I'm Chetan Bhatt and when I give my name, I'm often asked, "Where are you from?" And I normally say London.
我是 Chetan Bhatt, 每次我介绍自己名字的时候, 总会有人问我从哪里来。 我一般都说是伦敦。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But of course, I know what they're really asking, so I say something like, "Well, my grandparents and my mum were born in India, my dad and I were born in Kenya, and I was brought up in London. And then they've got me mapped. "Ah, you're a Kenyan Asian. I've worked with one of those."
不过当然了,我知道 他们真正想问的是什么, 所以我就会说, 我的祖父母和我母亲 是在印度出生的, 我爸爸和我在肯尼亚出生, 我是在伦敦长大的。 然后他们就会给我 脑补一张地图出来, “哦,你是肯尼亚裔亚洲人。 我跟你们那里的人工作过。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And from my name they probably assume that I'm a Hindu. And this sort of fixes me for them.
从我的名字来看, 他们可能猜测我是北印度人, 从而让他们对我 形成了一些固有的印象。
But what about the Christians and the Muslims and the atheists that I grew up with? Or the socialists and the liberals, even the occasional Tory?
但是那些基督徒呢? 还有跟我一起长大的 穆斯林以及无神论者? 又或是那些社会主义 与自由派人士呢? 甚至偶尔会遇到的保守派党?
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Indeed, all kinds of women and men -- vegetable sellers, factory workers, cooks, car mechanics -- living in my working class area, in some profoundly important way, they are also a part of me and are here with me. Maybe that's why I find it hard to respond to questions about identity and about origin. And it's not just a sort of teenage refusal to be labeled. It's about our own most identities, the ones that we put our hands up to, the ones that we cheer for, the ones that we fight for, the ones that we love or hate. And it's about how we apprehend ourselves as well as others. And it's about identities we just assume that we have without thinking too much about them.
确实,所有的男人和女人们—— 菜贩, 工人,厨师, 汽修人员—— 住在我所在的工薪阶层区域, 都有着自己非常重要的存在意义, 他们同时也是我的一部分, 并一直与我同在。 也许这就是为什么 我觉得回答关于自己身份 或是出身的问题很难。 这并不仅仅是出于类似青春期的 叛逆心理,拒绝别人给自己贴标签, 而是关于对我们自己来说 最重要的身份, 那些我们会听到后举手认同的, 我们欢呼庆祝的, 我们为之而战的, 那些我们爱或痛恨的。 这是关于我们如何看待自己 以及看待别人。 这同时也关系着 那些我们潜意识里 所认同的那些身份。
But our responses to questions of identity and origin have substantial social and political importance. We see the wars, the rages of identity going on all around us. We see violent religious, national and ethnic disputes. And often the conflict is based on old stories of identity and belonging and origins. And these identities are based on myths, typically about ancient, primordial origins. And these could be about Adam and Eve or about the supremacy of a caste or gender or about the vitality of a supposed race or about the past glories of an empire or civilization or about a piece of land that some imagined deity has gifted.
但是我们对自己身份和出身的反应 却有着重大的社会与政治意义。 我们见识过战争, 那些由身份产生的愤怒。 我们见识过暴力的宗教信仰, 国家和种族之间的对抗。 通常矛盾往往来源于 关于身份,归属 和来源的 古老传说。 且这些身份认知 是建立在一些迷思上的, 一般是古老的, 原始的起源。 这些可能是关于 亚当和夏娃的故事, 关于种姓制度的权威, 关于性别, 关于某一个种族的生命力, 关于过去某个王朝 或是人类文明的辉煌, 也可能是关于受某些 想象出来的神明 恩赐的一片土地。
Now, people say that origin stories and identity myths make us feel secure. What's wrong with that? They give us a sense of belonging. Identity is your cultural clothing, and it can make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. But does it really? Do we really need identity myths to feel safe? Because I see religious, national, ethnic disputes as adding to human misery.
