70 per cent of Palestinians believe suicide bombing is justified but support for terrorism is falling in the wider Muslim world, according to a comprehensive US survey

What kind of a country would believe that? Anyway, the respite is supposed to be that support for terrorism is in fact falling.

In Lebanon, those believing that suicide bombing is justified often or sometimes has slumped from 74 per cent five years ago to 34 per cent now. In Pakistan, where Islamist violence has surged, the figure is just nine per cent.

The support for Osama Bin Laden has also supposedly fallen! Why am I not astonished?!

In parallel, the Pew group reported, “large drops in support for Osama bin Laden,” the al-Qaeda founder blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

It cited Jordan, where the percentage of Muslims who have “confidence in bin Laden as a world leader” has slumped 36 percentage points since 2003.

And read this:

Across the Muslim world, majorities fret that the US could become a military threat to their country, including 93 per cent of Bangladeshis and 73 per cent of Pakistanis.

Do I need to say anything at all about where all this is going to end?

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.