Religious Bullying: Dangers Ahead!
We seem to be passing through a phase in which people worldwide are displaying low level of toleration towards other religions or points of view. The growing suspicion is leading to bullying and hostility. This is posing a serious threat to world peace.
An interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor throws light on the subject. Writes Walter Rodgers: “Today political and religious leaders tend to snooze their way through the various manifestations of religious coercion and intimidation reminiscent of a darker medieval world.
“Religion should have a humanizing effect on its adherents. Civilizing barbarians was an original aim of Islam. Christianity is supposed to cultivate charity for all mankind. The original idea of loving thy neighbor as thyself was first articulated in Jewish Scripture.
“Yet when religion loses sight of its potential civilizing leaven, it risks merely becoming tyranny in subtler guise…Intimidation is intimidation, whether it’s found in Pakistan, Jerusalem, Florida, or northern Virginia.” More here…
Interestingly, there may come a time when the bullies, who are in minority but manage to hold the society to ransom, are sidelined by the majority.
Our colleague Holly has drawn my attention to an article in The Washington Post. “The threat of ‘Talibanization’ is being denounced in (Pakistan) Parliament and on opinion pages, and the original defenders of an agreement that authorized sharia in Swat are in sheepish retreat.” More here…
And here is The Economist’s take on Pakistani Taliban…
There is another must-read article:Pakistan is Already an Islamic State. It has been written by Ali Eteraz, an Outstanding Scholar at the U.S. Department of Justice who later worked in corporate litigation in Manhattan. He is a contributor to Pakistan’s Daily Times and Dawn newspapers and the author of the forthcoming prose work, Children of Dust (HarperOne). His website is: www.alieteraz.com.
Eteraz writes: “Most people in the world, including some Pakistanis, live under the illusion that the country is secular and just happens to have been overrun by extremists. This is false.
“Pakistan became an Islamic state in 1973 when the new constitution made Islam the state religion. Under the earlier 1956 constitution Islam had been merely the ‘official’ religion. Nineteen-seventy-three, in other words, represents Pakistan’s ‘Iran moment’ — when the government made itself beholden to religious law.”
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