Violence as the core of religion

         

 

   I realise that my last article was incomplete without reference to other religions.So here it goes.

          There are those who say that there are enough passages in other religions that are equally violent as some in the Qu’ran. The Bible and Torah have many passages that talk of stoning and killing. For example

          Ezekiel 9:5-follow him through the city and kill            everyone whose forehead is not marked.Show no mercy,have no pity.Kill them all,old and young, girls and women and little children.    

          Deuteronomy 17:12-anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the holy man who represents God must be put to death.         

           Leviticus 24:16- anyone who blasphemes God’s name must be stoned to death by the whole community of believers.

          The catholic church committed some of the most ghastly crimes under the banner of inquisition.And,by the way,why only Abrahamic religions? Other faith such as as Buddhism,Hinduism,Sikhism and Jainism are not without there downside.Right..?
        Narasingaraja Naidu,a Professor of History at Bangalore University, is emphatic that the great emperor,Ashoka, was a Buddhist even before he waged the terrible war in Kalinga that killed 300,000 people.And today,Bhuddhist in Myanmar are actively inciting violence against Rohingya Muslims.Buddhist Sinhalese in Sri Lanka were responsible for the deaths of thousands of Tamils.In Thailand,Bhuddhist monks have taken to carrying arms under their robes.

         

 Let's then consider Hinduism.In the Manusmriti of the Hindus, a low caste who insults a high-caste shall have his tongue cut out or have hot oil poured into his mouth.The Mahabharata urges Arjuna to fight his family members.Hindus used to burn widows on the funeral pyre of their husband.The list of violent deeds is pretty long (Some so called intellectuals continue to taint Hinduism on such basis) 

          Sikh texts have been misused to justify terrorism to support the Khalistan Movement.Jainism permits people to starve themselves to death and hundreds actually do it each year in India.

                  So I must ask: what makes these religions different to Islam? I think that there are two things that distinguish them.One- adherents of these faiths no longer take their text literally. Two-for the most part they have separate religion and state.

       This is not the case with Islam.Ordinary Muslims see the lack of separation between religion and state as a weakness.But terrorist see that as their strength.They know that the effective army is not one which questions why.It is the one that simply obeys commands.Literal rather than liberal interpretation of Islamic texts helps ensure discipline among faithful.
        The lack of separation between religion and state means that every law in Islamic land is divine law.
         How can any other religion inspire the same zeal that divine law brings forth?   

Part III of the series Islam Analyzed