While watching a TV program on the History Channel, for the first time I saw the great difference between the two major religions in my country. Living in India I have come across and spoken to a good number of Muslims. I have gone to school and college with them and to me they seem to be a normal group of people, who learn to read and write, they have faith in God and they are scared of him more then anything or anyone.
But as I said, I was watching a program on the Hindu’s “Kumbha Mela” and immediately after that I saw a documentary on Al-Queda. While watching the Kumbha Mela there were talks about God in peace, love and joy. Whereas the Al-Queda message was also about God, but some how there was only violence and killing in the name of God.
In one of the statement I heard an Al-Queda member along with Osama-Bin-Laden say that 4 million Americans have to die, out which 2 million have to be children. At that given moment I started wondering how could they have thought that killing innocent people, who don’t believe in Islam, they would get them a place in heaven.
It seems to me that they care more about their lives after death then the ones they have now. To me the power of giving and taking of lives is in the hands of God and no human being, even if he thinks that God has told him to or given him the right to, has that power. I feel that if you want to show that you are a messenger of God and that spreading the message is the way of your life, then do so. But do so in a clam, peaceful way and you will see that more and more people will come your way to learn from you.
But by force and killing you will only increase the negative. People will start looking at your belief in a negative light. They will resist you. It is important to carry your knowledge forward and spread it, but by killing and forcing, people will move away and will tell people to stay away from you and your group.
God as far as I know wants to spread love and peace through Islam. Unfortunately some misguided Muslims are spreading terror.
I had a Muslim friend who would ask me “Why as a Hindu I always looked at the negative group of Muslim’s and not at the normal simple Muslims, living their life’s in a peaceful way.” At that time I didn’t have an answer to that question, but today I think I have an answer. “When the most powerful groups- the Al-Queda, SIMI, Indian Mujahedin and other terrorist group are showing us that they only believe in violence, killing and force. How can we see anything positive, You are what you leader is right?
How may of their famous non Al-Queda leaders have said something about peace in a peaceful, non-aggressive manner. Their aggressive nature has always come out even when they talk about being peaceful, non-aggressive people. I would like to question the Al-Queda leader who said that 2 million adults and 2 million children have to be killed, what would be achieved after their killing?
What wrong has been done by the innocent people being killed ? The answer may be that they are Non-Muslims and by killing them we will find a place in heaven for ourselves.
So does this not show that Islam is no more about Peace. It must have been about peace when Prophet Mohammed was alive but now its only about JEHAD. Jehad not in terms of the fight against ones own negative but JEHAD as in the killing of non-Muslims.
To tell you the truth I believe that there is only one God, but not in a narrow minded way of some of the Muslims. I hope in the future I get to learn more about Islam because I am sure that under all the dust that is on the surface Islam is one of the most beautiful religions today.
I hope someday this fight between religions stops, we all with our different faiths, beliefs and traditions live together in a happy and peaceful world. Cause somewhere in our hearts we all know that we are “THE ONE WORLD FAMILY”
Saturday, September 27, 2008
THE DIFFERENCE
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6 comments:
Mallika, I am impressed and pleased that you could write such an article. It raises a lot of questions for which I might have some answers.
I study in a Muslim campus and the even though I am a Hindu by birth, I have never felt intimidated with so many Muslims around.
The questions which have occurred to you have also been in my mind for a long time. I have thought about it and have come to some conclusions about them.
If you read about any religion, any of the religious books there is always one constant in them. Love, peace and harmony. None of them preach violence or hatred. But the mere fact of the matter is only you and I know about this because we think and read and try to know the truth. Where as the majority of the people who actually follow the religion depend completely upon what they are told by either the priests, the so called spiritual leaders or the self proclaimed authoritative religious leaders. They manipulate the religion as per their wish to profit from it.
Al-Quida, Lashkar-e-Toiba, SIMI etc are institutions for manipulation the religion, making people believe what they say by brain washing them and use them for various destructive work. All these outfits are Muslim and are called terrorists the world over. All terrorists are Muslim but all Muslims are not terrorists. It’s perhaps easier to turn a Muslim into a terrorist since the Jehad law is very manipulative.
