LETTER TO ABRAR…RATIONAL AND RATIONALIZING BEINGS 

Dear Abrar, As I read our letters I smile. I think we are lost in words and semantics. Since I have known you for more than 20 years I am aware that we have far more common in our philosophy than these letters might reflect. I think we are disagreeing on terms rather than the essence. I think we support

….social justice

…peaceful living

…human beings caring for each other

and I think we do not support

….economic and social exploitation

…abuse

…violence and war.

I am of the opinion that human beings are primarily emotional beings and decide for emotional reasons…love or hate, affection or jealousy, war or peace. After their emotional motivation they find a rational reasoning to act of their wishes and use personal, social, religious or political ideology or philosophy to justify it.

Socrates taught us human beings are rational beings

Freud taught us human beings are rationalizing beings.

So I am less interested in the proper definition of Religion, Fundamentalism, Socialism, Capitalism, Secularism and Humanism as there could be as many definitions as human beings, political groups, social organizations or religious institutions. I had written an article titled ‘There are as many Islams as Muslims”. It could be the same for Christians and Jews and Communists and Humanists. There are standard dictionary definitions and there are personal, social, political and religious definitions. That debate is never ending.

To me  

There are violent people and there are peaceful people

There are just communities and there are unjust communities

There are cultures that believe in peace and there are cultures that believe in holy war.

And they all have reasons, good reasons for what they do. We all know hell is paved with good intentions.

I am very clear in my mind that I want to associate and work with peaceful people who want to create peaceful communities and cultures.

            Let me be very clear with you. As a psychiatrist in my profession I have worked with many priests and nuns and religious social workers and spiritual nurses and atheist psychiatrists, because we had common goals to look after our patients and their families. Similarly in our community in Toronto I have conducted seminars with followers of religious and spiritual, secular and scientific traditions to improve mental health and decrease women and family abuse.

            For me common goals are important. And for me humanitarian goals to raise social consciousness and serve our communities are a top priority. For those common goals I am willing to work with any person or group from any tradition. That is my philosophy. I would like to end my part of the dialogue here as relationship with you is of friendship and I do not want the dialogue to become a debate. In this dialogue I learnt more about your philosophy than for the last twenty years and I hope you had a few glimpses of my way of thinking.

                                                                                    Affectionately,

August 4^th, 2009                                           Sohail