Terrorism...this has been bothering me for a while now...I could not understand how people could be so cold blooded to kill innocent people whom they have not seen them in their life and have no relation...Terrorism in the name of religion is totally unjustified...
Religion...what is religion..is religion not a guide to live peacefully in this world?? I believe religion is path or course of activities defined by a few so called scholarly knowledgeable and saintly people (supposedly have conversed with THE GOD) for leading a normal and peaceful life...so if someone is not interested in that course or path of life that person should be allowed to freely choose his own living path provided all his actions are lawful by the Law of the Land...people should be condemned and punished if and only if that person has committed unlawful activities...
I have done a small research myself...am not sure how true it is...but my understanding is that most empires atleast in the last 3000 years have been fought in the name of religion...people congregated or segregated in the name of their religion...Christ was crucified because he was against the religion in the then Roman Empire but his followers wanted to preach his teachings in his name and nutured a religion...when the number of people taking to Christianity started to grow few Emperors who were influenced by it enforced it in there times through law thereby making people of other religion insecure...
Prophet Mohammad did not believe in the religions in his time and he attained sainthood in his young age and he started preaching...but people from other religions in his time felt threatened of his growing influence and forced him to move out of the place he was born...this would have made him insecure but that did not stop from preaching...people who believed in his teachings became his followers and the Prophet did not choose the Christ way rather he made a army with his followers and attacked other religions who had threatened him before thereby nurturing and developing the seed of a new religion called Islam...and in the regions in their control Islam was enforced through law and people who followed other religions were insecure...
What I understood from History is that when Emporers needed laws to govern the obvious choice would be to take the teachings of a religion and it would be easy for them to govern when they have a single religion and therefore they believed that there would be peace n harmony in their empires...
But when empires grow capturing territories in wars...empires dont only capture territory but along with it the people who may not have been of the same faith or religion and therefore these people would be insecure, threatened of their existence and also would not be willing to change their way of life suddenly...
So through the ages of history empires have fought for territories and divided the world in the name of religion...and therefore there existed people who were insecure in all ages...few strong insecure people would have turned rebellious in all ages..
Not so long ago World Wars have been fought in this world...Hitler was against Jews..he was severe and inhuman...so all the world got to gether to defeat him...Jews wanted seperate land in the Land of Arabs and through the political manipulations created a state of Israel which has angered the Arabs and in general the Islamic world..angered more so because they felt the entire western world or the Christians were against Islam...there is still non stop fighting going for territory in the name of religion...so much so was the anger in the Islamic world that they formed OPEC and still yields great power through the commerce of the world crude...
I would have understood if they had only fought those people who had actually been against them...but few of those people became so inhuman that they started killing innocent people in the name of religion...
I definitely think the current world situation is because 1 former world super power Britian and the current super power USA...they divided people for their needs and left the world divided...
India is a different case...Pakistan was created only because of 2 totally shameless..egoistic and selfish individuals known as Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru...they both wanted to become Prime Ministers of Independant India and were not satisfied with anything less than the Prime Minister post...the father of our Nation forgot the needs of the country and served the purpose of the two self served poeple thereby creating two countries...I dont understand if the country was then divided in the name of religion and it should have atleast been done in utmost genuiness...Pakistan was created for Muslims but all Muslims were not asked to go Pakistan and u know wat happened in India during the division it was blood shed throughout...how on earth could Gandhi think that after so much bloodshed at home there would be long lasting peace between two communities with utmost animosity against each other....
Jammu and Kashmir was inducted into India but Pakistan also wanted the territory...but then the ruler of the J&K wanted to go with India with certain conditions thereby creating Article 360 r 370...since the majority of the population is Kashmir were Muslims they wanted to be part of Pakistan...Pakistan used this to their advantage and wanted to win the land through war but was defeated...India replied in helping Bangladesh form Independant country fighting against Pakistan majorly because it didn want to be threatened at two ends (but I dont know how much of it has been realised...there are terrorists from Bangladesh)....Pakistan was bruised even more...they planted the seed of hatred among the Muslims in Kashmir to fight against the Indian establishment and therefore started terrorism in Kashmir....again for territory but mostly because of Religion...
India is not a Hindu country officially and the only country in the world declared secular as one can see that the government has holidays declared for all days deemed important in the respective religions...there is no holiday for Diwali in US or in Pakistan but there is Holiday in India for Christmas and Holiday for Ramzan....Indians even though had to go through the bloodshed during partition have always shown restraint and tolerance to religion....India is the only country in the world truely secular by every word...
there would always be people in all religion who are intolerant and would therefore be dangerous for the society in general...these people would have been dangerous irrespective of their background...they only need a reason and religion is most easily available tool to create hatred...
am ending this blog...I am an Indian and a Hindu...sorry that I could not write down any instances from the last 3000 yrs for Hindu religion because I am unaware of it...
as a Hindu I bow my head in shame for some activities that has happened in India...the Babri Masjid...Gujarat riots...and the recent attacks on Christians...
similarly most moderate Muslims also would be feeling shameful because of the inhuman terrorist attacks right from serial Bombay blasts to the most recent ones...Godhra train carnage...
