[world-vedic] (The aesthetics of faith)

[Guest guest]

>

>----

>Overseas Friends of the BJP (USA) ........... Voice: (718) 271-0453

>54-15, 108th St. ............................ Fax: (718) 271-1906

>Corona, NY 11368............................ WWW:http://www.ofbjp.org

> BJP's Website: http://www.bjp.org

>

>bjp-l-digest Tuesday, December 7 1999 Volume 03 : Number

>193

>

>+--------------------------+

>News and Analysis Digest

>Topics:

>-----

>The aesthetics of faith

>+--------------------------+

>

>Title: The aesthetics of faith

>Author: Saeed Naqvi

>Publication: Indian Express

>December 6, 1999

>

> The news that a mosque is to be built in

> Nazareth saddened me. Unless you have been to

> Nazareth, Bethlehem, walked by the side of

> the sea of Galilee or gone up Via Rosa in

> Jerusalem you will not be able to see things

> the way I do.

>

> Nazareth is quintessentially a Christian town

> in its ambience and historical echo. Every

> cobbled stone is bound inextricably with the

> myth or the reality of Jesus Christ. There is

> much more of the New Testament in Nazareth

> than there is, for instance, in that very

> Mecca of Christendom the Vatican city which I

> associate much more with the genius and the

> eccentric faith of Michaelangelo. In my

> framework there is room for a mosque in

> either Nazareth or the Vatican. Just as there

> is no room for a church or a temple in Mecca.

> But mosques in Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura?

> I shall come to that later.

>

> It is argued that the demographic composition

> of Nazareth has changed over the years, that

> the majority now is Muslim. This is true. The

> Christian population preferred the land of

> milkand honey across the Atlantic than

> proximity to the Church of the Annunciation,

> the site where Angel Gabriel is believed to

> have appeared before Mary and told her that

> she would give birth to the messiah.

>

> In other words, Nazareth is also today a West

> Bank town in a politically tempestuous region

> of the world. The contest, exemplified by the

> controversy, is between its status as an

> important, dynamic urban centre in the new

> Palestinian state or a holy city, a centre

> for Christian pilgrimage, much more in the

> public focus as Jesus's 2000th birthday

> approaches.

>

> The case for building a mosque in Nazareth

> is, actually, quite attractive. ``One more

> place of worship will only enhance its

> holiness.'' Moreover, this place of worship

> is likely to be used by a majority of the

> town's residents.But this innocent sounding

> argument actually disguises a deeper plot. As

> the Palestinian state is in its birth throes,

> the secularists and the militant Islamists

> are vying with each other to determine the

> character of the newstate.

>

> There is a faulty impression that the

> Palestinian struggle has, somehow, been

> primarily Islamic in character. George

> Habash, Hannan Ashrawi and one of the great

> thinkers of our time, Edward Said, are all

> Christians. I have attended midnight mass at

> Bethlehem (where Jesus was born) when Yasser

> Arafat and his Christian wife, Suha Arafat,

> were the principal guests at the service.

>

> It is nobody's case that the Islamists will

> be deemed to have been defeated if the mosque

> is not built in Nazareth. Quite the opposite

> might happen. Thwarting the mosque might fuel

> an Islamist agitation.

>

> But politics and general philistinism alone

> must not inform discussion on whether or not

> a Christian pilgrimage centre can accommodate

> another place of worship to cater to its new

> Muslim majority.

>

> Town planning and architectural additions to

> an ancient holy site cannot be divorced from

> considerations of aesthetics.

>

> Every great religion generates its own

> culture which manifests itself in

> architecture, literature, musicand painting.

> Thus the great cathedrals of Europe,

> Michaelangelo, Bach, Handel, Milton are only

> some of the enduring gifts left behind by

> that great religion. In my book they

> represent the very distillate of that which

> came to be known as western civilisation.

>

> The majestic dome and measured spirals of the

> Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the mosque in

> Isfahan, the Jama Masjid of Delhi, the

> thought and poetry of Jaluddin Rumi, the

> dance of the dervishes in Konya, the

> devotional music of Amir Khusro, all

> represent freedom, amplitude and aesthetic

> pleasure derived from the faith.

>

> The frescos in the exquisite temple in

> Tanjore, depicting every known movement in

> Bharatanatyam, the incomparable detailing in

> stone at Halibed, the granite grandeur at

> Shravanbelagola, poetry of Sur and Tulsi and

> the Kritis of Thyagaraja, are the highest

> aesthetic expression of Hindu civilisation.

> Tirupati, Rishikesh, Ayodhya, Mathu- ra and

> Varanasi are, according to me, towns and

> cities which are as Hindu as Mecca is Muslim

> or the Vaticanis Christian.

>

> A temple or a mosque in the Vatican or a

> church in Mecca would militate against the

> sheer aesthetic harmony of these places.

> Should it then be difficult to realise that

> mosques in the heart of the most prominent

> temples in Varanasi, Ayodhya and Mathura

> would be aesthetically revolting for any

> Hindu?

>

> Unka jo kaam hai who pehle siyasat jaane Mera

> paigham mohabbat hai Jahan tak pahunche, (Let

> those with a political axe to grind carry on

> with their business; mine is a message of

> love and let it carry as far as it can.)

> History of invasions and the crusades is

> replete with the destruction of places of

> worship. Europe never really forgot the hurt

> inflicted by the Ottomans on the Christian

> world by transforming the St Sophia Church in

> Constantinople (today's Istanbul) into a

> mosque. Ataturk softened the wound by

> shutting down the mosque and restoring St

> Sophia as a museum.

>

> Have you ever visited the mosques in

> Varanasi, Ayodhya and Mathura? I did and I

> did not like what I saw. Any Hinduwould be

> hurt.

>

> That such things happen in history is true.

> The history of civilisation is also the

> history of their eclipse by decay or

> conquest.

>

> In many instances cross-civilisational

> contact leads to enrichment.

>

> Ironically, cities in the eye of recent

> storms, Sarajevo, Mostar and Pristina, were

> once the pride of what I call composite

> culture. A magnificent Ottoman bridge in

> Mostar provided the backdrop for the steeples

> of churches in Mostar. Orthodox Churches and

> the slim, thermometer-like minarets of

> Sarajevo are arranged side by side, almost in

> direct ratio to the populations of the two

> communities. What followed recently was an

> unspeakable monstrosity.

>

> We too lost our balance in the heat of

> politics when the Babri Majid was pulled

> down. But that irrational act apart, the fact

> of the matter is that the mosque in Varanasi

> and Mathura are, aesthetically, as

> incongruous as the one in Nazareth will be,

> if it ever is built. Like the mosque in

> Varanasi, and Mathura, it too will be

> divisive mosque.Yes, mosques must be built if

> there are worshippers, but not imposed or

> accepted in spaces where they violate the

> aesthetic ambience of these places.

>

 

____