I’ve been reading a bit about Islam recently, incidentally, via Joseph Campbell’s massive treatise on comparative religious history, The Masks of God.
What struck me about the core values of the Koran, is that it is, in principle, an incredibly egalitarian system. Before I explain my meaning after the jump, here’s a remix of an unearthed Chaplin speech that I posted a couple months ago.
One of the key principles of Islamic faith is that of Ijma, or consensus. God’s law is not meant to be interpreted by clergy and other intermediaries, it is in the minds of the people, collectively, and only collectively may they define it. I think it is this abiding belief in the right-mindedness of the people at large, that is driving these revolutions in the Muslim world. Despite other criticisms one can levy for its tribalistic nature, Islam is very much a religion of common men — and no tyrants or clerics or Shahs can really make a case that their rule is any more divine than that of a government by the people. One wonders if these revolutions would be harder to come by in more strictly hierarchical and oppressive religious/tribal traditions. Perhaps this makes the Egyptian despot more insecure in his station than the Chinese emperor.
