Terrorism pays no regards to religion at all.

Terrorism pays no regards to religion at all.

Religion and Terrorism

17 May 2015        

By M.S. QAIS

Terrorism pays no regards to religion at all. A terrorist follows no religion. It is but an irony that whenever an individual who happens to be Muslim commits an act of terrorism, it is blatantly attributed to his religion, i.e. Islam. Is there any evidence in the scriptures of or writings on Islam which justifies acts of terrorism? Any act or deed of man that goes against the interest of humanity is anti-Islam, anti-religion. Islam under no circumstance advocates acts that take away the peace of people and sow the seeds of animosity in the mind of the members belonging to the various communities.

It must be noted that commitment of any sort of violence is profoundly a grave sin against God. Contrary to this, any act of service to alleviate the sufferings of human beings is a virtuous act. Islam asks its followers to work for the sake of justice, peace and respect for the dignity and rights of every person. In the eyes of Islam every human being is equal, irrespective of colour, caste, religion and language. It is only the deeds of man that take him close to God or alternatively he is shunned by the Lord Almighty.

There is no dearth of person who expresses his/her abhorrence against Islam and connects every inhuman act of a Muslim to his religion, Islam. It is because of his short-sightedness, prejudice and narrow-mindedness which help germinate such insects in mind. In fact, one who uses God as a pretext for violence cannot be a true believer. A Hindu cannot be a true Hindu or follower of Rama, Krishna or Durga if he commits any violence against a man. And a Muslim can never be a true believer if he undertakes acts of violence or terrorism. If a Muslim does this, it is to tarnish and shatter the true spirit and image of Islam. Such wrong-doers are Muslims by name only.      

However, this view must change; otherwise this will certainly produce a grave situation where Hindu-Muslim co-existence will become very difficult, if not impossible. And, ultimately the vitiated and poisoned atmosphere / situation would affect the living of both the Hindu brethren and Muslims.

For the past several years communal groups and political parties in India have been busy in tarnishing the image of secularism by adopting different measures. Recently, as reported in an English daily, some members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad allegedly burnt the interior of a church. They are also reported to have been pressurising the Catholic missionaries to put up pictures of Saraswati in their educational institutions. Again, the Catholic schools are also under pressure to rename the principals of their schools as pracharya or upprachaya instead of 'Father' which is commonly used.

Most of the recently elected representatives belonging to a particular political party prove to be unethical by their words and/or acts. They appear to be giving no regards at all to the principles of morality. Secondly, 'secularism' to them is meaningless. They hate this 'ism' because their mind is infested with the poisonous germs of prejudice, bias and animosity towards minority communities, especially the Muslim community. In fact, they are the anti-nationals who have been engaged for some time in activities responsible for communal riots in different parts of the country.

A first-time MP from Uttar Pradesh in the Narendra Modi government, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, rocked the Parliament by her abuse-laced inflammatory speech. SN Jyoti, Minister of State for Food Processing, usually clad in saffron, is reported to have remarked at a rally in poll bound Delhi asking the people "to decide if they wanted a government of ramzaadon (followers of Ram) or haramzaadon (illegitimates)". What a shame on the part of a minister to use such a derogatory word! Such persons do not know if ethical values and moral principles have any role to play in human life. Hatred, bias, prejudice, narrow-mindedness have blinded their vision, narrowed their outlook and taken away every trace of human feelings based on fraternity and cooperation from their rusted hearts. They have completely lost their conscience for their own vested interests as well as those of the political parties they belong to.

Under the shadow of such mentality that emits but poisonous remarks towards one particular community, how can our country march ahead onto the path of development and progress? The throne of Delhi is occupied by the political party that gives no importance to pluralism and secularism. After decades of untiring efforts laced with well-oiled communal propaganda, a particular political party has been able to achieve success with absolute majority in the lower house (Lok Sabha) of the Indian Parliament. And, this has filled the mind of a majority of the electorate of the particular political party a sense of pride, whimsical conception and arrogance to do whatever suits their purpose, making no distinction between moral and immoral, legitimate and illegitimate, human and barbaric acts.

Until and unless such mindset being nurtured and displayed, through words and deeds, by some communal-minded people, changes we cannot think of a strong and prosperous India. Very recently the Muslim and Christian communities were injured badly on the meaningless and quite disheartening issue of 'love jehad'. And, at the same time 'ghar wapsi' (re-conversion) issue raised its ugly head. The flames of this issue rose high up and burnt parts of several churches throughout the country.

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