Want to challenge a few stereotypes?
How about asking your students to critique a commencement speech given by a Shiite imam? This Shiite imam promotes pluralism, democracy, civil society, and the study of comparative government.On June 15, His Highness the Aga Khan spoke at the graduation ceremony of the Masters of Public Affairs (MPA) Programme at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).
[The Aga Khan is the 49th Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. The Ismailis are ethnically and culturally diverse and reside in over 25 countries around the world. He is the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, one of the largest private development networks in the world. His public goals have been the elimination of global poverty; the advancement of the status of women; the promotion of Islamic culture, art, and architecture; and furthering pluralistic values in society. In 2006, he established The Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa, Canada, dedicated to promoting pluralism in developing countries.]Below are excerpts to which I added some emphases. The whole text is available in English and French on the Aga Khan's web site at Speech by His Highness the Aga Khan.
The speech offers a number of assertions that your students can evaluate and an endorsement of the study of comparative government.
"The values which Sciences Po honors today are deeply rooted in its history... [that] has always honored the past by embracing the future...
"The founders of Sciences Po realized in their time that aristocracies of class must give way to aristocracies of talent...
"Another value which Sciences Po has emphasized from the start is that of pluralism - an outlook which rises above parochial preoccupations...
"We hear a great deal these days about a clash of civilizations between the Islamic world and the West. I disagree profoundly. In my view, it is a clash of ignorance which we are facing. And the answer to ignorance is education...
"[T]here are three challenges in particular that I would like to highlight... They are: first, the future of democracy, especially in the developing world; secondly, the central role which civil society can play in that development; and thirdly, the crisis in relations between the West and the Islamic world...
ONE
"The history of democracy, especially in areas of Asia and Africa which I know well, has been a long series of jolts and jars...
"A recent survey by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) of 18 South American countries confirmed that the majority of people were less interested in their forms of government than in their quality of life...
"The question that must be asked, I believe, is not whether democracy is a good thing in the abstract, but rather how to help democracy perform better in practice...
"[T]here are some hopeful signs. Generally speaking, the most successful developing countries are those which have engaged actively with the global knowledge society, those which have accepted and defended the value of pluralism, and those which have created an enabling environment for human enterprise, rather than indulging in asphyxiating policies which discourage human endeavour...
"But in too many places, democratic practice is deeply flawed. One problem is simple ignorance of the various forms of democracy. I attribute this in part to the absence of good education in comparative government. Holding a national referendum on a new constitution, is no guarantee that the provisions of the constitution have been understood, let alone validated, by popular consent...
"the very concept of democracy must be adapted to a variety of national and cultural contexts. Effective democracy can not be imposed from the top or from the outside. Democracy’s value must be deeply felt in the daily lives of a country’s population, including the rural majority, if it is to be upheld and promoted...
TWO
"One of the reasons that I am more optimistic than some about the future of the developing world is my faith that a host of new institutions can play a larger role in that future. I am especially enthusiastic about the potential of what I call “civil society”...
"Too often we have assumed that voluntary organizations are too limited to serve great public purposes. For some, the very notion of private organizations devoted to public goals seems to be an oxymoron.
"But this skeptical attitude is changing. The power of civil society is becoming more apparent...
"Civil and private institutions have unique capacities for spurring social progress - even when governments falter. For one thing, because they are intimately connected to the warp and woof of daily life, they can predict new patterns with particular sensitivity.
"The development of civil society can also help meet the challenge of cultural diversity, giving diverse constituencies effective ways to express and preserve their distinct identities...
"Private institutions also provide good laboratories for experimentation...
THREE
"I am deeply convinced that the fundamental roots of this crisis [in relations between the West and the Islamic world] are infinitely more political than they are theological. And we can deal effectively with this crisis, I believe, only if we begin by addressing a complex set of political issues, rather than worrying so much about a conflict of religions.
"If you reflect back to the origins of the present flash points, the historical legacy has been consistently political - and frequently explosive. The present Middle East situation was born at the end of World War I, growing out of the search for a homeland for the Jewish peoples of our world. The Kashmir conflict was born out of the decolonisation process when Britain withdrew from the then-united India. More recently, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the British and American invasion of Iraq have further contributed to the turmoil.
"But disputes among the three Abrahamic faiths themselves have not been responsible for these conflicts. Yes, many of the problems have since taken on the colouring of interfaith conflict, but that development is the consequence, much more than the cause, of these tragedies...
"Three observations are critical here. First, there really is no one single Islamic world, but a variety of individual situations which need individual analysis. Second, the faith of Islam, in the vast majority of its interpretations, is not in conflict with the other great Abrahamic traditions. Third, each crisis we encounter stems from its own specific political context...
"The world is becoming more pluralist in fact - but not in spirit. “Cosmopolitan” social patterns have not yet been matched by what I would call “a cosmopolitan ethic”...
"Instead of shouting at one another, our faiths ask us to listen - and learn from one another. As we do, one of our first lessons might well center on those powerful but often neglected chapters in history when Islamic and European cultures interacted cooperatively and creatively to realize some of civilization's peak achievements.
"The spirit of pluralism is not a pallid religious compromise. It is a sacred religious imperative. In this light, our differences can become sources of enrichment, so that we see “the other” as an opportunity and a blessing - whether “the other” lives across the street - or across the world..."
Labels: civil society, concepts, democratization, globalization, theory
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:04 AM
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