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Sunday, January 8, 2012

[mukto-mona] POOR BANGLADESH DEMOCRACY THROUGH LESS OR UNEDUCATED LEGISLATORS

POOR BANGLADESH DEMOCRACY THROUGH LESS OR UNEDUCATED LEGISLATORS


In majority, Bangladesh people are illiterate or very little educated people. We have a democratic form of Government. But our Government is made of a National Parliament which has many little educated Members. The Constitution of Bangladesh provides that even an illiterate person may be elected as a legislator, that is as a Member of National Parliament of the People's Republic of Bangladesh!

Today it is widely known that the nationwide corruption, lawlessness, administrative inefficiency, irregular judiciary, bad academic atmosphere, massive infringement and counterfeiting, most inefficient police, and extreme profiteering are the everyday common stories in Bangladesh. As a result, we find that the country is under the overall command and control of the musclemen and rich persons. Majority people do not care for those who are educated, honest, disciplined and law abiding. There are many examples in Bangladesh that Barristers, Advocates, Doctors, Scientists and Professors are defeated in the general elections for the National Parliament by the illiterate and less educated candidates, only due to their money and muscle power.

In addition, the political parties in Bangladesh are also dominated by such leaders having money and muscle power. In Bangladesh, the people mostly vote the political party (that is the candidate holding the concerned party symbol) and not by adjudging the merit of the concerned candidate.

In Bangladesh today Democracy exists in principle, but due to above and many other factors, it has turned into Mobocracy. The country needs immediate remedy. Otherwise, a serious grim future is waiting for Bangladesh leading to total socio-economic chaos and administrative breakdown. As a Senior Citizen of the country, I earnestly appeal to the people to examine the matter with all high seriousness impartially without any tilt towards any political party and try to cause remedy as soon as possible.

A.B.M. Shamsud Doulah
Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh
G.P.O. Box 351, Dhaka-1000
Bangladesh

Email: shamsuddoulah@yahoo.com
Mobile: 01911482175


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[ALOCHONA] Remembering Felani



Remembering Felani


Felani was a cherished baby to her parents. Her parents earnestly wished for her long life. But, the BSF discarded Felani as an object to shoot at — perhaps as a part of their shooting practice. But, we cannot afford to discard Felani, her story, her images from the album of our memory, writes Maswood Alam Khan from Maryland

WHEN you read or hear a story or view a scene or a picture, a movie should take place in your mind. You reflexively make a mental picture in your brain of what you view and hear. These are your own sensory images. None of us has ever seen the paradise or the hell we are told we will face in our afterlife; still, we form a mental picture of what the netherworld would be like. Your images for a particular view or a story are subtly different from anyone else's images. Your images blended with your unique feelings and emotions come flooding back when you come across the same view or the same story once again. Today, I am having a similar experience.

Last year in January on a chilly Sunday night at my College Park residence in Maryland, I was reading the heartbreaking story of the violent and ruthless killing of Felani, a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl, by the Indian Border Security Force and was transfixed as I was viewing the eerie scene of her motionless body distressingly dangling on a barbed fence along the Bangladesh-Indian border at Anantapur which was possibly not far away from her village. After I had read the story I fixed my sight at the gruesome picture of Felani's tangled dead body, still wearing a red frock and a pair of blue pyjamas — perhaps her choicest dresses.

Felani's father Nurul Islam had left his village at Nageshwari upazila in Kurigram in Bangladesh for Assam in India with his mother, after the death of his father and due to extreme poverty. Such migration, legal or illegal, is quite normal in this part of the world. There are also many Indians who, legally or illegally, are working in Bangladesh, especially in textiles and garments industries.

Nurul Islam was bringing her daughter Felani to their home in Bangladesh to get her married with a boy as arranged earlier by the guardians. On January 7, 2011, early in the morning, Nurul Islam and her daughter Felani were crossing into Bangladesh, by climbing over a barbed-wire fence using a bamboo ladder, through the Kitaber Kuthi Anantapur border. While they were crossing the fence, Felani's clothes got tangled in the barbed-wire, which frightened her and caused her to scream in panic. Hearing her scream, the BSF men on patrol opened fire at her. Felani was shot and killed, but her father had managed to escape. Felani was asking for water till her death, about 30 minutes after the shooting, but nobody was there to fetch her a glass of water. It was a clear act of felony on innocent Felani.

The dead body of Felani was hung on the fence for five hours before the body was handed to Bangladesh authorities. On January 9, at night, Felani's body was buried in the back yard of her home. Felani's father Nurul Islam complained that he had received her daughter's dead body but did not get back the gold ornaments she was wearing when she was killed.

Pall of gloom cast by the news of Felani's death did not quite capture the sense of disbelief and sorrow that engulfed first the village where Felani was buried and then the whole country after the news along with the wretched picture of her dead body hanging on the barbed-wire fence was published in most of the newspapers in Bangladesh.

A movie, my sensory images on Felani, was taking place in my mind as I was trying to empathise with the bereaved family members. I attempted to visualise about Felani's life — her childhood, her expectations, her fears and her last moment when all her dreams were shattered. In my mental picture Felani had appeared as a Durga, the girl I found in my childhood in 'Pather Panchali', the epochal 1955 Bengali film directed by Satyajit Ray. Felani in her childhood, like Durga in Pather Pachali, perhaps shared with her friends simple joys of life. Like Durga, Felani may have spent a lot of time sitting quietly under a tree, running after the candy man who passed by, viewing pictures in a bioscope shown by a travelling vendor, watching a 'jatra' by a troupe of actors, running away from home to catch a glimpse of the train after hearing the whistle of a speeding train.

