Jay Salk, the leader of Pakistan’s Christian minority, protesting the burning of the Koran by American pastor Terry Jones
Hey, he pours ashes on his head
Insulting religions: Practical insult is morally wrong.
The reprehensibility of insulting is not limited to religions. It means that no one should be insulted. In fact, one cures one’s helplessness/desperation through humiliation. In other words, insult is the remedy for poverty.
If there is a valid claim and criticism, why is it not expressed? Assuming that religious beliefs are unfounded, criticize them and show them to be false. Who is against this justified work? I am against insulting Judaism, Christianity, Islam and any other religion. Because firstly, it is morally unjustified, secondly, it is useless, thirdly, it leads to unfortunate practical consequences, and fourthly, it does not consider the “other” and the “different” as “rational human beings worthy of dialogue”, but the different are less He considered humans to be only insulting.
Comparison of religions: The American priest who set fire to the Quran – and other people, including some Iranians – claim that Islam is an irrational religion and promotes violence, discrimination and intolerance. Now, I am not in a position to dispute the essence of this claim. We have accompanied this priest and his Iranian associates and assume that these claims are true. But we don’t have one roof and two airs. There can’t (shouldn’t) be two standards. Everyone’s situation should be explained honestly. Compare religions: Which of the religions has the most irrational, violent, and discriminatory claims?
The historical action of believers: Religions can be criticized and compared from another point of view. That is, instead of religious scriptures, he looked at the actions that religious people have done throughout history. The followers of which religion have committed the most violence in history and have shown the most intolerance?
Bernard Lewis is one of the American extreme right. He claims that anyone who was subjected to violence and abuse in Christian societies sought refuge in Islamic societies: “The escape of Jews from Spain to Ottoman territory in 1492 is known, but it is by no means the only case. Other groups of refugees, dissident Christians who were persecuted by the powerful churches in their countries, like Jews, were sheltered in Ottoman lands. And when Ottoman rule in Europe ended, the Christian nations of centuries under Ottoman rule were all still there, their language, culture, religion, and even, to some extent, their institutions intact, all ready to resume existence. They were separate nationalities. But the same cannot be said about the Muslims who stayed in the Balkans after the end of the Ottoman rule and after the Moorish rule in Spain. 1
Voltaire – who has no doubt that he is anti-Islam – confirmed this claim in a treatise on tolerance and wrote: “The Great Sultan rules over twenty different nations in peace. Two hundred thousand Greeks live in complete security in Constantinople. The mufti of the Muslims himself appoints the Greek patriarch and introduces him to the sultan. They even accept a Latin [Catholic] patriarch… In addition, in the empire of the Turks there live many Jacobites, Nestorians, believers in the unity of Providence, Copts and Christians of the order of John, Jews, Gebers, Banyans (Hindus). do In the history books of the Turks, there is no rebellion recorded by one of these religions. 2
Another Christian, Raimarus, claims that Christians in Islamic societies enjoy more freedom than in Christian societies: “Yes, that’s right! They tolerate Christians among themselves, and this scandal about Christianity should be exposed that Christians under the Turkish Empire, in comparison with Christian governments, perform their religious duties with more freedom. 3
Voltaire and Lessing specifically mention Salah al-Din Ayyubi, who was fraternal to Jews and Christians, but the Christian crusaders in Jerusalem massacred Muslims, and even more Jews. Saladin freed the imprisoned Christians and gave them back the holy church. Voltaire writes: “If we compare these documents with the behavior of Christians in Jerusalem, we will unfortunately understand who were barbarians”. 4
Hans Kung (born in 1928), a Catholic Christian theologian and philosopher, from Switzerland, has written many works on the comparison of religions. The book of the spiritual fields of world religions is one of his important works in this field. In the seven chapters of the mentioned book, native religions, Hinduism, Chinese religion, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are depicted. According to him, spirituality is the common gem of religions. At the same time, the issue of religious violence and religious tolerance has been examined in this book. His research shows that neither the violence of Islam is more than the violence of Judaism and Christianity nor its tolerance is less than the two. He says: “It is a mistake if we consider Islam a religion of war and sword and ignore its religious essence; Because there is no doubt that the Arabs reached the level of a superior moral religion through Prophet Muhammad, which was based on faith in the only God and a fundamental human morality, which contained the clear requirements of justice and superior humanity. Islam was originally based more on ethics than Sharia. In Islam, there is something like the ten commandments, the foundation of a common human morality… In addition, Islam is a religion with the incomparable book of the Qur’an, which completes the Torah of the Jews and the Bible of the Christians and takes their place. 5
After the terrorist attack of September 11, Kong raised the issue of violence in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in an article entitled “Religion, Violence and Holy Wars” [Introductory Review of the Red Cross, vol. 87, Number 858, June 2005]. This research article not only shows the violence of all three religions, but also finds a solution from the sacred texts of the same religions.
John Hick, a Christian philosopher, is another theologian who has addressed the issue of violence and tolerance in different religions. According to him, religious people have acted in such a way throughout history that: “It seems that the only cause that God really supports is the arms industry” 6.
