LIFESTYLE INTERVIEW: MUSTAPHA CHERIF

A Muslim Thinker Able To Interview The Pope Spreads A Message Of Peace

By: Emmanuel Itier

August 19, 2007

When I started my documentary, The Invocation–a quest to explore the notion of “GOD” around the world and through religion, spirituality, science, history, politics and art, I was lucky enough to meet one of the most respected Islamic thinkers, Mustapha Cherif from Algeria (by the magic of an e-mail, since Mr. Cherif is one of these rare leaders who does reply to people trying to “connect” through his site: www.mustapha-cherif.com). Mr. Cherif, beyond being a doctor in political philosophy, is also the only Muslim who was able to sit down and interview The Holy Pope for Time magazine. Needless to say, he is, to me, an “open sesame” to understanding what is Islam today and how we can go beyond our fear and misunderstanding in order to build a united world and live finally in a time of peace and genuine love.

So until my documentary is released sometime in 2008, open your mind, open your heart, and let your soul drift into the message of peace from brother Mustapha…

Emmanuel Itier: Today, one has to admit the disastrous fact that the planet is organically dying and two-thirds of the world’s population is living in war, misery and suffering. So where is God? What is God?

Mustapha Cherif: The struggle of mankind is to exist. Our struggle is to figure out a way to live together and in peace. Human life is a beautiful, tough, and complete mystery. Nothing is a given–every hardship, tough time, or drifting time is as much a possible reality as are possible times of happiness, progress, or civilization. It is true that today misery, injustice, and violence seem to be on the rise, even if they are unacceptable and a nuisance. This means we are not up to the challenge to figure out how to live together. God, for the believers, is absent but present at the same time. He is the invisible presence. He sent us away from his presence, from paradise, but he gave us ways to understand his signs, his meanings, and to assume our temporary human condition on Earth.

We have to conduct our life in a responsible and reasonable manner. Freedom is a privilege and it is the foundation for existence. Freedom is the main rule of the game of life, and we need to honor it. The miracle is to be alive. It belongs to us to act as free men to correct our mistakes, our erring ways, our oversights. In front of the current and dramatic world situation, it belongs to us to be responsible and fix things. And God, as the creator, will have, one day, the last word.

EI: Where is God coming from? What is his history?

MC: God is a mystery. His written history in holy books or, as we feel him inside of us, is stunning, immemorial, and timeless. It’s like an unfound treasure who wants to be found but cannot be touched. But there is a way to find this treasure. It’s the alchemy of faith with the attention paid to signs inside of us and around us in the world. For two or three centuries, because of scientific progresses, some positivists, materialists or atheists have considered the religious vision of the world is false, just an illusion, like a fiction–a myth created by men to cope with the burden of existence. Furthermore, the contradiction in the history of Christianity associated with the fanaticism that comes from other religious groups have lead a few people to reject religion and faith because they are considered as maddening and dangerous.

In spite of this, the idea of God is specific to human beings, and the mystery of God remains. We have to revisit what is God and rethink the idea of God. God is the one we can’t totally meet, the one who doesn’t look like anything else, and at the same time, he is the one the closest to our hearts. We can’t figure out the history of God since he is eternal–he has always been there, as believed by the three main monotheist religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). But we can figure out a history when it comes to the relationship between mankind and God. What’s important is to figure out where we come from and where we’re going. To believe is to keep in touch with the quest to find the truth and to figure out what is right, what is beautiful. To believe is also about projecting ourselves into the future and to not be surprised by the surprising aspect of life and death. For believers, the history that links us to God gives a meaning to life.

EI: Do you think God got a rotten deal with the “giving away” of the planet to human beings?

MC: When you read holy scriptures, you can see that God had predicted many men would remain blind and deaf and with no faith and no reason. But one has to remain hopeful, and we need to keep believing in life and in the others. We have a mission to fulfill, and we need to build a society where violence would regress and where conflicts would find an end. Our home, planet Earth, and our cities are in bad shape, but many of us are working toward the goal of building a better world, a better human condition. God’s vision for mankind is bigger than the ingratitude of human beings. Who can deny, beyond the multiple challenges, the amazing gift of life–the beauty of the creation of the world?

EI: What is the key concept for faith?

MC: 'Open' is, for me, a magical word. God is the one who opened himself to mankind by creating life and revealing himself with this act. A true human being is someone who is open to the others, who is welcoming the others and the world without being hostage of his own condition. The fanatics are closing and excluding the others. Today, we have to keep an open mind. We need to choose for the openness over the closeness of the mind. You shouldn’t idolize yourself or a God because it is closing yourself (to the rest of the world and God). The God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ and Mohammad, as well as the God of Socrates or Buddha, doesn’t want to be idolized. We have to refuse to give up on happiness, to isolate ourselves, to allow ourselves to die in spite of the complexity of the spirit, the toughness of being alive, and facing our own illusions, impulses and contradictions that are sometimes clashing inside of us and lead to a trauma and unbalance of our existence. We have to not try to be God, nor refute him, nor multiply him.

We have to be the witness of life, since we are privileged creatures with a freedom of thinking and the ability to understand what needs to be mastered, with hard work, attention, and the hardship of living. To learn to live together is less risky than to live alone. To achieve this, we need to respect and accept each other. One can’t refute the right to the other to be different–to have different points of view. Because if you act like this, then you’re in a fracture with the others and yourself. The essence of life is to share. Faith and reason can lead to the truth–to what is right and beautiful. But used in dark circumstances, they can also lead to atrocities. Faith is a question in relation to the mystery of our heart and its capacity to bloom.

EI: How do you see the future of mankind?

MC: We are living in uncertain times. The threats and risks of the collapse of our humanity are real. But we also have so many opportunities to build a new universal civilization. The path chosen has to be the debate of ideas, the communication, and the enlightenment of each other. We also need to establish common laws for everyone. The laws of the stronger and the blind violence are bound to fail. In spite of the challenges and the fear, most people around the world refuse to fight each other and to create new enemies. Most people believe in a united world. Friends! Come forward with an open heart.