Beyond the Criticism of Religion
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- Published on Sunday, 21 June 2015 23:15
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1132 .... June 22, 2015
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Beyond the Criticism of Religion
Tadzio Müller
"I think 9-11 [was] the first break in this planetary system. Now this is the second thing, which is the deep paradox. Where did [this break] come from? Maoism? Marxism? The revolutionary proletariat? The revolutionized peasantry? No, it comes from fucking religion -- which we forgot about." -- "Interview With Stuart Hall," Critical Quarterly, Dec 2007.
"Wherever the Syrian-Iraqi Islamist group Isis prevails, it mercilessly crushes and murders its enemies. But the group also has a social side: it inoculates children, fills potholes, installs new power lines and evaluates the quality of Kebabs." -- "Terror und Verbraucherschutz," Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 17 June 2014.
Over the last few years, religion has gained in socio-political importance. For example, although the... Tea Party in the U.S. had seemed to be in decline due to a determined counterattack by the Wall Street-affiliated Republican establishment, the Tea Party clearly demonstrated its influence with the surprising defeat of Eric Cantor, the Republican former majority leader in the House of Representatives. The Tea Party's strength was further underscored by the subsequent burial of immigration reform, which had been promoted by major factions of capital.
Similarly, in Latin America, evangelical Christianity is becoming increasingly influential as a social movement. In Brazil a few years ago an evangelical candidate running for the Green Party (whose relative electoral success is often erroneously viewed as having led to the ‘greening’ of Brazilian political discourse) unexpectedly forced Dilma Rousseff into a run-off election. In sub-Saharan African countries, evangelical Christian forces are linked to the brutal persecution of LGBT-people (Uganda), and a wave of so-called ‘corrective rapes’ (South Africa).
In France, right-wing demonstrations have mobilized hundreds of thousands of people against gay marriage, especially members of the culturally conservative, Catholic milieu. In parts of Eastern Europe, a new block seems to be taking over power. It consists of the remaining fragments of the post-communist state apparatus, as well as nationalist-fascist movements, and church structures (whether Orthodox or Catholic), these of course remained relatively stable during communism. Finally, there is political Islam, which, spearheaded by the ‘global jihad’, has developed into a strong transnational movement. This movement has challenged governments with coups, bombings, civil wars and attempted revolutions throughout a wide geographical arc stretching from Mali to Malaysia.
