Religious Militancy
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
Addressing the annual ritual of Prayer Breakfast Meeting in Washington DC, President Obama chastised ISIS for its atrocities. Alluding to the Crusades and Inquisition he said that cruelty in the name of religion is not specific to Islam, every religion has its share. The media was understandably furious at these remarks of the President. On the other hand the pundits in the “Liberal Mainstream Media” supported the president in what he said. They protected the President from the fallout of the crime of speaking the truth by terming these remarks as a balancing act of a believing Christian and not the fiery rhetoric of an atheist.
The whole debate seems to be taking a turn to brand religion as evil and the liberal values as the paragon of all virtues on which rests the salvation of humanity. But history has on its record the atrocities committed by the Greco Roman Civilization which is the harbinger of modern liberal secular order. The atrocities committed on Christians before acceptance of Christianity by the Roman King Constantine, the suffering of the helpless gentiles (Jews) in the Greco-Roman arenas, exploitation of colonies in the third world by the European colonizers, Holocaust of the Jews and ethnic cleansing of Bosnians are all a part of the annals of history to disprove this lie of the liberal media.
The worst and the longest type of Religious Militancy that is committed today is the one by Israel in its attempt to establish Jews from all over the world on Palestinian land. Israel is doing this under the religious edict that this is the Promised Land gifted to the Jews by God. The international community has given a free hand to Israel to continue these atrocities against the Palestinians under the pretext of Israeli right for its security.
What we are seeing in the form of support to militants by some elements of governments is only a repeat of what we witnessed during crusades and inquisitions when church and state colluded with each other to advance their mutually agreed agenda. In order to present itself as paragon of all virtues the state conveniently forgets its role in the mess which it creates, and unfairly blames the religion exclusively for all the evils of the past and present.
As all Truth can’t be told without risking the benefits that come with half-truths, the game of half-truths continues to the detriment of the human civilization. As truth has never been told without risking the bullets from enemies of the truth those who know the truth have most of the time remained silent. As nobody has the time, patience and the need to know The Truth, truth is not known and not cared for by most people. That is why God has kept The Hereafter to reveal the truth of all matters. In the Hereafter Truth will not only be unveiled but we also will be rewarded and punished for our roles in it. We will not believe in it till we see it is another matter. And till then we have to live with the deceit of half-truth that is dished out to us and which takes us from one calamity to the other.
Not only to set the record straight but also to bring peace, security and progress to the world it is essential that we see and show both sides of the coin. It is essential that both the religious and the liberal pundits understand their evil role in bringing the world to the present chaotic condition and rectify it. Otherwise we will keep swinging like a pendulum between the extremes of religious bigotry and liberal innuendos in succession beyond the capacity of human endurance. As we avoid an honest debate to understand the violent barbaric nature of man and the sure way to tame it through “True Religion”, it raises its ugly head over and over both in the form of religious fanaticism and state fascism.
The history of killing people to achieve ones personal or communal agenda is as old as the history of mankind. This emanates from the militant nature of man itself. Caine killed Able when he was not able to marry the girl of his choice who was the legitimate bride of Able (Genesis Ch4 V8). Religion was a gift of God to restrain man from committing this and such other atrocities. Religion demands that we respect life and do not kill anyone (Ch5 V32). Religion also demands that we promote good and prevent evil (Ch7 V157). Religion puts restraint on our greed, sets some rules of sexual behavior, and treatment of disenfranchised people to put the societies on path of peace and progress. As this can’t be done by laws alone it instills God Consciousness and accountability before Him. Religion and state should work in unison for the good of mankind by adhering to sound moral principle. Unfortunately this does not happen because of manipulation of religion by state and submission of clergy to the demands of state. Through this unholy nexus kings, dictators, and democratically elected leaders have all killed and harassed the people to establish their power over them all along in history. Kings and czars were replaced through militant revolutions in the name of ideologies, but with the same purpose of grabbing power to start the game of loot under a new name and under new leaders and with new rules.
The word Muslim is misunderstood as the religious group with this name and not the continuation and culmination of that part of human race who believe and submit to One God. Muslim is a person who believes, loves and submits to God with all his heart and soul. Muslims have been living in the world even before Muhammad SA was born. Abraham (PBUH) was a Muslim (Ch3 V67), and by corollary Moses, Jesus and their true followers were also Muslims (Ch3 V110). The present-day Muslims have received a lot of their religion from people of the book as Allah ordered them to ask from the people of the book about things they do not know (Ch21 V7). Violence and savagery existed even before Muhammad SA and continues after him. Not accepting this reality we put all the ills of the present as a DE novo aberration of the group of human being whom we call Muslims. The fact is that all the people in this group, which is now bracketed as Muslims, come from the preceding civilizations with all their bag and baggage.
The world which has been hijacked today by the vested interest is creating a nightmare in the whole world to consolidate power for its stakeholders. While all this is considered as an evolutionary process of human life, Islam is singled out as the only bad ideology and Muslims the only bad guys. This is happening at a time when Muslims are undergoing the struggle to reform their societies from the throes of history committed on them by their selfish rulers and misguided clergy. In an interdependent and globalized world this process of evolution to reach perfection has become more difficult and complex for developing Muslim societies because of the clash of interests between various nations. This clash of interest is now being given the name of clash of civilization by those who are hopeful of achieving their agenda by naming this struggle as clash of civilization rather than a clash of interest. To understand all this it is necessary to dig deep in history and into the contemporary events to find the roots of militancy in the world.
Islam is accused by every Tom Dick and Harry as a militant religion because of the acts purported to have been committed by a small number of Muslims in recent times. Those who dispute this thesis wantonly trace militancy of few individual Muslims to the teaching of the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet SA and call it Islamic militancy. Unfortunately, these very people who bemoan the savagery of a few Muslims minimize the suffering of Muslims all over the world that is living in Stone Age because of the retaliatory actions of the coalition of the willing. This is only referred to as “collateral damage” and one invited by Muslims on themselves. This narrative is accepted by the innocent people because of the control of “Mainstream Media” by those who have an interest in spreading Islamophobia. Mainstream media has no time or importance to present the suffering of Muslims as vociferously as they do with the false accusations against them. The media has all the time to project Muslims in a bad image even if it is not true.
Addressing a Georgetown University gathering on the subject of race relations, FBI director Mr James Comey, has correctly said that everything is not pretty in our society and law enforcement agencies alone are not responsible for it. He further said that building relations is the most difficult task which we are neglecting.
As long as our political leadership allows the people with big mouths, deep pockets, and untamed power to spread venom in the name of freedom of speech just to masquerade their strategy to achieve their hidden agendas, even the most civilized society can be degraded to commit and condone savagery. Only if our law makers can make laws to predicate freedom of speech with responsibility and do not make it a license to spread lies, hate and confusion, we can avoid the abhorring and obnoxious actions that we saw in Paris and in Chapel Hill. Only if the media shows restraint and does not portray the actions of few misguided individuals to suit its agenda the world would be a safe place focusing on progress of all societies rather than wasting resources in wasteful and dangerous wars to mollify those who benefit from it.
