Cosmopolitanism Emphasizes the Importance of Global Citizenship - Essay Example

Cosmopolitanism The Shattered Mirror is a traveler’s Tale by Kwame Anthony Appiah. Sir Richard Francis Burton is a Victorian adventure whose story is stranger than fiction. Burton was born in 1821 and that is when he started traveling with his family in Europe. While in Europe he integrated with Romany people that his English contemporaries. His integration with the people enabled him to acquire Gypsy wandering culture. For instance while he was in Marseilles, France he learned Modern Greek, French, Italian, and Neapolitan dialect. Those languages came handy when the family traversed Europe especially France and Italy before settling in Britain. He learned an intermediate language between French and Spanish called Béarnaise in addition to classical Greek and Latin. I think Burton was an exemplary linguistic and a great European swordsperson that saw him expelled at Britain’s Oxford college since he had contravened one of its by-laws against mixing with other races. He challenged a fellow Oxford college student that had heard of his prowess with the Saber that ridiculed his walrus moustache. Burton later traveled to Asia to work for the East India Company in Sindth, India. He learned Gujarati, Marathi, Persian, and Afghan. He deepened his Arabic and Persian languages that he had started learning while in England. He traveled to the Arabian Peninsula in 1853 and admitted to Mecca and Medina as a pilgrim while he posed as a Pathan from India’s Northwest Frontier Province. Later on in 1858, he traveled to Africa together with his colleague John Hanning Speke. Historically, they were the first Europeans to see Lake Tanganyika. . Other places he visited in Africa included Somalia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Lagos, and Cape Coast. He knew plenty of Asian and Latin America swaths that enabled him to translate Kama Sutra from Sanskrit. He also managed to translate Perfumed Garden and the thousand and One Nights from Arabic. Currently, One Nights has sixteen volumes with a terminal essay that highlights the issue of same-sex relationships. In addition to that, he managed to translate Luiz Vaz de Camoes Lusiads that celebrates the earlier Vasco da Gama global explorer from Portuguese. I believe that those translations led him to his fame in the Oriental erotica. He wrote grammars of two Indian languages and a large number of extraordinary travel accounts of an entire century that captured intense competition in linguistic. In 1880, he translated Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi that consisted of a native in Yazd, Persia in Iran. A qasida is a pre-Islamic classical Arab poem, with strict traditional rules and an evocation of a desert encampment. The qasida exhibited respect before the rise of Islam in eight century AD. Muslim in its heyday regards it as a highest form of poetic art. Some of the qasida version written in Islamic world includes Turkish, Urdu, Persian, and Arabic version Burton’s Haji Abdu of Yazd devotes to Eastern Version of Humanitarianism with a connotation of scientific mind. As a translator of Kasidah he explains the distinction between Islam’s mystical tradition and Darwin evolutionary theory. The form also captures ideologies from Victorian West. In his Haji I think that Abdu notes that he has a knack of linguistics to enable him triumph the modern scientific discovery. It is not clear whether the linguistic gifts of imaginary Sufi appear like Burton’s own words. Burton’s intent does not have the design to deceive. At the beginning of the note, Burton states that Abdu prefers to style himself as Hichmakani that signifies nowhere. According to Burton, Abdu is a person with loose sense of national and local identity; a rootless cosmopolitan. That gives one the broadest hint that El-Yezdi is his own invention. I think that the author of the Kasidah expresses views of a traditional Muslim that is more than mild heretical in the comment, “there is no Heaven, and there is no Hell since these are children dreams. Another comment of the author is that there is no good or evil since these are whims of mortal will. The author sounds as a traditional Zoroastrian Yazd less like a Persian Sufi and more like Nietzsche’s Zarathustra. Burton cites that the author of Kasidah is an authentic Haji. One attribute of European cosmopolitanism since the Enlightenment is the receptiveness to art and literature and a wild interest to live in other places. Burton believes are unique and we all can learn from each other’s differences. I believe that Goethe is a German poet whose career entails a collection of Roman Elegies written at the end of 1780s to West-Eastern Divan of 1819.one of his last cycle of poems inspired by the oeuvre of the 14th century Persian poet Hafiz as Sir Richard Burton points of extreme popular qasida. David Hume is an 18th century Edinburgh traveler that devotes