Muslims Serve Christmas Eve Dinner to 300

Here is a good example of non-attachment to the ego identities that separate and divide. It is nice to see positive religious news for a change.
Source: The Montreal Gazette

Sadaf Kotwal of the Islamic Community Centre of Brossard helps serve dinner at the Old Brewery Mission on Christmas Eve.

Photograph by: PIERRE OBENDRAUF, THE GAZETTE, The Gazette
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It was in a spirit of giving that members of a South Shore mosque contributed $2,000 to sponsor the Christmas Eve supper at the Old Brewery Mission and spent two hours serving it to more than 300 people.

This is double the minimum $1,000 contribution the mission seeks from those who sponsor a supper.

It was believed to be the first time an Islamic community group has volunteered to sponsor and serve an evening meal at the mission, officials said.

Following afternoon prayers at the mission on Clark St., about 20 members of the Islamic Community Centre of Brossard set the tables and passed plates of chicken, rice and steamed carrots to the first shift of diners.

Ismail Mohammed of Greenfield Park, a retired CBC accountant, said he had suggested sponsoring the meal to fellow mosque members.

"We don't celebrate Christmas, but serving humanity is serving God. That is what our teaching says," he observed.

"We want to work with people from all religions," he added. "We came for peace in this country and we want to establish peace," said Mohammed, a native of India who grew up in Pakistan.

Monique Khan of Brossard said serving others is the perfect holiday activity: "I feel happy when I make other people happy. It's a time for sharing and we give what we can"

Her husband, Irfan Khan, a building technician, said feeding the needy is about immigrants contributing to their country.

"When we came here, we didn't have anything. We worked hard and we did well. This society has given us so much, and now we have to give back."

Said Suleman, who came to Canada as a refugee from Eritrea, said many fellow Muslims are successful and highly educated and "it's time to step in and do our share."

"We have to think of others, of feeding our neighbours, to really participate."

Sabiha Sheikh of Brossard, a part-time bookkeeper, said she often helps serve food to people in other mission-type settings.

"It's time for us to contribute to the city we live in. We want to show that we are caring people -we are generous and want to share."

iblock@montrealgazette.com

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What is Atheist Spirituality?

After a year and a half of writing on this seemingly oxymoronic subject, this question continuously arises. Although many past posts have attempted to clarify this concept, there has been constant development in my understanding.

How can there be an ‘atheist spirituality’? An answer can be developed through looking at the preconceptions we may have about the word ‘spirituality’. The word ‘spirituality’ is strongly, and unnecessarily, bound to ideas of religion, dualistic philosophies of transcendence, and dogmas demanding faith. In the modern era, spiritual practices have been largely institutionalized into formal faith categorizations. Spirituality has become the prime commodity of the religious institution. This association between religion an spirituality has become intensely entrenched in most modern cultures.

What about people claiming they are ‘spiritual but not religious’? Aside from increasing fundamentalism, there is a widespread lack of trust in religious institutions. The world is becoming more dichotomous; as fundamentalists become increasingly rebellious when faced with modern ideals. This influences modern individuals who are loosely religious to become sceptical of these institutions since they increasingly seen as being harmful. While continuing to practice spirituality on a personal level, many are disassociating themselves from religions which are developing a poor reputation. This personal belief or practice may still be entrenched in the dualisms of religion; therefore, it does not answer the question of an atheist spirituality.

What makes an atheist spirituality different? An atheist spirituality departs from the mainstream paradigm. It goes beyond ‘spiritual but not religious’ by rebelling against religious constructions. The philosophical shift from dualism to materialism can be illustrated by following historical ideas about the ‘soul’. Socrates can be noted as arriving at the necessity of the soul through questioning what is the user vs. the used. We may use a pen to write; therefore, the pen is the object (used) and the person is the subject (user). Socrates continues by asking: but isn't the hand used as well? and what about the eyes? Eventually, we may realize that everything on our body can be used – even our brains may be used to contemplate the process. This is where Socrates concludes that the user must be an immaterial soul. Fast forwarding, we can look at Cartesian dualism associating the soul with the ‘mind’. Descartes thinking-being of mind is the subject who acts on the objects of the profane bodies and earth. Fast forwarding again, we can see imminent conceptions of ‘God’ in the materialist philosophy of Spinoza. See his Ethics for extensive elaboration on this philosophical position. Deleuze, the most contemporary and my personal favourite, has written extensively on materialist philosophies of life; click ‘here’ to see a former post on Deleuze.