In a poor family in Bangladesh, like that of Nurul Islam, an old equation rules: educating a boy will bring financial returns, but not so in case of a girl. Earning no income, a daughter is usually married off as soon as possible and removed from the family balance sheet. That is why Nurul Islam probably decided to arrange her daughter Felani's marriage at her tender age of 15. Felani perhaps put on her choicest jewelleries, dresses and facial make-ups, I was just imagining, as she was heading home — lest she was found unkempt, in case she had bumped on her way home into the prospective boy she was arranged to get married with.

Everybody knows that any law enforcement agency usually doesn't fire shots at unarmed persons, no matter the person is in the international border area during a war or on a street during a curfew, unless a person attempts to do something which may endanger the life of law enforcers. Before direct shooting on Felani, the Indian Border Security Force could easily have given warning first by misfiring and if Felani was found carrying arms or smuggling goods they could use the last option of shooting.

After Felani's tragic death, there were protests all over Bangladesh against the killing spree by the BSF. Human rights organisation Odhikar in a fact-finding report it released in January, 2011 said that the Border Security Force had breached the border agreement between Bangladesh and India by killing innocent girl Felani Khatun. The report, which interviewed the victim's family members, villagers, border guards, Bangladeshi soldiers, police personnel and physicians, recommended that the Bangladesh government should ask India to give compensation to the family. The battalion commander of 27 Rifles, Lt Col Abdur Razzak Tarafdar, according to the report, said: 'Felani's killing by the BSF was not only a breach of international law but a gross violation of human rights and a display of barbaric inhumanity.' The report recommended that the government should take steps to end such violations.

Even Manabadhikar Suraksha Manch, a human rights organisation in India, also protested against the BSF cruelty. The MSM chairman Kiriti Ray said: 'There is no rule in India to kill people by shooting. But BSF soldiers are not obeying the rule. Almost every day BSF is killing Bangladeshi people. In every case BSF shows the same reason that they had to shoot at Bangladeshi smugglers and the smugglers attacked BSF first.' The MSM chairman questioned: 'Was Felani a smuggler? She was unarmed, she was tangled! How could she attack BSF?'

Felani was not the only Bangladeshi victim at the hands of the BSF. According to the international human rights group Human Rights Watch, in 2010, the BSF killed 74 Bangladeshis, injured 72 and kidnapped 43.

Felani in Bangla means 'a discard', an unwanted person or a thing that is thrown away. It should be anybody's wonder: 'Why did her parents choose her name to be Felani? Was Felani an unwanted child?' No! The truth rather is quite the contrary. Given the high infant mortality rate in rural Bangladesh, due to diseases, malnutrition and complicacies during childbirth, parents get frustrated when they lose one infant after another in succession. Parents, who are mostly illiterate and totally ignorant of modern medical science, put the blame of their babies' death on someone else's casting evil eyes on their newborns. In order to avert the evil gaze from their children and to make their children less attractive to the neighbours, frustrated parents, after immature deaths of their earlier children, choose a weird name like 'Felani' (a discard) or 'Pocha' (rotten) for their newborn, hoping for his/her longer life.

So, Felani was a cherished baby to her parents. Her parents earnestly wished for her long life. But, the BSF discarded Felani as an object to shoot at — perhaps as a part of their shooting practice. But, we cannot afford to discard Felani, her story, her images from the album of our memory.

Neither Nurul Islam nor his daughter Felani Khatun was aware of the rules and protocols of border security arrangements. Felani was merely climbing a ladder in the hope of translating a dream of her happy marriage into reality.

We must not remain silent on January 7, the day Felani died for no fault of her own. Can't we declare January 7 'Felani Day'? Shouldn't Felani's death fire zeal in us for strengthening our will to guard our dignity and sovereignty?

Maswood Alam Khan is a retired banker. maswood@hotmail.com

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/editorial/46125.html



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Re: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age



1. I just wanted to say that religious or theological or metaphysical concepts are so deep rooted in our psyche or conscious that even though we may claim not to be religious, we still describe our identity using the terms and concepts invented by preachers, theologians (probably ancient philosophers and metaphysicians also).  
 
2. In a debate over religions, I will use the word "faith" very carefully. "Faith" is basically blind although it's level can be heightened by using reason. If reason is unbounded, "faith" in religious concepts and constructs are bound to vanish into the thin air. Dr. Engineer does not want that. He advocates for a balance and an equilibrium in which reason and faith are happily married. I don't agree with him that believers are happier or more honest than the nonbelievers. 
 
3. Scientific findings are testable, unfortunately, religious "findings" are not. Religious "findings" are absolute and authoritative. Interpretations and reinterpretations are possible. But there is a limit in doing that. As we keep on doing it, eventually it will completely lose its religious flavor and turn into a religion of man (spirituality) making all revealed scriptures and rituals irrelevant. I don't think it is desirable to Dr. Engineer.    
From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2012 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age

 
SC Said: "Although Dr. Roy claims that his religious ideology is not biased by any religious ideology, he easily invokes the concepts of God and Karma. Dr. Roy has also used the word "faith" loosely. "  
JR Response:
I think that religion is manmade, and, although, it is about God, God has nothing to do with it.
The meanings of "Faith" and "Belief" are the same. We believe in many things. We can't live and work without it. We are not faithless people, are we?
But, if you are talking about religious-faithless people, yes there are many. You need to separate religion from God to understand what I am trying to say. God exists only in the concept, not in reality. We have to remember that - people were worshipping God long before the concept of religion was developed. You don't need to believe in religion to believe in the concept of God. The bottom line is - you can develop one to one relationship with God without religion. If you do not want to do that, you are an atheist. 
By "Karma" – I mean "Deed" - as you sow, so you reap.
Jiten Roy

