Articles from SHARE International - Copyright 1992, All rights reserved. Electronically reprinted with permission. For reprint permission, contact TARA Center, UID 73437,1345, PO Box 6001, No.Hollywood, CA 91603. CHILDREN FIRST: BUILDING A GLOBAL AGENDA by Audrey Hepburn Actress Audrey Hepburn spent five years of her young life in Nazi-occupied Holland during World War II. She survived the deprivation with a "marvellous family," a diet consisting largely of turnips, and "wonderful conversations about what we were going to eat after the war." When the end of the war came, she was one of the first recipients of UNICEF aid to Europe. Hepburn could not have known then that more than four decades later, in 1988, she would be invited by UNICEF to take on "her most wonderful and rewarding role," as fellow actor Gregory Peck put it UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Her compassion and commitment carry her beyond fund-raising benefits to sometimes difficult and dangerous fieldwork in countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan, and El Salvador. For all her efforts, she is paid by UNICEF the royal sum of US$1 per year. Hepburn gave the following talk recently at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. "Until four years ago when I was given the great privilege of becoming a volunteer for UNICEF, I, like all of you, was overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness when watching television or reading about the indescribable misery of the children and their mothers in the developing world. If I feel less helpless today, it's because I have now seen what can be done, and what is being done by UNICEF, by many marvellous agencies, churches, governments, and most of all, with very little help, by people themselves. Today we stand at the crossroads: Our world has changed dramatically in a short time, and we must now plot a new course for the future. I'm here on behalf of UNICEF to talk about where children fit into the new course, to talk about priorities. We have to recognize that children have not been our greatest priority, but they must be. And if we seize the opportunity now before us, they really can be. I was among the first recipients of UNICEF aid after World War II, which is why I have such a deep, personal appreciation for UNICEF. Mine was the first generation to live in the ominous shadow of the nuclear age, and we were the first children to grow up with the term "Cold War" and all its divisive and paranoid implications. We had survived the bombing of Europe only to find ourselves, in a very real sense, coming of age in another war, the costs of which were very steep indeed. Deaf ears This conflict between East and West soon became a political framework for the entire globe. The superpowers intervened in developing countries in order to gain territorial advantages, and rival factions in these countries were all too willing to choose sides in exchange for support in their internal struggles. The prevailing world order was marked by barricades, real and imaginary, and it fostered a mentality of us versus them. The real losers, of course, were the children: the children of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East who suffered from daily neglect. The choice between guns and bread had never been more immediate nor lopsided as it was during the height of the Cold War. UNICEF, the world's leading voice for children, tried to protect them. UNICEF reminded governments time and again that the needs of children were urgent and the most important, but its warnings fell on ears that were either deaf or simply too preoccupied to listen. When I first became involved with UNICEF, the organization that had meant so much to me and many other children in post-war Europe, I didn't think I'd live to see the end of that bitter struggle. Like the children of countries like Lebanon and Mozambique, who have known little peace, I had grown up with the Cold War, and it was part of all of our lives. Then, and it seemed to happen overnight, the world changed dramatically. Like the Berlin Wall and the Soviet empire, the old order has come tumbling down. We now have something that is so rare in the course of civilization: a second chance. Quiet catastrophe Now, more than 45 years after it pleaded with the world to remember its children, UNICEF is once again making the case for our next generation. As the new world order comes into focus, UNICEF is reminding the world's leaders of the devastating realities. While the world was busy fortifying the ideological chasm that divided it, the children have been paying for it with their lives: 40,000 a day, 15 million a year. No earthquake, no flood, ever claimed 40,000 children on a single day. Though these children are the quiet catastrophe and never make headlines, they are just as dead. By any measure this is the greatest tragedy of our times. They've been dying from preventable diseases, including measles and tuberculosis. They've been dying in wars, caught in the cross-fire of those who should have been protecting them. They've