Last night I did a meeting of Dialogue with Islam near Brick Lane on How do we cure our greedy society?

I did my party piece on the market machine, why we buy, the consequences and what we might do instead. But the respondent and the points from the floor were thought provoking to say the least. Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad talked about Islam and greed. His first point was that Muslims are taught and encouraged to spend – not on themselves but on others. They give a lot away. Second, they are against usury and the ending of money for profit. Finally I thought he said ‘shopping the hand’ which may have been a reference to heavy bags on the way back from the shops. Of course what he said as chopping the hand – of the greedy who steal. Perhaps this should have been in my list of policies? Anyway there are commons points of interest between Islam and critiques of consumer society we need to explore.

We debated the place of morality and as non-believer in any God I was put on the spot about how we can be held to account for our morals if there is no afterlife to reward or punish us. I held out the hope of democracy to be the vehicle for accountability. That is where my faith lies. But we certainly need something more to believe in than just the here and now.

As I have said before, society has become more secular but we still know we are going to die. So we buy our youth and eternity through clothes and cosmetic surgery. I remember a shoe shops called Faiths. They had soul.

Neal Lawson

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Source: www.islam21c.com

First published on the author's blog: www.allconsuming.org.uk