From: subimal chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2012 3:06 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age

 
  • First part of Engineer's article reminds me of the Sufi or Baul philosophy and Rabindranath's "religion of man" as well. The nature of religion discussed in this part is purely spiritualistic and hence innocent. Strong emphasis by the author on the positive role of a happy marriage between reason and faith can also be a welcome proposition by many. Analysis of the use of religion as a tool of exploitation by the religious leaders and establishments is also commendable. But by equally emphasizing on the potential role of a religion and its followers in establishing an exploitation free society, the author has indirectly and unconsciously preached a jihadi mantra. This mantra will encourage political religions. Although positive role of religion as a change agent is not very rare in the history of changes of societies, negative roles will far exceed the positive roles. In this sense Dr. Engineer's proposition is a dangerous one. In Engineer's model of socio-political change, secular forces will have minimum role. Eventually the widely abandoned principle of the separation of "church and state" will be revived.
  • Distinction between "faith" and "blind faith" is volatile. For a believer, concepts of God, gods, angels, and revelations are matters of faith; they are also matters of "blind faith" as it will be treated as irreligious to challenge these concepts with reason. Here comes the question of various levels of faith, highest level being a religious person's one-to-one communication or connection with God. This person will not mix religion with politics.
  • The use of the phrase "faith in a religion" along with "faith in an ism or a science" has been improper. Faith in a religion is in general blind although the faith can be pushed higher and higher by using reason. On the other hand one can have trust or confidence in a science or an ism. This trust or confidence is based on reason, theories, experiments, logic, etc. I hope this misplacement has not been an intellectual dishonesty on the part of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer.     
  • Although Dr. Roy claims that his religious ideology is not biased by any religious ideology, he easily invokes the concepts of God and Karma. Dr. Roy has also used the word "faith" loosely.           

From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2012 11:27 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age

 

It's a nicely written article. Everything author has said coincides with my belief. In fact, I have been preaching these messages for a while. By saying this, I am not trying to diminish author's intellectual prowess.  He is a superb secular religious scholar.  I am not. My religious ideology is based on my own observations and reasoning, not biased by any religious ideology. Unfortunately, author fell short in this regard. But, it's an mind-opening piece, nonetheless.
I believe - faith is the foundation of every step we take. Very first attempt of our every action begins with faith. So, no one can denounce his/her faith. In fact, the "Proton-Crusher" experiment at CERN to find the origin of the Universe is based on faith also. Trillions of dollars are invested on this faith. Faith is our integral part of our life. We can't denounce it even if we want to.
Now, blind-faith is a different story. It's the most dangerous practice of the most intelligent species on earth. We should be ashamed of it. It's the mother of all problems with religion. Where did it come from? It came from religious books, like Quran, Gita, Bible, Torah, etc. All religious books preach total surrender, without judgment or criticism. That's called "blind-faith." I know all preachers took advantage of it. Why not, if it works? Therefore, unlike the author, I blame religious books for this. These books are full of contradictions, and all criticisms of these books are forbidden by divine injunctions. If you believe in the absoluteness of these messages, we are not going anywhere. That's where I differ from the author.
Yes, religion has been reduced to an identifier of who we are. The truth is - we all fall into one of the religious cults, whether we actively follow or not.
However, Martin Luther's ideology is the best among the bunch, which advocates one to one relationship with God, without going through an agent. To achieve this goal, one does not need a religious identifier or a preacher. We are humans, and this is the only identifier we need.  You could say, how do we know – what to do to establish that relationship with God? I would answer that question with another question – how did scientists know what to do to achieve their objectives? They start with a hypothesis (faith), and then do experimentations with it. If it fails to bring intended result, they reject it, and try another one. That's the only way to find out the truth.
Good and bad Karmas are pretty well known and established through millions of years of experimentations with nature and reality. All we have to do now is to practice them. We don't need to read religious books to find them out. In fact, it is best not to read them at all, if you want to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. I know many will quote verses from here and there to disprove me. But, if you read the entire text you are bound to get confused at the end.
Jiten Roy
 
 

From: csss1 <csss2work@gmail.com>
To: muhammadkhalidmasud@hotmail.com; jih@vsnl.com; muhammed.behram@gmail.com; muhsin@jaffer.org; mujdeb@superonline.com; ideamumbai@yahoo.com; mujeeburrahmankinalur@hotmail.com; akmukadam@rediffmail.com; mukesh.khanna2@gmail.com; mukesheart@rediffmail.com; oxfamnag@nagpur.dot.net.in; mukta@riseup.net; mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com; mukul@hbfasia.org; mumbaipublicaffairs@state.gov; ifwukhan@bgl.vsnl.net.in; prof.dr.khan_kgn@vsnl.net; hgmat@vsnl.com; mumtu1@hotmail.com; baigmunawar@hotmail.com; humsab_india@hotmail.com; mkmuneer@niyamasabha.org; muneer.khalili@hotmail.com
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2012 4:58 AM
Subject: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age

 
RELIGION AS FAITH AND RELIGION AS AN IDENTITY
 
Asghar Ali Engineer
 
(Islam and Modern Age, January 2012.)
 
What is religion? It is much misunderstood and complex. So many different factors are associated with it. Some people follow religions blindly, some reject it totally and some as a tool for their own interests and religion in history has often been used as most effective tool for grabbing power. Thus religion arouses very complex and contradictory sentiments. Theologians and religious leaders think it is most essential part of human life and condemn those who reject it.
 
Also, theologians and religious leaders maintain what they think and say is true religion and divine commands and all others must obey them unquestioningly and anyone who raises question or criticizes them must be ex-communicated in this life and will be condemned to hell in coming life wherein they will burn eternally. Thus wrath of theologians becomes divine wrath.
 
