Below is my response inspired by a comment by an Utterz user on the topic of Islamophobia.
farouqtaj,
I considered a new aspect of this issue when I read your article(http://www.utterz.com/…Mw/utt.php http://tinyurl.com/2pm8w6 ). Many Muslim's do dislike the way their religion has been hijacked by extremists.
I personally think that all religions are susceptible to being used in ways that go against the beliefs of the people behind the religion.
The problem and the potential for abused seems to be directly related to the political power of religious leaders. The more those leaders gain power on their own or gain power for their religion, the more likely that they will become corrupt or be corrupted by others.
Plus, when a religion gains political power, then it is only all too natural for factions to develop that want to control that power and in some respects the religion too.
This power tied to religion problem has a long long history in almost every religion around the world.
We see it here in the United States manifest in a President that makes his decisions based on his own religious ideologies first and the rule of law second. I see a similar problem with Barack Obama as well, who is arguably the most religious Presidential candidate int he race today. (McCain and Clinton didn't really find religion until the Republican party made it so popular about 8 years back.)
I suspect that the world will never be able to live together as long as religions are enabled to develop political power or legal power.
The power of secularism is that it does enable multiple faiths to live together under a common law. This can translate into peace mixed with religious freedom to practice and believe what you like.
Unfortunately, around the world there are too many countries that are governed by leaders that ignore their own laws first and rely on religious beliefs to govern countries that have many citizens of many different beliefs and religions.
The Muslim religion has been in recent history (last 30 years)more susceptible to this corruption of religion through political power which has resulted in the focus by the media on terrorists that mix their practices with their preaching and preaching with their practices as long as it suits their power goals.
Other countries around the world such as the Dutch see this manifest weakness in all religions and they are fighting to save their countries and freedom and the rule of law.
This could just as easily have manifested (again) in Christianity. It was not so long ago that christian religions were burning people at the stake and subjecting much of the western world to religious laws and religiously empowered kings and emperors. The west revolted and took down the king, the figure heads and blamed royalty, but in many ways people (often christians themselves) failed to recognize the role that their own belief structure (religion as a group as opposed to a belief) played a role in their subjugation to a king in the first place. (Ironically this took place at a time in history when the Middle East, Asia and the Far East were making tremendous progress in civilization and science. But unfortunately, as the West awoke from its religiously empowered slavery system, much of the middle east and parts of Asia have started to fallen into this trap.
Again people both inside and outside of the religions involved are getting confused by the discussions over the belief system itself and the power structure used in the form of religion to subjugate and control the people with those beliefs.
I would suggest that many of the people of the world that appear at times to have Islamophobia are not actually fearful of the people that believe in Islam, but of the people that are attempting to control, manipulate and control people that believe in Islam. This is very similar to the christianphobia developing where people fear George Bush because of his control over people that believe in christianity.
Here in the US, I am seeing some progress. There are many people that believe in christianity that are starting to realize that the movement of the 'religious right' is not inherently a christian movement, but a movement that is often used to subjugate and control christians and use their collective power to do what ever the people on top like (such as GW or Dick Cheney) who often times play lip service to Christians while utterly failing to do things that a person that really believed in christianity would do.
ex. Guantanmo, Abu Grahib, warrantless wiretapping, kidnapping people around the world and torturing them and worse.
We need to reinstate the separation of church and state in the United States both to protect the country from an over throw from within, but also to protect religious freedom and more importantly to enable the potential for the US to live peacefully with the other countries of the world.
Mobile post sent by brettbum using Utterz.
Replies.
I considered a new aspect of this issue when I read your article(http://www.utterz.com/…Mw/utt.php http://tinyurl.com/2pm8w6 ). Many Muslim's do dislike the way their religion has been hijacked by extremists.
I personally think that all religions are susceptible to being used in ways that go against the beliefs of the people behind the religion.
The problem and the potential for abused seems to be directly related to the political power of religious leaders. The more those leaders gain power on their own or gain power for their religion, the more likely that they will become corrupt or be corrupted by others.
Plus, when a religion gains political power, then it is only all too natural for factions to develop that want to control that power and in some respects the religion too.
This power tied to religion problem has a long long history in almost every religion around the world.
We see it here in the United States manifest in a President that makes his decisions based on his own religious ideologies first and the rule of law second. I see a similar problem with Barack Obama as well, who is arguably the most religious Presidential candidate int he race today. (McCain and Clinton didn't really find religion until the Republican party made it so popular about 8 years back.)
I suspect that the world will never be able to live together as long as religions are enabled to develop political power or legal power.
The power of secularism is that it does enable multiple faiths to live together under a common law. This can translate into peace mixed with religious freedom to practice and believe what you like.
Unfortunately, around the world there are too many countries that are governed by leaders that ignore their own laws first and rely on religious beliefs to govern countries that have many citizens of many different beliefs and religions.
The Muslim religion has been in recent history (last 30 years)more susceptible to this corruption of religion through political power which has resulted in the focus by the media on terrorists that mix their practices with their preaching and preaching with their practices as long as it suits their power goals.
Other countries around the world such as the Dutch see this manifest weakness in all religions and they are fighting to save their countries and freedom and the rule of law.
This could just as easily have manifested (again) in Christianity. It was not so long ago that christian religions were burning people at the stake and subjecting much of the western world to religious laws and religiously empowered kings and emperors. The west revolted and took down the king, the figure heads and blamed royalty, but in many ways people (often christians themselves) failed to recognize the role that their own belief structure (religion as a group as opposed to a belief) played a role in their subjugation to a king in the first place. (Ironically this took place at a time in history when the Middle East, Asia and the Far East were making tremendous progress in civilization and science. But unfortunately, as the West awoke from its religiously empowered slavery system, much of the middle east and parts of Asia have started to fallen into this trap.
Again people both inside and outside of the religions involved are getting confused by the discussions over the belief system itself and the power structure used in the form of religion to subjugate and control the people with those beliefs.
I would suggest that many of the people of the world that appear at times to have Islamophobia are not actually fearful of the people that believe in Islam, but of the people that are attempting to control, manipulate and control people that believe in Islam. This is very similar to the christianphobia developing where people fear George Bush because of his control over people that believe in christianity.
Here in the US, I am seeing some progress. There are many people that believe in christianity that are starting to realize that the movement of the 'religious right' is not inherently a christian movement, but a movement that is often used to subjugate and control christians and use their collective power to do what ever the people on top like (such as GW or Dick Cheney) who often times play lip service to Christians while utterly failing to do things that a person that really believed in christianity would do.
ex. Guantanmo, Abu Grahib, warrantless wiretapping, kidnapping people around the world and torturing them and worse.
There are times when I wish that GW had remained a cheerleader or been more successful and taken up a career in something different. Imagine if he had been sent to massage therapy schools instead of Yale.
We need to reinstate the separation of church and state in the United States both to protect the country from an over throw from within, but also to protect religious freedom and more importantly to enable the potential for the US to live peacefully with the other countries of the world.
Mobile post sent by brettbum using Utterz.
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