by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Anouar Majid spoke Tuesday about regime changes in Iraq and Afghanistan and how those changes relate to the United States.
Majid, a professor at the University of New England and the author of several books on Islam, talked about the role religion plays in these countries' constitutions.
"If you went to read the constitution in Afghanistan, you'd find that there is an overwhelming emphasis on Islam as a litmus test," he said. "Even constitutions that are otherwise relatively liberal are extremely religious."
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One reason religion plays such a large part in those constitutions is because the United States is struggling with similar issues, he said.
Regime changes, orchestrated by the United States, were taking place overseas while Americans were struggling with issues such as abortion and whether to teach intelligent design in schools - all issues which relate to the separation of church and state, he said.
"If one were to look at these events collectively, it seems that when the U.S. is busy changing regimes, they're also acting out domestic issues overseas," he said.
The domestic issues are conflicts between people who believe in the model of the U.S. Constitution, which separates religion from government, and people who would like to see the country as a whole be more religious - including the government, he said.
"As I was reading them, I realized that the constitutions that are being established are closer in spirit to the early colonial settlers than that of the founding fathers," he said. "I think the struggle is over what kind of visions to implement in the United States."
The United States should have suggested constitutions for Afghanistan and Iraq more similar to ours, he said.
"Why did we not just suggest a constitution based on the U.S. model?" he said. "The answer is that many people in the U.S. are not interested in that kind of constitution."
Student Chad Wilson enjoyed the talk, he said.
"I though it was a treat," he said. "It's interesting to have different perspectives, because we don't really get that on campus."
Professor Rinita Mazumdar asked Majid if the conflict between the United States and some Middle-Eastern countries was a conflict not between Christianity and Islam, but between Islam and capitalism.
Much of the conflict is for economic reasons, Majid said.
"It's not between Islam and capitalism," he said. "It's between the rich and the poor."
Wilson appreciated Majid's comments on economics, he said.
"I think he was very brave to bring up economics," he said. "People's barriers go up as soon as you start talking about that."
He has concerns with all parties involved in the wars in the Middle East, he said.
"I am critical of Islamic fundamentalism. I am critical of imperialism. And I am critical of capitalism," he said. "You cannot understand the reasons for the problems over there without understanding all these factors."
About 100 people attended the lecture, which was held in the SUB ballroom and sponsored by the Religious Studies Department. It was part of a lecture series called "Nexus: Religion in the Public University."
The next lecture in the series will be in January and will feature a molecular biologist and a creationist discussing intelligent design.
