Articles
Abrahamic Religions
Dt: 26/8/16
Abrahamic Religions
(Tolerance, Inequality, Violence, Terrorism And Wars)
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
“I am in the right, you are in the wrong. When you are stronger, you ought to tolerate me for it is your duty to tolerate the truth.
But when I am stronger, I shall persecute you, for it is my duty to persecute errors”.
- St. Augustine, one of the gentlest of Christian divines
Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Marxism are Abrahamic / Semetic religions, the first three in reference to god and theology and the last one in reference to historic determinism and politics & Economics. All these gods as depicted in their revelations to their Prophets are infallible, hold every other religion/philosophy as false or imperfect or in error and also assert that it alone must prevail all over the world and the rest must be combated, suppressed and eliminated. Indeed the Christian and Islamic gods will not descend upon the earth until all humanity is converted to their own faith. All these are inherently intolerant, sanction inequality between various groups of human beings; have indulged in violence and terrorism in vindication of one’s commitment to the spread and victory of their faith. Here are their distinctive features.
· Humanity is divided as “us” and “others” believers (momins) and non-believers, (kafirs), pagans and others
· The believers / mominths are to overwhelm or eliminate the others for the victory of their faith as enjoined by their gods. In our Constituent Assembly, the Christian Members successfully argued that it is their God-enjoined obligation to propagate their religion (and so secure converts); that is how their conversion business has become of a fundamental right)
· Each one holds the others as false, inadequate, imperfect and impure. This is intolerance; a fundamental characteristic.
· Their sacred books the Old Testament, the New Testament and Koran (and Das Capital are revelations by god recorded by the Prophets. In Christianity there are four) authorised gospels. These gospels are supposed to be the word of Jesus Christ but as recorded by the apostles there are difference which indicate that these could be fabrications.
· Islam is the most intolerant and it won’t permit any removal, alteration or addition to what over is in the Koran. It is to be permanent unaltered. Every Ayat in every Sura is eternally true and unalterable and therefore no different interpretations will be allowed and every momin believer is enjoined to believe in and follow what is conveyed in the Koran.
· Where Islam has conquered, the choices for the conquered are (a) embrace Islam or (b) if the conquered Christians or Jews (people of the Book) pay a protection tax and live with restricted rights and duties towards the Muslims or (c) death. This show that it is totally intolerant. The Prophet of Islam has said that in Arabia, there should be no religion other than Islam. There used to be Jews and Christians and all of them were either expelled killed or converted.
· That the Christians and Muslims are absolutely intolerant and irreverent to other faiths is practiced even in marriage. If a Hindu is to marry a Muslim or a Christian he or she has to convert to the religion of the spouse. This arises because both Muslims & Christians believe that they are superior to Hindus and therefore they cannot marry an inferior person even, if there is profusion of love for the Hindu.
· Islam does not believe in religious freedom. They believe that Hindus and Christians must have the freedom to change the religion, of course to Islam. But if a Muslim leaves his religion, it is apostasy not permissible and death is the penalty that Islam imposes upon the apostate.
· Muslims & Christians can criticise Hindus, their gods, their religion and their practices and beliefs but the same freedom is not given to a Hindu to criticise Islam or its Prophet. His head will be cut off as he is supposed to be blaspheming the Prophet. For eg. Maqbal Fida Hussain should have the freedom to paint Saraswati and Draupadi in the nude, the former copulating with a tiger but a cartoon showing Prophet Mohammed in Dutch and French journals invited murder of the cartoonists. So they have freedom to assault others but won’t stand even a mild criticism.
· Islam does not believe in multi-culturalism. The Arabs tribes in the Arabian Peninsula in the time of Prophet Mohammed had different cultures, different modes of worship and prayer and different customs. Prophet Mohammed abolished all of them and imposed only one culture as he deemed fit. That is what Islam is doing in all the countries where Muslims are the majority. They will not permit multi- culturalism multiple religions as equal to that of Islam. ( In India Muslims assert that we have evolved a composite ( Muslims plus Hindu) culture and that we should preserve it. But they don’t ever speak why there is no composite culture in Pakistan (and Bangladesh ) and why only Islamic culture exist).
· Destruction of temple and places of worship: Prophet Mohammed himself personally broke some of the 365 statues in Kaa’ba in Mekka, leaving the rest to be broken by his followers. Churches in Madina were converted into mosque and his companions did the same for many Churches in Syria. In India more than 3000 temples were destroyed; some of them were converted into mosques (with evidence even today very glaringly available like in Gnan Vapi in Varanasi; Jama masjid; formerly Raghunathji temple in Rajamahendravarm; Kesav (Krishna) Mandir in Madhura.
· Violent slaughter and elimination: Prophet ordered the murder of the poetess Asma Bint Marwan and two others because they wrote irreverent poems about him. He ordered the destruction of a whole Jewish tribe Beni Quaraiza. These are all attested in sira ( life stories of Prophet Mohammed) and Saraya record of Prophet Mohammed’s sayings and doings.
· Christianity and Islam countenanced / practised slavery and slave trade. Islamic victors took the defeated non- Muslims as slaves and sold them in slave markets in Baghdad. The wives of the slain enemies were “taken into harems” . Billal the first muezzin was Prophet Mohammed’s slave who was freed by the latter. Muslim Arabs hunted black Africans and the captives were sold to Christian conquerors of America .
· The Christian land -lords (planters) and conquerors of America bought the black Africans and used them as slave laborers. Even though they were converted to Christianity, they were untouchables. The black, African -origin Christian Americans had their churches separate. They were barred from hotels nor could they travel sitting by the side of the whites. In South Africa the white invader -conqueror -rulers confined the native blacks to ghettos. Converted them to Christianity but kept them as untouchables and denied voting until 1994.
· There was Inquisition; that is investigation and trial of Christians suspected to be apostate or pretenders. Such people were burnt at the stake. Not only that; scientists who held opinion contrary to what the Pope held to be in accordance with the scripture, were also burnt at the stake. eg. Giordano Bruno, the Italian astronomer for saying that the earth was going round the Sun and not the other way as the Pope wanted to Christians to believe. Galileo was later excommunicated for the same view.
· Apostasy from Islam was punished by beheading ; even now in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and ISIS.
· No woman could become Pope or a Caliph.
· In Islam a man can have four wives but a woman can have only one husband. (Hindu kings had many wives and no Hindu woman had more than one husband excepting Draupadi. While the Abrahamic scriptures allowed and ordained this inequality, no Hindu Sastra ordained polygamy or polyandry.
· In no communist country or communist party did a woman become Prime Minister or General Secretary of the Communist party .
· In the Abrahamic faiths, the God is only a male. In contrast, in Hinduism there are as many goddesses as gods.
· Neither in Christianity nor in Islam can a woman be a priest. In Hinduism, there is no scriptural prohibition for woman to become a priest. In fact, in Bali the Hindu province of Indonesia, women also are priests in temples. (1,375 words)
END