What does the materialist paradigm mean for ‘spiritual’ practice? This shift revolutionizes the dominate western conceptions of spirituality by changing all former definitions. The definition of ‘God’ is transformed into a pantheistic ‘God’ which Rickard Dawkins claims to be a “sexed up atheism”. Sin is no longer bound to transcendental judgment, but rather, becomes an individually autonomous ethics. Spiritual experiences of awe and wonder are no longer attributed to the presence of a divine entity, but rather, can be experienced through the glory of nature, evolution, and contemplating ones part in an infinitely unthinkable unfolding of life. Mystery of ‘God’ becomes the mystery of nature – a mystery which may infinitely extent its reach past our momentary understanding. Ritual becomes more than mere compliance for the sake of salvation, but a practice of affecting the mind-body (regarded as one) for the sake of happiness. Spirit is no longer the magic entity hovering somewhere in or around us, but rather, it is the human spirit: the spirit of love, joy, happiness, and peace. Although these virtues resemble those of Christianity, they are not seen as given by a God as a reward for good behaviour; rather, they are seen as virtues which come from within and can only be achieved in the present moment, not requiring a specific set of predetermined beliefs or rituals. Beliefs may be held, but are held loosely and not bound with one’s identity. Specific practices may be used, but their use is regarded as a way of changing one’s mental state. Mental states are also regarded as material since they rely on complex material interactions. An atheistic spiritual life is one of nomadic being, not clinging to fixed identity templates.

With all this said, openness to discovery may lead spiritual atheists in a multitude of directions. Since the joy is in the journey, future posts clarifying ‘atheist spirituality’ may differ from this one. Openness to experience is the way to ‘salvation’ in this search for spiritual complexity and life-fulfilling atheism.

Merry Christmas Atheists

First of all, I’d like to say Merry Christmas to all. Atheists can’t enjoy Christmas? Is this an oxymoron? This is not at all the case. Atheists can fully savour the holiday without appealing to alternate identity-phrases, political correctness, or altogether avoidance. Although It is often thought that atheists are opposed to saying “Merry Christmas”, this could not be further from reality for the vast majority of atheists. The problem of saying “Christmas” vs. saying “holiday” is not an atheist battle, but rather, an inter-faith battle. It is one that media discourse has moulded into a problem concerning the every-increasing public ‘threat’ of atheism –  most viciously seen every year by Fox’s ‘Culture Warriors’.  Atheists have become the scapegoat; they have become the ‘outsiders’ whom which it is politically correct to blame for the ‘demise of Christmas’. These inter-faith disputes over political correctness do not concern the atheist – aside from being sucked into an insecure and anxious national dialogue as the scapegoat. The reasonable atheist is too busy living the day to its fullest – since, of course, our days are finite – it is a waste of valuable time to be bothered by such holiday identity politics. Of course there will be the odd asshole-atheists who are too busy building ego identities to get past the awkward avoidances, futile debates, and creative alternate constructions of the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’.

Getting past the Grinch mentality is not easy and inner-battles are plenty. Although the concern of religious harm is the main priority of the atheists, identity politics often creep in and complicate this simple concern. Saying ‘Merry Christmas’ may be taken as an expression of ones personal faith affiliation. This can be an embarrassing affiliation since atheists do not want to appear as part of the religious ‘herd mentality’ that is often associated with docility of the mind. Freethinking, in this sense, not only acts as a personal liberation, but pulls social identification toward a category of negative identity. This is an identity characterized by a sort of liberation mentality directly juxtaposed to the resented mentality of another group. For atheists, using Christian terms and traditions may act as an embarrassment since it goes directly against what they stand for. The issue here is that what an atheist may ‘stand for’ creates an identity in itself; therefore, when confronted by threatening identities the atheist may build walls, stock-pile extra ammunition, and map out the target into narrow categorical boxes. This is what leads to the Bah-Humbug-mentality of the outsider, the rational truth-holder, and ultimate alienation from the spirit of Christmas.

What do I mean by ‘Christmas spirit’? By this I do not mean a religious affiliation. Although there are some people may go overboard with the dogma aspect, most people practicing the tradition of Christmas carry loose religious affiliation or no religious affiliation at all. The holiday is about much more than the fundamental dogmas; the holiday is about a certain collective experience. This collective experience that is central to many religions’ does not need to be bound up with harmful mentalities. Being a freethinker does not mean trading in all emotional potential for a cold slab of rationality. The best dinners are those with a variety of flavours; therefore, the atheist must not only chop ham carefully, but be able to season it with a variety of spices. The sensual experience of seasoned flavour is not a rational engagement. Although it is functionally useful to cut the food properly, atheists must rise above the Fox news constructions of straw-man identities and find the spice that makes tradition worth while. Nobody wants a cold slab of bah-humbug-ham when they can have the full feast. Enjoy the food, the drinks, and the family… and again, Merry Christmas.