现在人们可能会说, 这些关于身份的起源故事 与迷思给予了我们安全感。 这样说又有什么错呢? 它们让我们有了归属感。 身份是我们的文化外衣, 让你内心感到温暖又舒适。 但真的是这样吗? 我们真的需要这些传说 来给自己安全感吗? 因为在我看来,宗教, 国家以及种族间的斗争 反而给人类带来了不幸。
Can I dare you to refuse every origin myth that claims you? What if we reject every single primordial origin myth and develop a deeper sense of personhood, one responsible to humanity as a whole rather than to a particular tribe, a radically different idea of humanity that exposes how origin myths mystify, disguise global power, rapacious exploitation, poverty, the worldwide oppression of women and girls, and of course massive, accelerating inequalities?
你敢不敢去 大胆否认每一个组成你身份的 迷思? 如果我们拒绝任何一个 有关我们身份的起源迷思, 并且获得对人格品质 更深的理解呢? 这种理解对全人类, 而不只是对一个种族负责; 一个对于人性完全不同的理解, 揭露了起源迷思如何神秘化, 揭露了伪装的全球力量, 贪婪的剥削, 贫穷,以及全球范围内 对女人和儿童的压迫, 当然还有大规模, 在极速加剧的的不平等现象。
Now, origin myths are closely linked to tradition, and the word tradition points to something old and permanent, almost natural, and people assume tradition is just history, simply the past condensed into a nice story. But let's not confuse tradition with history. The two are often in severe conflict. Origin stories are usually recently created fictions of ancient belonging, and they're absurd given the complexity of humanity and our vastly interconnected, even if very unequal world. And today we see claims to tradition that claim to be ancient changing rapidly in front of our eyes.
在当代,起源迷思通常 跟传统是紧密相连的, “传统”二字通常指的是老旧的东西, 并且是永恒的,几乎是自然存在的, 人们认为传统仅仅是历史, 只是把过去 浓缩成了一个动人的故事。 但是我们不应该将历史和传统混淆。 这两者经常水火不容。 起源的传说通常是为了解释古代 种族间的归属关系而虚构出来的, 它们很荒唐, 在人性如此复杂的世界里, 我们彼此间都有千丝万缕的联系, 即使是在不平等的社会里。 然而在今天, 我们见到了那些声称是传统 并且古老的传说, 正在迅速的变化着。
I was brought up in the 1970s near Wembley with Asian, English, Caribbean, Irish families living in our street, and the neo-Nazi National Front was massive then with regular marches and attacks on us and a permanent threat and often a frequent reality of violence against us on the streets, in our homes, typically by neo-Nazis and other racists. And I remember during a general election a leaflet came through our letter box with a picture of the National Front candidate for our area. And the picture was of our next-door neighbor. He threatened to shoot me once when I played in the garden as a kid, and many weekends, shaven-headed National Front activists arrived at his house and emerged with scores of placards screaming that they wanted us to go back home. But today he's one of my mum's best mates. He's a very lovely, gentle and kind man, and at some point in his political journey out of fascism he embraced a broader idea of humanity.
