Islam vs. Rest of the World

Will Hinduism be considered a violent religion because LTTE happens to be made of Hindus? Will all Africans be called barbaric race because certain Rwandans, Somalis, Sudanese, happen to massacre people? Will all Indo-China people be considered butcher clan because Khmer Rouge cropped everyone they didn't like? Yes, one can. As seen from recent trends across the world, Islam is termed a violent religion because some Muslims happen to be terrorists.

In different times of history different civilizations and religions behaved differently. How did Spanish behave when they encountered Native population in South America? How did Vikings behave when they entered the towns of Mainland Europe? How did Hindus behave when they heard that their beloved Prime Minister was assassinated by a Sikh? Each of them behaved quite barbarically. They had their time. The problem with history is that each civilization acted barbarically at some point of time or the other.

However, that doesn’t justify the actions of so called ‘Islamic’ terrorists, who conveniently use religion to further their actions. Yes, let’s all agree that there is a problem we are all facing- from different kinds of terrorists, Islamic (in different parts of the world), Hindu (India and Sri Lanka), Irish (quite inactive these days), and few others. But mostly the incidents that comes to mind are the activities of Islamic terrorists – because such incidents are more in number and widespread and also because media highlights them more than others.

To explain such incidents from a narrow scheme of things, one might explain the history from our perspective and find all faults with Islam because it is the most common element across many of these activities.

While another historian looking at the course of history from a broader perspective may conclude quite differently. This historian would see conflicts appear and disappear in different parts of the world each spanning hundred to two hundred years on an average. He would see Romans wiping out one culture after other through force, brutality and punishment [Roman Empire]. He would see a great Indian King invade and massacre different regions of the sub-continent to consolidate his empire [King Ashoka]. He would see a great horde from Central Asia descending on the world again and again to massacre people and burn cities to ground committing horrendous crimes against humanity [Chengiz Khan]. He would see Christians lining up again and again to reclaim the Holy Land and kill Muslims in the name of Crusades. He would see some more Christians cleansing their land of heretics- that include Jews, Muslims and other-kinds-of-Christians through Insurrection. He would also see Jews chased from one kingdom to another for nearly two thousand years by the same Christians. He would see bloody conquests in different lands made on the name of religion, race, culture, etc.

In the recent history, this historian would see White man commit the grave crimes on the name of ‘white man’s burden’ to rule more than half the earth [Colonial Period]. He would see another White Man going against all religions to put millions to death through his new and effective methods of killing and torturing people [Adolf Hitler]. He would see the Colonial masters relinquish their responsibility to give up the lands to native people by carving up nations leaving many natives unhappy. Then he would see two giants fight against each other an ideological war leaving behind a host lot of problems [Cold War]. He has looked at each culture, civilization, religion behaving differently at different times.

He would then look at the recent events that affected the Muslim world after the fall of Ottoman Empire. In one incident, for no crime of theirs, Muslims were asked to vacate their lands to accommodate a new set of people, that have come back to reclaim their ancestral property after two thousand years [recreation of Israel]. In most parts of the world, if you live on a land for thousand years it becomes yours- but not for Palestine. The world which committed the biggest crime of humanity hung its face in shame and in an effort to make amends pushed Palestine people away to accommodate the victims (the Jews).

In what is seen as a new world order, Hindus got their share of dignity through Indian Independence, Western Christians maintained their economic domination after two world wards, Orthodox Christians got their own nations in Russia and East Europe, African tribes were left on their own by the fleeing colonial masters, South Americans got their own nations by Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara, Asians carved their nations on the name of cultures and religions. The people who would be left behind most disheartened after this are certain sections of Muslims. And this historian would now see these people venting out their anger and frustration in different forms of protest- starting from mild criticism to outright terrorism and war.

While the world was dividing itself up into nation states after the era of kingdoms and empires, some of the Muslims got crushed, lost their identity or were left as appendages to these newly formed nation states. Discovery of black gold in Middle East has resulted in an intervention from the White Christian countries where in every democratic institution was suppressed to supplant them with dictators and kings who acted more as puppets of their masters in the West rather than represent their own people. Partition of India resulted in unresolved conflict which conflagrated time and again [in Kashmir]. West, in an effort to contain erstwhile Soviet Union during Cold War, used Afghanistan as the battle ground by promoting Islamic radicalism as the unifying factor amongst all kinds of Muslim people. When Soviet Union broke up to throw out many republics, some Muslim regions could not sever themselves to form their own identity and they continue to fight [in Chechnya].

In the new world order that came about after WWI and WWII, Muslims felt they were cheated out by everyone- the Christian West, the Hindus, the Russians, etc. They are disillusioned with their own representatives and their own leaders who seem to suck up to foreign masters. The only thing that came as a solace is their religion. In this religion and its teachings, they search for words of hope. In the words of Koran and its translations by religious mullahs they take refuge. In their religion they derive their strength to fight those who put them to shame, who razed their homes to ground, who put the rockets into the hands of their young kids, who put landmines inside and outside their towns, who take their freedom away from them, who used them in sectarian wars, who exploited them for their oil, etc. Now, they fight back. They fight back with the only weapon they have- their religion. And they participate in all kinds of protest- some show discontent, criticize, rally and strike, while few others terrorize, murder, kidnap, all in the name of that religion. Each of them, the mild protester to the rabid suicide killer has sympathy from this Muslim world. Every act of defiance, whether it is a strong speech at UN or a bomb blast at an embassy, is a way of venting out the frustration of this Muslim world.

While the rest of the world accuses the religion and its founders of spreading evil, the acts of defiance garner more support, even the moderates and liberal now join hands. While the world bombs them to smithereens (in Iraq and Afghanistan), it only makes them more resolute in their defiance. When the world quells and suppresses them every where in the name of ‘War on Terror’ the Muslim feels like a Jew of WWII being led to a concentration camp.

Our historian who is looking at this from a broader perspective concludes- “In the great war of twentieth century around 50 million people were persecuted by one nation race. Now, in the new War on Terror almost a billion people are persecuted by hundreds of nation states”. He wonders- “Ah! The Dinosaurs lasted for 300 million years. The ‘smarter’ Humans may not even last 100,000 years. I wonder if the next species would be ‘smarter’ than Humans. They may not last even a hundred years!”

I wonder if every intelligent species on other planets did the same when it came to its extinction- accuse each other and blast each other out into space instead of reconciling! No wonder we don’t seem to find intelligence anywhere else! May be, they were ‘smarter’ than us and hence might have knocked themselves out much sooner and much faster!

I have only one thing to say- Vent out all you anger and spew the venom and accuse each other, blast each other out and bomb everyone you don’t like. We don’t have much time left and you don’t want to waste it.