Theocracy: Giving Religion A Bad Name

With the recent events of Islam bashing and Muslim violent reactions, many non-Muslims would focus more on their belligerent behavior and conclude, once and for all, that Islam, the submission to the will of Allah, is, in essence, a violent religion. A friend, originally from Egypt, is a Coptic Christian, who moved to Canada precisely because Egyptian Muslims are overly sensitive and a violent people. As a Christian, he would do no such thing. “No matter how you want to differentiate religion from the people,” my friend would admonish me: “But in reality, Muslims are a violent lot.”

He, like many other non-Muslims, forgets that Christians, in the past, were extremely violent. From the time of Emperor Constantinople to the Modern Age, powerful Christian countries would wage war with non-Christians and kill women and children in the name of their God. They were as violent as any modern terrorists could be.

But, then things began to change. Many Western countries, beginning with the States, institutionalized the separation of Church and State. Subsequently, religion had no place in the matters of the State. True, there are politicians with religious affiliations. But without the people’s support, no Christian or Muslim group of politicians can get their politico-religious plan going. On the other hand, the separation allows religion to focus more on the values compassion and morality. It cuts loose religion’s grip on political matters. Since then, Christianity ceases to be violent on a massive scale. And, thank God for that.

In other words, separation of Church and State destroyed the structure of a theocracy. And, with the extinction of theocracy, and no politics allowed to manipulate religion for its own use, Christians ‘became’ peaceful. Now, it’s only the corporations that have a hand in matters of the State. How unfortunate.

So, is Islam a violent religion? Read the first few chapters of the Koran, and you will realize how much respect is bestowed to women. Read a few more and you will come upon a story about Mohammed, who had been thrown trash at by a woman each day he walks passed her house on his way to the place of worship, stopped by her house, and filled with genuine concern, inquired about her who was conspicuously absent.

With Islam’s long history of theocracy which still exists, it would be very easy for people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, who are suffering from myopia, to judge Islam, a religion with more than one billion followers, as being violent in its very core.

That is clearly false.

Only the Muslims can break the ties between the State and their religion. Difficult it may be, it must be done, from the within. An outsider calling for the break would only tighten the grip. It’s the perception of an outsider as an infidel that keeps theocracy alive.

Leisure: Losing Yourself To Find Yourself

I must admit that I haven’t had any idea on what to write on. I usually post one a week, sometimes, 2, when I am alone with myself. Lately, however, I have been busy surviving. I just got hired a week ago after being laid off from my work 2 months earlier. During the first week I was in training. I come home not only physically tired but mentally exhausted. I tried to think of something to write, something that I feel. But, because I have determined myself to produce at least one post a week and time was running out (time did actually run out), I resort to thinking about what to write. I thought and thought and nothing caught fire.

Then late this morning, I decided to stop thinking, and began to feel, to observe myself. And there it was. I observed and felt that while I was focused on work that I took just to pay my bills and put food on the table, and when I tried to write, nothing comes out; at least, nothing worthwhile writing about.

In fact, I felt distanced from myself. I was not in touch with my inner self. My soul, if you like. And, as I spend so much time and effort focusing on a job, doing my best to keep it from slipping away, the more distant I am from myself. As I become used to that distance – and I guess like most of us are - that is, as I become used to being desensitized, the more I neglect to listen to my inner self. I watch T.V as a means of diverting my attention from my self.

Come the weekend. You would think I would now have the time for myself. It should be the case. But the week of work and training had me crave for the weekend, not so that I could be with and by myself. Weekend, to me, was the period in which to rest my weary body that has an uncanny effect on the mind. I felt the emptiness in me, and I’d tried to stay away from it. For recognizing its presence  would force me to come face to face with the emptiness. It may not be frightening, but it certainly was unpleasant.

But, then, I remembered that I had promised myself to produce one blog post a week. Weekend ought to be devoted to reflection and then to transfer my thoughts on ‘paper’ or on the monitor screen. Suddenly, I panicked. My muscles tightened. My palms were soaked in sweat. I was forcing my mind to fish for a philosophical thought worth writing about. In the end, nothing was produced. I would write; but eventually I would just press the ‘Delete’ button. And there I was, falling softly on to my bed as I was more than willing to be overcome by sleep. That happened for days.

Then one day, ‘something’ in me said: “Slow down, and relax and don’t think. Then you will settle down” Muscles began to loosen up a bit. It was pleasant, and the awareness of it made it even more pleasant. And, yes, peaceful. Suddenly, a thought surfaced: “Maybe that’s what leisure was all about.”

Leisure is not about passivity. In fact, it is an activity, but an activity without purpose. You work in order to get there. But leisure does not need you to get to where you are not, for the simple fact that you have arrived. You only had to stop, and to be aware of yourself, listening to your self, to accept the fact that you have arrived. But arrived to where? Yourself. You have eliminated the distance between your working self and the inner self.

Hobby, is one example of leisure. You have a hobby not only because you enjoy it. You enjoy because you are most real, most authentic. There lies your passion. Just observe the children who play for no utilitarian purpose except to play and have fun. They instinctively understood the nature of leisure. It’s only when they grow to adulthood that they have forgotten.

So beware of turning your passion to a money making business. It will only kill your passion, and you will hate what you loved most.

So find leisure to find yourself for no other reason or purpose other than to be yourself. In a busy world such as ours, in which our organized time determines our schedules, and lives, it is all the more important to slow down and relax your muscles.

Living In Hope In Times Of Fear And Hate

When Saleh was young, a sheikh told him that Allah does not accept non-Muslims and, if he were to get in to physical contact with them, he must clean his body before he was allowed to enter the mosque.

He was brought up in a country that was being torn apart by hate and fear. Many of his brethren tried to leave the country. But for those who stayed they either continuously lived in fear or became terrorists who would rather be feared. And for those who took to arms, they never looked back. Saleh lived where there was no hope, where everybody’s days were numbered.

Terrorists did not fight other terrorists. They instead killed women and children of their enemies. Their only hope for peace was to kill all their enemies.

And so it was to be: every day was no different from the past. The manner in which the victims were killed was the same. The only difference was new human beings were maimed, tortured then killed.

Saleh knew poverty and fear all too well. He lived them. He believed himself to be a good Muslim, like any other terrorists. But he, himself being poor and needy, chose to help those in need. It didn’t matter what their religion was. He believed that the only way to serve and love Allah, was to serve anyone and everyone. This was what he believed Allah would have wanted him to do.

Saleh knew that some have used religion to justify their hate and killings. For that, atheists and intellectuals have nothing nice to say about religion, even if they may be aware of a few good people like Saleh.

However unlike the atheists and intellectuals who lived far away from his country, Saleh knew what it was to be poor and to live in constant fear.

He had no time for reflection on the effects of religion.

Neither did he have the time to sit and lie down in the cool shadow of a tree and to think about whether he should act.

But one thing he was very clear about: he didn’t want to live in fear anymore, and he had been given the opportunity to make things a bit better for people like his mother and relatives and friends, many of whom had lost their lives.

So, unlike the atheists and the intellectuals and the people who picked up their rifles, he chose to act with actual kindness. It was what he believed Allah would want him to do.

It was what any real person would have done.