> Here's my proposal: (1) develop a good historical materialist
> understanding of the religious in all their varieties; (2) create a
> new secular -- but not secularist -- world view for ourselves (we
> currently have none that all or most of us share even inside the
> Marxist tradition); and (3) NOT to equate Marxism or socialism or
> leftism with secularism and make adherence to secularism a condition
> for being part of the Left, narrowly or broadly defined.
>
> Looking at the European political trend (e.g., banning hijab, the Far
> Right gaining ground in large part due to Islamophobia and
> anti-immigrant sentiments, opposition to Turkey joining the European
> Union in part based on fear of Muslims, and so on); the American
> political trend (e.g., little opposition to violations of civil rights
> and liberties of Muslims, despite a high level of opposition to the
> Iraq War); the intellectual trend (e.g., silly but popular books like
> Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, Daniel C. Dennett's Breaking the
> Spell, Sam Harris' The End of Faith, Oriana Fallaci's The Rage and the
> Pride, etc.; the concept of Islamofascism gaining currency); the
> current focus of US imperialism on West Asia, I think that it's more
> than ever important not to make it appear that being on the left and
> being a religious believer are mutually exclusive. Instead, we should
> think about how religious faith can, has, and still does motivate many
> from diverse religious traditions to make great contributions to
> struggles against exploitation and oppressions.
====================================
Well, you've reassured me at least that you don't want to pack us all off to
church this morning, and that your more modest objective is to show "how
religious faith can, has, and still does motivate many from diverse
religious traditions to make great contributions to struggles against
exploitation and oppressions".
Despite your many suggestions, I'm not convinced the left has generally thought or made it appear otherwise. Any historical left-wing intolerance towards religion has been aimed, not at the mass of believers, but at instances where reactionary clerics have often had the blood of massacred dissenters and innocents on their hands. Discussion of whether it is appropriate for materialists to practice religion has generally been contained within the left.
I don't think your views about religious belief represent a departure from Marxism. That seems a side issue. Your critics are reacting to something more specific: what they regard as a romanticizing of political Islam and a corresponding softness towards crimes committed by the Islamic clergy against the Iranian left. It may be another case where differences get magnified and the debate becomes artificially polarized on both sides, but, given the gravity of the issue, maybe not.
I'll leave it at that.