Religion as such creates complex forces and problems and if it becomes powerful establishment, it assumes even graver forms and then begins the politics to control the religious establishment. The priests, theologians and religious leaders behave as if they are politicians and legitimize their power by invoking God and persecute those who challenge their authority or understanding of religion.
 
It was struggle between Church and independent thinkers which caused much conflict and ultimately many independent thinkers rejected religious doctrines and also the concept of God. There were two types of revolts against religion and against religious establishment. Some independent thinkers who were studying universe, its origin and development found the church doctrines unscientific and unacceptable and hence rejected them. Many of them became atheists though not all.
 
Then persons like Martin Luther revolted against the established church and maintained that we don't need an agent between God and human being. Every human being can establish direct relationship with God. Every human being can understand Bible if it is in his/her language. Thus he translated the Bible into German so that all Germans can understand the Bible. The Church was not allowing the Bible to be translated from Latin into other languages.
 
Similarly at one time The Muslim theologians were not allowing Qur'an to be translated from Arabic into other languages and when Shah Waliyullah in 18th century translated it into Persian, his hand was dislocated so that he could not write. Similarly Brahmins did not allow Hindu scriptures like Vedas and Gita etc. to be translated from Sanskrit into people's languages. If religious scriptures were allowed to be translated they will lose their mystique and priests would lose their importance and prestige. Their importance could be maintained only if they were the interpreters of these scriptures.
 
However, today things are changing fast with spread of knowledge through latest means of communications. People are no more ignorant like in medieval ages. Today knowledge is within reach of all human beings and no more available only to the elite. The printing technology also has undergone revolution and books can be made available easily, even in electronic form.
 
The other groups i.e. one who was studying origin of universe had much more serious problems with religious leadership or theologians. These theologians hardly knew anything about the universe and its origin and interpreted what was stated in Bible or Qur'an on the basis of their ignorance rather than knowledge of external universe. The scientists, on the other hand, were observing the universe and constantly improved their instruments of observations and drew drastically different conclusions.
 
The priesthood, on the other hand, had based their opinions on Greek scientists and others and thought their opinions were divine in nature. It was because of such approach that they punished Galileo when he said that it is earth which goes round the Sun and not sun around the earth. Thus an artificial conflict developed between scientists and theologians and it is theologians who had to accept defeat.
 
Because of such conflict many great thinkers, writers and scientists like Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Stephen Hawking and so on, became skeptical about validity of theological conclusion. It is not business of theologians to talk about science unless they have thorough knowledge about it. Still there is great controversy about what is called creationism and evolution and theologians reject the concept of evolution as Bible or Qur'an refer to God's injunction "Be and it Became" and maintain one cannot challenge this Divine injunction.
 
But the real question is how to understand these divine words and whether as Sir Syed put it there cannot be contradiction between word of God and work of God; while Bible, Qur'an etc. are words of God, universe and its laws are work of God. One has to reconcile the two and while we study work of God through observations, we should understand word of God through appropriate interpretation.
 
Until yesterday theologians maintained that the Universe was few thousand years old but today scientists have concluded that our universe is 20 billion years old. Now science has so well developed that no theologian in his senses will challenge these conclusions of expert physicists etc. If they do it would be sheer theological and human arrogance and nothing else. Only way is to suitably interpret word of God.
 
II
 
RELIGION AND FAITH
 
In view of all these complex questions the key question is what is faith? Is faith, as rationalists and atheists maintain, always blind? Can it be rational and whether wherever there faith, there is religion or religion is necessarily based on blind faith? These are important question and must be dispassionately answered rising above ideological considerations. Both believers in religion as well as believers in rationalism often take extreme position with the result that objectivity suffers on both sides.
 
What is needed is a balanced point of view.  Both religion and science or religion and reason are essential part of human life. Faith in human life is as essential as reason. But due to human weakness while faith tends to become blind reason begins to be worshipped by rationalists. Both do not understand the limitation of faith and reason. Neither faith nor reason can ever be absolute.
 
Blind faith is blind first and faith later and something which is blind cannot see, much less understand anything. Qur'an calls knowledge as light and ignorance as darkness and urges upon us to acquire knowledge and liberate ourselves from darkness. Thus blind faith is always based on ignorance and amounts to grope in darkness. It is curse for humanity and since whole of medieval ages we based our beliefs on blind faith we remained ignorant about what is there out there. We could not understand the creation of one whom we worshipped and pretended to admire. We can admire the Creator only when we understand the wonderful creation that our universe is.
 
Thus blind faith leads us nowhere except in the blind fold of blind theologians and religious leaders who exploit us. However that does not mean faith is always blind as our rationalist friends maintain. Faith plays profound role in human life. Faith and love are two important pillars of our life and both provide us with positive creative passions and these passions provide us with energy that drives us forward. If I do not have faith life will be full of doubts and negative passions which will be destructive.
 
Doubt or scepticism is important in intellectual world as by doubting earlier propositions we go further and evolve new propositions. But doubt is spiritual world can be very negative and destructive. And would rob us of inner peace. While it is scepticism which is creative in the intellectual world, it is faith which is highly necessary for inner peace and stability in the spiritual world. Thus it is creative collaboration between faith and reason which makes us highly productive and dynamic.
 
Human life consists of both external and internal world and one without the other is incomplete. Reason is very necessary to know what is out there and faith is very necessary to know what is in here. In west today whole emphasis is on what is out there, on science, reason and material world. It makes human beings, as Herbert Marcuse calls it 'one dimensional human being. We all the time engage ourselves with the world out there leaving our inner world totally barren. It leads to many psychological crises.
 
