Enough of Hate Mongering
By Perwaiz Ahmad
Fullerton, CA
In my opinion I would be doing a great deal of disservice to my Faith in particular and humanity in general if I didn't appreciate the work that the producer and his staff did to highlight the historical role of a Muslim Emperor, Akbar, and a Hindu girl, Jodhaa Bai in a recently released movie ‘Jodhaa Akbar.’
The movie has done a monumental job in highlighting the fact that a Muslim and a Hindu or a person of any other faith for that matter, can live side by side as long as they respect each other’s beliefs and space, which unfortunately is an alien thought these days.
I am not writing this piece because I loved every minute of the movie Jodha Akbar, which I did. The reason that prompts me to write is the profound message (very much needed nowadays) that the movie has tried to propagate which is to "value the lives of other human beings and respect their belief just as you would like others to respect yours". This is the only way to promote peace and harmony in this world otherwise bloodshed would become as normal as the sun rising from the East.
My hats off to the producer, director, script and dialogue writers of the movie for showing the true behavior of a Muslim in peace and i war. Additionally, actors Hrithik Roshan and Ashwarya Rai have given superb performances. They have played their respective roles with grace and dignity.
My understanding is that there is no coercion in any religion to force their Faith on the followers of other Faith, it is certainly not in Islam but some religious zealots, sadly found in every religion, distort and misrepresent the religion to serve their own personal agenda even though they wear the religion on their sleeves. Ideologues who argue against it should be outlawed as troublemakers because all they do is breed hatred towards one another.
The timeless argument that my God is better than your God is going to continue till the end of times so in the greater interest of world peace these ideologues who brainwash their congregation should be given three chances to clean up their act or else face harsh consequences. Freedom of religion or speech ends when it creates discord or, segregates a community on issues that can never be resolved. Live and let live should be the motto with religious freedom for all and that should be guarded or protected with iron clad rule to protect the life of millions. These ideologues and religious fanatics, who incite people with insidious sermons to hate anyone who disagrees with their perception of religion, actually don't care about human lives, an attitude that is in conflict with the basic premises of ANY religion. They quote out of context from their religious books to brainwash impressionable minds as well as adults to build a community within a community and pit one against each other, all in the name of religion and in the name of God. These are parasites who have no respect for humanity or for their Creator; these people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
All along our superiors have put down Akbar for marrying a Hindu girl but they withheld the reasons why he did what he did which shows nothing but hypocrisy and bigotry on their part As the story goes, Akbar faced a dilemma during his rein as the Emperor: he could either fight a war and have thousands killed on both sides or made peace with the other party by marrying a Hindu girl with strong religious convictions, whom he had never seen, so there was no physical attraction, love or lust involved in his decision to marry or not to marry. She also had two pre-conditions to marriage, which were that she will continue to live by her faith and will have a small place in the palace to do her daily pooja (worship). Despite her pre-conditions, Akbar married her to the dismay of some in his camp because he had a broader vision of avoiding massive bloodshed. Akbar chose the course for the greater good of the people on both sides of the religious divide because he valued the lives of thousands of people who would have died had he chosen to go to war.
Even though Jodhaa Akbar is a movie, I hope its message reverberates throughout the human race because regardless of which faith the characters are , the message is strong and convincing for the present generation: to put aside differences in faith and let the faith be limited to the person and his or her Creator, whosoever he may be.
