Our Messy, messy world!
Religion is important to most people around
the globe. As such, it has been always easy to exploit religion for ulterior
motives. But probably never before in the history have we seen so much of abuse
of religion or its misrepresentation of values by zealots or extremists.
Religious extremism is on the rise all over
the globe. And it is as much an Islamic problem, as it is a Jewish, Christian,
Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh problem. Not a single religious tradition is
impervious from its deadly embrace.
All these religious extremist groups are
abusing their religion to create a world of fitnah
and fasad. I have chosen these
two Arabic words because of the loaded meanings that each carry. The first word
in Arabic means trials/tribulations/persecutions/misguidance and the second
word: anarchy/confusion/corruption/mischief.
Look, for instance, at the group: ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām, with the acronym Da'ish, Da'eesh, or DAESH in the Middle East . It is more commonly known here in the West
as ISIS or ISIL (or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
or Levant ). In spite of its bold claim, it has
very little to do with Islam or what it stands for. As rightly noted by all
Islamic scholars, it is a terrorist group, which is making a mockery of Islam. Boko
Haram in West Africa is another such terrorist
outfit, which has up till recently benefited from government abuses and
neglects in Muslim majority territories. They need to be defeated politically
and ideologically.
Hindutvadi or the so-called Hindu nationalist
(read fascist) organizations like the RSS, Shiv Sena, Hindu Mahasabha, BJP, VHP,
Dharm
Jagran Manch and Bajrang Dal are doing their vicious part in India . Worse, yet, they have succeeded in putting
their fascist organization, the BJP, and its controversial leader, Narendra
Modi – considered accountable for the Gujarat massacre - into power in New
Delhi, thus giving full authority to change the secular fabric of India and
make it more Hindu. Since Modi’s coming to power Hindutvadis have forcibly converted
many Muslims and Christians to Hinduism under what they call the ‘Ghar Wapsi’
(returning home) program in places like Bihar, UP, Gujarat
and West Bengal .
In nearby Buddhist state of Sri Lanka , Bodu
Bala Sena (or "Buddhist Power
Force", BBS) is making the lives of
religious minorities, esp. ordinary Muslims and Christians very difficult. It
wants the government in this multi-ethnic and –religious country to serve
the interest of the Sinhala Buddhist community only. It is opposed to democracy
and says that the island nation’s ‘democratic and pluralistic values are
killing the Sinhala (Buddhist) race’. Like the Hindu fascists in India that destroyed the historic Babri mosque
in Ajodhya , BBS wants to destroy a
10th-century mosque in Ratnapura District. The fascist group has staged anti-Muslim riots in
various parts of the country, which have led to deaths of many innocent Muslims
and destruction of their properties.
And, as to the Buddhist majority Myanmar (formerly Burma ) the least said the better!
There, anti-Muslim pogroms have become a national project enjoying widespread
support from top to bottom. Buddhist
monk Wirathu and his terrorist group Ma
Ba Tha enjoy special privilege and are putting Gautam Buddha's precepts to
shame and have been terrorizing Muslims and other non-Buddhists. As a result of
decades of Buddhist violence against the religious minorities, every other
Muslim has been forced to a life of a refugee; some 150,000 members of the
Rohingya community, considered the most persecuted people in our time, have
been made internally displaced since 2012; all the Christian-populated Border
States are fighting wars of secession from the fascist central government.
Inside Israel the Jewish terrorist groups
have long been involved in firebombing Palestinian homes and properties almost
with impunity since the successive Zionist governments have been reluctant to
punish their own criminals. Extremist Jewish settlers have been
carrying out what they call “price-tag attacks” since at least 2006 in response
to Palestinian violence or any action by the police or military that these
settlers deem unjust. The attacks have included the destruction of
property—setting fire to cars, livestock, and homes—and the desecration of
mosques and churches. ‘You evacuate a settlement, we will hurt the
Palestinians,’ Avi Mizrahi, the former head of Central Command, told Israel’s
Channel 10, in a report on the phenomenon in 2013. Fifteen Palestinian homes
have been set on fire in recent years, but not one of the arsonists has been
put behind bars. While the police opened investigations into twelve of the
cases, ten of them ended without indictments, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli
human-rights organization. The
human-rights group B’Tselem said that the latest firebombing attack in the
Palestinian village
of Duma , which killed an
18-month old infant was the result of “the authorities’ policy of not enforcing
the law against Israelis who attack Palestinians and their property.”
In the Christian West, very little attention has
been given to Christian fundamentalist groups in the popular media. Many of
these groups have gun-totting militias who would be called terrorists by many
outsiders. They are a dangerous bunch, and are deemed by most experts as being
more deadly than other non-state actors. Many of the lawmakers in the USA are also
Christian fundamentalists, if not fanatics, who want to use the American super
power to bring about a change of their liking into the political landscape of
our world. By intent, they are potential Crusaders for the Christ. As
Bible-thumping literalists they see the current events as a prelude to the
coming of their 'messiah' and would rather hasten that process, culminating
into an Armageddon, by tying knots with fellow extremists from Judaism. Already
we have seen the toxic effect of one such failed experimentation with former
president George W. Bush when he invaded Iraq under false pretexts. Rather
than his declared aim of bringing in stability and democracy in that part of
the world what we have seen is just the opposite: an orgy of unending wars and
violence affecting the entire region where no one is safe. Drone attacks in
civilian territories have become the new norm. Victims don't know why they are
getting maimed or killed. Rather than sobering the future US leaders, the
presidential hopefuls, the toxic cocktail of Christian Zionism and extremism is
emboldening them to finish Bush’s unfinished mission! No one seems to learn
from the past history!
And then we have also the secular
fundamentalists who are also poisoning our world with their sickening arrogance
and innate hostility against established religious communities. They are no
better than religious extremists!
It is in deed a very messy world that we live
in today. Extremism is humanity’s worst enemy, and it is growing fast like a
cancer. It cannot be defeated by drone, bomb and missile attacks alone. Truly,
such violent means only bring about the undesirable outcomes.
Will our generation ever learn to follow the middle
path – wasat – away from extremes of
all sorts?
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