As of late, there has been a lot of criticism on this group’s wall about Islam. There has been lot of articles shared which point fingers not only at the Islamic fundamentalists, but the core tenets of Islam itself. I am a strong critic of every form of institutionalized/organized religion, and I am critical about Islam too. However, I am concerned about *singling out* Islam to the extent it being done here. I do believe that politicized and institutionalized religion in general is harmful to the progression of humanity. Any institutionalized dogmatic ideology is harmful period! However, religion is especially harmful due to the fact that it demands immunity from criticism, and immunity from having to change as well. Any institutionalized ideology that is at least open for criticism in principle (although ground situation might not welcome criticism) is several times better than institutionalized religion. There is at least hope that it will eventually change for better. Liberal Democracy is an institutionalized and somewhat dogmatic ideology in itself. However, the difference is that within a liberal democratic framework, the provision for criticism and provision for change is part of the institutionalized ideology itself. Honestly, I don’t think Islam has anything particularly more wrong in its core tenets, than the core tenets of any other Abrahamic religion. If you take the holy books of all the Abrahamic religions, they all have equally disturbing content from archaic tribal value systems. They all have content that goes polar-opposite to the modern day moral zeitgeist. (Needless to say these books have whole lot of genuinely valuable ideas as well. Every holy book is a mixed bag when you read it in modern day light) The real difference is that in most modern societies where Christianity or Judaism is the mainstream religion, the authority of religion is long lost and it is very difficult to manipulate the masses by quoting verses from their holy books; and in most societies where Islam is the mainstream religion, the religion still drives people. That is the difference! Therefore we need to understand that the difference is not in the actual religion per se, but the structure of the society where religion exists. If you turn to Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand you can see that core tenants of the peaceful religions that they follow has not helped the situation either. There are violent and murderous mobs that carry the flag of these so called peaceful religions. Let’s not be quick to single out Islam but give little bit more thought about actual inner working of these issues. I’d say that any institutionalized religion (regardless of the core tenets of the religion peaceful or not) is bad, period! The only form I can accept religion to exist in modern world is as a personal belief/value system maintained by privately funded institutions.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 14:21:30 +0000
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