The title of this post is the secondary title of a movie I just saw, the primary one (with the same meaning) being "Khuda ke Liye." Without intending this to be a review of the movie, I must say it's a great attempt to foster a better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. The underlying message is that no unethical, wrong or persecutional thing can be - or rather should be - justified in the name of God.
At least for me, the movie has done tremendously well in clearing some of the misconceptions and long-ingrained notions of what true Islam is. The very word means peace with God and a Muslim is one who "submits to God or the will of God". But the big question: Who is God and what is His will? Now that's where all those Muslim clergy - many of them rather than all - cause confusion amongst the impressionable and, often, uneducated, youth all over the world. How many of us have studied Islam and its tenets? (I certainly haven't. And while on my personal beliefs, I haven't studied any scriptures of any religion and am still an "explorer" when it comes to a single God - but that would be a series of blogs! But I do believe in the absolute values of ethics, morality and goodness.)
One sureshot way to multiply hatred is to blame an entire community of the wrongs done by a few. Painting the West morally bankrupt is as bad as calling all Moslems terrorists.
Why do most of us carry on with our ill-conceived notions of people who are "not like us"? Can we pause to understand the other viewpoint and, more important, spread that understanding? I think this might work better than shock and awe or terror and bombs...
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
The Flame of Tibet
So. The Olympics torch is carrying on with its journey round the world. Yesterday, I read that the relay passed off "without incident" in Delhi, the city that many thought would cause more "trouble" than Paris or San Francisco. I'm sure the Red brigade in China would've heaved a sigh of relief.
But what many consider trouble or incidents are, to me, Tibet's rallying cry to appeal to a callous world. I believe their protest should have had a better outcome on the minds and motives of powers-that-be across the world than the muted murmurs of sympathy we get to hear.
About China, the less said the better. Here's a country that's had indisputably bad human rights violation record - one that's contaminated the simple and noble lives of lakhs of buddhist monks through repression, mindless economic expansion and other dubious means. Here's a country that's caused unspeakable suffering and environmental destruction in its march for modernism. Here's a country that's bent on displaying its might on the lofty pedestal of the Olympics by hook or by crook. And what do the great democracies, leaders and thinkers of the world do? Most of them worry about the "nuisance" or "irritation" caused by the pro-Tibetan protesters to the Chinese authorities. Many are sh*t-scared about disturbing their relationships with the world's fastest rising superpower.
In this mad scramble for seeing the Olympics torch through, who will carry the flame of Tibet that's in danger of getting completely extinguished?
But what many consider trouble or incidents are, to me, Tibet's rallying cry to appeal to a callous world. I believe their protest should have had a better outcome on the minds and motives of powers-that-be across the world than the muted murmurs of sympathy we get to hear.
About China, the less said the better. Here's a country that's had indisputably bad human rights violation record - one that's contaminated the simple and noble lives of lakhs of buddhist monks through repression, mindless economic expansion and other dubious means. Here's a country that's caused unspeakable suffering and environmental destruction in its march for modernism. Here's a country that's bent on displaying its might on the lofty pedestal of the Olympics by hook or by crook. And what do the great democracies, leaders and thinkers of the world do? Most of them worry about the "nuisance" or "irritation" caused by the pro-Tibetan protesters to the Chinese authorities. Many are sh*t-scared about disturbing their relationships with the world's fastest rising superpower.
In this mad scramble for seeing the Olympics torch through, who will carry the flame of Tibet that's in danger of getting completely extinguished?
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