been dying for lack of proper nutrition when the world has more than enough food. They've been dying from dehydration caused by diarrhea more than from any other single cause because they don't have clean drinking water. World Summit for Children In September of 1990, when the old world order was showing signs of collapse, UNICEF hosted 71 heads of state at the World Summit for Children in New York to address the appalling situation of children. The summit yielded a historic agreement on specific goals to help children by the year 2000. In its latest message to the world's leaders, UNICEF released its 1992 State of the World's Children Report. In this year's report, UNICEF offers 10 agenda items for the formation of a new world order. I won't talk about all the specific propositions, but I would like to mention a few of them: a) That the promises of the World Summit for Children be kept. These include a one-third reduction in child deaths, and a halving of child malnutrition by the year 2000. b) That demilitarization should begin in the developing world, and that falling military expenditures in the industrialized countries should be linked to increased, unconditional international aid and the solving of global problems. Currently, developing countries spend about $150,000 million on arms each year. Meanwhile, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council sell 90 per cent of the world's arms. What does this mean? It means that we are entrenched as a global community in a destructive cycle of weapons proliferation. Achieving all of the summit goals would require some $20,000 million a year, an amount equal to two-thirds of the developing world's military spending, and just 1 per cent of that in industrialized countries. c) That the growing consensus around market economies be accompanied by a commitment to a strong investment in people, especially children. Simply put, this means that there are things that a free market alone cannot do. Governments must combine free-market forces with assurances of health and education for all, especially children, even in bad economic times. The importance of this proposition is not limited to developing countries. As UNlCEF's report also points out, the situation of urban and poor children in the United States continues to worsen. Child poverty is on the rise, and the real value of Aid to Families with Dependant Children has dropped 40 per cent in the last 20 years. Even here, in the country that is the world's model of a free economy, we are slow to realize that all children do not benefit from that system. We must build what amounts to a safety net to catch these children before it is too late. There are some encouraging signs that the world's leaders may listen this time. The World Summit for Children is clearly one of them. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has now been ratified by 107 countries, and more than 30 others have signed it with the intention to ratify. Miracle of the decade Last October I was at the United Nations with President Carter and other dignitaries when UNICEF and the World Health Organization certified to the Secretary General that they and the world's governments had achieved their goal of universal child immunization by 1990. This is the miracle of this decade. This does not mean that we have immunized every child or that every country is winning the battle with vaccine-preventable diseases. It does mean that 80 per cent of the world's one-year olds have been immunized against the six major child-killing diseases: measles, tuberculosis, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, and polio. This effort is saving some 3 million young lives each year. In 1974, less than 5 per cent of the developing world's children were vaccinated. It's difficult to grasp the full meaning of these successes until you've looked into the eyes of these children who can too often be numbers. Rather than share with you the horrors I've witnessed, I prefer to remind you of how easy it is to reach out and help these children. There has never been a better opportunity to give our children the future they deserve. We have low-cost technologies like immunization and oral rehydration therapy. We have ample resources made available due to the end of the Cold War, and we have the commitment of the world's leaders. What remains is for us to change our attitudes as a society, to build a movement for children, and to ensure that the promises of the World Summit for Children are kept. Twenty years ago, few people thought about recycling their newspapers, few people worried about the effect of hair spray on the ozone layer, few people questioned the amount of pollution their cars were spewing into the atmosphere, but slowly and effectively the environmentalists in this country and around the world built a movement that could not be ignored, and they have brought about a fundamental change in the way we live our lives and the way we see our planet. We have taken responsibility for our neglect. So too must we take responsibility for the neglect of our