Our
global village is plagued with perpetual clash of humanity and one
humanity is facing millions of threats in most parts of this village.
Many of the countries and even regions are in constant crisis and
conflict for various political, religious and economical power
struggles. We usually hear that “its all political game” that has
created tension and chaos among these countries, but the painful part of
this political game is that religion too has been mixed in politics for
power. I understand that most of us reading this will not like to hear
that we are all somehow part of this religious politics, but in the
coming paragraphs I am going to prove this hypothesis as a matter of
fact.
In parts of the world, where countries state politics are rooted in
religious beliefs, there are growing versions of interpretations by
political leaders to get to power. Particularly, countries where
majority of population are Muslims and the country is called “Islamic
Republic of XX”, state politics are also based on Islamic Sharia or
Islamic jurisprudence. But the main question is whether we have a common
and most of all “true” interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence in these
countries or if needed we “interpret” Islam as per our own subjectivity
or the biased objectivity. But before religion becomes part of politics,
it’s important to understand how it evolves at various levels of
institutions like family, community and societal.
Growing up in Islamic environments, I have always heard that Islam is an
original religion and has been continuously being implemented and acted
upon by Muslims since the times of Prophet (P.B.U.H) with no additions
or omissions. But why is it that Muslims enforce the Islamic laws on
arbitrary basis which are different for themselves and for others.
Muslims condemn killing and brutal inhumane acts against any human
beings but they kill and exterminate another human being because another
human being relates to another sect of Shia or Sunni or any other sect
forgetting that Islam is religion of unity and hasn’t been disaggregated
as Shia’s Islam or Sunni’s Islam.
I am sure that some of us would say that actually it’s other political
movements that manipulate Muslims against each other and there are great
games behind dividing Muslims, but my question is again that is it that
we are weak in our faith in Islam? Is it that we are so weak in our
faith that we are more susceptible to manipulation and games and go
against our beliefs? Or Are we sure that we actually believe our
beliefs? My main argument in this last question is that since for most
of us religion has been part of the patriarchal culture, we haven’t been
able to explore religion in relation to our firm beliefs. I mean that
religion has come to us but we haven’t gone to religion. One day I asked
my mother that how do we know that our children are Muslims and
understand their religion because I haven’t seen us teaching our
generations about the religion. She said actually Islam gets to our
children through parenthood blood and even when a child is newly born we
deliver a prayer anthem (Azaan) to his/her ears and that way we
are sure that our child is a Muslim and will behave and comply with
Islamic laws.
We can also argue that because we live in Islamic society so our
socialization process is fully Islamic and our children learn to be
“good Muslims”, however, I would again question that if our society
interprets religion quiet differently for different purposes, and
establish segregation between Shia and Sunni and other sects, then are
we sure that our children are in the right track of Islamic
socialization? It’s not only segregation of Shia and Sunni but actually
a lot more than that. We are compromising humanity for self interest, we
believe that our religion actually commands us to get education but do
not let our daughters to get education, we believe that usage of any
intoxication is not allowed in Islam but we grow poppy in our lands. We
believe that only superior to Allah is the pious of us but we usually
make women inferior that men and give Islamic justifications. I have
heard from many Islamic scholars that Quran Says ”Al Rijal Qawamun
alanisa” which according to them means men are superior to women.
But we ignore the contextual reasons for this verse and the actual
meaning of “Qawamun” that is related to financial responsibility
and financial guardianship of men for their families but we interpret
this verse for the social interaction with women and say that women are
inferior than women because Quran says so.
As the world is witness of the growing conflict and crisis in many parts
of the world and one of the main causes is that religious groups want to
rule the countries as per their own interpretations of religion. In such
circumstances, I think in such critical conditions, the governments and
the United Nations need to come up with solutions to decrease the
tensions and crisis in these parts of the world. One way would be for
states to define governance and state building efforts as per a common
definition of justice and efficiency for people. By a common definition
of justice I mean a “justice system which can guarantee human rights as
a global need rather than being limited to one religion”. Here comes the
question of how to form a common definition of justice in a country?
National commissions of people representatives and great assemblies of
people can be sources to come up with such a definition, which is mainly
based on people’s religious and traditional values but by common I mean
that all kinds of religious values of all kinds of people should be
considered within a constitution of a country.
When I talk about social justice for people, I mean that all people with
different religious beliefs should be treated same within a legal
framework of justice in a country. This means that the legal framework
of a country should be able to address the justice needs of all
religions within their national justice unitary systems. It is important
to have the justice system based on a national consensus on human rights
and social justice because if that system is based on a single religion,
not only that other religions can not be treated equally and fair but
also there is a lot of different interpretations of religion by
different scholars and clerics as per their own values and beliefs. Most
often people’s religious beliefs are mixed with their traditional values
and therefore their judgments and perceptions of justice are not purely
religious and can not be just to other people who do not belong to their
circle.
It has also been seen that justice systems in a country that has limited
its laws and regulations to one religion, as arbitrary justice which
means case by case dealing of justice as per people’s religious beliefs.
Afghanistan saw a recent example of such arbitrary justice, with
governments dealing with a convert of religion who was put to capital
punishment. In contrast, when war lords proposed their amnesty bill that
was favoring their bale in spite of killing innocent people during 1992
civil war and damaging the national interest but it was considered
religious because it means for peace and reconciliation. Although the
religion does not support such mentality, but since this was some
powerful group’s interpretations of religion, it was approved by the
government justice system as well so they looked at the process of
reconciliation without analyzing its massacre of human rights.
At the same time, it is important for the governments to have a
governance system that all religions can be practiced freely and without
any barriers, and the government should be also having national programs
on providing educational and awareness raising programs for people to
know their religion rather than interpreting as per their traditional
values. If the governments are not able to adapt their governance system
freely for all religions and not favoring one religion, it is likely
that various opposition groups will be formed against the government who
are the victim or want to rule a country as per their own values.
We need to learn that religion is a spiritual need and should not have
political dimensions and we can only secure humanity if we nurture our
religion spiritually not through our political ambitions.
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