In a speech before the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, Prince Charles of England declared “the Islamic world is the custodian of one of the greatest treasures of accumulated wisdom and spiritual knowledge available to humanity.” About that, there should be no question. From preserving the works of Aristotle and Plato when they were either ignored or actually destroyed by the Catholic Church, to advances in mathematics and medicine in medieval times, to the continued ability to bring personal meaning and fulfillment to the lives of millions — are all historic facts.
Had the heir apparent to both the English Crown and leadership of the Church of England stopped there, none but those who hate Islam could have objected. Unfortunately, Prince Charles went much further, acting as a bizarre apologist for ugly trends in contemporary Islam, ignoring the gifts of modern secular culture, perpetuating the very problems his talk was meant to address.
Claiming that the wisdom of Islam “is now obscured by the dominant drive toward Western materialism — the feeling that to be truly modern, you have to ape the West”, the Prince forgot that the reason the gifts of Islam’s noble heritage are often ignored have more to do with the fact that no religious tradition in the world today is more mobilized to spill blood than is Islam. And that has nothing to do with “the West” — itself a ridiculous term in light of the fact that Islam is also a western religious tradition with tens of millions of native born adherents in western nations. In fact, far from being an Islam vs. “the West” problem, Muslims kill far more Muslims in the name of their faith than they do Jews, Christians, and atheists put together. So the Prince really blew it there.
His comments even suggest that one is somehow a better Muslim when they reject western practices, perpetuating a dangerous false dichotomy between faithfulness to one’s spiritual tradition and participation in the larger culture of liberal democracy which is the west at its best. Unless he is signing folks up for the Taliban or Iran’s religion police, his comments boggle the mind.
In fact, the premise that the more one stands up against the west, not “aping” it but resisting its contemporary discourse and values, the truer one is to their particular faith, is a perspective that can be directly tied to murder and mayhem committed by followers of many faiths.
So, not only are the Prince’s remarks a misunderstanding of a conflict between Islam and the West, they miss the fact that this is not exclusively a problem of Islam. The problem is one between totalitarians of any faith who cannot rest until theirs is the only way. In his drive to reconnect with the genuine wisdom to be found in one of the world’s great traditions, Prince Charles actually perpetuated one of the contemporary world’s most significant challenges.
The challenge is not how out of touch any of us may be with any particular faith tradition, but rather how to move from totalitarian understandings of the traditions we may love to one of dialogue between the multiple systems which inform our lives. Apparently, Prince Charles is not up to that challenge.
He is certainly correct when he addresses the fact that technology and modern conveniences alone will neither provide the happiness which we seek nor the guidance we need in evaluating how best to nurture the health of our planet. Nor is he off base to remind us that we ignore the wisdom of any one tradition at our peril. In fact, when we ignore matters of the spirit for a purely mechanistic understanding of the world, we are perpetuating the same dangerously single-minded approach advocated by many who eschew all religious wisdom traditions not only in terms of personal practice but as sources of intellectual growth.
When however, Prince Charles remarks, as he did in Oxford, that “Only sacred traditions have the capacity to help” make the necessary recovery of the soul which we all need, he strays across the line from advocacy on behalf of a wider way of addressing the biggest questions we face as a planet, to advocacy for the superiority of one way of addressing those problems. If that his version of progress, we should all pray for the health of his mother, the Queen.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted June 14, 2010 at 7:34 pm
when mosess lead the jews out of egypt and slavery they came to a place they called thier new home.. as mosses left the jews to go to talk to the burning bush, to get the ten commandments, the jews enjoyed thier new freedom forgetting the religion the used to bargain with god to get them out of slavery… jews are good at bargaining.. america is based on capitialism.. the jews have done very well in america.. pretty much all the ceo and higher ups at CBS ABC NBC FOX CNN and most banks and corporations are jewish… and are only letting other jews have successful careers in these fields.. turn on your tv and count how many jews you see… go to the movies count how many jews you see.. jews basically run america…. the prince is basically warning the musliams not to turn out like the jews…. america has the biggest military in the world .. when its time to go to war everyone starts telling everyone in america god wants us to kill our enemy.. no other military is more mobilized then america the west..
posted June 14, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Rabbi Brad: The challenge is not how out of touch any of us may be with any particular faith tradition, but rather how to move from totalitarian understandings of the traditions we may love to one of dialogue between the multiple systems which inform our lives. Apparently, Prince Charles is not up to that challenge.
