Back to the days of religious frenzy?
Back to the days of religious frenzy?
By M.S.N. Menon
Is the world going out of control? Is terrorism gaining the upper hand? Holding the world in a state of paroxysm? Are we going back to the days of religious frenzy?
We thought that the age of religious bigotry was over. We were wrong. New bigotries are breaking out like plague—fundamentalism, Talibanism, terrorism. All of them have to do with radical Islam—the new threat to peace. It is said, Islam has a grievance against the world. Which is what Hitler and the communists used to say.
But Hitler and the communists had no God to support them. Not so with the Islamists. Their God is ever the patron of all their enterprises. In fact, He “loves” their work, we are told. Of killing?Yes.
No, protest the Muslim intellectuals. They are the perennial apologists. But what have they done to prevent the present killings? This question can no more be evaded. Silence is not an answer.
Murder is a serious offence. It is an offence against our right to life. Only the law can deny life. No one can assume the right to take away the life of another. This principle has to be established. The Nuremburg courts must be universalised against those who believe in murder to change the way of the world.
Today, Islam has come to be identified with the mullah, the bearded young men, the Taliban, the burqua clad women, madrasas and frenzied mobs. The image is rather frightening. It is like a world in decay and out of control.
Terror has no place in Islam—this is the usual refrain. Yet jehad is a central principle of Islam and it is all about the use of terror.
Islam had one advantage in the past. The world knew almost nothing of what it was all about. This changed with 9/11. The world is now awash with unfavourable questions. Is Islam a religion of violence? Is it democratic? Why are Muslim countries ruled by despots? More questions will be asked. Which is why Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister was forced to say that it is time for Muslims to have a close look at their religion. They have refused to do so in 1,400 years! Their plea? That Islam is the only perfect religion!
The Muslim world has not produced a great thinker or statesman in the last 1000 years. Why? Because, it is said, its feudal rulers do not permit them to grow. That may well be so. But the question remains: Can the civilised world respect a religion which continues to suppress thinkers and statesmen? In any case, when others have overthrown their feudal rulers, why can´t Muslims do the same? It is for them to answer this question.
The Taliban shocked the world by destroying the 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddhas. The Muslim world failed to stop them. Behind that vandalism is the outrageous belief that Muslims must destroy everything pre-Islamic in their midst. Can humanity allow such pernicious doctrines to float around?
The Taliban called themselves “soldiers of Allah”. But they lived by selling narcotics, which killed millions of innocent people, including Muslims. And yet they were called “soldiers of Allah”!
Eric Hobsbaum, the historian, says: “We do not know where we are going. We only know that history has brought us to this point.” No much modesty in Islam. Ask a Muslim theologian. He knows where he is going. He knows everything. Here is a religion which suffers from want to modesty.
Semitic religions cannot do without Satan. They also need pagans and infidels. Octavio Paz writes: “Tyrannies and despotisms need the threat of an out-side enemy to justify their rule. When such an enemy does not exist, they invent one. “The Jews invented Satan. The Muslims invented the kafir. And the communists invented the “bourgeoisie.”
The Jewish and Islamic gods are punishing gods. Einstein says: A punishing and rewarding god is no God. Although Jesus made his God a loving and caring one, the Church found a punishing God useful to terrorise the Christian flock into submission. The inquisition perfected torture.
The Islam world is restive. It wants to go back to the desert from where it came and to the ways of the Prophet of Islam. The desert is symbolic. Of nothingness! They call it Nizam-e-Mustafa.
If Muslims prefer the desert life, it is up to them. But they have no business to turn the world into a desert. We have no desire for a desert life.
By M.S.N. Menon
Is the world going out of control? Is terrorism gaining the upper hand? Holding the world in a state of paroxysm? Are we going back to the days of religious frenzy?
We thought that the age of religious bigotry was over. We were wrong. New bigotries are breaking out like plague—fundamentalism, Talibanism, terrorism. All of them have to do with radical Islam—the new threat to peace. It is said, Islam has a grievance against the world. Which is what Hitler and the communists used to say.
But Hitler and the communists had no God to support them. Not so with the Islamists. Their God is ever the patron of all their enterprises. In fact, He “loves” their work, we are told. Of killing?Yes.
No, protest the Muslim intellectuals. They are the perennial apologists. But what have they done to prevent the present killings? This question can no more be evaded. Silence is not an answer.
Murder is a serious offence. It is an offence against our right to life. Only the law can deny life. No one can assume the right to take away the life of another. This principle has to be established. The Nuremburg courts must be universalised against those who believe in murder to change the way of the world.
Today, Islam has come to be identified with the mullah, the bearded young men, the Taliban, the burqua clad women, madrasas and frenzied mobs. The image is rather frightening. It is like a world in decay and out of control.
Terror has no place in Islam—this is the usual refrain. Yet jehad is a central principle of Islam and it is all about the use of terror.
Islam had one advantage in the past. The world knew almost nothing of what it was all about. This changed with 9/11. The world is now awash with unfavourable questions. Is Islam a religion of violence? Is it democratic? Why are Muslim countries ruled by despots? More questions will be asked. Which is why Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister was forced to say that it is time for Muslims to have a close look at their religion. They have refused to do so in 1,400 years! Their plea? That Islam is the only perfect religion!
The Muslim world has not produced a great thinker or statesman in the last 1000 years. Why? Because, it is said, its feudal rulers do not permit them to grow. That may well be so. But the question remains: Can the civilised world respect a religion which continues to suppress thinkers and statesmen? In any case, when others have overthrown their feudal rulers, why can´t Muslims do the same? It is for them to answer this question.
The Taliban shocked the world by destroying the 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddhas. The Muslim world failed to stop them. Behind that vandalism is the outrageous belief that Muslims must destroy everything pre-Islamic in their midst. Can humanity allow such pernicious doctrines to float around?
The Taliban called themselves “soldiers of Allah”. But they lived by selling narcotics, which killed millions of innocent people, including Muslims. And yet they were called “soldiers of Allah”!
Eric Hobsbaum, the historian, says: “We do not know where we are going. We only know that history has brought us to this point.” No much modesty in Islam. Ask a Muslim theologian. He knows where he is going. He knows everything. Here is a religion which suffers from want to modesty.
Semitic religions cannot do without Satan. They also need pagans and infidels. Octavio Paz writes: “Tyrannies and despotisms need the threat of an out-side enemy to justify their rule. When such an enemy does not exist, they invent one. “The Jews invented Satan. The Muslims invented the kafir. And the communists invented the “bourgeoisie.”
The Jewish and Islamic gods are punishing gods. Einstein says: A punishing and rewarding god is no God. Although Jesus made his God a loving and caring one, the Church found a punishing God useful to terrorise the Christian flock into submission. The inquisition perfected torture.
The Islam world is restive. It wants to go back to the desert from where it came and to the ways of the Prophet of Islam. The desert is symbolic. Of nothingness! They call it Nizam-e-Mustafa.
If Muslims prefer the desert life, it is up to them. But they have no business to turn the world into a desert. We have no desire for a desert life.
posted by Inquiring Mind at 9:54 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home