children. So too must we effect a basic change in our priorities and concerns. We must resolve ourselves as a community to put the needs of children first in war and in peace, in good times and in bad. So today, I speak for children who can't speak for themselves, children who are going blind from lack of vitamins, children who are slowly being mutilated by polio, children who are wasting away in so many ways from lack of water. I speak for the estimated 100 million street children in this world, who have no choice but to leave home in order to survive, who have absolutely nothing but their courage, their smiles, their wits, and their dreams; for children who have no enemies, yet are invariably the first tiny victims of war, wars that are being waged through terror, intimidation, and massacre; for children who are therefore growing up surrounded by the horrors of violence; for the hundreds of thousands that are refugees; and for the rapidly increasing number of children suffering from or orphaned by AIDS. The great task ahead The task that lies ahead for UNICEF is ever great, whether it's repatriating millions of children in Africa or Asia, or teaching children how to play who only have learned how to kill. Children are our most vital resource, our hope for the future. Until they can be assured of not only physically surviving the first fragile years of life, but are free of emotional, social, and physical abuse, it's impossible to envisage a world that is free of tension and violence. It is up to us to make it possible. Charles Dickens wrote: "In their little world, in which children have their existence, nothing is so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice" injustice which we can avoid by giving more of ourselves. Yet we often hesitate in the face of such apocalyptic tragedy. Why, when the way and low-cost means are in place to safeguard and protect these children? It is for leaders, parents, and young people - young people who have the purity of heart which sometimes age tends to obscure - to remember their own childhood and come to the rescue of those who start life against such heavy odds. Simply because they are children, every child has the right to health, to education, to protection, to tenderness, to life. Interview with Maitreya's associate Two journalists, working independently, regularly contribute articles to Share International based on interviews with one of Maitreya's close associates. This month we received a contribution from Brian James. The whole world is becoming bankrupt by Brian James 29 May 1992 World Collapse - It is not only large financial institutions which are tumbling into bankruptcy, the whole world is becoming bankrupt - mentally and spiritually, said Maitreya's associate. The world is going through a huge crisis and all the medicines have been tried and failed. Maitreya says that the tumour has got to burst open before the healing can begin, he said. The world is in such a chaotic state that it could happen at any time. The politicians and the generals can do nothing to stop it - everything they have tried to avert disaster has failed. The Tokyo Stock Market has been turned by the politicians and businessmen into a giant monster serving only a culture of greed. Now it is crashing like everything else. Even the United Nations is being forced to serve the interests of the strong and the greedy. Only charitable institutions, like Oxfam, are caring for the weak and the needy; governments are too caught up in killing and destroying. Scientists have become like witches - brewing up new creatures through genetic experiments to make money. Crime is on the increase throughout the Western world. Look at the faces of the politicians, they have no sparkle. What is happening is beyond their comprehension. The world is like a volcano waiting to erupt - in fact it is only a matter of time before it bursts open. America - The disintegration that is taking place in the former Soviet Union is now happening in America. The Los Angeles riots are not an isolated outburst. Every state is crumbling and it is worsening day by day, said the associate. The states are desperately turning to the Federal Government for aid, but it is not forthcoming. The associate claimed that America was suffering in retribution for that country's indiscriminate bombing of Iraq. Britain - This country faces the same disintegration as America. Are the people happy? No, there is no happiness here, there is so much friction and confusion, said the associate. There is going to be a massive revolt as people take to the streets and demand action to bring back harmony and justice. Not even the police or the military will be able to control it. Japan - The Japanese are sitting on a time bomb. The destruction would be far worse than in any other Western country, said the associate. Yugoslavia - Why didn't the American, British and other Western powers send in military forces to stop the Yugoslavian army from slaughtering innocent people? It is because they could not see any gain in doing so, unlike their need to protect their oil interests in Kuwait. They only evaluate humanity on a material level, said the associate. