for a shorter or longer
time on one or other of the seven astral planes (hopefully the higher
planes, because the lower are terrible). The more advanced a person is
the more he or she will be on the higher planes, and the less time will
be spent on these planes.
On the astral planes there are 'facsimiles' of various Masters - the
Masters DK, Morya, Koot Hoomi, Serapis, Jesus, Hilarion and various other
Masters, created, as astral thoughtforms, by humanity. There are many
mediumistic, astrally sensitive individuals who 'receive' from these
'facsimiles' so-called 'teachings from the Masters' which are more or
less erroneous.
Originally, the teachings came from the real Masters through people like
Alice Bailey, Eleanor Roerich, Helena Blavatsky, and which are reflected
back on to the astral planes by the disciples of the world. They are then
reflected back again through the astral sensitives with all the
distortions of the astral planes - the planes of distortion. It is like
what happens in dreams. Can you believe what happens in your dreams? The
astral planes are your dreams because your dreams happen on the astral
plane, are the result of the faculty of the lower mind during light sleep
- in deep sleep there is no dreaming - to create astral thoughtforms.
This activity of the lower mind goes on and on, the most fantastic things
happen. Then you wake up. The astral planes are as real as your dreams;
that is what I mean by the unreality of the astral planes.
Q. How important is diet - the eating of dairy or vegetable products,
for example - in the pursuit of perfection?
A. It depends at what stage one is. For those coming up to the first
initiation, vegetarianism is usually a requirement, and at that stage
people usually automatically become vegetarian. They know, because as you
come towards the first initiation the soul prompts you.
The first initiation becomes possible when you have made contact with
your soul. For long ages the soul is not the slightest bit interested in
its vehicle, its reflection, the man or woman in these successive
incarnations. The person is so removed from the soul, so cut off from it,
that there is nothing the soul can do, but eventually, as it is
approaching the first initiation - say, two or three lives before the
first initiation - the soul sees that things are beginning to happen; its
reflection is beginning to respond. It stimulates its vehicles and begins
to build the 'antahkarana', a column of light from the soul to the
person, and it introduces the person to meditation of some kind.
Meditation is a more or less scientific method (depending on the
meditation) of coming into contact with the soul and eventually becoming
at-one with it. So the soul brings the person to meditation, and, more
and more, pours its energy into the person, on all planes - physical,
astral/ emotional, and mental. It 'grips' its vehicle in this way, while
the person meditating is building this antahkarana up towards the soul.
He becomes more idealistic, more aspiring, because the soul is pouring
down what we call the Christ Principle - the soul is the Christ
Principle, the principle of consciousness. This stimulates the aspiration
towards a higher life, and the person's predilections, their interests,
begin to change. They usually become more serious, less wasteful of time,
they get bored with earlier pursuits and are attracted to a deeper, more
meaningful aspect, coming from the soul. They begin to relate to
humanity in a broader sense, to feel responsibility, and they begin to
want to serve the world in some way. They usually think they should
become vegetarian and eventually it becomes a must for them. This is
because the first initiation is the result of the control of the physical
elemental.
All of our bodies are made up of the life activity of tiny little
devic, or angelic, lives. This body that we think is solid physical is
made up of the activity of little devas, little angels, tiny little devic
lives, and they control us or we control them - it is one or the other.
The first initiation is only possible when we control their activity
rather than they ours. The second initiation is only possible when we
control the activity of the astral devas, the third when we control the
activity of the mental devas. These three vehicles of the soul on the
physical plane have to be controlled. The readiness for the first
initiation demonstrates when we have a good degree of control over the
activity of the physical body _ not too much food, not too much sex, not
too much drink, not too much of anything; it does not have to be a
totally vegetarian diet. There are fanatics around in every sphere but
you will find that there is always a purification of the diet which leads
to purification of the body.
Then for the second initiation you begin to work on the control of the
astral/emotional reactions to life. The soul through the mental body
controls the astral body, and then the soul through the mental body
controls the mental body itself.
Once these three controls are established, the three initiations can
take place and you are divine. At the fourth initiation the soul is no
longer needed _ it is the divine intermediary between the spark of God
and the man or woman on the physical plane. The vehicle for the soul, the
body of the soul on the soul plane (called the causal body), is shattered
and the soul is reabsorbed into the divine Self, the spark of God. The
man then stands as a living God, a divine God-man. Until the third
initiation is taken you are potentially divine but not yet totally
divine.
