Blood politics of faith

Be it in conservation or in religion, whenever man plays God, he destroys without having the power to create. A thousand years of crusades should have taught us a lesson but senseless slaughter of innocents has led to retribution time and time again. Those that kill without cause or reason have their fabricated stories based on lies and deceit and those that are killed have their own, based on a need to get even. The two shall never meet. Religion teaches us to rationalise that our actions have consequences essential for a moral and ethical society to sustain itself over time and this is exactly what makes religion so dangerous to society. Once we rationalise that a particular religious act has virtuous consequences, how dare others have diverging views? The theory of virtuous consequences and religious logic makes disbelievers heathens. In some beliefs, heathens are put to the sword. In a world where the individual has stopped reading and understanding his holy scriptures, religion by default has bequeathed to the clerics an unquestionable authority to discriminate. It’s this power; in the hands of unscrupulous clerics and politicians combined, that makes it overtly dangerous in India much like in our neighboring fundamentalist sharia states. 

In India most Muslims do not read the translation of the Koran, solely relying on the cleric for explanation or clarification. They completely miss out on the peace, social and secular obligations stipulated in the book. The fundamentalist Mullahs (like the zealot priests and pandits) relish this power and mould the vulnerable minds of people to suit their needs; one essential need being complete dominance over society. Within a short time, the cleric starts to believe that he represents God on earth and comes up with teachings that are completely opposed to the holy book. 

Give a person like him the mike and it will lead to radicalisation irrespective of what he says. It’s how he says it, paving the path forward for conflicts. The Koran understood this danger 1,500 years ago and laid down harsh strictures forbidding anyone to question the faith of another or interfere with his/her God. The Koran for the Muslim is the word of Allah and sacrosanct till eternity but when the human himself starts to play God and do Allah’s work, then he overrules the Koran and comes up with his own reasoning. This is when he becomes radicalised, removed from the peace of Islam. Brainwashed into extremism most young and impressionable Hindus, Christians and Muslims fail to comprehend that God really does not need their help in managing his Estate.  

Tony Blair saying that the world is a better place after the Iraq war where hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children were killed without cause or reason, saddens me. In today’s world connected by Internet, those that have slaughtered innocents without reason, know of the consequences of their act. The Muslim is bound by belief to fight such a monstrous oppressor. That is why countries responsible for the senseless genocide in Iraq are finding a ceaseless tirade against them of seamless global aggression unconfined by borders. The vicious cycle of retribution started by the oppressor will now never end. Blair’s words are standing proof that he wants the conflict to continue, and India with its penchant for vote bank divisive politics has to be very careful and keep well away from being associated with the oppressors. Once the process of jihad starts, there is no solution except the utter annihilation of the oppressor or the oppressed. It’s a vicious cycle of bloodshed where prevention is always better than cure for there is no cure. 

Under such a provocative scenario where every Muslim has to deal with his own stance on jihad, when fundamentalist clerics like Zakir Naik opine on related issues, their response more often than not, will lead to radicalisation and further brainwashing of our confused youth. Though I am shocked by what is happening to the world, I accept the reality of the consequences of aggression against innocents. Through the years, the West has always formed global opinion and one such consensus, after the genocide in Iraq was a strategy planned to defame the Muslim. 

Such a strategy will always have harmful consequences for Islam is a religion of peace and you cannot tar it by finding fault with a community lamenting the death of its innocents. That is why I absolutely revere those European states that have taken on the Muslim refugees into their midst knowing fully well that amongst the Muslims that they have embraced will be those brainwashed and delusional people that will kill their innocents. This is the ultimate price that these countries have chosen to pay. Was it their way of apologising to the world for Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria? If so every Muslim must appreciate and embrace them for they have helped a community shunned, killed and persecuted for no fault of theirs. Forgiveness is the way of Islam. 

The harm that religion has inflicted on society has always far outweighed the benefits to the state. I call it blood politics. Today countries the world over are desperate to find successful methods of inculcating religion into a secular state to ensure personal beliefs remain untouched and at the same time injury to society by unscrupulous politicians are minimised. But blood politics always wins.  

We in India must accept reality and make amends. Discrimination in our society through caste and religious fragmentation must stop. We need a clear-cut parliamentary diktat banning blood politics. There should be one united law. Symbols of discrimination like The Hindu Law Board and the Muslim Law Board must be abolished. Asking for one’s religion on forms should be abolished. No politician should be allowed to use religion or caste in his politicking. Anyone who tries should be arrested and imprisoned immediately and tried for sedition. I know these are radical steps but such a way forward, where we push religion out of the public sphere has now become essential for a world caught in a web of religious hatred. Do this and India will not only become the envy of the world, but will also develop into a force to reckon with globally. Don’t do it and we are allowing the world to split us forever and the consequences like 1947 will be horrifying, again.

The author, a former international cricketer, is a thinker, novelist, columnist and conservationist who runs wildlife camps in India and Africa