我是在 70 年代的 Wembley 地区,一个有着 亚洲,英国,加勒比和爱尔兰等家庭的 多元文化背景环境里长大的。 那时候新纳粹阵营非常兴盛, 时不时的针对并攻击我们, 这对我们形成了 一个长久的威胁, 我们时常在街上,在家中 受到新纳粹 以及其他种族主义者的暴力对待。 我记得有一次大选, 一个宣传册出现在了我们的信箱里, 上面有一张本地全国候选人的照片。 那张照片上的人 正是我们的邻居。 我小时候在公园里玩耍时, 他曾经威胁要拿枪打我, 连着好几个周末, 一些剃了头的政选积极分子 会来到他家, 拿着一堆宣传画报, 喊着让我们滚回家去。 但是今天,他却是 我妈妈最好的朋友之一。 他是个很可亲,很绅士, 并且很善良的人, 在他某一段 法西斯主义的政治生涯中。 他接受了对人性更高层面的理解。
There was a Hindu family that we got to know well -- and you have to understand that life in our street was a little bit like the setting for an Asian soap opera. Everyone knew everyone else's business, even if they didn't want it to be known by anyone at all. You really had no choice in this matter. But in this family, there was a quiet little boy who went to the same school as I did, and after I left school, I didn't hear much more about him, except that he'd gone off to India. Now around 2000, I remember seeing this short book. The book was unusual because it was written by a British supporter of Al Qaeda, and in it the author calls for attacks in Britain. This is in 1999, so 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq was still in the future, and he helped scout New York bombing targets. He taught others how to make a dirty bomb to use on the London Underground, and he plotted a massive bombing campaign in London's shopping areas. He's a very high-risk security prisoner in the UK and one of the most important Al Qaeda figures to be arrested in Britain.
曾经有一个北印度家庭 跟我们相交甚好, 我得说,在我们那条街上的生活 有点像亚洲的肥皂剧场景。 每个人都知道别人的隐私, 即使他们并不想被别人知道。 但是在这件事上你是没有选择的。 但是在这个家庭里, 有一个安静的小男孩, 我们俩去的同一所学校, 我离开学校后, 就没再听说过 关于他的什么消息了, 除了他离开去了印度。 在 2000 年左右, 我记得看到了一本薄薄的册子。 那本书很不同寻常, 因为作者是一个英国籍的 基地组织成员, 在书里面,作者在召唤 对英国实施恐怖袭击。 那本书写于 1999 年, 那时 911 事件 与伊拉克入侵还没有发生, 他参与了帮助招募 纽约的炸弹袭击者。 他教别人如何在伦敦地铁里 安装放射性炸弹, 还谋划了一次 在伦敦购物区的大规模爆炸。 他是英国最危险的犯人之一, 也是英国最想逮捕的 基地组织的首脑成员之一。
The author of that book was the very same quiet little boy who went to my school. So a Hindu boy from Britain became an Al Qaeda fighter and a most-wanted international terrorist, and he rejected what people would call his Hindu or Indian or British identity, and he became someone else. He refused to be who he was. He recreated himself, and this kind of journey is very common for young men and women who become involved in Al Qaeda or Islamic State or other transnational armed groups. Al Qaeda's media spokesman is a white American from a Jewish and Catholic mixed background, and neither he nor the boy from my school were from Muslim backgrounds. There's no point in asking them where are they from. A more important question is where they're going.
那本书的作者, 正是当年那个一言不发, 跟我在同一所学校 读书的小男孩。 所以一个来自 大不列颠的北印度男孩, 变成了一个基地组织分子, 一个全球范围内通缉的罪犯, 他拒绝了人们给他的 北印度或英国人身份, 变成了另一个人。 他拒绝做本来的自己, 并创造了一个新的自己, 这其实对于很多后来参与了 基地组织或伊斯兰国, 或者其他跨国武装组织的 青年男女来说, 是很正常的事情。 基地组织的发言人是一个美国白人, 拥有犹太和天主教混合的家庭背景, 他和跟我一同上学的那个男孩 都没有穆斯林背景。 所以问他们从哪里来并没有意义, 更重要的问题应该是 他们选择要到哪里去。
And I would also put it to you that exactly the same journey occurs for those young men and women who were brought up in Muslim family backgrounds. Most of those who join Al Qaeda and other Salafi jihadi groups from Europe, Asia, North America, even in many cases the Middle East are those who have comprehensively rejected their backgrounds to become, in essence, new people. They spend an enormous amount of time attacking their parents' backgrounds as profane, impure, blasphemous, the wrong type of Islam, and their vision instead is a fantastical view of cosmic apocalypse. It's a born again vision. Discard your past, your society, your family and friends since they're all impure. Instead, become someone else, your true self, your authentic self. Now, this isn't about a return to the past. It's about using a forgery of the past to envision an appalling future which begins today at year zero. This is why over 80 percent of the victims of Al Qaeda and Islamic State are people from Muslim backgrounds. The first act by Salafi jihadi groups when they take over an area is to destroy existing Muslim institutions including mosques, shrines, preachers, practices. Their main purpose is to control and punish people internally, to dictate the spaces that women may go, their clothing, family relations, beliefs, even the minute detail of how one prays. And you get the impression in the news that they are after us in the West, but they are actually mainly after people from other Muslim backgrounds. In their view, no other Muslim can ever be pure enough, so ordinary beliefs and practices that have existed for centuries are attacked as impure by teenagers from Birmingham or London who know nothing about the histories that they so joyously obliterate.