So it is to do with the impulse of the soul that one comes into
vegetarianism. Once you have proved that you have control, the need for
control does not become so marked. The habit goes on but it is not
essential.
Q. Do animals have souls?
A. Individually, no. Animals are expressions of a group soul _ there is
the soul which is 'cat', or 'dog', or 'horse' or 'camel', but they do not
have individualized souls in the way humans have. The individualization
of humanity occurred, according to esoteric teachings, no less than
18-and-a-half million years ago.
Q. Who taught you so that you have reached the stage where you can
meet a Master? This is my first meeting here and I feel very frustrated
because there seems a lot to know and a lot to learn. Why can't Share
International have a sort of Entity that people who want to know and
learn can learn from?
A. You mean why don't we start a school? A school would require a group
of teachers who know at least a page more than others do in order to
teach - and there are groups all over the world who do nothing else. Our
task is not to set up a school but to make known that the Christ is in
the world, that the Masters are returning - there are now 14 Masters in
the world besides Maitreya - and to prepare the way, to create the
climate of hope, of expectancy, for His coming, so that He can enter our
lives without infringing human free will. That is a full-time job - just
to publish Share International is pretty-well a full-time job. To travel
around the world as I do is almost a full-time job. Besides that I am a
painter, I am married, have two children, I have to sleep occasionally, I
have to eat sometimes ... you are asking the impossible!
Let me just say, if you want to know about the esoteric teachings in the
academic sense, read the Alice Bailey teachings. There are 24 books, they
are available in all the esoteric bookshops. The first was published in
1922. Start with these, with Initiation Human and Solar and go on. No one
need be short of something to read.
Q. Could you please give the ray-structure and point in evolution of
the late healer and medium Estelle Roberts?
A. Soul 2; personality 6, sub-ray 4; mental body 6, sub-ray 4; astral
body 6, sub-ray 2; physical body 3, sub-ray 3. She was 1.2 degrees
initiate.
Q. It is thought that the late Vicky Wall, who was given the formulas
for the soul colour therapy 'Aura-Soma' through direct channelling, has
returned to Sirius. Could you confirm this please?
A. I must confess that this question makes me smile. Sirius is the
alter-ego of this Solar system and only Masters of the fifth initiation
or higher may _ if it is Their destiny _ go to Sirius and, by the same
token, only Avatars can come from Sirius to this planet.
The late Vicky Wall had not yet taken the first initiation; her point in
evolution was 0.8. So much for "direct channelling", 99.999 per cent of
which comes from the astral planes _ the planes of illusion.
Q. Can you please give the ray structure and point in evolution of
the late German philosopher Martin Heidegger?
A. Soul 4; Personality 3, sub-ray 7; mental body 4, sub-ray 6; astral
body 6, sub-ray 2; physical body 7, sub-ray 3. He was 1.7 degrees
initiate.
Q. Please give the ray structure and point in evolution of the late
Arthur Rubinstein, the famous pianist.
A. Soul 2; Personality 4, sub-ray 4; mental body 4, sub-ray 6; astral
body 6, sub-ray 6; physical body 7, sub-ray 7. He was 1.75 degrees
initiate.
Benjamin Creme _ meetings and tours
UK _ Benjamin Creme lectures at Friends' Meeting
House, Euston Road, London NW1: Thursday 16 July,
Thursday 6 August. Lectures begin 7 pm; doors
open/literature available 6.30 pm. Enquiries: %
071-485 1739 or fax/answerphone: % 071-482 1113.
Canada _ Vancouver BC: Lecture, 26 June;
Meditation, 27 June
Enquiries: % 604-736-8272
USA _ Los Angeles: Lecture, 30 June; Meditation, 1
July
Enquiries: % 818-785-6300
Mexico _ Mexico City: Lecture, 4 July; Meditation,
5 July
USA _ San Francisco: Meditation, 8 July; Lecture, 9
July
Enquiries: % 510-841-3738
Tara Center Network Conference, 10-12 July.
Holland _ Lecture, 17 September; International
Transmission Meditation Conference, September
18-20. Enquiries: PO Box 41877, 1009 DB Amsterdam.
