Rising Religious Extremism and Intolerance A Cause of Great Concern for Humanity

By New Age Islam Staff Writer

30 August 2023

Security Council Resolution Should Be Implemented By All Member Countries To Prevent Hate Speech And Incitement To Violence.

Main Points:

1.    Religious extremism has spread across religious communities.

2.    Earlier only Islamic countries witnesses large scale religious extremism.

3.    Denmark and Sweden have become a centre of religious intolerance in recent years.

4.    India has seen a sharp rise in religious extremism and intolerance against minorities.

1.    5.Religious violence creates a vicious cycle of hatred and violence.

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Religious extremism, demonstrations of hate and violence in the name of religion has risen sharply in the world in recent years and its circle is constantly widening. Earlier, only Islamic countries witnessed religious extremism and intolerance and terrorism as end result, but in recent years the West has also witnessed religious extremism against minorities. This intolerance is sometimes demonstrated by individual ideologues and sometimes by groups subscribing to extremist and xenophobic ideology. Sometimes, the state institutionalises and justifies intolerance and religious extremism by allowing it in the name of freedom of expression.

Realising the seriousness and gravity of the situation, the UN Nation's Security Council adopted a resolution (2686) on June 14, 2023 urging the international community to prevent incitement, condemn hate speech, Racism and Acts of extremism. The resolution stated:

"Recognising that hate speech, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance, gender discrimination and acts of extremism can contribute to conflict, the Security Council today unanimously adopted a resolution that, among other things, urged Member States to publicly condemn violence, hate speech and extremism and encouraged them to prevent the spread of intolerant ideology and incitement to hatred.

By the terms of Council resolution 2686 (2023) (to be issued as document S/RES/2686(2023)), the 15-nation organ encouraged all relevant stakeholders to share good practices promoting tolerance and peaceful coexistence and address hate speech and extremism in a manner consistent with applicable international law. Member States, in particular, were called upon to have regard to inter-religious and intercultural dialogue as an important tool to achieve peace, social stability and internationally agreed development goals."

It has been observed that despite approving the resolution and being signatories to it, the member countries have not taken fruitful steps to prevent hate speech, racism, incitement to violence and acts of extremism. Religious extremism is on the rise, not only in Islamic countries but also in the West and in Asia.

In recent years, Sweden and Denmark have become a centre of hate speech and demonstrations of hate against the Muslim minorities. The demonstrations of hate is justified by the doctrine of freedom of speech and burning of the Quran, a religious scripture of a religious community, is allowed in the name of freedom of speech, though in principle, it is a demonstration of hate of a particular community or religion. Though Denmark has realised the difference between freedom of speech and freedom of demonstration of hate and has expressed its resolve to ban burnings of Quran or Bible in the country, Sweden is reluctant to so on the grounds that it would entail amending the Constitution.

In Pakistan, religious extremism is on the rise. The Christian community of Jaranwala were attacked and their houses and churches were set ablaze or destroyed by a violent mob last week. Their religious scriptures were also desecrated and burnt. This cannot be called freedom of expression.

In India, religious intolerance and violence incited against the minority communities, Muslims and Christians by hate speech is on the rise. Christians in Manipur and Delhi were attacked and their churches were set alight while Muslims have been subjected to mob lynching and attacks on their houses and places of worship. All this is the result of hate speech and incitement to violence by communal groups and individuals. Recently, children of minority communities have been subjected hate speech and lynching. Recently, a teacher in Uttar Pradesh of India, Tripta Tyagi instructed the Hindu children of nursery classes to slap their 7-year Muslim classmate and the child was insulted and beaten up for an hour.

This phenomenon is highly alarming and needs immediate attention. In March 2014, the UN Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief had said:

"Manifestations of collective hatred do not erupt like a volcano but they are caused by human beings, whose actions or omissions can set in motion a seemingly unstoppable negative dynamic in societies which seems to be comparable to that caused by a natural catastrophe."

He also warned that feelings of collective religious hatred are often caused by a combination of fear and contempt which can trigger vicious cycle of mistrust, narrow mindedness and collective hysteria and called on states to take an active role in trust building through public institutions as a trustworthy guarantor of freedom of religion or belief of religion.

The irony that the public institutions that are supposed to contribute to trust building and work as trustworthy guarantors of freedom of religion or belief of religion are spreading hate among communities. Schools in India are fast becoming nurseries of hate in the light of recent demonstrations of hate against the Muslim community. A few months ago a low caste minor boy was beaten up by his upper caste teacher for drinking water from a pitcher meant only for upper caste teachers. The boy had died.

The UN resolution 2686 urges the international community to condemn hate speech but in India hate speeches go un-condemned. The national media are involved in promoting hatred between the majority and minority communities but no action is taken against them despite the instruction of the Supreme Court to do so. The UN Rapporteur had rightly observed that religion was used or purposes of national identity politics. This is true in the background of incidents in Denmark, France and India.

It is high time the international community took concrete measures to prevent religious extremism and intolerance in the world. If not prevented immediately, the rising extremism will push more countries towards ethnic violence and communal fire. The choice is ours.

 

URL:    https://newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam/religious-extremism-intolerance-humanity/d/130563

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