Mankind Is Fortunate That Blasphemy Exists Only In Islam, Not In All Faiths
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
8 June 2022
Mankind
Is Lucky That Blasphemy Is Limited Only To Islam and This Madness Doesn't Exist
In Other Religions
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(File Photo)
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The way
Islamic countries and Muslims across the globe are reacting to Nupur Sharma's
comment on Muhammad, one's reminded of Kai Nielsen's words, “In a way, mankind
is lucky that blasphemy is limited only to Islam and this madness doesn't exist
in other religions and religious cults. Had it existed in other religions as
well, we'd still have been shedding blood over the perceived insults to our
respective religious figures." So very true.
Now when
the terrorists of Al-Qaeda are threatening to blow themselves up to prove their
blind and slavish loyalty to Rasool, world is again asking the same question:
Is Islam indeed a religion of peace or piece? Well, before I discuss this, I'd
like to dwell upon the idea of blasphemy or sacrilege (Kufr) in Islam.
By the way,
I wrote a piece in TOI: Why
Blasphemy Is Alien To Hinduism . Mind you, I'm NOT a Hindu. The newspaper
categorically mentioned that the writer is an atheist who always writes God in
lower case.
Blasphemy
is integral to Islam and Persian mystic Mansoor al-Hallaj's excoriation (922
CE) for proclaiming Upanishadic An-al-Haq (I'm the Truth/god) being its
earliest recorded instance. Later Ibn Taimiyyah (1263-1328) codified and
institutionalized blasphemy for apostates and atheists.
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Most of the
Muslims have a cult-bonding with Islam and a cult always demands strict
adherence from its followers which often degenerates into Totalitarianism. And
there's no gainsaying the fact that Islam or for that matter, any cult is a
totalitarian unit, predominantly, a tribal, desert/arid unit of early believers
believing in dictates and blindly following a (dictatorial) leader. This belief
is always unquestionable (From, ' Sociology of religion-New World Encyclopaedia
').
Like
fundamentalist Judaism and medieval Christianity, Islam is totalist. That's to
say, it makes a total claim on the individual. Indeed there's no individual;
there's only the Ummah- the community of believers. Islam follows you
everywhere, into the kitchen, into the bedroom, into the bathroom, and beyond
death and eternity. Islam means -'submission'- The surrender of independence of
mind. The surrender now bears the weight of well over 60 generations and 14
centuries.
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While
followers of all other man-made faiths have matured and somewhat evolved with
the passage of time, most of the Muslims still live and think on a mofussil
plane with desert moorings of cult-worship. They don't want to change
themselves because their cultish association with Allah, Muhammad, Quran and
Hadees is too strong. The sense of being sacrosanct is ingrained in almost all
Muslims.
Agreed,
Jewish and Christians also wreaked havoc and burnt heretics at the stake, they
don't do such reprehensible things any longer, because a modicum of maturity
dawned on them as centuries glided by. But sense and sagacity still elude most
of the Muslims.
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Also Read: How Not to Talk About Blasphemy
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Hindus in the past mercilessly burnt Charvaka
and his followers alive and tortured Jains and Buddhists at the behest of their
religious heads but that was more hierarchical (read Brahmanical) and
caste-based (indeed, condemnable) and less religious in nature.
Somewhere
down the line, all faiths grudgingly accepted the religious crimes perpetrated
in the past by their followers and asked for forgiveness at some point in time,
however insincere that may be, to get along with the rest of mankind. But that
willingness, even grudging or at face value, is not to be found among a
majority of Muslims.
Today, if
you condemn Jesus and brand Mary's Immaculate Conception as a mere mare's nest,
no Christian will decollate you. Even if you say that the PUTATIVE Jesus was
never crucified at Calvary (Islam doesn't believe in the Crucifixion of Christ
and aptly calls it Cruci-fiction!), a Christian will curse you and sulk but
will not physically harm you.
Likewise,
if you say before a Jew (or even a Christian) that Moses receiving The Ten
Commandments (Decalogue) from god at Mount Sinai is a humbug or Moses was high
on psychedelic drugs (https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/moses-was-high-on-drugs-researcher-391832),
no Jew or Christian will hang you. But say anything unpleasant and even mildly
unnerving about Muhammad, your crossover is assured, nay guaranteed. This is
rank puerile behaviour which clearly shows the total absence of Aql-e-Saleem
(prudence) among the followers of Islam.
Remember,
Islam is still a relatively young faith when pitted against Judaism,
Zoroastrianism (first monotheistic faith), Christianity and Hinduism. Others
are just cults. So, Islam's collective maturity level is still comparatively
low.
Hope, it
evolves enough to be called a religion of 'peace' and sanity in the days,
sorry, centuries to come.
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A frequent contributor 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/the-war-within-islam/mankind-blasphemy-faiths/d/127197
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