我也想让你们明白, 同样的历程也在许许多多 拥有穆斯林背景的 青年们身上重演着。 大部分来自世界各地, 甚至中东地区的加入了基地组织 以及萨拉非圣战的青年, 都彻底拒绝了他们自己本来的身份, 重新变成了另一个人。 他们不顾一切地攻击 父母的身份背景, 称它们是粗俗的,不纯净的, 以及亵渎神灵的, 是一种错误的伊斯兰信仰, 而他们的视角则是一种 以宇宙毁灭为根基的荒诞理念。 那是一种重生的信念。 摒弃你的过去,你成长的社会, 你的家庭与朋友, 因为他们都是不纯洁的。 反之,去变成另一个人 你真正的, 真实的自我。 但这可不是关于回到过去, 而是用过去作为一个虚假的理由, 去开创一个恐怖的新世纪。 这就是为什么超过 80% 的 基地组织和伊斯兰国受害者 都拥有穆斯林背景。 通常,萨拉非圣战组织 占领一个新地区时, 做的第一件事就是 摧毁现有的穆斯林机构。 包括寺庙,神龛, 传教士及各种宗教仪式。 他们的主要目的是从内部 控制以及惩罚人们, 决定女人该去的地方, 衣着,家庭关系, 信仰,甚至诸如一个人 应该怎样祈祷这样的细节。 媒体给你们的印象可能是 他们只是冲着我们西方国家来, 但他们的主要目标其实是 拥有其他穆斯林背景的人们。 在他们眼里,没有其他的穆斯林 是和他们一样纯洁的, 所以那些已经存在 并运行了几百年的信仰 被那些从伯明翰或伦敦来的 对历史一窍不通的 青少年们肆意攻击, 称之为不纯洁。
Now here, their claim to tradition is at war with history, but they're nevertheless very certain about their purity and about the impurity of others. Purity, certainty, the return to authentic tradition, the quest for these can lead to lethal visions of perfect societies and perfected people.
现在,他们所谓的传统 与历史产生了冲突, 但他们仍然坚信自己是纯洁的, 他人都是不纯洁的, 纯洁, 确定性, 回归到正规传统, 以及对这些观点的探索 都是对于建设完美社会的 致命性的看法。
This is what the main Hindu fundamentalist organization in India looks like today at its mass rally. Maybe it reminds you of the 1930s in Italy or Germany, and the movement's roots are indeed in fascism. It was a member of the same Hindu fundamentalist movement who shot dead Mahatma Gandhi. Hindu fundamentalists today view this murderer as a national hero, and they want to put up statues of him throughout India. They've been involved for decades in large-scale mass violence against minorities. They ban books, art, films. They attack romantic couples on Valentine's Day, Christians on Christmas Day. They don't like others talking critically about what they see as their ancient culture or using its images or caricaturing it or drawing cartoons about it. But the people making the strongest possible claims about ancient, timeless Hindu religion are dressed in brown shorts and white shirts while claiming, oddly, to be the original Aryan race, just like the violent Salafi jihadis who make their claims about their primordial religion while dressed in black military uniforms and wearing balaclavas.
