History Book - Islam’s inauguration

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Monday, July 11th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Next up: the WORLD History Book. This week marks the 50th anniversary of a chess game that fascinated the world, as well as the 10th anniversary of an American denomination’s compromise with the culture.

REICHARD: But first, we look at an important event in the founding of Islam. Here’s WORLD arts and media editor Collin Garbarino.

CALL TO PRAYER

COLLIN GARBARINO: Fourteen hundred years ago, Muhammad left his home city of Mecca for the city of Medina. Many of his closest supporters emigrated to Medina with him.

More than a decade earlier, Muhammad began claiming he had received revelations from God. He preached a radical monotheism that put him at odds with the predominantly polytheistic inhabitants of Mecca. Eventually Muhammad and his band of followers left Mecca to avoid further persecution.

Muslims call Muhammad’s departure for Medina the Hijrah. Median welcomed Muhammad. And the tribes in his new home invited him to become the city’s ruler.

Historian of Islam Bernard Lewis explains the legacy of Muhammad’s dual role as prophet and king.

BERNARD LEWIS: And he did what rulers do. He not only promulgated laws, he enforced them. He raised armies. He fought wars, and so on and so on. So that in the sacred traditions of Islam, you have all sorts of matters, which in the western world would be regarded as secular, and in the Islamic tradition they’re in no way separable from the rest. I mean the whole idea of a separation between church and state is alien to Islam.

Muhammad waged war on Mecca from his new home in Medina, eventually conquering Mecca not long before his death.

Muslims view the Hijrah as inaugurating the Islamic era, and the event marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. But the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar which means it moves faster than our solar Gegorian calendar. In our calendar, it’s been 1400 years since the Hijrah, but in the Islamic calendar, the year is 1443.

Next, July 11, 1972, fifty years ago today, the World Chess Championship between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky began in Reykjavik, Iceland. But observers at that first game weren’t sure if the match would actually take place. Spassky showed up for the game and made his move, even though there was no sign of Fischer.

ANNOUNCER 1: Well, Spassky’s waiting.

ANNOUNCER 2: Right, and uh, waiting and wondering if Bobby will show or not show. And there’s absolutely dead silence in the hall.

Fischer showed up nine minutes late, claiming to be delayed by traffic. The notoriously demanding Fischer then complained about the placement of the TV cameras. Fischer lost that first game and forfeited the second—still objecting to the cameras and spectators.

It was a rough start to a match Fischer had bragged he would win handily. In an interview with 60 Minutes before the match Fischer seemed dismissive of his opponent.

MIKE WALLACE: This championship match between you and Spassky, is it in any sense a grudge match?

BOBBY FISCHER: In a sense—I mean not personally against me against Spassky because I don’t care two cents about him one way or the other. He’s just a guy. It’s against the Russians, you know, and all the lies they’ve been saying about me.

WALLACE: Do you worry about Spassky?

FISCHER: Not overly. I mean he’s a little better than I think than the other Russians I’ve taken on in this series.

Fischer thought about quitting after the forfeiture, but President Nixon’s adviser Henry Kissinger telephoned Fischer and asked him to continue. People were referring to this as the Match of the Century. The Soviets had won the World Championship 24 years in a row. And the United States and the Soviet Union were still engaged in the Cold War.

Fischer rallied during subsequent games, winning the best-of-24 contest 12 ½ games to Spassky’s 8 ½. Fischer became the first and the last American-born chess player to be the undisputed world champion.

And finally, ten years ago, on July 10, 2012, the Episcopal Church USA voted to allow their priests to bless same-sex unions.

MODERATOR: Results of the lay order: 86 “yes,” 19 “no,” “divided” 5. “No” plus “divided” is 24. In the clergy order: 85 “yes,” 22 “no,” “divided” 4. “No” plus “divided” 26. The motion is carried in the lay order by 78 percent. The motion is carried in the clergy order by 76 percent. The motion is carried. We reconvene tomorrow at 11:15. Thank you.

At their triennial General Convention Episcopalians created a liturgy for “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant.” Bishops were given discretion as to whether they would allow their priests to use the new liturgy.

At the time of the vote, the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges would still be five years away. But eight states had already legalized same-sex marriage. Supporters of the decision argued blessing same-sex unions would help the shrinking denomination stay relevant with younger Americans by adapting to new cultural trends. Many parts of the global Anglican Communion objected to the American denomination’s departure from the Bible’s teachings.

This concession to the LGBT community hasn’t helped the Episcopal Church USA reverse its decline. It recently reported its membership had shrunk more than 17 percent over the last ten years.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Collin Garbarino.

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