In the name of God

The sands of time have witnessed the rise of countless numbers of religions worldwide – the rise of belief systems and faiths which guide our actions, conduct, morality and basically our spirituality. Religion can be anything ranging from the established faiths to unofficial religions such as sports or food. It is not uncommon for sportsmen or musicians to label their respective interest a religion. But whichever governing set of belief one has, they strengthen one and ideally make one a better person for oneself and for the world one lives in.

However much the birth of religion has instilled peace and harmony and enlightenment in mankind, religion has also been used as an excuse for committing heinous acts. In fact, the past has seen several ghastly atrocities committed in the name of religion. Often these atrocities are committed not by atheists or agnostics but by people who call themselves God’s servants.

One such example is the Aztec practice of human sacrifice in the 1300s, where about 20,000 people were massacred to appease Gods such as the Sun God, who required a daily “nourishment of blood”. The Roman persecution of Christians by the emperor Nero in 64 AD is another instance of this in history. Christians were rounded up and ordered to be torn apart by dogs or burned alive as human torches, before Christianity was legalised. In the 1950s, members of a sect in India known as the Thungee sect are believed to have strangled a whopping two million people to appease the bloodthirsty goddess Kali.

These are just a handful of the gargantuan numbers of instances in the murky past where heinous acts were conducted in the name of religion, to supposedly appease God. While one may argue that these culprits may have been misinformed or perhaps that the initial stages of establishment may have been shaky, the question arises as to why these atrocities still prevail in the world today. One would think that the development and modernization of the world would allow human beings to make much more educated and informed decisions – but not quite.

Islamic jihads or holy wars which are mandated by the Qur’an have led to the loss of millions of lives over 12 centuries. As Muslim armies spread their faith to India and Morocco, these sects branded other Muslims as infidels and declared jihads against them. The Kharijis battled Sunni rulers; the Azariqis declared death to all “sinners” and their families. Traditionally, jihads have been utilized for one of three purposes – to signify the struggle to maintain faith, to improve the Muslim society or to defend Islam. However, extremists use jihad-ism with an entirely new coat of meaning and interpretation. This extremism manifested itself in the form of the catastrophic September 11 attack, which shook not just North America but the entire world, as well as terrorism in the name of religion. Morphing the interpretation of religious scriptures to support such fallacies has led to the death of millions of innocent people and continues to do so.

Religious discrimination is also not an uncommon sight today, and sadly so. Some people feel that certain religious practices are superior to others and hence worthy of the upper echelons of society. Spreading one’s faith and urging others to convert is commonplace today. For example, the state of Orissa in India was the target of much religious discrimination in the past. Select tribes in Orissa labelled certain people as Panas or untouchables and these were mainly those who had adopted the Christian faith instead of Hinduism.

Evangelism or the communication of the Christian faith to new areas and cultures has also been a target for extremists. An apt example is the longstanding history of the persecution of Jews by Christians which began with the burning of synagogues in the fourth century and led to the numerous killings of Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. Extreme measures such as extermination camps of Jewish communities also transpired during World War II in countries such as Yugoslavia.

It is appalling how religion is used as a scapegoat for such heinous deeds. What is common in all the stated examples is extremism. Religious scriptures or books may have a certain set of teachings but these are often exaggerated or blown out of proportion. People use loop-holes to justify their fallacies and get away with acts like murder. Furthermore, picking and choosing of certain beliefs eventually leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy, where people choose to believe whatever justifies their own actions. They use a cocktail of beliefs specially tailored to them to go ahead with thinking that what they are doing indeed brings them closer to God, when I think it actually does the opposite.

I do not think any religion, be it the worshipping of a rock or an established religion, would permit the disrespect of a fellow human being or grant the right to tarnish their lives. I do not believe God would permit anyone to hurt another human being, who is also a creation of God, no matter what the reason might be. I do not feel that it is right to use religion as an excuse for any of these deeds because that is a downright insult to God. Last but not the least, I do not think humans should pretend to be God and mess with the lives of others.

Love all; live and let live – that is what religion teaches.