这是印度境内主要的 北印度原教旨主义 组织的群众集会。 这可能让你想到了 30 年代的德国或者意大利, 这些运动的根源 的确是法西斯主义。 这正是枪杀了甘地的同一个 北印度原教旨主义运动的成员。 现今的北印度原教旨主义分子们 依然把这个杀手视为国家英雄, 并想在印度为他树立雕塑。 几十年来,他们不断参与 针对少数派的大规模暴力运动。 他们禁止了书籍,艺术,电影, 还袭击了庆祝情人节的情侣们, 庆祝圣诞节的基督徒们。 他们不喜欢别人批评 他们眼中自己古老的文化, 或者使用相关的图片, 或者把它画成漫画, 做成动画。 但是那些对古老的, 永恒的北印度宗教 立场最坚定的人 是那些穿着棕色短裤 和白色衬衫的人, 尽管他们很奇怪的声称自己 为最古老的雅利安种族, 跟那些同样表明自己 古老出身的残暴的 萨拉非组织成员几乎如出一辙, 只不过他们是身着黑色军服, 并蒙着头罩的。
These people are manufacturing pure, pristine identities of conviction and of certainty. Fundamentalists see religion and culture as their sole property, a property. But religions and cultures are processes. They're not things. They're impermanent. They're messy. They're impure. Look at any religion and you'll see disputes and arguments going all the way down.
这些人捏造着他们纯洁的, 质朴的身份谎言 以及确定性。 原教旨教徒把宗教与文化 视为他们自己的一种“财产”。 但是宗教与文化是一种过程, 它们不是物件,不是一成不变的; 它们是混乱的,不纯洁的。 你会发现,其实任何宗教 都充满了争辩与矛盾。
Any criticism of religion in any form has to therefore be part of the expansive sense of humanity we should aspire to. I respect your right to have and to express your religion or your culture or your opinion, but I don't necessarily have to respect the content. I might like some of it. I might like how an old church looks, for example, but this isn't the same thing. Similarly, I have a human right to say something that you may find offensive, but you do not have a human right not to be offended. In a genuine democracy, we're constantly offended since people express different views all the time. They also change their views, so their views are impermanent. You cannot fix someone's political views based on their religious or national or cultural background.
关于宗教的任何形式的批评 都应该是 我们所敬仰的 更广义的人性定义的 一部分。 我尊重你拥有自己的宗教和文化, 以及表达它们的权利, 但是我不一定非要尊重其中的内容。 我也许会喜欢某一部分, 我可能会觉得 一座古老的教堂很好看, 但这不是一回事。 同样,我也有表达自己观点的权利, 尽管我的观点可能会冒犯到你, 但是你并没有不被冒犯的权利。 在真正的民主中, 我们一直都在被冒犯着, 因为人民无时无刻 都在表达着不同的观点。 他们也会改变自己的观点, 所以他们的观点是一直在变化的。 你无法改正一个人基于他们的 宗教,国家或文化背景 所产生的政治观点。
Now, these points about religious purity also apply to nationalism and to racism. I'm always puzzled to have pride in your national or ethnic identity, pride in the accident of birth from a warm and cozy womb, belief in your superiority because of the accident of birth.
这些关于宗教纯正性的观点 也同样适用于民族主义和种族歧视。 我一直很费解, 为什么要为你的国家 或种族的身份骄傲, 为你从一个温暖舒适的母体里 生出来这件事骄傲, 相信因为由出生而带来的优越感。
These people have very firm ideas about what belongs and what doesn't belong inside the cozy national cultures that they imagine. And I'm going to caricature a bit here, but only a little bit. I want you to imagine the supporter of some Little Englander or British nationalist political party, and he's sitting at home and he's screaming about foreigners invading his country while watching Fox News, an American cable channel owned by an Australian on his South Korean television set which was bought by his Spanish credit card which is paid off monthly by his high-street British bank which has its headquarters in Hong Kong. He supports a British football team owned by a Russian. His favorite brand of fish and chips is owned by a Swedish venture capitalist firm. The church he sometimes goes to has its creed decided in meetings in Ghana. His Union Jack underpants were made in India.
