Last night I did a meeting of Dialogue with Islam near Brick Lane on How do we cure our greedy society? I did my party piece on the market machine, why we buy, the consequences and what we might do instead. But the respondent and the points from the floor were thought provoking to say the least. Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad talked about Islam and greed. His first point was that Muslims are taught and encouraged to spend – not on themselves but on others. They hive a lot away. Second, they against usury and the ending of money for profit. Finally I thought he said ‘shopping the hand’ which may have been a reference to heavy bags on the way back from the shops. Of course what he said as chopping the hand – of the greedy who steal. Perhaps this should have been in my list of policies? Anyway there are commons points of interest between Islam and critiques of consumer society we need to explore.
We debated the place of morality and as non-believer in any God I was put on the spot about how we can be held to account for our morals if there is no afterlife to reward or punish us. I held out the hope of democracy to be the vehicle for accountability. That is where my faith lies. But we certainly need something more to believe in than just the here and now.
As I have said before, society has become more secular but we still know we are going to die. So we buy our youth and eternity through clothes and cosmetic surgery. I remember a shoe shops called Faiths. They had soul.
Was the Sheikh supporting chopping people’s hands off?
“We debated the place of morality and as non-believer in any God I was put on the spot about how we can be held to account for our morals if there is no afterlife to reward or punish us.”
Unfortunately, it’s a question that only really means anything within a religious framework. We can’t be held to account by God. We can be held to account by ourselves and other people. I agree we should probably believe in a better future as well as the here and now.
He was.
And they do think they are accountable to their God.
There are many ideas in this post, viz, do you need a belief in an afterlife to be moral? and that shopping fills in the void left by the non-belief in religion. As regards the former, I can’t see that behaving decently is only justified if you are going to get rewarded for it. That would just be self-interest. A bit sad, no? Surely doing the decent thing (not stealing, lying, injuring others, stealing their parking places etc) should come naturally, whether or not we return to a random collection of atoms upon death? As for the second point, this is a conundrum. The “death of God” led the existentialists to an absurd universe. It may well be, but shopping sure isn’t the answer. Gardening would be a better bet, if no less absurd.
Gardening is a good metaphor for life. Its about planning, using and replacing. Consumers are more hunter gatherers with no concern for replacing.
As for religion – Im all for bigger commitments than just me and now although I found the total absence of any women at the event unerving and diffcult.
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