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS by Benjamin Creme Q. I should be more than interested to know whether, following the report of the appearance of Maitreya in Nairobi in 1988, further appearances have been reported in other parts of the world. A. As regular readers of Share International will know, Maitreya has made, since June 1988 in Nairobi, a series of appearances in like manner _ that is, appearing (and disappearing) before large (until now, orthodox Christian) gatherings in different parts of the world, on which we still await media comment and reaction. These have been, so far: September 1991, Mexico City; January 1992, Mexico City; 1 March 1992, Moscow; 22 March 1992, Leipzig, Germany; 5 April 1992, Hanover, Germany; 26 April 1992, D*sseldorf, Germany; and 24 May 1992 in Switzerland. These appearances will continue until media investigate and report on the phenomenon. As my Master reveals in His article in this [printed] issue of Share International, they are being accompanied by mysterious and miraculous events which have yet to reach the ears of the general public. Already, at Tlacote, not far from Mexico City, a spring of water has surfaced with amazing healing properties. Similar manifestations will be found in due course, near the cities at which Maitreya has appeared - further signs of His presence. Q. (1) There are plans for a major international Christian festival in Birmingham, UK, featuring Reinhard Bonnke, one of the world's leading evangelists. Crowds of up to 35,000 are expected to attend the meetings at the end of July. Is this the type of gathering at which Maitreya would make an appearance? (2) Has He made such an appearance at a gathering at all in England? A. (1) These meetings in Birmingham in July might well seem ideal opportunities for Maitreya to appear before large gatherings of people with, most probably, media coverage as well. We can be sure, too, that Maitreya is not unaware of this fact. However, it is my information that He has no plans to appear there. Working strictly within the Law governing our free will (which conditions the pace of His emergence), His aims at present are less ambitious: so far, apart from Nairobi in June 1988, He has been appearing to groups of between 500 and 900 people. However, with Maitreya, everything is fluid and mobile, and, if circumstances permitted (due to humanity's action for the better), I have no doubt He would avail Himself of wider opportunities to make His presence known in this way. (2) To Christian groups, no; but since 1977, He has spoken to large audiences within the Asian community, not, however, appearing and disappearing but in the ordinary way. Q. Is Maitreya 'in on' the "One World Government" of President Bush and the infamous "Tri-Lateralists"? I pray that the two are not the same. A. President Bush's vision of a "New World Order" and "One World Government" envisages an order in which the US, and therefore capitalism, dominates and celebrates its triumph over a defunct communist ideology. As I understand it, this is certainly not consistent with Maitreya's predictions of a new political process (neither capitalism nor communism) in which the voice and will of the peoples of the world are given expression; in which consensus rather than confrontation and competition will be the hallmarks; and in which a new political/economic structure - Democratic Socialism or Social Democracy, symbolized by the reunification of East and West Germany - will become the norm throughout the world. Q. Could you give the point in evolution and ray structure of the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1920 -1992)? A. Soul 3; Personality 4, sub-ray 6; Mental 7, sub-ray 3; Astral 4, sub-ray 6; Physical 3, sub-ray 7. He was 1.6 degrees initiate. Q. Was Rasputin overshadowed by any of the Masters? If so, were they trying to bring about reforms to defuse an explosive situation which led to the downfall of the Tsars and the ruling aristocracy? A. No. Q. In one of your books you say that the astral is only an illusionary level of consciousness. I don't quite understand that. A. The astral planes, the emotional/astral planes, exist as energy. The function of our astral-emotional body is to act as a physical-plane expression or vehicle for 'buddhi'. Buddhi is the second of the three planes of the spiritual triad. The nature of atman, of the Self, is spiritual will, spiritual love/wisdom and spiritual intelligence, and these are reflected in the soul as atma, buddhi and manas. They all need a vehicle, and the vehicle for buddhi (love/wisdom or group consciousness, - intuition, group awareness) is the purified astral/emotional body in the advanced individual, particularly, of course, in a Master. The average individual is still caught up in the desire, rather than the spiritual, principle. Desire governs the function of the personality and the vehicles of the personality (the physical body, the astral-emotional body and the mental body); but