{"id":514,"date":"2020-12-18T10:20:21","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T09:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/?p=514"},"modified":"2021-11-26T08:42:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T07:42:53","slug":"whoever-saves-a-life-is-as-though-s-he-had-saved-all-mankind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/2020\/12\/18\/whoever-saves-a-life-is-as-though-s-he-had-saved-all-mankind\/","title":{"rendered":"Whoever Saves a Life Is as Though S\/he Had Saved All Mankind"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_514 social_share_privacy clearfix 1.6.4 locale-de_DE sprite-de_DE\"><\/div><div class=\"twoclick-js\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\njQuery(document).ready(function($){if($('.twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_514')){$('.twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_514').socialSharePrivacy({\"txt_help\":\"Wenn Sie diese Felder durch einen Klick aktivieren, werden Informationen an Facebook, Twitter, Flattr, Xing, t3n, LinkedIn, Pinterest oder Google eventuell ins Ausland \\u00fcbertragen und unter Umst\\u00e4nden auch dort gespeichert. N\\u00e4heres erfahren Sie durch einen Klick auf das <em>i<\\\/em>.\",\"settings_perma\":\"Dauerhaft aktivieren und Daten\\u00fcber-tragung zustimmen:\",\"info_link\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.heise.de\\\/ct\\\/artikel\\\/2-Klicks-fuer-mehr-Datenschutz-1333879.html\",\"uri\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\\\/zekkblog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/whoever-saves-a-life-is-as-though-s-he-had-saved-all-mankind\\\/\",\"post_id\":514,\"post_title_referrer_track\":\"Whoever+Saves+a+Life+Is+as+Though+S%2Fhe+Had+Saved+All+Mankind\",\"display_infobox\":\"on\"});}});\n\/* ]]> *\/<\/script><\/div>\n<p>The last encyclical of Pope Francisco, \u201cFratelli Tutti\u201d, comes out at a time, when religion has once again been brought to the fore, and as often in a manipulated form; once again to be harnessed for political interests. The world seems to be headed towards a \u201cclash of civilizations\u201d, in which \u201creligion\u201d plays an important role in fueling the aggressive discourse of cultural, national, ethnical and even racial superiority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the US, a travel ban is being issued, which is, in essence, a \u201cMuslim ban\u201d, seeking to bar \u201cthem\u201d from entering the land. In India laws are issued \u2013 encouraged by some religious-nationalist tendencies \u2013 which by implication can divest Muslims in this country of their citizenship. In France, in reaction to a crime committed by someone \u201cin the name of Islam\u201d, the president holds an outright negative position against this religion as a whole, and declares it to be \u201ca religion which is experiencing a crisis today, all over the world\u201d and urges the need to build an \u201c<em>Islam des Lumi\u00e8res\u201d<\/em> (Islam of Enlightenment). That leads to a harsh reaction by the Muslims worldwide and fuels again, and much stronger, the anti-Western sentiment, bringing the Turkish president to openly attack his French counterpart.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The world seems to be on the verge of a big clash, in which \u201creligion\u201d seems to play an important part. For Muslims like me, who live in the West, such an atmosphere of resentment on both sides, is even more bitter, if not alarming. Not just because we would either way have to be paying for this \u2013 by one side being stigmatized as \u201cMuslim\u201d by the other as \u201cWesternized\u201d \u2013 but mostly because we can see how much this crisis is deep-rooted in misunderstandings and misconceptions. That the problem basically lies in the lack of sympathy and recognition for the \u201cother\u201d.<em> Only if<\/em>, for a second, we could stop selfishly and arrogantly, seeing the world from our own sole perspectives, <em>if<\/em> we would stop understanding the world exclusivistically, many apparently big problems would easily disappear.&nbsp; I, as a \u201cMuslim\u201d in the \u201cWest\u201d, who has sympathy with both sides \u2013 since due to my placement between the two \u201cworlds\u201d can share both perspectives \u2013 can realize this; i.e. that the core of the matter is the lack of \u201crecognition\u201d and \u201csympathy\u201d on both sides. And <em>this<\/em>, and just this is the root of all evil; the source of misunderstandings and thus the \u201cclash\u201d of civilizations\/ worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right at this moment comes Pope\u2019s encyclical, calling all humans, brothers and sisters \u2013 and not in <em>faith<\/em>, but in <em>humanity<\/em>. And for the first time in the Christian history, I, as a Muslim, feel addressed and recognized by a papal document \u2013 which was not even felt by \u201c<em>Nostra Aetate\u201d<\/em>. In this piece of document, he not only openly regards the Grand Imam of al-Azhar as an inspiration to his encyclical and mentions him often times, but also refers subtly to some Islamic concepts and to the qur\u2019anic verses. For instance, when he begins his appeal with the qur\u2019anic motif-phrase of \u201cIn the name of God\u201d, or when he announces in the that very appeal: \u201cIn the name of innocent human life that God has forbidden to kill, affirming that whoever kills a person is like one who kills the whole of humanity, and that whoever saves a person is like one who saves the whole of humanity\u201d. [1]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes! Realizing the fact that we are created but from a single soul\/ self\/ person\/ breath [2], we can appreciate that we are much more united and interdependent than we think. This fact is nowhere more highlighted than in \u201creligions\u201d. Therefore, just as religions can sharpen differences and lead to the dead-end of dialogue, they can also help us out of this impasse. The choice is <em>ours<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[1] Resonating the Quran 5: 32: \u201cThat is why We decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul, without [its being guilty of] manslaughter or corruption on the earth, is as though he had killed all mankind, and whoever saves a life is as though he had saved all mankind\u201d. <br>[2] Qur\u2019an 7: 189.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1274\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/files\/2020\/12\/road-381227_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-515\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-blue-color has-text-color\">Saida Mirsadri ist Doktorandin am Zentrum f\u00fcr Komparative Theologie und Kulturwissenschaften in Paderborn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last encyclical of Pope Francisco, \u201cFratelli Tutti\u201d, comes out at a time, when religion has once again been brought to the fore, and as often in a manipulated form; once again to be harnessed for political interests. The world &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/2020\/12\/18\/whoever-saves-a-life-is-as-though-s-he-had-saved-all-mankind\/\">Weiterlesen <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8844,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uni-paderborn.de\/zekkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}