Get Out Of ‘My Camel Is the Best ' Syndrome
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
3 October
2022
Recently,
one 'learned' contributor commented that, “Islam is the favourite and blessed
religion of Allah.” The same crap ad nauseam! This is a quintessential tribal
view from a religio-anthropological perspective.
Eleventh-century
Arab poet and apostate Al-Ma'ari said, " The human race is divided into
two: One, man intelligent without religion, the second, religious without
intellect.” I put this man in the second slot.
Believing
in the superiority, invincibility and infallibility of one's faith and god is a
sign of delusion and condescension. This deluded mentality births all sorts of
bad-blood and religious differences.
Having
travelled across the world and interacted with a huge spectrum of believers of
all faiths and hues, I've observed that Christians and Muslims have a
pronounced tendency to glorify their faiths and characters. Believers of other
faiths also have this proclivity, albeit restrained.
Almost all
Muslims have a terribly wrong belief, ingrained in their system, that their
religion is the best and most favoured by a prejudiced and partisan Allah who
packs believers of other religions off to hell without a trial. The Quran says
that Allah doesn't discriminate and it's Rabbul-Alameen (the god or
Supreme Being of the universe) not just Rabbul-Muslameen (the god of
only Muslims). So, how can an 'egalitarian' Allah favour a specific faith and
its followers? Is he also as partial as his followers are because partiality is
a typical human attribute which Muslims are endowing their Allah with? Aren't
you contradicting yourself and your scriptural claims?
Anthropologically
speaking, Islam is a tribal faith. It's obvious that its followers still have
certain tribal ethics and ethos. Noted anthropologist Franz Boas opined that
the religious stubbornness of Muslims stemmed from their early tribal
tendencies and practices.
In olden
times, when there were tribes galore in the Arab peninsula, every tribe had its
own deity and tribal supremacy was determined by the strength of the respective
deity and the cattle. A camel symbolised the superiority of a tribe. So, the
Pre-Islamic perception that my camel is the best to assert tribal superiority,
travelled through subsequent generations to emerge as my faith being the
supreme. It's worthwhile to mention that a 'modern' faith or precisely, Islam,
is nothing but an improvement upon an erstwhile tribe or group with additions
of esoteric beliefs as time marched on. En passant, the national animal of
Saudi, camels are native to the Arabian Peninsula and have accompanied Saudis
as far back as recorded time.
Muslims
must pluck this 'My camel being the best' syndrome out of their belief system
to earn respectability in these times when they're justifiably anathemas to the
rest of the world.
-----
A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/syndrome-muslims-religion-race/d/128088
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