Some people, on the other hand, lay all the emphasis on the inner world leaving us totally ignorant about the world out there. Without knowledge of external world out there we cannot improve our material life which is also essential part of our life. We have to deal with life as a whole, not with one part alone. We need both external dynamism and inner stability, we need external improvement and inner richness, thus we need both faith as well as reason, doubt as well as belief.
 
A productive personality in psychological terms, is product of inner profundity and stability. Only doubting intellect will make human being more destructive than productive. That is why in Qur'an there is so much emphasis on what is called iman which is roughly translated as faith. Faith gives inner satisfaction but blind faith on one hand, and faith without freedom to inquire is a barren faith, a serious obstacle for change and progress. Faith with right to freedom of inquiry is real and productive faith.
 
Once we acquire faith after critical inquiry, it becomes a dynamo for action. One cannot act without faith. Even Marxists act out of faith in Marxism. No action is possible without faith and any ideology without action is mere theory on paper. Marx also insisted that what is important is to change the world and world can be changed only if you act. Thus those who reject faith is throwing baby along with bath water. Doubting minds can never change the world.
 
What we have to reject is not faith per se but various accretions which keep on occurring from superstitious belies, cultural practices and external traditions and restore genuine faith after critical inquiry and only such a faith will become impetus for action. In fact one should be firmly rooted in ones faith. Iman, Qur'an says, is a great source of inner conviction and certitude. While doubt is alright for critical inquiry but certitude is must for action.
 
            
                                                                    III
FAITH AS AN IDENTITY
 
Faith becomes a problem when it is reduced to an identity rather than inner certitude. Faith becomes religion and religion creates a community with which believers identify. Religious community is invariably led by some leaders through an establishment and establishment has its own identity and power politics for control. The leaders are more interested in controlling establishment rather than keeping the faith alive and agent of change. Faith thus becomes mere formality.
 
The believer also find his/her own benefits in religion as an instrument of identification. 'I am a Muslim' or 'I am a Hindu' no more remains a statement of faith and action or a powerful factor for change in keeping with its principles and values but as an instrument of material benefits or control over establishment. I as a Muslim must get so much share in power or I as a Sunni or Shi'ah must control this or that establishment.
 
Faith is thus no more dynamo for action according to inner certitude but an instrument of controlling establishments. Thus a truly religious person or a faithful has to be subversive, subversive of establishment. All the Prophets challenged establishments of their time. Hazrat Ibrahim challenged Nimrud and Hazrat Musa Pharoah. Except two Prophets i.e. Dawood and Suleiman, of all the Prophets mentioned in the Qur'an, were from weaker sections of society and fought for the rights of weaker sections.
 
A person of faith creates new world which is just and compassionate and does not accept the world he/she inherits which is unjust and cruel and exploits weaker sections of society. Faith and hope become powerful instruments or one who seeks to change this world. And one who seeks to change the world also needs knowledge which helps in bringing about change.
 
Thus one has to decide whether one acquires faith as a powerful instrument for change or equally powerful instrument for controlling a establishment. Religious leaders generally oppose change as stagnant faith is helpful in retaining their leadership. The Qur'anic prayer "Lord increase me in knowledge" is very meaningful. It is ever increasing knowledge which keeps our faith alive and dynamic and enables believers to understand new mechanisms of exploitation by those who control establishment.
 
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was a great subverter of his time and successfully challenged the powerful establishment of powerful Meccan traders who were busy accumulating wealth neglecting truth, justice, compassion for the suffering of others and voiceless of Mecca had become more voiceless. The Prophet (PBUH) gave them a powerful voice with knowledge and made them aware of their rights and dignity.
 
Equipped with this knowledge and awareness of human dignity and equality and values of new faith Muslims brought a great revolution and the two most powerful but feudal empires i.e. the Roman and Sassanid Empires were swept away. But unfortunately soon Islam itself became a powerful empire first controlled by Umayyads and then by Abbasids and subsequently other smaller and regional empires and totally lost its vigour and dynamism.
 
The Islamic Shari'ah also became stagnant over period of time and lost its thrust for justice and powerful instrument of change. Instead, whatever earlier jurists had formulated became 'divine law' and began to be defended as 'divine' and 'immutable and cannot be changed until the Day of Judgment. With such stagnant attitude Islam became mere identity and its sects and sub-sects powerful establishments to be controlled by its respective leaders.
 
No wonder than Muslims who had once led the world in knowledge and advancement of several branches of science from medicine to astronomy to physics to mathematics were left far behind and its religious leaders began to denounce new inventions of science like the Catholic Church had done earlier. For them faith became now a mere identity and each sect of Islam began to defend its own identity in order to benefit from these sectarian establishments.
 
The Qur'an was also reduced to sectarian polemics and proving the other sect wrong instead of guidance for change and inspiration for creating a new world on the basis of values enshrined in the Qur'an. Otherwise Islam would be nothing more than conglomeration of various sects, each sect being a powerful establishment and leaders of these sects proving others wrong and deserve only hell.
 
I do not think with such attitude Muslims are ever going to contribute anything to the contemporary world and its progress. Earlier we change our view of Islam and its universal values, our faith will remain only an identity.
------------------------------------------------                        
 Institute of Islamic Studies,
Mumbai.
 










