Outreach by Objectivists into the Muslim Community

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Outreach by Objectivists into the Muslim Community

This is a lecture that is going to be given by Omar Altalib, Ph.D. at the TAS 2007 Summer Seminar. I think this news is so important, it is so aligned with what I have in mind and what I believe in, that I am giving it its own thread. The time will be Thursday, July 12, 2007, at 2:15 PM. The place will be at Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson, Maryland 21252. Read about the entire TAS 2007 Summer Seminar here. Here is the write-up of the lecture.

Over one billion Muslims worldwide are not familiar with Objectivism. One way of overcoming this gap in knowledge is to engage in outreach to the Muslim community, particularly the American Muslim community. Omar Altalib will draw on his experiences in Iraq and the U.S. to offer suggestions that may be helpful in achieving this goal. These include: translating Atlas Shrugged into Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Indonesian/Malaysian, and Oromo; pointing out the struggle of Ayn Rand against Communism and the Soviet Union; explaining the importance of rationality; and highlighting the rationalist tradition in Islamic civilization.

Omar Altalib served in Iraq as an Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Education in 2004 and is currently a visiting assistant professor at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. He is a director of the Minaret of Freedom Institute.

While there has been a lot of bombast, saber rattling and outright bigotry from Objectivist quarters about Islam, TAS is quietly going about making a real difference.

Congratulations, guys! This news made my day. Big time. It made me feel proud to be an Objectivist. (I was beginning to lose pleasure in it from all the hatred I have encountered.)

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

More information on Omar Altalib is given here in "Sightings, October 2004", on the TAS website. The following information is from that page:

Bringing the Right Ideas to Iraq

Omar Altalib is taking on one of the most dangerous and daunting tasks one can imagine. With his Iraqi Institute for Law, Liberty, and Prosperity, he wants to bring freedom to his native country, which has so suffered under a heinous dictatorship.

Altalib's family brought him to America when he was a young man, allowing him to experience freedom firsthand. He studied at George Mason University, and his work in the United States included a stint teaching at Ashland University in Ohio, where he assigned Ayn Rand's For the New Intellectual as one of the class readings. Altalib sees Rand as a clear-thinking philosopher who is easy to understand and who offers valuable insights, especially into philosophy and the free-market economy necessary for personal liberty and economic prosperity.

Following the overthrow of the dictatorship in Iraq, Altalib believes the current violence in his country comes from three groups: criminals and thugs who were released from jails by Saddam Hussein before the war, ex-Baath Party members who wish to regain power, and foreign terrorists who can easily infiltrate the country. Altalib recognizes the risk that, as the price for peace, some otherwise peaceful Iraqis could acquiesce to a return to a strongman government or even some kind of regime dominated by religious fanatics. He therefore believes it is crucial to educate the people of his country about the virtues of a free, open society.

Altalib is bringing his considerable knowledge to the real-world task of creating a free Iraq. He maintains an office in Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., but spends much of his time in Iraq. Altalib thinks one thing that could help his country and the rest of the Middle East would be to have works by Ayn Rand translated into Arabic. He is not the first to make this suggestion: Stephen Schwartz, author of Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role in Terrorism and a speaker at a TOC DC forum last November, thinks Anthem would be especially appropriate for the people in a part of the world that is still struggling to discover freedom. If the money can be found, Altalib would like to use Rand's works in his education efforts. Let's hope that this courageous man can show that the right ideas can truly make a difference!

Michael

[Judith]

While there has been a lot of bombast, saber rattling and outright bigotry from Objectivist quarters about Islam, TAS is quietly going about making a real difference.

Congratulations, guys! This news made my day. Big time. It made me feel proud to be an Objectivist. (I was beginning to lose pleasure in it from all the hatred I have encountered.)

I was waiting to see your reaction to this news when I saw the schedule yesterday.

