Some Quotes from Tariq Ramadan on Culture and the Arts

The question of culture is central to debates concerning Islam today. Although it must be reiterated that Islam is primarily "a religion" and not "a culture," one should immediately add that religion never finds expression outside a culture and that, conversely, a culture never takes shape without deferring to the majority values and religious practices of the social group that constitutes it. There are, therefore, no religiously neutral cultures, nor any culture-free religions. Any religion is always born--and interpreted--within a given culture and in return the religion keeps nurturing and fashioning the culture of the social community within which it is lived and thought. Those inevitable and complex links make it difficult to define--whether in the relationship to texts or in religious practice--what belongs to religion proper and what instead pertains to the cultural dimension. Even so, the nature of contemporary challenges and the re-examination of the rich Islamic legal tradition (its fundamentals--usul--as well as its implementation--fiqh) require us to investigate the issue more closely and try to determine a theoretical framework and clearer principles regarding the relationship between religion and culture. (183)

What is at stake are the welfare, balance and sound development of the children, teenagers, men, and women of our time, both North and South. In this sense, entertainment and play must represent "pauses" of a sort at the heart of more serious intellectual, social, and political preoccupations, but they should by no means promote values contrary to the higher goals and general ethics I have mentioned. This is why recreational activities and their management within human societies must be considered in the light of philosophical and ethical issues, and the problem is not at all that trivial: what is the meaning of entertainment and play? Why do we enjoy recreation and what objectives or role do we wish to assign the concept of play within the society? Is the objective self-forgetfulness, giving full range to all the expressions of human instincts (the natural attraction for physical appearance, money, and sex) or is it an "invitation to travel," which stirs the heart, mind, and imagination while edifying, soothing, and appeasing them with amusements that strive to be human and remain "humanizing" and healthy? The point is not, as in "the carnivalization of life," to promote continuous play and an endless quest for entertainment that dominates everything else, which acts like a drug and transforms us into slaves addicted to our sensations and emotions. It should be the opposite: devising entertainment that makes human beings balanced, independent, and freer. This means that it is important to think about the nature of the proposed activities, their organization in time (day, night, time of the week) and space (the home, the faith community, society at large) and of course the ages and evolution of individual people and their personalities. Muslim societies and communities are so afraid of the effect of alienating entertainment that they produce amusements and games that either packed with religious references (and thereby no longer provide actual, necessary recreation) or childish (as if to enjoy recreation as a Muslim, one must refuse to become an adult or pretend never to have become one...).

Women and men who possess this inclination and skill ought therefore to be invited to show more creativity, to integrate modern techniques of communication, to specialize in that Universe, and to show discriminating professionalism. To find the means to encourage children, teenagers, and adults to return to reading (according to age, tales, novels, essays); to express and convey their own imagination; to become involved with texts, literature, poetry, drama, and other forms of literature. To nurture their taste for art, painting, or music, which open up inner prospects and nurture a curious and calm outlook on the world. To produce and integrate playful activities for various age groups and to enable children to become interested in all sorts of subjects, in human beings, animals, history, psychology, forms of physical expression, sports, and so many other activities. Muslims today are lost between trends of thought that forbid everything (and that make life arid and/or intolerable) and the realities of a carnival of life that alienates them (which they claim to reject but which they end up becoming involved with or simply imitating). Yet, we should become reconciled with the essence and meaning of creativity, which is so necessary today to resist the global culture that produces this new imperialism of entertainment and play, which nobody controls any more and whose driving force is the financial profit amassed by its producers.

Twofold critical work is needed here: first, the specialization and professionalism of the artists and designers of that culture of entertainment will enable them to produce something new through the use of state-of-the-art technology and methods. Alternative productions will only prevail over the dominant trends in entertainment if they can bear comparison in terms of design and production values. It is also important to be able to distinguish, among recent productions, those works and products that stand out because of their sense of ethics and respect for human dignity. Thus, the range of choice in recreational activities, experiences, books, and other works of art can be broadened and organized according to age groups and locations. The other challenge is to educate the general public, to get them to enjoy edifying recreational activities, literature, painting, that is, to comprehend the higher values inherent in play and entertainment. Resisting the alienating, standardized global culture requires training critical minds and good taste. The young must be taught to put a value on their own imaginations, to consider their own inclinations, and to analyze the activities available to them. We should fashion a conscience that is, as far as possible, aware of the meaning and objectives of both physical and cultural "consumption": this means equipping it with the means to resist the imperialism of play and entertainment, the carnivalization of life, and soulless consumerism. Learning to manage one's need to forget is never easy, and the contemporary Muslim conscience often has only normative reflections about the duty not to be led astray. Contemporary Islamic though simply does not how to manage entertainment and play. This is serious, for we know how deeply valued entertainment is to the human conscience. It is what food is to the body: a vital need without which it will eventually waste away or deny its existence. This is the collective responsibility (fardh kifayah) of the whole spiritual community. (197-199)

-Tariq Ramadan in Radical Reform:Islamic Ethics and Liberation