the physical body purified, the astral/emotional body purified, and the mental body purified eventually become the vehicles for atma, buddhi and manas. Until that point is reached the person is swept along by the illusions of the astral plane which are created by the thoughtform-making process of humanity. We have a physical body with an etheric sheath. The physical body dies and is put in the ground or burned, but the etheric counterpart of that body is a sheath which, normally within three days, dissipates and returns to the ocean of etheric matter which surrounds us all. We are then left in our astral sheath in which we exist for a shorter or longer time on one or other of the seven astral planes (hopefully the higher planes, because the lower are terrible). The more advanced a person is the more he or she will be on the higher planes, and the less time will be spent on these planes. On the astral planes there are 'facsimiles' of various Masters - the Masters DK, Morya, Koot Hoomi, Serapis, Jesus, Hilarion and various other Masters, created, as astral thoughtforms, by humanity. There are many mediumistic, astrally sensitive individuals who 'receive' from these 'facsimiles' so-called 'teachings from the Masters' which are more or less erroneous. Originally, the teachings came from the real Masters through people like Alice Bailey, Eleanor Roerich, Helena Blavatsky, and which are reflected back on to the astral planes by the disciples of the world. They are then reflected back again through the astral sensitives with all the distortions of the astral planes - the planes of distortion. It is like what happens in dreams. Can you believe what happens in your dreams? The astral planes are your dreams because your dreams happen on the astral plane, are the result of the faculty of the lower mind during light sleep - in deep sleep there is no dreaming - to create astral thoughtforms. This activity of the lower mind goes on and on, the most fantastic things happen. Then you wake up. The astral planes are as real as your dreams; that is what I mean by the unreality of the astral planes. Q. How important is diet - the eating of dairy or vegetable products, for example - in the pursuit of perfection? A. It depends at what stage one is. For those coming up to the first initiation, vegetarianism is usually a requirement, and at that stage people usually automatically become vegetarian. They know, because as you come towards the first initiation the soul prompts you. The first initiation becomes possible when you have made contact with your soul. For long ages the soul is not the slightest bit interested in its vehicle, its reflection, the man or woman in these successive incarnations. The person is so removed from the soul, so cut off from it, that there is nothing the soul can do, but eventually, as it is approaching the first initiation - say, two or three lives before the first initiation - the soul sees that things are beginning to happen; its reflection is beginning to respond. It stimulates its vehicles and begins to build the 'antahkarana', a column of light from the soul to the person, and it introduces the person to meditation of some kind. Meditation is a more or less scientific method (depending on the meditation) of coming into contact with the soul and eventually becoming at-one with it. So the soul brings the person to meditation, and, more and more, pours its energy into the person, on all planes - physical, astral/ emotional, and mental. It 'grips' its vehicle in this way, while the person meditating is building this antahkarana up towards the soul. He becomes more idealistic, more aspiring, because the soul is pouring down what we call the Christ Principle - the soul is the Christ Principle, the principle of consciousness. This stimulates the aspiration towards a higher life, and the person's predilections, their interests, begin to change. They usually become more serious, less wasteful of time, they get bored with earlier pursuits and are attracted to a deeper, more meaningful aspect, coming from the soul. They begin to relate to humanity in a broader sense, to feel responsibility, and they begin to want to serve the world in some way. They usually think they should become vegetarian and eventually it becomes a must for them. This is because the first initiation is the result of the control of the physical elemental. All of our bodies are made up of the life activity of tiny little devic, or angelic, lives. This body that we think is solid physical is made up of the activity of little devas, little angels, tiny little devic lives, and they control us or we control them - it is one or the other. The first initiation is only possible when we control their activity rather than they ours. The second initiation is only possible when we control the activity of the astral devas, the third when we control the activity of the mental devas. These three vehicles of the soul on the physical plane have to be controlled. The readiness for the first initiation demonstrates when we have a good degree of control over the