Saturday, April 19, 2008

In the Name of God

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...

No comments:

Post a Comment