his life to examine China, Persia, Turkey, and Egypt. The Spirit of the Laws is a monumental English Channel in Bordeaux. The publication has plenty of anecdotes from Indonesia to Lapland, Brazil to India, and Egypt to Japan. I believe that Burton’s poet speaks for himself in an agnostic of a scientific bent to a vast store of knowledge of the world’s religions. Burton voracious assimilation of religions, customs appear as someone fascinated by the range of human invention. He observes the world from different perspectives to enable him select the best option. I think that his English contemporaries thought he displayed respect for Islam than Christianity the religion he learned during his early life. His wife thinks he converted to Catholic. Burton follows a long line of itinerant seekers such as Menelaus whose kidnapping of his wife Helen serve as the casus belli of the Trojan War. Homer cites that they roam together through the sub-Saharan region. Herodotus explains the communication between Croesus and Solon. Croesus has recently heard of extensive wisdom of the great king while he has widely travelled in pursuit of knowledge. For that reason, Croesus asks Solon, “Who is the happiest person you have ever encountered?” Solon responds that no country is sufficient in its production, in as much as it has; it is bound to lack something. Herodotus travels to the present-day Aswan to learn Meroe undeciphered language. The place does not experience prosperity until after two centuries I think that Burton traveling experience leads him to learn wide array of human customs and beliefs. He is the least Victorian person yet has many standard racial prejudices in the society. He ranks Africa and India below Arabs in his racial prejudice. In his traveling spree in West Africa, he mentions pollution casually. I believe that in his visit to East Africa, he observes that most people are not honest. I think that Burton has a capacity for contempt of the darker races and mélange for cosmopolitan and misanthrope. The Counter-Cosmopolitans- Believers without Borders live in their creed of human dignity across all nations. Just like Burton, they share these ideas with people in different countries speaking many languages. I find that the band of brothers and sisters resists crass of consumerism from the contemporary Western society. The people also tend to resist temptations of narrow nationalism from their motherland. They do not intend to join the army while they can decide to enlist in a bid to stop a country that contravenes natural justice. Believers without borders resist the idea of establishing local allegiances since it would hinder the idea of building a community of enlightened men and women around the globe. Conversely, they reject traditional religious authorities together with obscurantism and temporizing. The author claims that counter-cosmopolitans have a clear, simple, and direct creed to enable them decides on whether to reverse the world’s evils or whether the struggle is fruitless. In most cases, I find that believers without borders continue with their campaign of making the world a better place. Cynic Cosmopolitans compare with believers without borders, as both do not have time for the local and traditional. Comrades in this campaign intend to build ummah and not a polis. Ummah is a community for the believers and open to all faithful that has a common faith. Most of them are young, global Muslim that recruits militias such as Al Qaeda. Some are Americans so that they can have a good chance to create divisions between an infidel and a faithful. That enables them to reduce suspicions from mainstream Americans. I believe that Muslims exists solely in the declaration of Allah as God, believe in Prophet Muhammad, daily prayers as one faces Mecca, provide alms to poor persons, and make haji. The ummah globalists consider a return to fundamentals of Islam and ignoring changes that occur in the religion after existing for many years. I find that Olivier Roy, a French researcher denote in Globalized Islam that the Prophet and Salaf embed in a given culture. Currently the cultures seem as a mere historical product due to many influences and idio synacracies. The era of globalization serves as a time to dissociate Islam from other cultures. The young global fundamentalists ignore traditional religious authorities and rely on own interpretations of the Koran and traditions of their faith. They compare with American As a Christian fundamentalist, I believe that churches and theologians get between Bible and the believer, while the Holy Scripture speaks well for itself. Another researcher, Roy calls the globalists as neo fundamentalism since most of them grew up in Western society. They compare with Christian fundamentalism since they both ignore the original languages of the Scriptures they interpret. Most of the Islamic theory concerning relations with non-Muslims developed for many years in Arab