activity of the physical body _ not too much food, not too much sex, not too much drink, not too much of anything; it does not have to be a totally vegetarian diet. There are fanatics around in every sphere but you will find that there is always a purification of the diet which leads to purification of the body. Then for the second initiation you begin to work on the control of the astral/emotional reactions to life. The soul through the mental body controls the astral body, and then the soul through the mental body controls the mental body itself. Once these three controls are established, the three initiations can take place and you are divine. At the fourth initiation the soul is no longer needed _ it is the divine intermediary between the spark of God and the man or woman on the physical plane. The vehicle for the soul, the body of the soul on the soul plane (called the causal body), is shattered and the soul is reabsorbed into the divine Self, the spark of God. The man then stands as a living God, a divine God-man. Until the third initiation is taken you are potentially divine but not yet totally divine. So it is to do with the impulse of the soul that one comes into vegetarianism. Once you have proved that you have control, the need for control does not become so marked. The habit goes on but it is not essential. Q. Do animals have souls? A. Individually, no. Animals are expressions of a group soul _ there is the soul which is 'cat', or 'dog', or 'horse' or 'camel', but they do not have individualized souls in the way humans have. The individualization of humanity occurred, according to esoteric teachings, no less than 18-and-a-half million years ago. Q. Who taught you so that you have reached the stage where you can meet a Master? This is my first meeting here and I feel very frustrated because there seems a lot to know and a lot to learn. Why can't Share International have a sort of Entity that people who want to know and learn can learn from? A. You mean why don't we start a school? A school would require a group of teachers who know at least a page more than others do in order to teach - and there are groups all over the world who do nothing else. Our task is not to set up a school but to make known that the Christ is in the world, that the Masters are returning - there are now 14 Masters in the world besides Maitreya - and to prepare the way, to create the climate of hope, of expectancy, for His coming, so that He can enter our lives without infringing human free will. That is a full-time job - just to publish Share International is pretty-well a full-time job. To travel around the world as I do is almost a full-time job. Besides that I am a painter, I am married, have two children, I have to sleep occasionally, I have to eat sometimes ... you are asking the impossible! Let me just say, if you want to know about the esoteric teachings in the academic sense, read the Alice Bailey teachings. There are 24 books, they are available in all the esoteric bookshops. The first was published in 1922. Start with these, with Initiation Human and Solar and go on. No one need be short of something to read. Q. Could you please give the ray-structure and point in evolution of the late healer and medium Estelle Roberts? A. Soul 2; personality 6, sub-ray 4; mental body 6, sub-ray 4; astral body 6, sub-ray 2; physical body 3, sub-ray 3. She was 1.2 degrees initiate. Q. It is thought that the late Vicky Wall, who was given the formulas for the soul colour therapy 'Aura-Soma' through direct channelling, has returned to Sirius. Could you confirm this please? A. I must confess that this question makes me smile. Sirius is the alter-ego of this Solar system and only Masters of the fifth initiation or higher may _ if it is Their destiny _ go to Sirius and, by the same token, only Avatars can come from Sirius to this planet. The late Vicky Wall had not yet taken the first initiation; her point in evolution was 0.8. So much for "direct channelling", 99.999 per cent of which comes from the astral planes _ the planes of illusion. Q. Can you please give the ray structure and point in evolution of the late German philosopher Martin Heidegger? A. Soul 4; Personality 3, sub-ray 7; mental body 4, sub-ray 6; astral body 6, sub-ray 2; physical body 7, sub-ray 3. He was 1.7 degrees initiate. Q. Please give the ray structure and point in evolution of the late Arthur Rubinstein, the famous pianist. A. Soul 2; Personality 4, sub-ray 4; mental body 4, sub-ray 6; astral body 6, sub-ray 6; physical body 7, sub-ray 7. He was 1.75 degrees initiate. Benjamin Creme _ meetings and tours UK _ Benjamin Creme lectures at Friends' Meeting House, Euston Road, London NW1: Thursday 16 July, Thursday 6 August. Lectures begin 7 pm; doors open/literature available 6.30 pm. Enquiries: % 071-485 1739 or fax/answerphone: % 071-482 1113. Canada _ Vancouver BC: Lecture, 26 June; Meditation, 27 June Enquiries: % 604-736-8272 USA _ Los Angeles: Lecture, 30 June; Meditation, 1 July Enquiries: % 818-785-6300 Mexico _ Mexico City: Lecture, 4 July; Meditation, 5 July USA _ San