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Sunday, October 26, 2008

[mukto-mona] To M. Harun uz Zaman

IRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto- mona/message/50401

Harun,

 

When I respond to your comments, I feel like talking to you at the Curzon Hall campus. In my dreams, I see Shafiq, my best friend (no offense to you!). Let me tell you, from the bottom of my heart, I despise the fact that religions do exist. Let me tell you why. Religions have erected invisible insurmountable walls among us. You tell me, why we have to be friends only, not relatives? What's separating us? It's the religion.

 

I know you believe in God; you will agree with me that we all come from the same God. If that is true then why religion will separate us? I do not believe that God wanted it to be this way. If we are all God's children, then He will never erect walls around us by sending multiple religions. There is something inherently wrong in the concept of multiple religions on earth, from the same God, for the same human-race. I know everybody believes that his/her religion is the right one. For the sake of this discussion, let's accept that one of these religions is the right one. Now, which one is that? We can perhaps test that by examining how a religion treats its non-believers. Because, God will never send a religion that will be unkind to His other children. None of the contemporary religions will pass this test. As a result, God-send religion theory does not fly.

 

On September 11, 1893, Swami Vivekananda proposed a universal religion of humanity in his speech in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. He said: 'If there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will have no location in place or time; which will be infinite, like the God it will preach….It will be a religion which will have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will recognize divinity in every man and woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be centered in aiding humanity to realize its own true, divine nature….. Unfortunately, Swami did not live long enough to preach and materialize his religion, and it never came in more than 100 years. Why it did not come? It did not come, because there is vested interest in every religion, which will not be served if Swami's universal religion materializes.

 

My view is that religions are simply live-styles, proposed by some propagators. As a result, religions are influenced by the local customs and practices of the region of its origin. From the very beginning, a religion has always been used as a tool to organize masses, and has been exploited for commercial and political purposes. Propagators of all such religions can be compared with Hindu-Gurus, who have their disciples, and followers.  All Gurus reveal to their followers that they are the link between God and the followers. Each of these Gurus forms his/her own sect. I do not believe, there is a middleman between me and the God.

 

Also, I do not see the need to recite the prayer in a language that I do not understand. I believe, God has no mother-tongue, and He does not need our prayers, our admiration, and our adoration. All that He wants is good deeds from us. He must be angry when people admire Him, praise Him, and then go on committing horrendous crimes. He must be very happy when we do good deeds, just like our parents would. We can learn what God expects from us simply by understanding our parent's expectations from us.

 

Now, lets review some of your comments:
 

"I was seriously disturbed by the reaction to Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's article by some in this forum who seemed to focus on whether Islam was a "peaceful religion" or not, and what the "real" character of Islam was.  They were completely oblivious to, and even contemptuous of, the intent of the Maulana, which was to marginalize the "Jihadist" fringe in Islam and empower those who believe in a more humane and inclusive Islam."

 
JR reply:
 

When we follow a particular religion, inclusiveness goes out of the window. If you belong to a religion, it will be hard for you to be unbiased, no matter how hard you try. With the advent of the Internet, we all have become Hafez (i.e., expert in Quran). There are so many verses in Quran that are indefensible. So, propagandists will have hard time to sell anything now-a-days without refutation. I came across a manifesto of the Islamic Jihad, by the President of Bosnia. Now, let's think about Bosnia, a Muslim majority country, liberated from a Christian majority country by USA and other European nations (NATO). Soon after the liberation, the very first president of that country did not waste any time to write a step-by-step guide for Islamic Jihad in other parts of the world, where Muslims are minority. In that manual, one of the instructions for the fellow Muslims of those countries was that: Be tolerant of others and follow secular ideals until you are strong enough to take over the power. So, before we embrace Moulana Wahiduddin and Yogi Sikand with our open arms, let's make sure that they are not following the same manifesto. That's all.

 
 
Harun Said:
"Finally, I want to add that I myself also went through a spell of disbelief and rebellion in my younger days (it started when I was a physics student with you at Dhaka University ) and through the tortuous journey of life, came back to religion. "
 
JR Reply:
Are you telling me that Obama is right for the first time, for a change, when he said: People cling to guns and religion, when they are desperate. Do you own gun also? Just kidding!
 
Regards,
 
Jiten Roy          

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