world address non-Muslim minorities. A third of Muslim in the world currently lives in countries that have non-Muslim majorities. I believe that globalized Islam is a response to the experience of Muslims as minorities. They can be children of Algerian foreigners in France or Pakistani foreigners in Britain. Islam to the neo fundamentalism is a creed, set of practices, and commitment to certain daily practices. The neo fundamentalism speaks of Muslim culture while they largely reject the culture that embedded the Muslim ancestors. They treat culture as a mere historical product. They take religion as a form of life and they ignore much of the form of life since they do not see the importance of national loyalties or cultural traditions. I agree with Roy informs that young neo fundamentalism are different from radical neo fundamentalists as the former turn jihad interpretation as warfare against the West through a sixth Islamic pillar. Some fundamentalism endorse the use of violence as a political decision to justify its religious terms. Osama bin laden failure in the jihad causes many fundamentalist to embark on du’wa as the right way of bringing outsiders back to the faith. Christian and Muslim fundamentalists have the same quest for a universal community beyond cultures and nations; a move towards individualization of religion. The newly individualized Islam compares to Catholic and Protestant versions of fundamentalism consistent with political and social integration that permit freedom of religion. The author observes that Universalism without toleration leads to murder. In the 1500s, Christian religious warfare in Europe believed in one king, one faith, and one law before they received a realm of right to practice their faith. The war that lasted thirty years ravaged central Europe and led to the death of many faithful. Issues surrounding the conflict were beyond the sectarian doctrine where the Enlightenment liberals perceived that stressing one vision of universal truth could lead the world back to bloodbaths. In tolerance of religious difference in Christian world does not only belong to the past. Many American Christians believe that atheists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and other religions will go to hell unless they accept Jesus Christ. This perspective can lead one to convert from a religion whose eternal fate hangs precariously in the balance. Among the American Christians, many would like to have a society with more Christians, with Ten Commandments in every government institution, ejection of abortion and LGBT. Christian terror activities exist in America for instance Rudolph was a Christian that dedicated his life to fight abortion as a Christian right. Timothy McVeigh was a hero in a Christian Identity Movement that apparently believed in Christianity. It is easier to recall Osama bin laden as not being a typical Muslim while we ignore Rudolph. No large organized Christian terror network plans attacks on the Muslim countries. I think that Christians see Muslins as a potential threat in their way of life as some Muslins belief that Christians engage in a crusade against them. I find that a psychological mix in a sense of Islam falls behind to produce resentment, admiration, anger, and envy. Toleration requires an intolerable concept to prevent genocide and any other violation of fundamental error. The universal truth cites that all human beings have obligations towards others. To say that everybody matters limits the scope of tolerance. Cosmopolitan commitment believes in pluralism where there are many values for one to live by while one cannot accomplish all of them. Cosmopolitanism believes in fallibilism philosophy that state that human knowledge is imperfect, provisional, and subject to revision in the face of the new evidence, The neo fundamentalist concept of global ummah admits to local variations in inconsequential matters. The counter-cosmopolitans are like Christian fundamentalists, as they do not believe in one right way for all human beings to live. One should worry about global homogeneity in the utopia other than the capitalism produced in the world. Universalities are the ones that invent cosmopolitan creed. Maoism and Karl Marx would like to eradicate all religion since their mirror is not shattered. In a message to Americans, he invited he nation to join the path of Islam to follow the path of Allah alone. Americans should attempt to run away from materialistic and miserable life. Allah calls for justice and forbids oppression and crimes. The understanding of toleration is that it means interacting on terms of respect with those that see the world differently. Works Cited Appiah, Anthony. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print. Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "Coming to Terms with New Ageist Contamination: Cosmopolitanism in Ben Okris." Research in African Literatures (2006): 170-86. Print. Read More