这些人很坚定的相信 在他们所想象出来的 舒适的种族文化里, 什么是属于这里的, 什么是不属于的。 我在这里要稍微讽刺的比喻下, 我想让你想象下 一些英国本土主义以及 英国民族主义的支持者, 他坐在家里 叫嚷着要赶走 那些入侵他们国家的 外籍人士, 与此同时还看着福克斯新闻, 一个由澳洲人掌管的 美国有限电视频道, 在他从韩国购买的电视机上播放着, 电视机是用他的 西班牙信用卡购买的, 每月由在英国繁华商业街上的 银行所支付, 而银行的总部位于香港。 他支持一只由俄罗斯掌管的 英国足球队。 他最喜欢的鱼和薯条品牌 由一家瑞典资本风险家公司经营。 他有时会去的教堂的信条 是在加纳举行的会议中建立的。 他印有英国国旗花纹的内裤 是在印度制作的。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And --
还有——
(Applause)
(掌声)
Thank you.
谢谢。
And they're laundered regularly by a very nice Polish lady.
然后那条内裤是在干洗店里 由一位漂亮的波兰女士 定期清洗的。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
There is no pure ethnicity, national culture, and the ethical choices we have today are far wider than being forced to choose between racist right and religious right visions, dismal visions of culture.
所以根本没有纯洁的 种族或国家文化之说, 我们今天能够做出的道德选择范畴 已远远超出了我们被迫在 对文化所持有的种族右翼主义 和宗教右翼的,悲观的观点之间 所做出的选择。
Now, culture isn't just about language, food, clothing and music, but gender relations, ancient monuments, a heritage of sacred texts. But culture can also be what has been decided to be culture by those who have a political stake in pounding culture into the shape of a prison. Big political identity claims are elite bids for power. They're not answers to social or economic or political injustices. They often obscure them. And what about the large number of people across the globe who can't point to a monument from their past, who don't possess a sacred written text, who can't hark back to the past glories of a civilization or empire? Are these people less a part of humanity?
在今天,文化早已不单单是 关于语言,食物,衣服和音乐, 也包含性别关系,以及古老的遗迹, 即神圣文字的遗产。 但是文化也可以被那些 善于把文化打造成 一所无形监狱的政客们所定义。 关于政治身份的主张 都是精英们积攒权力的筹码。 它们并不是社会经济 以及政治不平等问题的答案, 反而会混淆视听。 那么全世界那么多 没有伟大历史遗迹, 没有神圣文字遗产, 无法倾听 文明社会以及古老王国 往昔辉煌的人们呢? 难道他们在人类种族中 就低人一等吗?
What about you, now, listening to this? What about you and your identity, because you stitch your experiences and your thoughts into a continuous person moving forward in time. And this is what you are when you say, "I," "am," or "me." But this also includes all of your hopes and dreams, all of the you's that could have been, and it includes all the other people and the things that are in the biography of who you are. They, the others, are also a part of you, moving forward with you. Your authentic self, if such a thing exists, is a complex, messy and uncertain self, and that is a very good thing. Why not value those impurities and uncertainties? Maybe clinging to pure identities is a sign of immaturity, and ethnic, nationalist and religious traditions are bad for you. Why not be skeptical about every primordial origin claim made on your behalf? Why not reject the identity myths that call on you to belong, that politicians and community leaders, so-called community leaders, place on you? If we don't need origin stories and fixed identities, we can challenge ourselves to think creatively about each other and our future.