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Re: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age



SC Said: "Although Dr. Roy claims that his religious ideology is not biased by any religious ideology, he easily invokes the concepts of God and Karma. Dr. Roy has also used the word "faith" loosely. "  
JR Response:
I think that religion is manmade, and, although, it is about God, God has nothing to do with it.
The meanings of "Faith" and "Belief" are the same. We believe in many things. We can't live and work without it. We are not faithless people, are we?
But, if you are talking about religious-faithless people, yes there are many. You need to separate religion from God to understand what I am trying to say. God exists only in the concept, not in reality. We have to remember that - people were worshipping God long before the concept of religion was developed. You don't need to believe in religion to believe in the concept of God. The bottom line is - you can develop one to one relationship with God without religion. If you do not want to do that, you are an atheist. 
By "Karma" – I mean "Deed" - as you sow, so you reap.
Jiten Roy

From: subimal chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2012 3:06 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age

 
  • First part of Engineer's article reminds me of the Sufi or Baul philosophy and Rabindranath's "religion of man" as well. The nature of religion discussed in this part is purely spiritualistic and hence innocent. Strong emphasis by the author on the positive role of a happy marriage between reason and faith can also be a welcome proposition by many. Analysis of the use of religion as a tool of exploitation by the religious leaders and establishments is also commendable. But by equally emphasizing on the potential role of a religion and its followers in establishing an exploitation free society, the author has indirectly and unconsciously preached a jihadi mantra. This mantra will encourage political religions. Although positive role of religion as a change agent is not very rare in the history of changes of societies, negative roles will far exceed the positive roles. In this sense Dr. Engineer's proposition is a dangerous one. In Engineer's model of socio-political change, secular forces will have minimum role. Eventually the widely abandoned principle of the separation of "church and state" will be revived.
  • Distinction between "faith" and "blind faith" is volatile. For a believer, concepts of God, gods, angels, and revelations are matters of faith; they are also matters of "blind faith" as it will be treated as irreligious to challenge these concepts with reason. Here comes the question of various levels of faith, highest level being a religious person's one-to-one communication or connection with God. This person will not mix religion with politics.
  • The use of the phrase "faith in a religion" along with "faith in an ism or a science" has been improper. Faith in a religion is in general blind although the faith can be pushed higher and higher by using reason. On the other hand one can have trust or confidence in a science or an ism. This trust or confidence is based on reason, theories, experiments, logic, etc. I hope this misplacement has not been an intellectual dishonesty on the part of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer.     
  • Although Dr. Roy claims that his religious ideology is not biased by any religious ideology, he easily invokes the concepts of God and Karma. Dr. Roy has also used the word "faith" loosely.           

From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2012 11:27 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age

 

It's a nicely written article. Everything author has said coincides with my belief. In fact, I have been preaching these messages for a while. By saying this, I am not trying to diminish author's intellectual prowess.  He is a superb secular religious scholar.  I am not. My religious ideology is based on my own observations and reasoning, not biased by any religious ideology. Unfortunately, author fell short in this regard. But, it's an mind-opening piece, nonetheless.
I believe - faith is the foundation of every step we take. Very first attempt of our every action begins with faith. So, no one can denounce his/her faith. In fact, the "Proton-Crusher" experiment at CERN to find the origin of the Universe is based on faith also. Trillions of dollars are invested on this faith. Faith is our integral part of our life. We can't denounce it even if we want to.
Now, blind-faith is a different story. It's the most dangerous practice of the most intelligent species on earth. We should be ashamed of it. It's the mother of all problems with religion. Where did it come from? It came from religious books, like Quran, Gita, Bible, Torah, etc. All religious books preach total surrender, without judgment or criticism. That's called "blind-faith." I know all preachers took advantage of it. Why not, if it works? Therefore, unlike the author, I blame religious books for this. These books are full of contradictions, and all criticisms of these books are forbidden by divine injunctions. If you believe in the absoluteness of these messages, we are not going anywhere. That's where I differ from the author.
Yes, religion has been reduced to an identifier of who we are. The truth is - we all fall into one of the religious cults, whether we actively follow or not.
However, Martin Luther's ideology is the best among the bunch, which advocates one to one relationship with God, without going through an agent. To achieve this goal, one does not need a religious identifier or a preacher. We are humans, and this is the only identifier we need.  You could say, how do we know – what to do to establish that relationship with God? I would answer that question with another question – how did scientists know what to do to achieve their objectives? They start with a hypothesis (faith), and then do experimentations with it. If it fails to bring intended result, they reject it, and try another one. That's the only way to find out the truth.
Good and bad Karmas are pretty well known and established through millions of years of experimentations with nature and reality. All we have to do now is to practice them. We don't need to read religious books to find them out. In fact, it is best not to read them at all, if you want to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. I know many will quote verses from here and there to disprove me. But, if you read the entire text you are bound to get confused at the end.
Jiten Roy
 
 

From: csss1 <csss2work@gmail.com>
To: muhammadkhalidmasud@hotmail.com; jih@vsnl.com; muhammed.behram@gmail.com; muhsin@jaffer.org; mujdeb@superonline.com; ideamumbai@yahoo.com; mujeeburrahmankinalur@hotmail.com; akmukadam@rediffmail.com; mukesh.khanna2@gmail.com; mukesheart@rediffmail.com; oxfamnag@nagpur.dot.net.in; mukta@riseup.net; mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com; mukul@hbfasia.org; mumbaipublicaffairs@state.gov; ifwukhan@bgl.vsnl.net.in; prof.dr.khan_kgn@vsnl.net; hgmat@vsnl.com; mumtu1@hotmail.com; baigmunawar@hotmail.com; humsab_india@hotmail.com; mkmuneer@niyamasabha.org; muneer.khalili@hotmail.com
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2012 4:58 AM
Subject: [mukto-mona] Islam and Modern age

 
RELIGION AS FAITH AND RELIGION AS AN IDENTITY
 
Asghar Ali Engineer
 
(Islam and Modern Age, January 2012.)
 
