Dear Jagannath.

[Guest guest]

Dear Bob,

 

Please accept my regards. When did I say that Sri Ramakrishna brought a

religion? . I was talking about Hinduism in general.

 

Hindu's, I admit have been violent, but those sporadic instances of violence (

in the last decade we have only the Gujrat riots to talk of ), resorted as a

method of defence rather than offence, have been limited to their own country

and citizen. There has not been any systematic effort to export violence in a

large scale to other countries to destabilise them. Nor is violence ingrained in

the texts taught to the young people. Hindu religious texts certainly do not

preach violence or intolerance. And the Hindus have also demonostrated their

secular nature in the recent polls. They are more interested in food, clothing

and shelter than in hedonistic Hinduism.

 

I am not against Islam. The word Islam itself means purity and compassion. What

I questioned was where does violence fit into it? There are many other

practices among Muslims like many marriages, instant one sided divorce,

declaring all religions other than Islam to be false, declaring the death

sentence to Muslims and others daring to criticise any inherent practice etc. I

am not questioning those things, because they are internal problems of the

Muslims. What I am questioning is the violence directed against other religions

and people. Why do certain Muslims have to take the lives of people of other

faiths and countries in the name of religion? And that too in this age where

people of various faiths and countries are coming together and learning from

each other?

 

The recent friendship between the people of India and Pakistan is an issue which

justifies my stand. Educated Pakistanis openly admit that they had been fed a

wrong picture of India as a country where all Muslims were frequently butchered

and tortured and that Muslims of India were not allowed to practise their faith.

But interaction among the people of both the countries, in the form of marriage

and visits among relatives, and the feedback from Pakistanis educated in foriegn

countries helped in dispersing the earlier views. People of Pakistan coming to

India for treatment under relaxed travel laws are also surprised at the

extremely friendly reception they receive and the pouring in of fan mail for the

sick. They are also attracted to the lives of the Muslims here who receive

secular education and are able to stay out of the grip of the obnoxious

practices referred to earlier. They have also come to know that the Indian

Government and NGO's often intervene with legal help whenever

Muslim women are ill treated and they (the women)complain to the police. All

this is totally contrary to their earlier conceptions about India and the state

of Muslims here.

 

That violence does not solve problems but only begets more violence can be

openly seen in almost all Muslim countries today where violent clashes between

Shias, Sunnis and Muhazirs are taking place almost everyday. The Islamic

governements there have little to do except watch silently. Our neighbour

Pakistan is also riddled with problems of violent crimes and

kidnappings/extortions which has tarred the image of cities such as Karachi, and

also many villages where honour killings have assumed massive proportions. If

violence was not taught religiously as an end to all ills perhaps such

situations could have been stemmed. The Pakistani Govt today understands this

and they are trying to frame new laws to help them. The recent attacks on the

President of the country however shows that such laws will not be easy to

implement.

 

Of course I again say that the problem of violence in Islam today is a political

problem fanned by clerics. Not all Muslims support this but they dare not speak

out. We all know the fate of Salman Rushdie and Tasleema Nasreen and how they

were persecuted for their free and frank views.

 

Regards,

Jagannath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

<<

I am not against Islam. The word Islam itself means purity and compassion.

What I questioned was where does violence fit into it? There are many other

practices among Muslims like many marriages, instant one sided divorce,

declaring

all religions other than Islam to be false, declaring the death sentence to

Muslims and others daring to criticise any inherent practice etc. I am not

questioning those things, because they are internal problems of the Muslims.

 

What I am questioning is the violence directed against other religions and

people. Why do certain Muslims have to take the lives of people of other

faiths and countries in the name of religion? And that too in this age where

 

people of various faiths and countries are coming together and learning from

 

each other?

>>

 

Christians have done the same things in their history, despite the

injunctions in the Bible against them. There is always a segment in any

society that can only understand things literally and is only comfortable if

everyone is following *their* version of the religious forms. Killing

innocents is explicitly against Islamic scripture, and so is forcing your

religion upon someone else. So is one-sided divorce and claiming exclusive

truth for Islam. I hope it is a stage and that it passes quickly.

 

Hafizullah Chishti

@)->---

[Guest guest]

Unfortunately, many of us in the West, especially

America, have no concept of history. When I hear our

leaders calling Muslims " evildoers " etc. and the " God

will punish the evildoers " I think we are using the

same holy war rhetoric, and our " eye for an eye "

mentality and actions are no better.

 

You see this is essentially the problem with dualism

and monotheistic religion. When you say God is " this "

or God is " that " , then you've got a holy war.

 

All the religions that orignated in the Middle East

share this same outlook: Judaism, Christianity, and

Islam.

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

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