Judith

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Judith,

I can read people like Pipes, Ali, LGF, etc., with a lot more interest knowing that there are also people like Altalib out there in our little subcommunity doing something objective about trying to reach Muslims.

Michael

[Judith]

I can read people like Pipes, Ali, LGF, etc., with a lot more interest knowing that there are also people like Altalib out there in our little subcommunity doing something objective about trying to reach Muslims.

Who's LGF?

By the way, I started Ali's book last night and this morning. You have to read it, Michael (and anyone else who's reading). It's not at all what I expected, and it's not what you'd expect. It tells a fascinating story about her childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya. Her family is colorful and real and, in many ways, heroic. Her mother is also horribly abusive because of the pressure she's under trying to raise three kids alone. Her younger sister is amazing. I can't wait to find out what happens next.

Judith

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Judith,

LGF = Little Green Footballs

Very anti-Islam, often bordering on bigotry, but lot's of hard information. ARI loves it.

Ms. Ali's book sounds fascinating.

Michael

[Philip Coates]

ANTHEM FIRST

> Stephen Schwartz, author of Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role in Terrorism and a speaker at a TOC DC forum last November, thinks Anthem would be especially appropriate for the people in a part of the world that is still struggling to discover freedom. [MSK]

There are quite a few reasons for Anthem, not just there but throughout the developing world:

--accessibility of the message to non-westerners and those in traditional cultures as well as the 'westernized'...the lowliest Indian peasant or Asian factory worker or Middle Eastern veiled woman can understand being ground down, treated like dirt, oppressed,

--simplicity of language which gives you a multiplier effect and means you don't just reach the top reaches of the intellectuals,

--very direct relevance to the oppression or "group think" of their own lives or that of their parents...remember the Cultural Revolution and the like,

--low cost of doing a thin book (which could be in pamphlet or newspaper serial form in countries with low standards of living),

--the greater likelihood that someone will pick up and actually read a very short book,

--not having to accept all of Objectivism or be baffled or turned off by some aspect to be profoundly moved by the book,

--grandeur and power and simplicity of the writing,

--sense of life,

--poetic style of the writing

Is that enough reasons for Anthem being the first words of Rand to pave the way in societies where oppression and lack of freedom and big government are common? It should be translated into quite a few languages where that is the case.

I think I've been saying this for fifteen years to ARI people, TAS people and have yet to get a "YES, EXACTLY!!!" response: "Anthem" is out of copyright and this is the *single most powerful thing* that could get a mass worldwide audience.

And yet everyone is always getting distracted by not one, but a *dozen*other project which move so slowly and have so little impact on the minds and hearts of people that it is like an ant pushing a boulder uphill.

Imagine one Persian or Thai or Taiwanese or Brazilian billionaire reading it and deciding to devote his fortune to spreading these ideas.

You want to tell me that wouldn't have an impact on America because it was overseas and we have "limited resources" for spreading Objectivism?

Frustrated Phil

[Philip Coates]

Anticipating a possible objection of "I don't care if it doesn't advance Objectivism in America", I would mention that one of the wealthy Persian, Thai, Taiwanese, or Brazilians could very well be an expatriate and living in the U.S. where his money could -directly- help Objectivism in this country.

How does a five million dollar contribution each to ARI and TAS grab ya?

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Phil,

Although I did not respond to your posts, they got me thinking. I really don't care much about donations to ARI—or TAS, for that matter—they have their own fund raisers. But I completely support TAS and I am a customer of ARI. So what stopped me from responding was precisely this ARI/TAS division. Frankly, I am more interested in my own projects and garnering funding for them.

But one thing your post did put in my mind: making a screenplay out of Anthem, then getting it properly translated into third-world languages and submitting it to third-world sponsors for filming and distribution. Famous local actors/actresses could even be used for each filming to ensure audience.

