*Brief interview, taken at the end of year 2006.
NY: Concerning mass media and/or more reachable sources of information that you had talked about a lot…Do you think that this sort of mass communication changes the religious behavior and religious thinking in some way (Islam in particular)?
DE: Absolutely, except that I would say there is a world wide trend but we are seeing it especially in the Muslim world. You come from a country which for many years has had a high level of literacy, although Muslims often say that they are […] “people of the book” in Arabic that is […]. In practice, until the middle of the twentieth century the level of literacy, reading and writing, was very low, with big differences between men and women. Now that gap is closing, everybody get educated but the quality of education is mixed. But along with that education comes something changing people’s values very rapidly. It is not just mass communication, state television or state radio which everyone has had for many years – it’s Internet, videos, DVD’s… Things, where not only authorized information but condescend things, terrorists things, pornography….anything can go, which nobody can control. But one of the results is that rather than wait for the religious leader who scholars or officials… lots of people can be religious leaders. In Tadhikistan in the early 1990’s the main Muslim religious leader was an automobile mechanic. In much of the Muslim world, some extremist leaders, not people with… Most do not have conventional higher education; they have learned to communicate without looking at religious scholarship. And the results can be very, various… In some way you can say this is democratic, but I would prefer to say this de-fragmentation in authority means “nobody is in charge”. Lots of things can happen…
NY: Is this globalization or, maybe, radicalization, of Islam product of the detaching of it from its cultural background and is it a political or religious product actually?
DE: It’s closely tied to historical circumstances. Much of the Muslim world has had secular leaders often tied to the west. Some are military, some are not. They have not tended to be honest and they have been brutal quite often. So when that happens sometimes people see in religion an alternative. Sometimes religion is a good alternative: think of Solidarity movement in Poland which is deeply religious and deeply modern. Perhaps many Muslims saw the same hope in religious movements in the Muslim world. Certainly in 1979 many Iranians thought that Aiatolah`Khomeyni had an alternative to the regime of the Shah. We can agree that it was an alternative – we don’t have to say more.
NY: Concerning the media talking and covering such issues on the television, radio or other media…What mistakes shouldn’t be made in that field? What kind of talking you should say is forbidden for such topics as radical Islam or even terrorism?
DE: I don’t think you can forbid anything to the media anymore. But I think there are few things that everybody, Muslims and non-Muslims, should understand. First, there are many Islamic movements. To think of them all as having just one tendency is wrong. Even the radical movements are very different. Hamas conveyed much hope to Palestinians in doing more than Fatah with the secular resistance to Palestine. Hezbollah in Lebanon has its full name “The party of God” in Lebanon, not in the world, globally. They are concerned with the Shiats in Lebanon. That’s Lebanon… Al Kaida is something very, very different. Very small numbered. But they are truly global. They do not have looks anywhere. They are a real product of globalization.
NY: In these terms of globalization, who exactly talks on behalf of Islam?
DE: Many people say that they speak on behalf of Islam. The Catholic Church is fortunate, I suppose, because the Pope says that only he speaks for Catholicism, although even in the Roman Catholic Church many people speak, and the Vatican must remind them to follow what the Pope says. I leave it to you to discuss Orthodox Christianity and who speaks for it: that I can only learn from you. But for Islam we know there is no official leadership and Muslims know that. That can be very positive thing, but it does mean that many people will say “I know what is Islam and i know what it’s right for a Muslim” but in practice there is great diversity.
NY: I understood that you have bean in Bulgaria before. What are your impressions?
DE: When I was here the first time I went to may different areas where you have Bulgarian Muslims and I spoke with many different members of the community, and I also spoke with orthodox Christian leaders in these communities. I see a lot of dynamism in the younger generation and by that I mean not just the youth who are not religious but the youth who has chosen to become orthodox priests for example. Very articulate, very engaged in expressing what they stand for and not just in religious terms but in practical terms about what religion means to their community. So the overall impression I have, compared with some other places that used to be behind the so called “Iron curtain” is that here, now a lot of people are aware that can’t wait for the central government to do things. If they don’t do it for themselves nothing will be done. So there is big competition among smaller towns to attract investments and ménage their own affairs.
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