Francisco: Meditation, 8 July; Lecture, 9 July Enquiries: % 510-841-3738 Tara Center Network Conference, 10-12 July. Holland _ Lecture, 17 September; International Transmission Meditation Conference, September 18-20. Enquiries: PO Box 41877, 1009 DB Amsterdam. Germany _ Munich: 8-9 October. Enquiries: % 089-12332522; Hamburg: 10-11 October. Enquiries: % 040-5552216. Switzerland _ Geneva: 24-25 October. Enquiries: % 021-369984. Zurich: 26-27 October. Islamic fundamentalism today by Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad It was peculiar to see Afghan pakols - the woolen caps typically worn in Peshawar and Kabul - on the heads of protesters in the capital of Algeria. Stranger still, a few weeks later, to hear that the "Afghans" had attacked the city's police. Algeria had become the latest country to be rocked by Islamic Fundamentalism, a movement that today haunts the entire Muslim world from Morocco to Indonesia. Like the ghost of Hamlet's father, it is here, there and everywhere. Its force, however, differs from region to region and from country to country. Somewhere a ripple, at other places a minor current, it has assumed the form of a storm at least in two countries. The storm centre is the Middle East, where fundamentalism achieved its first victory when the Iranian clergy overthrew Shah Reza Pahlavi in violent revolution. Iran became a beacon of light for fundamentalists in Muslim countries the world over. Here was a country bravely introducing a system of laws, based on the Koran, which many Westernized Muslims had regarded as impractical. It had gone even further: it challenged the two superpowers simultaneously. Could this system bring prosperity and enlightenment to the downtrodden Muslim masses of the Third World? Could it help them achieve a respectable place among the nations of the world, denied to them since the overthrow of the Abbasids in Baghdad and the Ummawis in Andalusia? Not only fundamentalists but many other Muslims looked towards revolutionary Iran in wonder and awe. Islamic fundamentalist parties languishing in neighboring countries received moral encouragement and were revitalized. Egypt came first, with the Ikhwan, or Muslim Brotherhood, goaded to new activity by the Iranian example. Taking full benefit of the freedoms allowed to them by the government of Hosny Mubarak, they plunged into the political arena, gaining (in alliance with the socialist Labour Party) 60 National Assembly seats in the 1987 elections.A similar feat was performed by the Ikhwan in Jordan in the 1989 elections. In the kingdom's first general elections in 22 years, the fundamentalists garnered no less than 20 seats in a house consisting of only 80 deputies. In alliance with 12 other like-minded members, this gave them the largest single voting bloc. While participating in elections in Egypt and Jordan, the Ikhwan have by no means confined themselves to democratic methods alone. In neighboring Sudan, they fully supported the military led by Brigadier Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, who overthrew Sadiq al-Mahdi. As reward, they were the only political group represented in the new cabinet. Islamic fundamentalism is also on the rise in the Arab Meghreb, which might well become its second stronghold after the Middle East. 1990 was marked by outbursts of fundamentalism in both Tunisia and Morocco. Violent protests by fundamentalists in that year led to arrests in Tunisia. The clash with police apparently involved a protest at the government's handling of flood victims in the country. The militancy, however, was an expression of the new spirit with which fundamentalism has been animated in recent years. In Morocco that same year about 2,000 fundamentalists were beaten and arrested when they took to the streets demanding the release of six jailed leaders. Algeria, however, has emerged as the stronghold of the resurgent fundamentalism in the Arab Maghreb. Strange for a country where Western culture has left widespread impact. Unlike Iran, where most people do not know any European language, virtually all Algerians speak French as a second language. Half the country gets its daily news from the French media, while 4 million Algerians live abroad in Italy, Spain or France, frequently traveling back and forth. Fundamentalists won the Algerian municipal elections over a year ago and were on the verge of coming to power through a thumping electoral victory in the recent general elections when they were stopped short by the military (which has in fact ruled Algeria since its liberation in 1962). The military top brass, trained in elite French military schools, were perhaps afraid of what fundamentalism might do to their lifestyles. After initially showing restraint, the fundamentalists are now on the war path against the army, which they regard as a usurper of power. The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) is demanding that the election results be respected and that the current ruling council bow to the will of people. It is still too early to predict the outcome of that confrontation. In