(Picture Credit ABC dot com)
More than 100 children killed by the Taliban in a Pakistan School. Hostages and killings in a Sydney CafĂ©. Hostage in Belgium. Now cartoonists shot dead in Paris. What is wrong with the world? Why can’t we just get on?
December 2014: Three outrages in two days. The victims: innocent school children in Pakistan, coffee-drinkers in Sydney and at least one other innocent civilian in Belgium.
Now journalists shot in Paris. (Then some police shot as the chase goes on for the perpetrators). What is the world coming to? All in the name of a worldwide Islamic state apparently. Meanwhile CIA Agents and others are investigated for torturing their captives. Pakistan is accused of attacking innocent communities in their North West. Wrongs on all sides.
Let’s face it there is a racial element too. Islam is equated with black people, Christianity with Whites. A horrible blend of racial and religious intolerance.
Why can’t we just all get on? The colour of your skin is such a superficial matter. Just like the colour of your hair or eyes. We are all human beings.
And religion: every religion involves having faith in some deity. Every worthwhile religion preaches Love and Peace to all living things.
These Muslim Extremists talk of world domination and universal Sharia Law. Impossible! Apparently when some extremists conquer a place they ask the people there whether or not they are “Muslim”, and if they say “No” they are executed.
Yet surely any decent person is at least in part a Muslim. Look at the opening of the Quran (I’ve re-arranged it a little):
“In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds,
The Beneficent, the Merciful.
Owner of the Day of Judgement,
Thee (alone) we worship;
Thee (alone) we ask for help.
Show us the straight path,
The path of those whom Thou hast favoured.
Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger
Nor of those who go astray.”
Just substitute “God” for “Allah” and you are left with something that might have come straight out of The Bible. Even a reference to “Judgement Day”! NB those words “Beneficent” and “Merciful”. “All Worlds” gives an image of Godly Omnipotence. We are implored to follow the path of “Good” rather than “Evil”. We ALL believe this. What is there to fight about?
Okay, so the rest of the Quran might contain some more aggressive passages. The Bible too contains, in The Old Testament, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” But these are ancient texts. They were written when civilisation was still in its infancy. Together we still have that same basic belief: that we are the human race in need of some all-powerful deity to look after us.
Look, I’m a Church of England Christian (a “Protestant” apparently) just because I was BORN in such a community (in England). I could just as easily have been born to become a Buddhist, Shintoist, “Jew” or indeed Muslim. Had I been born much earlier, I might have worshipped Odin, Ra, Zeus or Jupiter. Maybe ALL these religions have something to offer me. And YOU.
To be honest I was brought up only to know about Christianity. I think I will start to study these other religions now. The Buddhist notion or Rebirth or Reincarnation intrigues me for a start. (Pythagoras, Plato and others apparently believed in rebirth). As I say, perhaps any religion contains something to believe in.
Let’s not forget that in the UK before Christianity appeared there were the Druids with their “Mother Earth” (and again belief in Rebirth). There is a lot to commend the Druid religion too.
Why can’t WE belong to ALL good Religions? Perhaps what we need is an Eclectic World Religion, drawing from the best of them all. Maybe Religion needs to be Modernised, keeping the wheat but discarding the chaff. I’m on it. Watch This Space.
Paul Butters