But in India we have our own terror organisations. Hindu organisations. The Shiv Sena, Banjrang Dal, RSS etc are not behind in violence. The only difference might be that they are operational only in India.
Jains who are supposed to be the pinnacle of non violent community were very active in the Gujarat riots.
China with majority of the population being Buddhist has a lot of violence going on in Tibet. And they say Buddhist are the most non violent religion.
All I am trying to say is it’s not the religion, it’s the people who are violent for their selfish interests using the religion to motivate dumb people to carry out their work.
All in all I think the concept of a religion is now outdated. Earlier when people had to be civilised there was some scholar who must have thought of a philosophy of the way people should live. He must have made it a religion. The religion had a set of rules and people should follow them to live in peace and harmony together. The concept of god then was just to induce some faith/fear into people so that those who cannot reason the way of living would have an answer as to why should we do this. Take the Hindu mythology for example. All the stories are to teach dumb people how to go about their daily lives. The message coming across these stories is 100% politically correct but now people opt to glorify the gods and neglect the message. Krishna was adopted by his foster parents. But people show displeasure after knowing someone is adopted and at the same time very religiously do Pooja of Krishna.
To me god is the humility, conscience, ethics, unselfishness in a person. If a person is like that he shall be treated and respected nothing less than a god.
Religion is misinterpreted by people to use it for their own benefits. Manu said in the Manusmriti that women were to be protected. It was interpreted in such a way that the women ended up living and dying in the 4 walls of their houses, seeing nothing beyond. No religion teaches you to be violent. The statements are conveniently interpreted by fundamentalists. Like Malay Deshmukh mentioned, theres the Bajrang Dal etc in Hinduism. They are also bad. The main problem goes back to the fact that Islam and Christianity both say that the Prophet or Jesus is the only way to reach God. The goodness of Hinduism is that it mentions that there are other ways to reach God and that all of them are true. These terrorists are all Muslims but that doesnt mean that all the Muslims are to be blamed. This is a typical statement but its fact. My own view is that there is something seriously wrong with the people who are interpreting ur culture and guiding you. Lets take another cliched statement: "All terrorists are Muslims but all Muslims are not terrorists". Perhaps Islam is more vulnerable to misinterpretation than other religions. But remember that the actions of a handful are causing severe unease to the rest of the muslim population.
Malli. This is a well thought out piece. It is very sensitive and real from the heart comment on all the violence that is happening around.
Keep writing...
As for Malay and Manu's comments I would say that they should be proud to be Hindus. Hinduism encourages free will and thought. So today they can say what they wish and debate on the same and develop their own intellect and vision.
Thats a gud post to start with and its just the begining mallika. Infact you should keep writing as you counter more info n experiences. I have read the comments too, well that shows you have hit the right chord. I would not say this or that is right but would suggest believe in whatever you think is right and go ahead.
As far as the subject well perceptions do matter and perceptions are result of your circumstances be they books or friends around.
As the saying goes "atleast you have chosen to take a stand and not just trying to be some politically correct fool" (remember the hollywood filmy dialogue from Xmen)
And to say anything further on Hindu terrorism u might love to read may be "All you want to know about terrorism in India"
http://factindiya.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-you-want-to-know-about-terrorism-in.html
HI Malli
Well it's certainly a well said write up. It is sensitive, but at the same time true...it is true that there are several innocent muslim who we look up with a negative thought, but again these groups that keep adding black days to our life certainly bring negative thoughts about the religion. At the same time we can not forget some Indian men beating up Indian men itself in the name of peace. In this way we might start looking at every hindu with a negative attitude. For me everyone will be a human first and discriminated on the basis of his attitude and not religion. I am proud to be a Hindu but more than that i am proud to be a Indian.
Al Qaeda want to spread violence and doing it under the pretext of religion they ensure more support. So when they talk of killing people its personal motive more than anything else.And by putting God or Allah in the picture they garner support from Muslim fundamentalists.So there's no real need to mention these terror mongers when one discusses Islam.
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