Christians should also be feeling ashamed of the killing of some babaji in Orissa and the immoral luring of innocent poor people into Christianity by bribing them with money....help should be provided without asking for anything in return only then it would be service...but help provided only when u ask something in return then it is plain business and not service....
I knw i have made some statements which could be controversial and could hurt a few people...to those people who feel offended i offer my heartfelt apologies...these are my views from the understanding of what i read..heard and seen things around...I could be seriously wrong....but am learning and am genuinely trying to understand why people are being divided in the name of religion so please dont be offended by any of the things that have been said here...
People who dont agree with the content of this blog please feel free to condemn the article in ur comments....and for those people who share the same views please feel free to comment on the blog..
one last word...RELIGION SHOULD NOT BE A HINDRANCE TO PEACE RATHER SHOULD NURTURE PEACE...but quite opposite is happening in all religions in some part of the world and that is hurting and angering people of all religions...
PEOPLE SHOULD SHOW RESTRAINT AND TOLERANCE TO ACCEPT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT FAITH AS LONG AS THEY ARE FOLLOWING THE LAW OF THE LAND..UNLAWFUL ACTIVITIES SHOULD BE CONDEMNED AND SHOULD BE PUNISHED BY THE LAW..VIOLENCE SHOULD NEVER BE AN OPTION!!
hey..this was a nice take on the issues...good write up. u surely have done sme research n made sme valid points..good job :) :) if ur thots have just flown out like this..then u must be humble enuf 2 accept that u have some real talent n strong thoughts..
ReplyDeleteThe most important perception that we human beings can’t get rid of is “I am right and you are wrong – always”. All religions were formed as a means of providing some discipline to people to live in harmony. People are unique and their needs are different. So there is absolutely a scope for more than one religion. And somehow a few dirty hands use religion as a tool to win their selfish motives. And that like you said Praveen has been happening for centuries now - Jesus, Mohammad Nabi, Hitler, Osama to even our own Thackeray all of them have used it for their own selfish motives. Even Gandhi does not escape the blame coz in spite of all the good he has done to India, he committed one irrecoverable mistake – of letting the division happen. All these people are strong leaders - instead of using their power to influence people for good philanthropic cause, they have used it for wrong causes. And religion was just means for organized crime to support the cause coz undoubtedly that still is the strongest thing that unites humans – And Why?? Coz “I am right and You are wrong – always”.
ReplyDeleteAn absolutely relevant post!! Keep posting!!
I feel very strongly in agreement with the majority of the things discussed in this article, and I would like to express that many of these points can also be readily applied to other issues besides religion...Issues such as terrorism, war/peace, division of people/land, hatred/animosity, etc...
ReplyDeleteChoice of religion or lack thereof is a very personal and sensitive issue and should be left to the discretion of the individual with his/her own set of unique experiences and beliefs.
The main idea is that lack of acceptance is the root of the problem in all hate/terror issues. Whether related to primarily "important" multidimensional issues such as religion and politics... or simple unequivocal things, the bottom line here is "ACCEPTANCE!" If we could all accept the fact that we are unique individuals with our own experiences, beliefs, opinions and ways of doing things... Then and then only can we function together harmoniously as part of any team, community, state, country, or world! In my opinion, peace will not be created or even affected by religion/war/politics as much as it will be affected by acceptance!
"YOUR" way and "MY" way are both perfectly acceptable as long as people and the environment are not being hurt in the process.
I'm not saying people will ever, nor should they be expected to embrace each other's differences(whether race, creed/religion, national origin, gender etc.)but the start of peace in all aspects of our existance begins simply by ACCEPTING each other's differences and by the realization that "my" way is not the ONLY way! =)
Nice post, i like the way you have brought the historical growth of religion, how people were unwilling to accept change, and how both Christianity and Islam fought with each other in the race to convert practicers of other religion into their own. This conversion has been fueled both through bribing followers and through violent repercussions of not following the belief of the majority.
ReplyDeleteThe current environment of global terrorism in the name of religion is the nadir of this historical practice. I believe it is important to understand how a few leaders have transformed Islam into a political ideology rather than just a religion. I truly believe that a majority of Islamic followers are peace loving, as i have noticed in my friends, but it is the rigid and sick leadership which has brainwashed youngsters into sacrificing their lives to live a supposedly better one once they are dead!!
The only way to fight such a leadership is for the followers, to come out in the open and criticize the actions of ghastly terrorist acts. Also, unless the perpetrators are punished and their remorse/guilt after they commit their heinous acts publicized it would be impossible to change the situation.
nicely said, totally agree with u on the points mentioned, it was felt easy to unify people based on religion and thats what it has been used till now in history causing permanent damage to the feelings of people for other religions/communities. Time and again hardliners have come up to exploit these feelings of resentment among the economically backward people to achieve their own selfish ends.
ReplyDelete"What I understood from History is that when Emporers needed laws to govern the obvious choice would be to take the teachings of a religion" -- This exactly is the essence of promoting religion.
ReplyDelete