正在聆听这段演讲的 各位呢? 你们有着什么样的身份认知? 因为你用你的经验和思想 编织成了一个完整的, 在时间中前行的个人。 当你说“我” 或“本人“的时候, 这就是你自己的身份。 但这也包涵了你所有的梦想和希望, 所有你本来能变成的一切, 也包括了所有其他人 以及在你个人历程中的所有事情。 他们,其他人, 也是你的一部分, 跟你一同前进。 你真实的自我, 如果这个东西存在的话, 其实是一个复杂, 混乱和不确定的自我, 但是这是一件很好的事。 为什么不珍惜那些 所谓的不纯洁和不确定呢? 也许固执地坚守着纯洁的身份 是一种不成熟的标志, 那些关于种族,民族以及 信仰的传统对你是有害的。 为什么不尝试去质疑那些 为你创作好的 古老的起源传说呢? 为什么不尝试拒绝那些政客, 以及那些所谓的 社区领导者强加在你身上的, 召唤你去归属的 身份传说呢? 如果我们不需要起源传说 以及固定的身份, 我们就可以挑战自己 并创造性地思考 彼此的未来。
And here culture always takes care of itself. I'm not worried about culture. Cultures are creative, dynamic processes, not imposed laws and boundaries.
然而文化一直就知道 自己怎样照顾自己。 我并不担心文化。 文化是有创意性的,有活力的过程, 并不是强制的法律和界限。
This is Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd, a very senior Muslim judge and thinker in Cordoba in the 12th century, and his writings were considered deeply blasphemous, heretical and evil. Long after he died, followers of his work were ruthlessly hunted down, banished and killed over several centuries by the most powerful religious institution of the medieval period. That institution was the Roman Catholic Church. Why? Because ibn Rushd said that something true in religion may conflict with something that your reason finds to be true on earth, but the latter is still true. There are two distinct worlds of truth, one based on our reason and evidence, and one that is divine, and the state, political power, social law are in the realm of reason. Religious life is a different realm. They should be kept separated. Social and political life should be governed by our reason, not by religion. And you can see why the church was upset by his writings, as indeed were some Muslims during his lifetime, because he gives us a strong statement of secularism of a kind which is normal in Europe today.
这是 Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd, 12 世纪科多巴一位 高级穆斯林法官和思想领袖, 他的作品被认为是亵渎神灵的, 异教的,以及邪恶的。 他死后很久, 追随他的支持者们几个世纪以来 一直被中世纪最强大的一个宗教集团 无情的追捕,驱逐甚至杀害。 这个集团便是罗马天主教会。 为什么? 因为 ibn Rushd 说过, 宗教中的一些真相 可能会跟理智告诉你 什么是真实的产生矛盾, 但后者依然是真实的。 存在两个完全不同的真理的世界, 一种是基于你的理智和证据, 另一个是基于神灵。 国家,政治力量, 社会法律是在理智范畴之内的, 而宗教生活则属于另一个领域, 它们应该彼此分隔开。 社会和政治生活应该是 被我们的理智所引导的, 而不是宗教。 这样你就明白为什么 教会对他的文字感到不安, 就像他在世时的一些穆斯林一样, 因为他传达给了我们 很强烈的世俗理念, 这种理念在当代的欧洲 其实已经比较正常了。
Now, history plays many tricks on us. It undermines our fixed truths and what we believe to be our culture and their culture. Ibn Rushd, someone who happens to be a Muslim, is considered one of the key influences in the introduction and spread of secularism in Europe.
现在历史开始捉弄我们, 它破坏了一成不变的真理, 以及我们所相信的 自己和他人的文化。 ibn Rushd, 一个正好身为穆斯林的人, 被认为是世俗论 进入并在欧洲传播的关键人物。
So against religious, nationalist and racial purists of all kinds, can you make his story a part of your own, not because he happened to be a Muslim, not because he happened to be an Arab, but because he was a human being with some very good ideas that shook his world and ours.
那么,你愿意与所有的宗教主义者, 民族主义者,以及种族纯结论者对立, 把这段历史也变成你自己的故事吗? 不是因为他刚好是一个穆斯林, 也不是因为他刚好是一个阿拉伯人, 而是因为他是 一个用很棒的想法 动摇了他的世界, 以及我们所有人的世界的人。
Thank you.
谢谢大家。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)