I agree. Prince Charles would’ve done better to question the balance between religious observance (in general) and a commitment to environmental stewardship. Certainly Islam has no corner on environmental reverence. I respect that Charles was delivering a speech to an Islamic society. Perhaps references to Judaism and Christianity’s strong emphasis on the stewardship of God’s creation might have bridged his admiration of Islam with the values of Britain’s other great traditions. This acknowledgment would’ve brought Islamic themes into dialogue with secular viewpoints, given that, as you note, no religion exists apart from worldly concerns.
I have read that Prince Charles would rather style himself as the “defender of faith” rather than “Defender of the Faith”. I agree that Charles’s speech did not reflect a balanced attitude towards all of Britain’s religious traditions. Should the (next) King desire to abdicate his role as head of the Church of England, I would hope that Britain’s parliamentarians carefully weigh the legal disestablishment of the C of E. While I am no supporter of established religion, a monarch that places his religious biases over the diverse beliefs and practices of a diverse Britain might be worse than a monarch that remains the titular head of a state religion.
posted June 15, 2010 at 2:31 am
Rabbi Hirschfield, I know I’ve tended to disagree with you on this blog several times, but here I think you hit the nail on the head. Nicely written!
Concerning withyobadself, at first I was going to suggest that he be banned from this site for his blatant antisemitism, but I’m actually starting to enjoy the comic relief he provides.
posted June 15, 2010 at 4:42 pm
hector… brown nosing is addictive… better nip it in the bud..
posted June 16, 2010 at 12:17 pm
To withyobadself, and your blatant antisemitism, for your information only a little over 7 % of those who are bankers and or heads of major corporations in the USA are Jewish. On the other hand 37% of American Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish. does this tell you anything? Like perhaps Jews don’t control the money but do contribute a significant mount of our brain power, something you seems to be lacking totally.
posted June 16, 2010 at 12:20 pm
To withyobadself, and your blatant antisemitism, for your information, only a little over 7 % of those who are bankers and or heads of major corporations in the USA are Jewish. On the other hand 37% of American Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish. Does this tell you anything? Like perhaps Jews don’t control the money but do contribute a significant amount of our brain power, something you seem to be lacking totally.
Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/windowsanddoors/2010/06/prince-charles-islamic-environ.html#ixzz0r28ro0Gq
posted June 16, 2010 at 3:18 pm
nanak.. i mean no disrespect.. im only stating facts.. you must be using google.. im using yahoo..
posted June 16, 2010 at 10:37 pm
That’s disturbing coming from someone with as high a profile as the prince. One suspects there’s some anti-Jewish sentiment behind his sweeping endorsement of anything and everything that waves the Islamic flag. It wouldn’t be the first time in British royalty.
posted June 17, 2010 at 4:19 am
withyobadself writes: “im only stating facts.. you must be using google.. im using yahoo.”
I think that some yahoo is using you.
posted June 17, 2010 at 9:46 am
nanak… seems jews are giving other jews nobel prizes too… is this fair??? how do i become a jew?? I want special treatment too…
posted June 17, 2010 at 7:53 pm
jesus was the son of god …. no one is following the things he taught…he never said make a religion out of me and call yourself christians… man created the bible to form the jesus corporation….. end the jesus corporation…
posted June 20, 2010 at 9:19 pm
withyobadself, if Jesus is the son of God, why aren’t you following his teachings?
posted June 21, 2010 at 9:57 am
hector… everything i say is what god is saying… please to meet you, wont you guess my name
posted June 22, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Sorry, withyobadself, but god did not say that the Jews stayed away from the Twin Towers on 9-11, like some stupid antisemite said in another post.
posted June 23, 2010 at 12:23 am
to hector… no “juan epstien” the higer up jews or maybe the jews from israel knew 9/11 was going to happen…and spread the word to the rest of the jew corporation, that informed the jews that worked at the twin towers… the jews knew not to show up for work that day… you would be suprised to know who knew it was going to happen… and another thing my friend, the puertrican jew.. look up RAELIN, on your computer.. lucifer has all ready meet with the higher up club in this world… i would suggest to have nothing to do with this world… learn to love eachother and god…lucifer will make himself known to everyone soon…only because god will let him… once again god will punish people .. god is a god of love but you dont want to piss him off…
posted June 23, 2010 at 8:01 am
I like ice cream… the sky is blue… boy is it hot outside… where is my toothbrush… I can’t get enough of ellipses.
posted June 25, 2010 at 2:19 am
To withyobadself, God created the Bible, his Word, Jesus. Satan started Christianity
posted July 6, 2010 at 12:44 pm
At least in the eyes of those who can see what he seems to be blind to, … apparently the high-profile Prince has glitched his own profile. Or maybe he’s a manifestation, or infestation, of the conscience of our collective subliminal guilt for not acquiescing to those who have hurt us for not acquiescing completely. His kowtowing eloquence reminds me of our apologetically eloquent president.