Islam, Corruption and Election Fraud
Alaa Al Aswany asks why Egyptian officials fail to view the rigging of elections as a sin.
In Islam, sins are divided into major and minor sins. Major sins warrant punishment by God in this life and the afterlife. Although jurists part on details, they all agree that bearing false witness is among the gravest of major sins. The sacred texts written a thousand years ago do not identify making false witness within the context of election rigging. Still, to rig an election with false results most certainly bears false witness. The misrepresentation prevents the winning candidate from obtaining the position which is his or her due, while giving the position to someone who does not deserve it. Indeed, one can argue that election rigging is much worse than bearing false witness, because bearing false witness deprives an individual or a family of their due, whereas rigging elections deprives the whole nation of its due.
This is a question I've asked myself repeatedly about Turkey: Why is this society so tolerant of corruption? Corruption is of course a form of theft, which is clearly and absolutely proscribed by the Koran. Al Aswany's answer is interesting, if not entirely satisfying.
It is because the books on Islamic law, all written well before elections existed, do not mention elections or election fraud. The gate of ijtihad, or individual judgment in matters of Islamic law, was closed centuries ago, and most Islamic law experts over generations have limited their teachings of Islamic law to the repetition of dogma as it was pronounced a thousand years ago. Little has changed.
His conclusion, however, is persuasive:
Civil and political rights advance only in two cases: when the society recognizes religion as a promoter and defender of basic values — truth, justice and freedom, or when a society bases itself on an ethical concept whereby the collective human conscience is the ultimate arbiter which sets the criteria for virtue and honesty. However, in countries where religion is detached from human values — talents and resources go to waste, dooming those societies to falling behind in the march of civilization. Those who define religion and piety as set of procedures lead their followers to a false formal piety and undermine the natural sense of conscience, and right and wrong itself. Indeed, it can drive a man to behave appallingly while confident of his goodness, which has been unwisely determined by his correctly performing prescriptive religious obligations.
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May '10
Re: Islam, Corruption and Election Fraud
This might ruffle some feathers, but here we go:
Claire Berlinski, quoting Alaa Al Aswany, in the style of Peter Robinson:
This reminds me of my experiences with alcoholism and sexual abuse while living in the religiously conservative South. You have an area of the country with the highest rates of evangelical religious participation, yet produces characters like Bill Clinton and high alcohol-related violence and fatalities.
How can this happen? Well, when you think going to church on Sunday and helping out with Bible Study constitutes complete morality, then it's easy to binge drink and have unprotected sex and still think you're doing "the right thing."
This isn't to say there aren't "true believers" in the south who practice what they preach; there are. They're a minority there too, just like in the rest of the world.
Jun '10
Re: Islam, Corruption and Election Fraud
Jonathan Lanctot: This might ruffle some feathers, but here we go:
...
This reminds me of my experiences with alcoholism and sexual abuse while living in the religiously conservative South. You have an area of the country with the highest rates of evangelical religious participation, yet produces characters like Bill Clinton and high alcohol-related violence and fatalities.
How can this happen? Well, when you think going to church on Sunday and helping out with Bible Study constitutes complete morality, then it's easy to binge drink and have unprotected sex and still think you're doing "the right thing."
This isn't to say there aren't "true believers" in the south who practice what they preach; there are. They're a minority there too, just like in the rest of the world. · Jul 13 at 6:15am
I think some evangelicals are mislead into thinking that "being saved" is a singular event, and not an ongoing process. After you're "saved," if you're still a skunk and a liar, that's pretty good evidence that one time at the alter wasn't enough for you.
May '10
Re: Islam, Corruption and Election Fraud
"After you're "saved," if you're still a skunk and a liar, that's pretty good evidence that one time at the alter wasn't enough for you."
Of course, there is a problem in that the altar doesn't "alter" anyone, and "one time" i never enough for us weak human reprobate moral recidivists. We are still the same flawed sinful people. And Jonathan is absolutely correct that checking off a list of "do this" rituals, however informally they may dress, is still a list of empty do's and don'ts.
The Apostle Paul admittede in Romans 7 that he just couldn't ever get it right and behave the way he was supposed to (quote in the next comment below). He was generally considered to be a pretty "holy" guy. So we absolutely can't behave by ourselves- we need Grace to survive, because we are doomed if we actually get what we deserve.
Corruption? The Obama DoJ reaction to the Ike Brown voting rights case in Mississippi makes me reluctant to criticize other countries:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-ike-brown-case-is-the-doj-about-to-fail-another-race-based-test/
May '10
Re: Islam, Corruption and Election Fraud
Romans 7, St. Paul speaking (Augustine talked this way as well):
“15 I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. 16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. 18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. 19 When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. 20 But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it. 21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.”