Germany _ Munich: 8-9 October. Enquiries: %
089-12332522; Hamburg: 10-11 October. Enquiries: %
040-5552216.
Switzerland _ Geneva: 24-25 October. Enquiries: %
021-369984. Zurich: 26-27 October.
Islamic fundamentalism today
by Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad
It was peculiar to see Afghan pakols - the woolen caps typically worn in
Peshawar and Kabul - on the heads of protesters in the capital of
Algeria. Stranger still, a few weeks later, to hear that the "Afghans"
had attacked the city's police. Algeria had become the latest country to
be rocked by Islamic Fundamentalism, a movement that today haunts the
entire Muslim world from Morocco to Indonesia. Like the ghost of Hamlet's
father, it is here, there and everywhere.
Its force, however, differs from region to region and from country to
country. Somewhere a ripple, at other places a minor current, it has
assumed the form of a storm at least in two countries. The storm centre
is the Middle East, where fundamentalism achieved its first victory when
the Iranian clergy overthrew Shah Reza Pahlavi in violent revolution.
Iran became a beacon of light for fundamentalists in Muslim countries the
world over. Here was a country bravely introducing a system of laws,
based on the Koran, which many Westernized Muslims had regarded as
impractical. It had gone even further: it challenged the two superpowers
simultaneously. Could this system bring prosperity and enlightenment to
the downtrodden Muslim masses of the Third World? Could it help them
achieve a respectable place among the nations of the world, denied to
them since the overthrow of the Abbasids in Baghdad and the Ummawis in
Andalusia?
Not only fundamentalists but many other Muslims looked towards
revolutionary Iran in wonder and awe. Islamic fundamentalist parties
languishing in neighboring countries received moral encouragement and
were revitalized. Egypt came first, with the Ikhwan, or Muslim
Brotherhood, goaded to new activity by the Iranian example. Taking full
benefit of the freedoms allowed to them by the government of Hosny
Mubarak, they plunged into the political arena, gaining (in alliance with
the socialist Labour Party) 60 National Assembly seats in the 1987
elections.A similar feat was performed by the Ikhwan in Jordan in the
1989 elections. In the kingdom's first general elections in 22 years, the
fundamentalists garnered no less than 20 seats in a house consisting of
only 80 deputies. In alliance with 12 other like-minded members, this
gave them the largest single voting bloc. While participating in
elections in Egypt and Jordan, the Ikhwan have by no means confined
themselves to democratic methods alone.
In neighboring Sudan, they fully supported the military led by Brigadier
Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, who overthrew Sadiq al-Mahdi. As reward, they
were the only political group represented in the new cabinet. Islamic
fundamentalism is also on the rise in the Arab Meghreb, which might well
become its second stronghold after the Middle East. 1990 was marked by
outbursts of fundamentalism in both Tunisia and Morocco. Violent
protests by fundamentalists in that year led to arrests in Tunisia. The
clash with police apparently involved a protest at the government's
handling of flood victims in the country. The militancy, however, was an
expression of the new spirit with which fundamentalism has been animated
in recent years. In Morocco that same year about 2,000 fundamentalists
were beaten and arrested when they took to the streets demanding the
release of six jailed leaders.
Algeria, however, has emerged as the stronghold of the resurgent
fundamentalism in the Arab Maghreb. Strange for a country where Western
culture has left widespread impact. Unlike Iran, where most people do not
know any European language, virtually all Algerians speak French as a
second language. Half the country gets its daily news from the French
media, while 4 million Algerians live abroad in Italy, Spain or France,
frequently traveling back and forth. Fundamentalists won the Algerian
municipal elections over a year ago and were on the verge of coming to
power through a thumping electoral victory in the recent general
elections when they were stopped short by the military (which has in fact
ruled Algeria since its liberation in 1962). The military top brass,
trained in elite French military schools, were perhaps afraid of what
fundamentalism might do to their lifestyles. After initially showing
restraint, the fundamentalists are now on the war path against the army,
which they regard as a usurper of power. The Islamic Salvation Front
(FIS) is demanding that the election results be respected and that the
current ruling council bow to the will of people. It is still too early
to predict the outcome of that confrontation.