What is religion? It is much misunderstood and complex. So many different factors are associated with it. Some people follow religions blindly, some reject it totally and some as a tool for their own interests and religion in history has often been used as most effective tool for grabbing power. Thus religion arouses very complex and contradictory sentiments. Theologians and religious leaders think it is most essential part of human life and condemn those who reject it.
 
Also, theologians and religious leaders maintain what they think and say is true religion and divine commands and all others must obey them unquestioningly and anyone who raises question or criticizes them must be ex-communicated in this life and will be condemned to hell in coming life wherein they will burn eternally. Thus wrath of theologians becomes divine wrath.
 
Religion as such creates complex forces and problems and if it becomes powerful establishment, it assumes even graver forms and then begins the politics to control the religious establishment. The priests, theologians and religious leaders behave as if they are politicians and legitimize their power by invoking God and persecute those who challenge their authority or understanding of religion.
 
It was struggle between Church and independent thinkers which caused much conflict and ultimately many independent thinkers rejected religious doctrines and also the concept of God. There were two types of revolts against religion and against religious establishment. Some independent thinkers who were studying universe, its origin and development found the church doctrines unscientific and unacceptable and hence rejected them. Many of them became atheists though not all.
 
Then persons like Martin Luther revolted against the established church and maintained that we don't need an agent between God and human being. Every human being can establish direct relationship with God. Every human being can understand Bible if it is in his/her language. Thus he translated the Bible into German so that all Germans can understand the Bible. The Church was not allowing the Bible to be translated from Latin into other languages.
 
Similarly at one time The Muslim theologians were not allowing Qur'an to be translated from Arabic into other languages and when Shah Waliyullah in 18th century translated it into Persian, his hand was dislocated so that he could not write. Similarly Brahmins did not allow Hindu scriptures like Vedas and Gita etc. to be translated from Sanskrit into people's languages. If religious scriptures were allowed to be translated they will lose their mystique and priests would lose their importance and prestige. Their importance could be maintained only if they were the interpreters of these scriptures.
 
However, today things are changing fast with spread of knowledge through latest means of communications. People are no more ignorant like in medieval ages. Today knowledge is within reach of all human beings and no more available only to the elite. The printing technology also has undergone revolution and books can be made available easily, even in electronic form.
 
The other groups i.e. one who was studying origin of universe had much more serious problems with religious leadership or theologians. These theologians hardly knew anything about the universe and its origin and interpreted what was stated in Bible or Qur'an on the basis of their ignorance rather than knowledge of external universe. The scientists, on the other hand, were observing the universe and constantly improved their instruments of observations and drew drastically different conclusions.
 
The priesthood, on the other hand, had based their opinions on Greek scientists and others and thought their opinions were divine in nature. It was because of such approach that they punished Galileo when he said that it is earth which goes round the Sun and not sun around the earth. Thus an artificial conflict developed between scientists and theologians and it is theologians who had to accept defeat.
 
Because of such conflict many great thinkers, writers and scientists like Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Stephen Hawking and so on, became skeptical about validity of theological conclusion. It is not business of theologians to talk about science unless they have thorough knowledge about it. Still there is great controversy about what is called creationism and evolution and theologians reject the concept of evolution as Bible or Qur'an refer to God's injunction "Be and it Became" and maintain one cannot challenge this Divine injunction.
 
But the real question is how to understand these divine words and whether as Sir Syed put it there cannot be contradiction between word of God and work of God; while Bible, Qur'an etc. are words of God, universe and its laws are work of God. One has to reconcile the two and while we study work of God through observations, we should understand word of God through appropriate interpretation.
 
Until yesterday theologians maintained that the Universe was few thousand years old but today scientists have concluded that our universe is 20 billion years old. Now science has so well developed that no theologian in his senses will challenge these conclusions of expert physicists etc. If they do it would be sheer theological and human arrogance and nothing else. Only way is to suitably interpret word of God.
 
II
 
RELIGION AND FAITH
 
In view of all these complex questions the key question is what is faith? Is faith, as rationalists and atheists maintain, always blind? Can it be rational and whether wherever there faith, there is religion or religion is necessarily based on blind faith? These are important question and must be dispassionately answered rising above ideological considerations. Both believers in religion as well as believers in rationalism often take extreme position with the result that objectivity suffers on both sides.
 
What is needed is a balanced point of view.  Both religion and science or religion and reason are essential part of human life. Faith in human life is as essential as reason. But due to human weakness while faith tends to become blind reason begins to be worshipped by rationalists. Both do not understand the limitation of faith and reason. Neither faith nor reason can ever be absolute.
 
Blind faith is blind first and faith later and something which is blind cannot see, much less understand anything. Qur'an calls knowledge as light and ignorance as darkness and urges upon us to acquire knowledge and liberate ourselves from darkness. Thus blind faith is always based on ignorance and amounts to grope in darkness. It is curse for humanity and since whole of medieval ages we based our beliefs on blind faith we remained ignorant about what is there out there. We could not understand the creation of one whom we worshipped and pretended to admire. We can admire the Creator only when we understand the wonderful creation that our universe is.
 
Thus blind faith leads us nowhere except in the blind fold of blind theologians and religious leaders who exploit us. However that does not mean faith is always blind as our rationalist friends maintain. Faith plays profound role in human life. Faith and love are two important pillars of our life and both provide us with positive creative passions and these passions provide us with energy that drives us forward. If I do not have faith life will be full of doubts and negative passions which will be destructive.
 
Doubt or scepticism is important in intellectual world as by doubting earlier propositions we go further and evolve new propositions. But doubt is spiritual world can be very negative and destructive. And would rob us of inner peace. While it is scepticism which is creative in the intellectual world, it is faith which is highly necessary for inner peace and stability in the spiritual world. Thus it is creative collaboration between faith and reason which makes us highly productive and dynamic.
 