Incidentally, the copyright status as public domain outside the USA would have to be checked country-by-country, depending on how they interpret the "rule of the shorter term." See the Wikipedia article on Anthem. From the article:

Copyright status

Anthem entered the public domain in the United States at the end of 1966, due to the failure to renew its copyright after 28 years as then required by US law. The book's copyright status in other countries is dependent on their adoption and interpretation of the rule of the shorter term for thsi title; however, under the usual life plus 50 years rules of the Berne Convention, its copyright would subsist until 2033.

Here is a quote about the "rule of the shorter term" from the Wikipedia article on the Berne Convention:

Although the Berne Convention states that the copyright law of the country where protection is claimed shall be applied, article 7.8 states that "unless the legislation of that country otherwise provides, the term shall not exceed the term fixed in the country of origin of the work", i.e. an author is normally not entitled longer protection abroad than at home, even if the laws abroad give longer protection. This is commonly known as "the rule of the shorter term". Not all countries have accepted this rule.

(I am using Wikipedia articles here because they are handy, correct and easily understood.)

Duncan Scott did a theater adaptation, but nothing says another one cannot be done with this third-world idea. I find theater more complicated, though. Film, broadcasting and DVD/video have a much larger market and impact.

btw - Do you have any such billionaire sponsors in mind? I am all ears.

Michael

[Philip Coates]

Michael,

You're right, I was oversimplifying about where Anthem is out of copyright. But I suspect this is a moot point, since Peikoff, etc. are eager to have people in all sorts of places translate Rand's work.I don't think the ARI/TAS split is relevant to someone in Mongolia who wants to translate...he probaby wouldn't have any problem getting permission.

> Do you have any such billionaire sponsors in mind?

Translating Anthem, especially serializing it in a newspaper in one country as a proof of concept (or as a pamphlet until the market builds) is not an expensive project. Closer to thousands than billions*. The people who are really good at translating free-market stuff on a shoestring are ISIL and the Jonathan Gullible project.

The purpose of my post though is to discuss *how best* to spread Objectivism to possibly millions of new people.

*I just did a quick, approximate word count - counting average words per page and multiplying by number of pages: Anthem is about 25,000 words long..the length of several good length magazine articles. Atlas is about a half milion words long (twenty times the size).

[Philip Coates]

> making a screenplay out of Anthem, then getting it properly translated into third-world languages and submitting it to third-world sponsors for filming and distribution. Famous local actors/actresses could even be used for each filming to ensure audience.

Great idea! Once the Duncan Scott production is done in the U.S. that could create word of mouth...and momentum for this. India, where English is already spoken and Rand already highly popular would be the first place to start.

[Greybird]

Anthem is an excellent choice for adaptations to the screen. It's almost written to suggest a screenplay, in its spare use of language.

Try

where high-school students created a movie preview that brings in much of the story. (4:10)

[Judith]

Having read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book and Nonie Darwish's book, I think I can say that pretty much NOTHING is as important as getting books out and over there. There ARE Moslems who think for themselves and see with their own eyes, and books very much encourage them.

Judith

[Chris Grieb]

There was a presentation at the 2005 Summer Seminar about a movie version of Anthem. I can't remember the name of the person who gave it but he said he had the rights. Was anyone else there? Can anyone help me out on this?

[zantonavitch]

Muslims are all human beings. As such, they all have potential as well as certain living healthy parts. The philosophy of Islam even has a small but important tradition of rationality and open debate.

Still, the sheer evil of their ideology is not to be underestimated. Islam isn't a religion like Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism, "Moonie-ism", Hinduism, etc. It stands quite apart. There is savagery and horror here unknown to most Westerners. And most Objectivists too.

I consider Ibn Warraq -- who gave the final speech at that recent Reforming Islam conference in Florida -- to be the greatest expert on Islam on this planet. A few months ago I asked him in private conversation how he compared the ideology of Islam to that of Naziism and communism. According to him: "It's worse." His thinking here is that at least the Nazis and communists "are focused on life." Muslims mostly think about and aim for death -- theirs and ours.