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Religious Absolutism

Mir Adnan Aziz on 16, Feb 2012 | 10 Comments | in Category: Debate Desk

Mir Adnan Aziz

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“When you approach a town, you shall lay seizure to it, and when the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, the livestock, and everything in the town, all its spoils, and enjoy the spoil of your enemy which the Lord your God gives you. In the towns of the people which the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, you shall not let a soul remain alive.” (Exodus 20:15-18; Deuteronomy 20:12-16).

These verses are a part of the Old Testament, called Deuteronomy, holy both to Jews and Christians. However, an interpretation that the Torah or the Bible sanction violence would be extremely fallacious. Darwin’s evolution theory deemed God unnecessary. Freud tried his best to prove his irrelevance; Nietzsche declared him dead. No social order can exist on these mantras. Much as secularism is a buzzword today, religion is an integral part of each society.

Many historical travesties are unmentioned and ignored today. The war on critical thought plunged Western civilisation into a thousand years of ignorance and illiteracy. The Dark Ages were at the height of Christian power, yet that was when society found itself in its most miserable condition. Independent thought and any chance to improve human life was smothered deliberately. Absence of scientific knowledge led to a multitude dying of the plague and other diseases.

During the 4th-century rule of Emperor Constantine, “heretics” were killed in the name of God. This lasted till the witch-hunts in the 1700s. Bloodshed justified by religious dictum became a widely accepted doctrine. “Pagan” scholars were murdered; libraries were razed to the ground. Crusades and holy wars were fought to fulfil Biblical prophecies. Amongst the worst eras of brutality were the Papal, Roman and Spanish Inquisitions. People were branded dissenters, apostates and heretics and ruthlessly eliminated. Great scientists of the day, such as Giordano Bruno, were burnt alive at the stake.

Secular monarchs were supported to stamp out dissent among citizens throughout Europe. The most hideous torture methods and devices were employed toward this purpose.

It was the Muslim world that became a refuge for all those who fled this frenzied purge. Muslims ruled Spain for almost nine centuries. They lived with Jews and Christians in a spirit of peace and harmony. During this era Spain strived towards promotion of science and culture. This became a harbinger of the modern scientific revolution and its immense benefit to mankind. The Abbasids and Umayyads in Baghdad and Spain encouraged Jews and Christians and admitted them to schools and universities. Their boarding and lodging was borne by the state. However, the moment Muslims became weaker they were killed, converted or forced to leave Spain. Their heritage was destroyed.

During the early history of Christianity five cities, Antioch (Antakya in modern Turkey), Alexandria, Constantinople, Jerusalem and Rome were the hub of Christendom. With the rise of Western Christianity these centres were beleaguered. Western Christians gave the Eastern ones just two options – adherence to the Roman Catholic Church or death. With the advent of Islam Eastern Christians gave preference to Muslim rule as it allowed them to freely practice their own form of Christianity. This soon led to all these cities except Rome to opt for a dominion by the Muslims.

Hitler, the most demonised person in recent history, was born and raised Catholic. “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so,” this is how Hitler addressed Gen Gerhard Engel. In Mein Kampf he writes: “I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.” At a 1926 Christmas celebration, Hitler declared: “Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews. The work that Christ started but could not finish, I, Adolph Hitler, will conclude.”

The West invoked Divine mandate for the native Indian holocaust in America. President Bush did the same to perpetrate horrors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whatever made the Romans set off toward empire, the time came when conquest for the glory of Rome was reason enough.

Self-created ideologies are always self-justifying, more so by invocation of divine sanction. No religion is immune from misconceived absolutism. This fatal facet of religious absolutism allows neither competitors nor compromise. By the time the Roman Empire ended, the Church claimed that kings and emperors ruled by its sanction. They did.

Atrocities and the taking of innocent lives are not legitimised by any religion. What has been, and is, at play is the misconstrued fundamental understanding of respective faiths. Religious diversity, never entirely absent, should never be the cause or opportunity for conflict. Equally dangerous is branding a religion negatively for the forbidden actions of its faithful.

Karen Armstrong defines fundamentalist movements as “embattled forms of spirituality, which have emerged as a response to a perceived crisis.” Historically, self-created crises are given religious sanction. Today Islam, Christianity and Judaism face this embattled mindset. Each eyes the other with suspicion and derision. Ironically, followers of all three faiths are, as the Holy Quran says, “people of the scripture.” Christian Cherfils quotes Napolean in Bonaparte et Islam: “Moses has revealed the existence of God to his nation. Jesus Christ to the Roman world, Muhammad [pbuh] to the old continent.”

Islam, in its true spirit, is unequivocal in providing and assuring a peaceful society. It also teaches that tolerance does not mean accepting social injustice or the giving up of one’s convictions. After all, it was Islam that first emphasised and preached tolerance as an essentially integral part of religion.

“The tolerance within the body of Islam was, and is, something without parallel in history; class, race and colour ceasing altogether to be barriers.” This is how Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall described tolerance as an integral trait of Islam. Moreover, what could be a greater charter of human rights than the life and the last sermon of the Holy Prophet [pbuh]?

The words and deeds of the followers of these religions have tended to distort Divine teachings. What is being done in the name of Islam, on an individual basis today, is no exception. We have created a parasitic environment where feeding off faiths has become an accepted norm.

Tolerance and compassion has been the eternal message. The onus lies on those wielding greater economic and military power to reach out and bridge the divide. Afghans, Palestinians and Kashmiris are not the enemy but a people wronged. Their subjugation cannot be justified, their cause ensnares millions. Expecting peace without establishment of justice is a fallacy. Until all religions completely embrace interfaith harmony, we shall continue on this self-created, self-destructive path of the new Dark Age.

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