|
|  |
 |
|
|
|
Roger Scruton: Religious fundamentalists need to drink wine again
February 2, 2010
By Adam Lechmere
Muslim fundamentalists should learn tolerance through wine, leading philosopher Roger Scruton argues this month in Decanter.
Scruton, research professor for the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in both Washington and Oxford, suggests the most important thing about wine is the truth that is contained within it, rather than 'what you blurt out under its influence.'
The writer and thinker – and wine critic for news weekly the New Statesman – considers himself one of the first to 'extract the philosophical truth in wine'.
In his latest book I Drink Therefore I Am he describes how he 'could look back along the line of empties, stretching now for half a century, and still see rising from the neck of each of them some ghostly memory of a day truly lived, or if not lived, at least finished off in style.'
The philosopher, who prides himself on his right-wing credentials, reckons the ancients understood how 'the truth of our being has found its way into ancient bottles… hence the legend of Dionysus, the abundant invocations of wine in the Hebrew Bible and the age-old rituals that are ancestors of the Christian Eucharist.'
Most controversially, Scruton says 'lunatic' fundamentalists 'who have set their heart on giving Islam a bad name' should learn again how to drink wine.
He laments the passing of the 'laughing, tolerant' phase of Islam exemplified in The Thousand and One Nights, and cites wine-loving Muslim philosophers like the 11th century Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna.
To find that tolerance again – and he suggests the Turks are on the way to that rediscovery – 'Muslims must learn again to drink, and should be piously applying themselves to the task,' he writes.
Until that happens, Scruton contends, the Koran will continue to be misinterpreted, and the truth that life 'is not a fact but a gift' will never be recognised.
'Without the benefit of wine it is hard to seize this truth; harder still to recognise the obligation that it imposes, to be gentle with others, and to allow them their own space.'
Read the full article in the March issue of Decanter magazine - out now
New video: How to Analyse Colour, with Steven Spurrier
Follow us on Twitter
Have your say...
To post your comment on this story, email us at news@decanter.com
 One of the most beautiful exhibits in London's V&A museum is Shah Jahan's drinking cup. Dating back to 1657, this magnificent jade artefact, made for the creator of the Taj Mahal, was intended for wine consumption, and surely supports Roger Scruton's thesis, that beauty and culture can result from the sipping of wine in a Muslim society. Shah Jahan was, apparently, tolerant of Hindusim as well, but he did make Islam the state religion of Mughal-controlled India in his time.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/40356-popup.html Stephen Hobley
Inch'allah! Jeffrey M. Davies
I suppose this does also apply to, and maybe first to, Fundamentalists of all sorts, starting with the Christian Fundamentalists and teetotalers of all sorts. Bernard Portet
|
|
Register on decanter.com absolutely free for news alerts delivered direct to your email inbox, and our fortnightly newsletter with advance notice of what's coming up in Decanter magazine, offers, competitions and more.
PLUS registration is a one-stop shop for the Decanter magazine Archive and Decanter Fine Wine Tracker. |
Search for similar news stories
Back to index
|
|
|
|
|