Hick writes: “In the Crusades of the 11th to 13th centuries, Christian knights, with the blessing of the Pope and local bishops, seeking fame and money from the imaginary reserves of Jerusalem and eager to learn forgiveness in this holy jihad, under the auspices of Christ with their armies They rushed forward. They first massacred the Jews in the cities they entered. Then, farther east, they massacred the Greek Christians, and finally massacred the Muslims with such brutality that it has cast a shadow on the relationship between Christianity and Islam ever since… In the 17th century, during the thirty-year war between the Catholic and Protestant powers, the rival armies , devastated a large part of Central Europe, and as they rushed forward, leaving fields, villages, cities in ruins, they plundered everything. 7
John Hick points out a more important point and says: “Not only has religion been used to justify the mass murder of countless people, but religion has also been directly responsible for the torture and death of people who did not fit into the Christian worldview; People like polytheists, Jews, ideological opponents and social abnormals who were stigmatized as witches. To begin with the Pagans (that is, the followers of a wide variety of Roman local and natural religions), after the Church gradually gained power through the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, its victory over polytheism and idolatry was reminiscent of something like persecution. Jews by the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s. The research of the last twenty years has clearly clarified the dimensions of this disaster. It was increasingly profitable to be a member of the church and increasingly dangerous to stay out of it. In 415 and 425, laws were passed that all posts in the imperial administrative service were reserved for Christians. Non-Christian books were publicly burned; Militant monks “full of holy fanaticism” incited the common people to destroy the places of worship and the temples of the pagans; During the reign of Justinian, a number of non-Christians were crucified or beheaded. 9
Following the Pope’s 2006 speech on Muslims and Islam, English Christian theologian Karen Armstrong wrote in an article in the Guardian in response to the Pope: “Until the 20th century, Islam was a much, much more tolerant and peaceful religion than Christianity… Muslims did not impose their religion on anyone by the sword… By the middle of the 8th century, Jews and Christians in the Islamic Empire were seriously discouraged from converting to Islam. They were careful. Because according to the Quranic teachings, they had received the true revelation in their own religion. 10
On the other hand, Yuri Avneri, an Israeli Jewish researcher (professor at Tel Aviv University) wrote in response to Pop Click: “In 1099, the Christian crusaders captured Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jewish residents without exception. In the name of the Merciful Messiah… When the Catholics once again retook Spain from the Muslims, they established a religious reign of terror. Jews and Muslims had to choose one of these three options, either to become Christians, or to be killed, or to evacuate the city. Where could the hundreds of thousands of expelled Jews escape? Almost all of them were accepted into the open arms of Islamic countries. The Jews of Spain settled all over the Islamic world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in the south… Every honest and free Jew who the history of his nation know, he cannot except that he has a deep feeling of gratitude and gratitude to Islam that has protected the Jews for 50 generations, even in the situation that the Christian world has persecuted them many times until they renounced their religion by the force of the sword. take it yourself”.
Dozens of other witnesses can be presented in the same field. Violence and impotence are two sides of the same coin.
Religion within the scope of peace: In his famous and classic book, Kant discussed religion within the scope of reason. But now, more than ever, we are plagued by Jewish, Christian, Muslim (Taliban), Hindu, etc. fundamentalists. They are unruly and belligerent. They do not tolerate “other” and “different”. They provoke different people to violent reactions with provocative actions. They read religious scriptures in such a way that it justifies violence and creates a basis for war. The idea of county should be rebuilt again. Our need today is “religion within the scope of peace”. In the sacred texts of religions, there are raw materials for this approach. They should be highlighted. The Jewish religion has historical precedence over Christianity and Islam, and according to the Qur’an, God spoke to Moses. Many of the rules of Islam are taken from the Jewish religion. It means that the Prophet of Islam has signed the laws of the Jewish religion.
In Judaism:
“God gives strength to his chosen people and grants them peace and security”. 11
“Listen to me, my children, who seeks happiness and long life. So keep your tongue from evil and your lips from idleness and avoid evil and make peace your profession. 12
“God will put an end to the wars between nations and they will turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into saws. The nations of the world will no longer think about war. 13
“God will judge among the nations and put an end to the differences between the great powers in distant lands. They will break their swords and spears and use them to make iron oxen and saws. People will not die anymore and they will not prepare themselves for war. Everyone will live in peace and security in their homes, because there will be nothing to cause fear, this is the promise of God Almighty. 14
“Love peace and spread it and love the creatures”. 15
Jesus Christ said:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” 16
The Quran also says:
“And if they show a desire for peace, you will also come out of peace.” 17
۱۸٫ Walsalh is good 19.
The separation of the institution of religion from the institution of the state is one of the pillars of “religion within the scope of peace”. Today, those who preach peace and refrain from any action that ignites war can be recognized as true believers. Religion for peace, religion for morality, religion for spirituality; Not to rule and dominate. Religiosity and faith should not be converted into securities and spent in the political market.
subscripts:
1- Bernard Lewis, The Middle East, two thousand years of history from the emergence of Christianity to today , translated by Hassan Kamshad, Nei Publishing House, pp. 132-133
2- Sylvia Hersh, Rationality and tolerance in Islam from Lessing ‘s point of view, translated by Elham Hosseini Beheshti and Farida Farnodfar, University Press. Religions and religions, pp 138-139
۳- The same, p 139
۴- The same, p. 141
۵- Hans Kong, The Spiritual Fields of the World’s Religions, Seeme Rah , translated by Hassan Ghanbari, Center for Studies and Research of Religions and Religions, p. 398
۶- John Hick, the fifth dimension, Exploring the spiritual realm, translated by Behzad Saleki, Qaseida Sera, p. 268
۷- The same, pp. 270- 269
۸- The same, pp. 270-269
۹- The same, pp. 271-270
Guardian, Sept. 18, 200610-
۱۱- Psalms, chapter 29, verse 11
۱۲- The same
۱۳-Isaiah, chapter 2, verse 4
۱۴- Micah, chapter 4, verses 3 and 4
۱۵- Talmud: Pirqa Avot, Chapter 1, Section 12
۱۶-Matthew, 5: 9
۱۷- Anfal, 61
۱۸-cells, 9
۱۹- Nasa, 128
