I have had this debate with many people for long. I had always advocated tolerance towards all religions if not acceptance. But recent developments have left me and my faith in such a philosophy questioned. And as always, it is again Islam under the scanner.
More than the feeling of my philosophy being questioned I am wondering if I was totally wrong in the first place itself. As in was I wrong to include Islam in my list of ‘all’ religions to be tolerated? Were my friends who strongly opposed every bit of the religion right?
I always thought that religions were invented to help us live our life better. To me Hinduism is not a religion it’s a way of life. Please note that Hinduism taught me to say ‘a way of life’ not ‘the way of life’. Hinduism taught me that there are other religions that exist and they ought to be respected. Hinduism said there are many gods in this world and each human being is free to pick the God of his choice. The only thing Hinduism doesn’t talk about is atheism. Anyway, that’s a different topic for another day. The underlying thread tying up these thoughts is a thought that “A religion is a way to reach God”.
Reaching God was always meant to be a peaceful process – a process of doing good, being good without hurting others, speaking the truth and being conscentious throughout one’s life. There might be various operational ways of doing this and I thought each religion prophesed its way. While I have no knowledge of the ‘Quran’ or any such holy book of the other religions which guides people through their operational life, it beats me as to how someone can interpret the holy book to mean exactly the opposite. I am sure you understand that I don’t need an indepth knowledge of the ‘Quran’ to make this statement.
Hinduism teaches humanity as a religion. Of course, several people have interpreted the ‘Choose your God’ option differently and created castes and sub-castes, but then none of these interpretations (read as castes, sub-castes, etc.) broke the basic tenet of ‘reaching God through doing good, being good without hurting others, speaking the truth and being conscentious throughout one’s life’. But the interpretation of Islam as religion of hate, to kill innocent people and reach God (Jehad) is not only the exact opposite of what the religion is meant to advocate (according to my understanding that is) but also an indication of the existence of ambiguity in the ‘Quran’.
A holy book like ‘Quran’ should be clear in the fundamental message atleast. It can’t go wrong in that. If it does (go wrong), then what is the whole point of having it? If a few (rapidly growing in number from few to many) groups people are able to interpret it in a way to incite violence and kill people, then it means that the religion is being used against humanity. And it defeats the whole purpose of having created the religion in the first place.
My friends who used to criticize the religion before are now scared. Their theory was that the modus operandi of these extremist groups would be:
Their theory was being shot down at the first assumption itself and that was the reason for their fear. All these are carefully and logically made assumptions as you can see. During the failed Glasgow airport attack in London, the entire mission is believed to be masterminded and executed by doctors. Can you believe that? Doctors! And apparently Osama had a lyrical poem to convey the potential damage to a cleric in one of the British churches, “Those who will cure you will kill you”.
Doctors are supposed to save lives and ensure a longer life to those still living. This profession has a certain standard of ethics that is generally looked upto by society. If well-to-do people from this profession of care and love can be incited to hate and kill, then it is scary. Really scary. And also, questions the basic tenet of religions – love for all.
The world is no longer a safe place to live in. The failed Glasgow airport attack has been an eye-opener for people like me who had blind faith in all religions. I am afraid to say the faith is no longer blind. Faith has been scared away and questioned like never before.
What are you trying to say in this post? Did you try to convey anything at all or was this meant to be a “thinking aloud” session only?
I feel, you are partly right when you say, it’s the religion that’s influencing terrorism. But IMHO, it’s a potent combination of religion, society/community, economics, ego. And that one cannot simply point towards Islam and say they are the perpetrators of terror.
As you’ve said, the Way we follow (called Hinduism) is not exactly a religion. No One holy book, no One guru, no One supreme lord. Our architecture by design is to accept multiple identities, concepts, customs. We have the innate ability to categorize things as Dharma and Karma. And that makes the difference.
That, is what is missing in other communities, cultures, countries. They follow strict regimens. Capitalism, Christianity in US, Communism, Atheism in China, Islam in the Arab world. It’s like democracy. You have to have both – for and against. You miss either, the one remaining becomes the one true factor.
Bottom line: I feel your original supposition is right. Try to tolerate everybody else :-)
cheers,
shashi
The only thing Hinduism doesn’t talk about is atheism.
I beg to differ
Every religion has its inherent flaws, what people fail to grasp is the underlying message. Bible advocates stoning (I mean throwing stones, not getting stoned) for children who don’t listen to parents, not sure if the “originators” actually meant that, or maybe it got convoluted due to the many translations from Hebrew to Roman to English.. Islam has its obvious misinterpretations, and so does Hinduism
Problem is with the advocators, not with religion or its followers. Which brings the question, do we need religion?
but then none of these interpretations (read as castes, sub-castes, etc.) broke the basic tenet of ‘reaching God through doing good, being good without hurting others, speaking the truth and being conscentious throughout one’s life’.
Didn’t we (Hindus) commit atrocities against our fellow innocent men? Untouchables? Brahmins being “superior” to others and so on?
Is this what our scripts teach? Definitely not. Our own Krishna was a cowboy.
Didn’t we misinterpret and behaved in inhuman ways? (Not let untouchables drink water from a common pond etc)
So, it’s the “man” who committed mistakes by interpreting the holy scripts in the wrong way.
I have read Quran (the translated version of course) and no where does it approve of “Jihad”… obviously this is a misinterpretation of some perverted soul.
The tragic thing is that the numbers of such souls are increasing :(
The solution (I know you have not asked for me, but me just think aloud..) is quite obvious. The Muslim clerics/leaders should come out in the open and condemn such miscreants… but surprisingly this is not happening! Which makes me wonder (same as you), does everybody in that religion believe in this violence?
Why do we need a ‘a way of life’ defined in first place.
cant we find on our own.
[...] So, our first step should be to make sure that we get across to tracking these brains. It is very clear that the majority of them belong to a certain creed. These brains need to be tracked and their funding arms need to be cut off. Finding this is probably the toughest part. But I really hope someone is doing this. I have watched a BBC program where they once showed how the Interpol was tracking suspects of something that was about to happen. And when it happened on July 7th they could not avoid it but within days they got across to the guys who actually did it, the brains behind it and the financial channels too. I guess as Indians, we need to help our police in tracking suspicious candidates. [...]