In the Asia-Pacific region, meanwhile, the cradle of the Islamic
fundamentalist movement is Indonesia. The former Dar-ul-Islam and the
Masjumi Party have been replaced by the new fundamentalist Partai
Persatuan Pembongan, or PPP. In Indonesia, fundamentalists have tried a
number of methods to come to power, from participation in elections to
insurrection. Targeted by Soekarno, against whom they had never taken
arms, the fundamentalists had hoped for better treatment from Suharto,
especially as they had collaborated with him in the massacre of
Indonesian communists. But Suharto was slow in allowing them to function.
Nevertheless, with the Communist Party -- the second-largest in Asia
after China's--banned and its rank and file killed and jailed in
thousands, the Indonesian PPP has emerged as the second-largest party in
the Parliament. The ruling Golkar Party got 299 seats in the 1987
elections, while the PPP won 61 seats and the PDI, the pro-Soekarno
party, lagged behind with no more than 40 seats.
There is also an Islamic party in Malaysia, which calls itself Partie
Islam Pas, or PAS for short. Though the party has little impact on
national politics, it has formed government in one of the provinces in
coalition with the ruling party of Mohatir Mohammad. In Pakistan, Jama
at-e-Islami represents the fundamentalist trend. Formed in 1941, it has
enjoyed little electoral strength, being more of a cadre party than a
mass party. Despite its discipline and a formidable propaganda machine,
it could only bag four seats in the 1970 national elections. Its
performance in 1988 and 1990 was better because of the electoral alliance
it made with the Muslim League and others, but it stands as nothing
compared to the other parties in the country.
The Soviet entry in Afghanistan revived the fundamentalist trend that had
remained latent in that country before then. The mullah had performed
important social functions in traditional Pukhtun society but had never
been recognized as a ruler. After the Afghan revolution, however,
fundamentalism was encouraged as a counterpoise to communist ideology.
The material aid from the Middle East strengthened the trend., And as
Afghan nationalism was anathema to the establishment in Pakistan,
important sections of it gave important assistance to the fundamentalist
parties.
What is the social base of fundamentalism in the Muslim world today?
Poverty and illiteracy, maintain some writers. But is this the real
reason? If this were so, Pakistan should be the first stronghold of
fundamentalism because it is at the bottom of the list among Muslim
countries in these benchmarks, just above Sudan and Afghanistan. Iran,
where fundamentalism continues to thrive, had a per capita income of
$2,160 and a literacy rate of 48 per cent in 1977-- that is, on the eve
of the Iranian revolution--compared to $200 per capita income and a
literacy rate of 24 per cent for Pakistan that same year. Algeria, Egypt,
Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Indonesia have per capita incomes of $1,951,
$686, $551, $800, $884 and $560 respectively, and literacy rates of 46,
44, 58, 24, 62 and 64 per cent. Only Sudan and Afghanistan come near
Pakistan, with respective per capita incomes of $370 and $168 and
literacy rates of 20 and 10 per cent.
In Muslim countries, it is clear, fundamentalism does not attract the
poor and uneducated alone. It appeals to a section of the educated youth
as well, who are drawn towards it as an alternative political system in
post-colonial societies ruled by corrupt and inefficient political elites
tied to the West. Most of the Muslim countries suffered under colonial
rule and the masses expected a better dispensation after liberation from
the foreign yoke. They grew disillusioned, however, as decades after
liberation the people continued to suffer under the unscrupulous and
corrupt generals, bureaucrats and politicians. In these countries, where
common people did not often have clean potable water to drink, the ruling
elite spent its ill-gotten wealth on costly luxuries imported from abroad
and on highly ostentatious living. Not only was this true of the ruling
elites tied to the bourgeois West but also of the nationalist or
socialist elites aligned with the former Soviet bloc.
This negligence provided more than enough material to the
fundamentalists, who simultaneously condemned capitalism, nationalism and
socialism--along with the big and the small Satan supporting them. The
puritanical life style of many fundamentalist leaders along with their
stress on honesty and otherworldliness, has sometimes led people to think
that they would be able to end the corruption and dishonesty if they were
in power.
What is the social base of fundamentalism in the Muslim world today?
Most of the Muslim countries suffered under colonial rule and the masses
expected a better dispensation after liberation from the foreign yoke.
They grew disillusioned, however, as decades after liberation the people
continued to suffer under the unscrupulous and corrupt generals,
bureaucr... [A portion of text is missing.]
