Finding the humanist side

Throughout history, religion and violence have always been closely associated. Nowadays, its Islam that we see in the news all the time with bombings, kidnappings, angry mobs burning flags, taking hostages etc. Just yesterday here in Spain, the third anniversary of the Madrid bombings was remembered with the unveiling of a monument dedicated to its 100 plus victims. Of course this worse terrorist attack to hit Spain has been linked to Islamic extremists and not ETA terrorists and in fact, there is an ongoing trial now, with about 23 accused. In Aamin Maalouf´s book- Deadly Identities, (original- Identités meurtrieres), there is a nice quote about the possibility of violence as well as good in every discourse, from communism to nationalism to secularism. I quote the sentence which caught my eye in Spanish-
El siglo XX nos habrá enseñado que ninguna doctrina es por si misma necesariamente liberadora: todas pueden caer en desviaciones, todas pueden pervertirse, todas tienen las manos manchadas en sangre: el comunismo, nacionalismo, liberalismo, todas las grandes religiones y hasta el laicismo. Nadie tiene el monopolio del fanatismo y, a la inversa, nadie tienen tampoco el monopolio de lo humano.
So if each ideology can be openly interpreted to serve extremist or humanist purposes, where does the problem lie? In interpretation, we might add, or in the inherent, potential violent nature of man? In this book by Maalouf which is basically a long essay on the revindication of the complex and multi-facetted identity which we all possess and which makes each person different from the other, but at the same time, sharing common values with the other in one way or another, Maalouf attempts to show the current predominance of tribal identities has lead and will lead to violence and misunderstandings. When one part of a person’s identity is threatened- race, religion etc, it is this part which is isolated by the individual and revindicated. That’s why, he notes, its so important that the idea of multiple pertenencias be reclaimed, without one encroaching on the other but each coexisting with the other, not in compartments, he stresses, but as one single entity. Maybe, when there is only a single world, and not many worlds, as the French philosopher Alan Badiou notes, the humanist side of man will finally dominate the evil side …