What creates the ideological fervour to follow a course of events which not only create disgust in the general population but also end any sort of life for the participants. Only religious concepts, involving individual sacrifice and a belief that, in a life after death scenario, one can attain a special position in your "makers" eyes, can young men and women commit the horrendous crimes against their fellow man and be prepared to die for there actions.
All religions have a mystical side where the faithful believe a goal is to be attained by acting out their lives in a certain way. On the whole the issue is an individual one and depends wholly on ones own sense of commitment.
The Muslim faith is different. It has a far greater collective brotherhood, a greater commitment to the faith and a "teaching sect" that can infiltrate many messages into the mind of the congregation. The faith has been at the forefront of a religious struggle for centuries.
The faith has two sects the Sunni and the Shi'ites. The Sunni selected Abu Baka as their first Caliph after the death of Muhammed, whilst the Shi'ites selected Ali as their first Caliph.
This mis-match, over many years has led to a tremendous loss of life, without a day going by when followers of each sect being killed in the most in-human, traumatic way by members of the other group.
When Pakistan came into being in 1947 under Ali Jinnah, it was initially created as a secular state and the construct of the state was the recognition of the power of the religious schools, the madrassah which were in effect a state within a state.
In many countries this potential conflict,of a "state within a state" has been recognised and the problem that arises with the powerful inter-relationship of these, madrassah centred religious groups, who know little "State" allegiance when compared with their religious allegiance. It is this immensely powerful force which crosses boarders and seeks to promote the religious above the secular democratic ideal.
A brotherhood which sees its group as totally unified, who can through radical teaching lead its followers to do anything in furtherance of holy attainment.
One of the outcomes at the sight of the Muslim Nigerians, hands covered with blood, the chopper clear for all to see has been a Media storm with interview after interview deriding the action.
One of the leading Muslim clerics, Anjem Choudary who has in the past preached hatred towards the none Muslim in this country was questioned on TV as to his views. His message was simple. We in the West were guilty of far greater crimes in Muslim countries towards Muslims and this latest crime was in small part a response to our own guilt.
There is no doubt that we have blood on our hands. Our history up to the present day has been one of self interest and we have used what ever force was necessary to obtain our own murky ends.
Why should we be surprised that the religious relatives of those very people we oppressed would want to strike back.
How incoherent we are when we ignore these facts, how hypocritical when we profess our horror and ignore the dirt of our own foreign policy which results in death and destruction in far away countries.
Of course in our attempt to create a multi cultural society after encouraging many millions, particularly from Pakistan in the late 40/50s, to come here to fill the need for cheap labour, we are left with a polyglot of interests.
There is no united "national" interest, the landscape has changed massively since the 40s and we are confused and horrified when the different views surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment