Religion , the one word which has contributed immensely in human evolution and the one word which has let to killing of thousands in its name. Religion , the one word which can unite humans and one word which can divide humans.

Nothing has played more sensitive role in human race than religion. People have died for sake of religion , people have killed for sake of religion , people have done unimaginable to fellow human beings in name of religion , people have done totally selfless things which can be said as pinnacle of humanity for sake of religion.

Religion be it be any claims to be divine revelation ,directly from god. In some religion god is said to have manifested HIMSELF as human while in some religion god choose a person or made some special person born as messiah or messenger who brought message of god on earth.

The message of one god which applies to all human beings. God which rates human beings with one eye . God who wants human race to do good , avoid sins and live life as per rules/guidelines which are given in religious scriptures.

So purpose of religion is assisting humans to reach god , live righteous life and attain heaven (as in case of some religion ) or salvation (as in case of some religion).

Now since religion is for entire human race and god views all as equals why do we have fights, killings , murders , riots and such things in name of religion.

A news from pakistan stated that a hindu community was attacked by 150 tribesman. Reason?. A hindu boy drank water from outside of mosque!!!!!!!!!!!!

Similarly when a foreigner entered a well known temple in India , entire temple was washed by milk to clean temple since foreigners are prohibited!!!!!!!!. Similar things had happened when a famous heroine claimed to have entered a temple.

When I was in college , along with my friends I went to a church to celebrate Christmas. I was not welcomed there and people looked at me as if i am from Jupiter as soon as my non christian identity got reviled!!!!!!!!!

Religion fails the purpose if ‘we are better than fellow person because of our faith’ enters the brain. Ego , boasting , differentiating , evaluating , judging is human trait .

Ironically most religion claim to believe in god’s judgment but at first instinct try to judge others on basis of one’s own standards.

When Religion Fails The Purpose , incidents like above occur.

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Woman cannot work where they have to mingle with man without veil . Woman cannot mingle with her male colleagues.

This are views of largest muslim seminary in India , Darul Uloom of Deoband who has issued fatwa against muslim women and asked them to veil themselves and not mix with male colleagues.

Maulana Abul Irfan Firangimahli , a sunni cleric has backed the fatwa stating that career oriented women might get good life here but they are answerable to god (allah) after death.

Few months back a influential muslim  had slammed working women citing that their chief role is nurturing kids . This he had said during woman reservation bill debate.

Woman’s role concerns are not limited to religion is subcontinent and old civilization belts. Many hindu bodies precribe to similar views about woman , her roles and are against woman opting for careers.

Ironically this fatwa comes just day after independent report of plight of mothers in India. India stands 73rd in list of 77 countries as far as woman health is concerned.

How is this fatwa and report related?. Well majority of men (specially other than metro/mega cities) are first people to define what is woman role but convinently forget what is man’s role!!!!!!

The more woman becomes financially independent , the better she would be able to live life confidently and more she is likely to take care of herself , her children and also have relationship with her husband on equal terms. Most important thing for happy married life.

Needless to say this fatwa has been slammed by working muslim woman.

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Religion since thousands of years has definitely played very important part in lives of human beings. The first temple is believed to be as old as 11,500 years.Evacuation is underway and this had led to hypothesis called ‘First Temple , then city’.

Idea of god , what after death , how earth was created , why live on earth and such things have been part and parcel of human brain since thousands of years. Time and again human’s zeal of getting answers to such questions has led to many scientific discoveries as well as evolution of philosophical thoughts and religion.

Religion has had immense contribution in human race. Religion has immense contribution in smooth functioning of social system.

Somebody had asked an eminent scholar (atheist) that “Do we need religion”. To every one’s surprise he replied in affirmation. Now atheist stating that ‘religion is needed’ definitely is something surprising. Isn’t it?

He elaborated about why he thinks that religion is needed. According to him life is not always fair.  At times people do have bad times , have someone who ditches them , have some things which let them down , have times when one feels , why me?.

Religious beliefs do help in those times. It does promise that in the end right would prevail , truth would win and negative forces would be defeated.

It promises that good work would be rewarded . Some religion have concept of heaven while some have concept of salvation. Never the less if you do good,you shall be rewarded is the theme.

Similarly bad deeds would be punished. Some religions have concept of hell for punishment while some have re incarnation with demotion as punishment.

So religion does help humans to keep floating and see through bad days , deal with deaths of loved ones , keep moving with faith , try to be good (out of fear of hell or motivation of heaven).

Of course ideally one should do good for sake of doing good and not out of fear of hell or motivation of heaven but it does work for most that way.

While contribution of religion cannot be rejected , it is also a truth that religion has caused death of human being and history if full of such religious wars . Religion has been time and again used as tool to gain political power either by person who created the religion or by people who used name of religion/prophet/god to gain power.

Having faith in god and one’s religion is personal matter.Obviously most of religious believers believe that their scripture is only true scripture , their prophet is only prophet , their path is only path and their interpretation of god is only god. Now it wont be any problem if one adheres to that belief and keeps it to  oneself.

Problems occurs when this ‘my god is better that your god’ is imposed on others who is turn believes that ‘their god is better than imposer’s god’. This had led to riots , conversions by use of force or bribe in many places in ancient times. Riots do still keep happening in many places where two religious groups are in substantial numbers.

As world is becoming smaller places , religious people need to understand that faith is personal matter and stick to believe that their god, their book, their prophet is best but for them. Communal harmony can be achieved only when one adheres to one’s faith but respect freedom of others to adhere to their faith. Their faith may be disbelief in god , or belief in other religion but respecting his/her right of adhering to it is civilized way.Isn’t it?

Ironically most religion have concept of judgment day.Most agree that it is god who would judge people . It is equally surprising that they themselves turn judge and ridicule people who don’t adhere to their faith.

I had an interesting chat with a person who called himself religious person. I asked him that since I don’t belong to his faith , what are my chances to go to heaven?. He replied-’None , because his religion was only way to get to heaven’. Sort of exclusive right. So according to him more than 50-60 percentage of people wont go to heaven.

I then asked him that what is i have been doing all that has been prescribed in his book ,unknowingly. Can I then make it to heaven?. He said ‘No. You must believe in his god, doing comes later’. Also he doubted that how can I do good prescribed in his scriptures since I never read it?

So according to him first comes believing in his books because god was define in that book and then doing what is prescribed to get into heaven. In other words ‘his god being better than all other versions’.

Now it is fine as long as one believes in whatever book/god one wants to. That is personal matter but trying to impose is something which is not right thing to do.

‘My god is better than your god ,but for me’ this might solve lot of issues.Isn’t it?

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As I was on my way back to home from office , I saw a car which had sticker that read ‘xyz religion is in danger, awaken to protect it’ . This led me think that does religion needs protection?.

Be it be any religion , most believe in source called god. Source which created entire universe and all species. Source which itself came as avtaar (in hindusim) or sent a prophet (as in Islam) or himself came as jesus (as in christianity) . God established a system called religion which had moral , social norms and rules. How to pray , rituals , social systems , sin ,duties and many such things.

Now almost all faiths also have holy books and all three major faiths believe in second coming. While chrisitianity believes in second coming (most of chrisitains) , Islam do believes that christ would come again . One sect of Islam believes that Mahdi would come to establish just system again. While hinduism believes in kalki avatar.

So bottom lines is that all major faiths believe in a divine figure who would come to re establish a righteous system and defeat the negative forces from the other.

Now coming to the sticker. Does religion needs protection?. Is religion so small that it needs to be defended by mortals?. Also defended from whom?. One who doesnot believe in your faith?. At what cost?. Fanatics are ready to kill a fellow living human being in name of protecting one’s own religion. Fanatics believe that they are doing it for god and god would not only like their gesture but also reward for the same!!!!!!

Imagine all powerful god at mercy of mortals to make sure that His way prevails!!!!!!!. Ironically all major religions believe that ultimately His way wont prevail because in the end He would have to send someone or come himself to make sure that His way prevails and so this entire protection thing is meaningless because He would come or sent someone to show the right way and so why fight?

Logic doesnot work in matter of faith , unfortunately . Time and again people do fight in name of god and themselves turn judge to decide what is right or wrong in name of god. Slay others if they dont believe in what you believe. Fight till they become extinct or surrender to your version of god . If you get slayed in the process , you are martyr!!!!!!!. Now this defys religion and god itself. Since if god wanted to differentiate , He would have done that in many other ways and wont have needed humans to do so. But thats how religious fanatics work.

Religion doesnot need protection. It is too big for mortal humans to do so.

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At times its surprising how people think. Laskhkar e toiba , the terror group which killed more than 160 innocent people in mumbai talks about holy war!!!!!!!!!. Just imagine holy war call given by unholy lashkar e toiba.

First let see what military commander of Lashkar e toiba said :

“It is the religious obligation of Mujahideen to fight the invaders and oppressors across the world,” Abdul Wahid Kashmiri told a rally in Kotli, a town in Pakistani Kashmir.

Well abdul wahid , here is piece of advice for you , why don’t you start with Pakistan itself. India and Pakistan has lot of corruption in the country so definitely there would be oppressors in Pakistan who might be exploiting poor people, supressing them , so first duty is to clean one’s own house. So why not start with oppressors in Pakistan , land lords who exploit poors , taliban who kills innocent muslims , corrupted officials who harass ordinary muslims.

Also Islam prohibits killing of any innocent so stop talking about holy wars when you yourself fail to adhere to principals of Islam.

Yes you would argue that there is hindu Indian army which is killing innocent muslims of kashmir and so its duty of lashkar e toiba to fight with Indian army. Well then go to  nwfp and attack taliban , they are killing more innocent muslims in pakistan since two years , why dont you go to afghanisthan where bomb blast kills innocent muslims or Iraq where innocent muslims are being killed by al queda??…

Sick people using religion as means of achieving political goals. Fooling people in name of religion has always been easy and who knows better than hafiz saeed who moves with bodyguard and has immense security for himself but sends kids like kasab to kill hundreds and get themselves killed in the process.

India Army has never been communally inclined , Indian army always has country v/s insurgent as it motto. It would fight with any one be it be hindu or muslim or sikh or parsi or any community which fights with the country as insurgent. Religion has nothing to do with.

Yes kashmir needs peace which it has never got since 1947 but using religion as mode of achieving political goal would lead to disaster . Era where religion used to be base of administration has passed . In era of globalization religion needs to stay private as it was supposed to be matter between individual and god.

Working for betterment of society , giving donations , treating all as equals , protesting against what one thinks is wrong is prefectly right but killing innocent on claims that they too are killing innocent doesnot justify holiness of purpose. No religion would permit killing of single innocent .

Lashkar e toiba has political goal and they shoul pursue their goal without mixing religion in it. They want kashmir and rest of India while India would counter that. As long as it remains like that its fair. We always have forces who want to destablize country but using religion as means is unpardonable because it beats the very purpose of religion that is serving entire humanity.

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India is one of oldest civilizations in the world. While presence of human beings in India is as old as 70,000 years , the civilization can be said to be older than 5000 years.

Being such an old civilization , we have rich heritage of culture , social systems which are age old. Now logically when we have such a long heritage , its likely that there might be some age old practice which needs change , there might be social evils which needs to be eradicated.

There is nothing wrong in questioning social evils, practices and trying to make positive change in society. Dowry, Status of woman , killing of female fetus are some of prevailing social evils which need to be questioned and tried to be eradicated.

In same way rise of extremism in India , rich v/s poor divides are another important things which we need to address.There is no question and doubt about this.

Now we have people who are called liberals who often question what they think is wrong while there are people who are called tradionals who counter these liberals in name of our heritage.

But there is third kind which has emerged who claim to be liberals but their definition of being liberal is what makes me write this post.

In quest of being called liberals they try to ridicule everything about present system , they in quest of being called broad minded end up being close minded. Close Minded enough to not entertain any point of view which doesn’t adhere to their way of thinking!!!!!!!!!

If you talk about heritage , you are being conservative , if you talk about value system , you are being pachaat.
As I said our system is not perfect and it needs to change but at sametime this system survived for thousands of years because it inherently had some very good things in it which are time tested.

Being liberal is right thing to do because that makes one broad minded to bring the change and keep what is good in the system but this third category is not liberal but another version of talibani. Difference being that while Taliban uses violence to get their way, these people use ridiculing as weapon to get their way.

I came across , one such person who is called intellectual by his followers. He has immense following and some of his works are worth appreciating. He wrote article on recent news about M F Hussain and his qatar’s citizenship. Now MF is great painter and there is no debate as far as his ability is concerned. I have written about M F Hussain previously and wont get into it in this post (Do You Support M F Hussain?).

Now this intellectual wrote article on M.F. and expressed his opinions in that. He compared MF with galileo and even with christ (how christ was opposed by romans). His argument was that hindu fanatics were opposing MF and his freedom of expression. Now I agree with his one point, that threat to life to anyone for any reason is strictly against civilized way. Such people who try to threaten others because their sentiments get hurt must be dealt with stictest form of punishment.Having said that , argument of comparing jesus and galileo with MF was going bit too far but author has right to express his opinion which he did.

In the same site of this intellectual some people had negative feedbacks about this article. Now lets analyze what is liberal ways of thinking :

1) M F Hussain has freedom of expression as per constitution and he painted accordingly

2) Citizens of India have freedom of expression as per constitution and democratic right of feeling hurt .

Now they dont have any right to threaten MF and protest violently. Such people must be booked. But they do have right to approach court to file case against MF , if they felt hurt , which they did.

3) This intellectual has right to express his opnion and freedom of expression which he did.

4) Viewers have right to express how they felt about article and comment on that.

Perfect . Now what is the problem , one might wonder. Wait… When author critizes people who oppose MF even in peaceful manner , that is being progressive but when viewers (some of them) give negative feedback to this author’s article , it is being talibani (hindu talibani ) in this case!!!!!!!!!!!

So what is definition of being liberal as per this intellectual and his  followers?. Not opposing even when you feel hurt?. Not expressing opinion of what you think about it?. Well it seems so…

So suppose if you are of views that M F Hussain did cross his limit and misused his freedom of expression in painting hindu god/goddess , well you are hindu talibani!!!!!!!. You might be equally critical about hindu fanatics who threatened him but you still are hindu talibani because you dont support M F !!!!!!!!!.You cannot express you views.

Yes if you support M F Hussain , you are liberal and intellectual!!!!!!!!!. Because you challenged the traditional way of thinking.

Now according to me being liberal doesnot mean painting prophets or god/goddess nude. I may not be religious person but I respect other’s sentiments. Painting christ or peigambar or laxmi in not right light might not hurt me but it might hurt people who have faith in them.

For me being liberal means introducing sex education in masses , slamming dowry ,caste system , promoting widow marriages , re marriages for divorced , promotion adoption and such social things.

But even if i question everything wrong in society but dont support MF , I am hindu talibani!!!!!!!!

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1) Thank God For Dead Soldiers

2) Thank God For Swine Flu

3) Thank God For 9/11

No , this are not my statement , but from website belonging to particular group who believes that usa is moving towards destruction. Titled as god’s wrath against america , the group believes that since usa is not living as per god’s law and have divorce , abortion , gay marriage and many such things which are/might become reality , usa would get destroyed.

Now this same group would pledge god to be omnipotent , omnipresent , loving ,caring and forgiving. They can quote from various things about how much god loves human beings.

But it seems their interpretation of god and his love means that god does love human race but that love is conditional one. Condition is that human needs to adhere to what they say is god’s way of doing things and if one doesnot adhere to that , god from merciful can turn to ruthless.

Such groups and their way of thinking is not new . It existed through out human history and it would exist in future too. It transcends all religion and in every faith , one would find section of people who believe in such a manner. People who themselves become judge before judgement day and pass the judgement. People who relate every natural or human made disasters to religion and include god in their judgement.

There is nothing wrong in being strong believer and living one’s life in adherence to one’s religious faith. That is matter between individual and god but imposing one’s believe and passing judgement (which most religion believe in domain of god) , is something which makes society and nation less tolerant .

Yes there are many things happening in the world which we might not prescribe to. There are many things in the world which we might think are morally incorrect. There are many things in the world which we would like not to happen again but turning judge and passing judgment as god’s judgment is not right thing to do.

The same logic can be applied to many things do. Like if these group is thanking god for swine flu ,then why not thank god for vaccine too?. If they thank god for some earthquake , why not thank god for help that pours in from all across the world for those victims ?

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“The LeT represents — a word that’s been used often — a Frankenstein’s monster created for the purpose of assisting the Kashmiri freedom movement, but that ended up becoming a powerful Sunni Punjabi movement with an independent agenda that appears to have taken on a broader regional role.” -Noted Pakistani scholar Shuja Nawaz

“The LeT’s true goal is not Kashmir, it is India. And the LeT is not shy about announcing that its intention is to establish an Islamic state in all South Asia.”-Gary Ackerman

Lashkar e taiba is often viewed as terror organization which is focused on Kashmir and what they call as freedom struggle of kashmiris.

But if one goes through constitution of lashkar e taiba it is not limited just to Kashmir. For lashkar ,India is not secular country but a Hindu country. Its constitution has freeing of junagadh , Hyderabad and overall all Muslims of subcontinent from clutches of Hindus!!!!!!!!!

Lashkar is deadly terror group and its so called jihad is threat , not just to India but to its creator Pakistan itself , as well as to western countries.

Lashkar’s rise to becoming second most deadliest terror organization in the world have become chief security concerns of India. USA too is worried about lashkar and its effort of bringing India and Pakistan into a war.

Hafiz Saeed , the hate monger and whom pakistan calls a respectable leader would prove to be fatal for pakistan , if pakistan doesnot understand what extremisim can do to a country.

India , Pakistan and all liberal forces would have to call real jihad against such fake jihadis like lashkar e taiba who kill innocent people in their quest of making entire subcontinent intolerant , blood thirsty bunch of people.

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Communal violence is back in India. This time its bareilly in uttar pradesh.Maulana Tauquir Raza Khan, president of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council who was arrested on 8th march was released from jail and this led to protest which went violent.

Maulana Tauquir Raza Khan is alleged of making inflammatory speeches which led to violence early this month.

Communal violence is not new in India and its history can be traced back to late 1700s. Recently the frequency of communal violence has decreased substantially . While some believe decrease has been due to maturity among communities , other credit fast growing economy being the reason.

Normally communal violence is sign of misunderstanding among people not only about other community but their own religion itself!!!!!!!!!!!!

If religion is for peace , peace cannot prevail by going on killing spree of other communities and if this is what is understanding of respective religions , religion has failed its purpose , at least for these groups.

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What is most dangerous weapon in the world?. Is it nuclear bombs?. Is it sophisticated weapons?. No most dangerous weapon in human mind filled with conviction of distorted ideology.

Among many many advantages which a religion brings in human life , perhaps most dangerous thing it brings along is in tolerance. A mind convinced to kill and heart filled with hate is most dangerous thing in the world.

The times in which we all live terrorism , war on terror , jihad , suicide bomber are buzz words. Daily we hear news about someone blowing himself off killing 10s,20s,30s,50s people in somewhere in the world.

All this in name of merciful and all powerful god!!!!!!!. Human brain reprogrammed to hate with incentive of becoming martyr and promise of heaven.

Yesterday story of jihad jane made headlines all across the globe. An American who converted to Islam and went all the way to Europe to kill an artist before getting caught.

She was so convinced that she was ready to kill artist and risked being killed in process!!!!!!. Ajmal Kasab , the 20 odd teen is undergoing trial for mumbai terror attack. The less educated and thief , once upon a time went on killing spree along with another 9 people. He also killed people from his own faith in the process.

Using religion for political goals is not new and it is age old phenomena. History is filled with god-mans or religious head who have declared war on other nations or got their opponents killed in name of god , their faith.

Human brain who is programmed to kill and get killed in process is best killing machine one can get.

Ironically almost all religion believe in creator who is merciful , who loves people. Almost all religions believe in judgment day but many turn judge themselves!!!!!!!!!. Almost all religion believe that its god who created every human being but don’t shy away from killing fellow human being.

Using Religion As Dangerous Weapon , specially when world has been small place is something which needs to be addressed at earliest.

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