Human life consists of both external and internal world and one without the other is incomplete. Reason is very necessary to know what is out there and faith is very necessary to know what is in here. In west today whole emphasis is on what is out there, on science, reason and material world. It makes human beings, as Herbert Marcuse calls it 'one dimensional human being. We all the time engage ourselves with the world out there leaving our inner world totally barren. It leads to many psychological crises.
 
Some people, on the other hand, lay all the emphasis on the inner world leaving us totally ignorant about the world out there. Without knowledge of external world out there we cannot improve our material life which is also essential part of our life. We have to deal with life as a whole, not with one part alone. We need both external dynamism and inner stability, we need external improvement and inner richness, thus we need both faith as well as reason, doubt as well as belief.
 
A productive personality in psychological terms, is product of inner profundity and stability. Only doubting intellect will make human being more destructive than productive. That is why in Qur'an there is so much emphasis on what is called iman which is roughly translated as faith. Faith gives inner satisfaction but blind faith on one hand, and faith without freedom to inquire is a barren faith, a serious obstacle for change and progress. Faith with right to freedom of inquiry is real and productive faith.
 
Once we acquire faith after critical inquiry, it becomes a dynamo for action. One cannot act without faith. Even Marxists act out of faith in Marxism. No action is possible without faith and any ideology without action is mere theory on paper. Marx also insisted that what is important is to change the world and world can be changed only if you act. Thus those who reject faith is throwing baby along with bath water. Doubting minds can never change the world.
 
What we have to reject is not faith per se but various accretions which keep on occurring from superstitious belies, cultural practices and external traditions and restore genuine faith after critical inquiry and only such a faith will become impetus for action. In fact one should be firmly rooted in ones faith. Iman, Qur'an says, is a great source of inner conviction and certitude. While doubt is alright for critical inquiry but certitude is must for action.
 
            
                                                                    III
FAITH AS AN IDENTITY
 
Faith becomes a problem when it is reduced to an identity rather than inner certitude. Faith becomes religion and religion creates a community with which believers identify. Religious community is invariably led by some leaders through an establishment and establishment has its own identity and power politics for control. The leaders are more interested in controlling establishment rather than keeping the faith alive and agent of change. Faith thus becomes mere formality.
 
The believer also find his/her own benefits in religion as an instrument of identification. 'I am a Muslim' or 'I am a Hindu' no more remains a statement of faith and action or a powerful factor for change in keeping with its principles and values but as an instrument of material benefits or control over establishment. I as a Muslim must get so much share in power or I as a Sunni or Shi'ah must control this or that establishment.
 
Faith is thus no more dynamo for action according to inner certitude but an instrument of controlling establishments. Thus a truly religious person or a faithful has to be subversive, subversive of establishment. All the Prophets challenged establishments of their time. Hazrat Ibrahim challenged Nimrud and Hazrat Musa Pharoah. Except two Prophets i.e. Dawood and Suleiman, of all the Prophets mentioned in the Qur'an, were from weaker sections of society and fought for the rights of weaker sections.
 
A person of faith creates new world which is just and compassionate and does not accept the world he/she inherits which is unjust and cruel and exploits weaker sections of society. Faith and hope become powerful instruments or one who seeks to change this world. And one who seeks to change the world also needs knowledge which helps in bringing about change.
 
Thus one has to decide whether one acquires faith as a powerful instrument for change or equally powerful instrument for controlling a establishment. Religious leaders generally oppose change as stagnant faith is helpful in retaining their leadership. The Qur'anic prayer "Lord increase me in knowledge" is very meaningful. It is ever increasing knowledge which keeps our faith alive and dynamic and enables believers to understand new mechanisms of exploitation by those who control establishment.
 
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was a great subverter of his time and successfully challenged the powerful establishment of powerful Meccan traders who were busy accumulating wealth neglecting truth, justice, compassion for the suffering of others and voiceless of Mecca had become more voiceless. The Prophet (PBUH) gave them a powerful voice with knowledge and made them aware of their rights and dignity.
 
Equipped with this knowledge and awareness of human dignity and equality and values of new faith Muslims brought a great revolution and the two most powerful but feudal empires i.e. the Roman and Sassanid Empires were swept away. But unfortunately soon Islam itself became a powerful empire first controlled by Umayyads and then by Abbasids and subsequently other smaller and regional empires and totally lost its vigour and dynamism.
 
The Islamic Shari'ah also became stagnant over period of time and lost its thrust for justice and powerful instrument of change. Instead, whatever earlier jurists had formulated became 'divine law' and began to be defended as 'divine' and 'immutable and cannot be changed until the Day of Judgment. With such stagnant attitude Islam became mere identity and its sects and sub-sects powerful establishments to be controlled by its respective leaders.
 
No wonder than Muslims who had once led the world in knowledge and advancement of several branches of science from medicine to astronomy to physics to mathematics were left far behind and its religious leaders began to denounce new inventions of science like the Catholic Church had done earlier. For them faith became now a mere identity and each sect of Islam began to defend its own identity in order to benefit from these sectarian establishments.
 
The Qur'an was also reduced to sectarian polemics and proving the other sect wrong instead of guidance for change and inspiration for creating a new world on the basis of values enshrined in the Qur'an. Otherwise Islam would be nothing more than conglomeration of various sects, each sect being a powerful establishment and leaders of these sects proving others wrong and deserve only hell.
 
I do not think with such attitude Muslims are ever going to contribute anything to the contemporary world and its progress. Earlier we change our view of Islam and its universal values, our faith will remain only an identity.
------------------------------------------------                        
 Institute of Islamic Studies,
Mumbai.
 








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Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration: 
Call For Articles:

http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=68

http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=585

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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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