Religious revivalism...of a different kind

I recently went to Rome and visited the Vatican. Regrettably, did not see the Pope, but would very much liked to have had tea with Benedict XVI. I'd love to ask him whether he's had tea with any other Muslim, i.e., if he knows them well, or if he spends time learning who the Muslims are or how they understand their faith. The Pope did talk about the immigrants last Sunday and he reminded the listeners that Jesus looked at all people as human beings, above all things, and thence that we should respect them. However, I wonder, if the Pope himself spends time with them, to learn and respect otherness, to integrate difference, managing prejudices. I believe this to be a difficult task. Not only for Christians, but also for the Muslims themselves. One does not love naturally the Other; one is taught to deconstruct prejudices and integrate otherness. This should happen from early ages of childhood, both in school and in the family or community.

I keep myself some fabulous memoirs of the Vatican. It's wealth, sumptuous arts and architecture, the frescos of Michael Angelo and Raphael; of art as the projection of power, or as contestation of power and corruption. One leaves the Vatican differently from when one enters.

One intriguing question had to do with the fact of the Vatican having opened its doors to the wider public approximately 20 years ago. What was its agenda? In the UK, Queen Elizabeth II had the Buckingham palace doors opened at a crisis time, just after Diana's death- the People's Princess - and after her total disengagement with the British monarchy. The people were angry and disenchanted with the institution. The argument put forward by the palace was finance, but it was really the social and political impact that was at stake. Regarding the Vatican, I wonder what crisis, if any, pushed the Vatican for showing off their wealth, culture and power?

This question led to think about religious revivalisms in the contemporaneous world. Throughout the whole visit I was led to learn about the Papal monarchy and power. I had difficulty finding Jesus. No mention of him. Well, of course, there were a few images... however, the revered ones were of the Popes - Jesus representatives. In "islamology" we would call them the caliphs, with a State of their own, with their own laws, and taxes, further to the authority of recognized religious knowledge - thus, they would be the caliph-ulama! Very similar to Muslim clergy that influences governments, only locally.

For those who proudly recall the separation that happened in Christendom, between the religious and the secular, I find the Vatican an interesting and puzzling phenomenon. From this place, religious laws will expand to the Catholic world and become globalised, not as juridical state laws, but as ethical frameworks for building on the laws of any Catholic country. The consequences even in secular societies can be so deep and widely spread that you may find women's role as backwards in Germany as in the most remote and backwards Muslim jurisprudence systems in some societies. To have a clearer idea I recommend the article on the Herald Tribune about laws that control and underestimate women's role in society for more than 500 years! Alas! Don't we all have glass ceilings?!

Through the sumptuous corridors, and temples, I looked for my beloved Prophet Jesus. The sufi and mystic leader, who shared his piece of bread with the needed; who protected and enhanced women; who made miracles out of love and compassion... there He was, small, hanging from the cross, in the middle of big saints, and fat cardinals, in the middle of enormous columns, and paintings, of gold, of mummified priests, and other worldly wealth.

The Pope's power and laws are central do this small state, and yet, affect the whole Catholic world, whom seem to have forgotten its founder and central element - Jesus. Likewise, among Muslims, Islam, a word that appears as much as 7 times in the Qur'an, compared to the hundreds of times the concept of Allah (God) appears, has become the central element in the Muslim faith. The big Jihad of a Muslim nowadays has become "Islam", whereas, in the beginning it meant really the battle in the direction of one's inner Self, which is eager to be reunited with God.

We live and spread, both Christians and Muslims, a religious revival, but of a different kind: that which has given up on essence and is more keen on showing off the glorification of the form.

*A Salaam means peace