the Asia-Pacific region, meanwhile, the cradle of the Islamic fundamentalist movement is Indonesia. The former Dar-ul-Islam and the Masjumi Party have been replaced by the new fundamentalist Partai Persatuan Pembongan, or PPP. In Indonesia, fundamentalists have tried a number of methods to come to power, from participation in elections to insurrection. Targeted by Soekarno, against whom they had never taken arms, the fundamentalists had hoped for better treatment from Suharto, especially as they had collaborated with him in the massacre of Indonesian communists. But Suharto was slow in allowing them to function. Nevertheless, with the Communist Party -- the second-largest in Asia after China's--banned and its rank and file killed and jailed in thousands, the Indonesian PPP has emerged as the second-largest party in the Parliament. The ruling Golkar Party got 299 seats in the 1987 elections, while the PPP won 61 seats and the PDI, the pro-Soekarno party, lagged behind with no more than 40 seats. There is also an Islamic party in Malaysia, which calls itself Partie Islam Pas, or PAS for short. Though the party has little impact on national politics, it has formed government in one of the provinces in coalition with the ruling party of Mohatir Mohammad. In Pakistan, Jama at-e-Islami represents the fundamentalist trend. Formed in 1941, it has enjoyed little electoral strength, being more of a cadre party than a mass party. Despite its discipline and a formidable propaganda machine, it could only bag four seats in the 1970 national elections. Its performance in 1988 and 1990 was better because of the electoral alliance it made with the Muslim League and others, but it stands as nothing compared to the other parties in the country. The Soviet entry in Afghanistan revived the fundamentalist trend that had remained latent in that country before then. The mullah had performed important social functions in traditional Pukhtun society but had never been recognized as a ruler. After the Afghan revolution, however, fundamentalism was encouraged as a counterpoise to communist ideology. The material aid from the Middle East strengthened the trend., And as Afghan nationalism was anathema to the establishment in Pakistan, important sections of it gave important assistance to the fundamentalist parties. What is the social base of fundamentalism in the Muslim world today? Poverty and illiteracy, maintain some writers. But is this the real reason? If this were so, Pakistan should be the first stronghold of fundamentalism because it is at the bottom of the list among Muslim countries in these benchmarks, just above Sudan and Afghanistan. Iran, where fundamentalism continues to thrive, had a per capita income of $2,160 and a literacy rate of 48 per cent in 1977-- that is, on the eve of the Iranian revolution--compared to $200 per capita income and a literacy rate of 24 per cent for Pakistan that same year. Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Indonesia have per capita incomes of $1,951, $686, $551, $800, $884 and $560 respectively, and literacy rates of 46, 44, 58, 24, 62 and 64 per cent. Only Sudan and Afghanistan come near Pakistan, with respective per capita incomes of $370 and $168 and literacy rates of 20 and 10 per cent. In Muslim countries, it is clear, fundamentalism does not attract the poor and uneducated alone. It appeals to a section of the educated youth as well, who are drawn towards it as an alternative political system in post-colonial societies ruled by corrupt and inefficient political elites tied to the West. Most of the Muslim countries suffered under colonial rule and the masses expected a better dispensation after liberation from the foreign yoke. They grew disillusioned, however, as decades after liberation the people continued to suffer under the unscrupulous and corrupt generals, bureaucrats and politicians. In these countries, where common people did not often have clean potable water to drink, the ruling elite spent its ill-gotten wealth on costly luxuries imported from abroad and on highly ostentatious living. Not only was this true of the ruling elites tied to the bourgeois West but also of the nationalist or socialist elites aligned with the former Soviet bloc. This negligence provided more than enough material to the fundamentalists, who simultaneously condemned capitalism, nationalism and socialism--along with the big and the small Satan supporting them. The puritanical life style of many fundamentalist leaders along with their stress on honesty and otherworldliness, has sometimes led people to think that they would be able to end the corruption and dishonesty if they were in power. What is the social base of fundamentalism in the Muslim world today? Most of the Muslim countries suffered under colonial rule and the masses expected a better dispensation after liberation from the foreign yoke. They grew disillusioned, however, as decades after liberation the people continued to suffer under the unscrupulous and corrupt generals, bureaucr... [A portion of text is missing.] [End of File] ###