Religious Fanaticism Is A Danger To Peace
Fanatic religious believers of words from sacred books, or people who blindly follow the teachings of religious leaders without using their analytical/reasoning brain are dangerous to other human beings. Recently, we have seen two kinds of fanatic behavior – one crazy violent man who killed abortion doctor, George Tiller, while serving in the service of the Kansas Church, and another, a religious group at the brawl at a Sikhs Temple in Vienna. Religion tends to divide people – pitching one group against the other, than unites them. I consider fanatic followers of any religion, cult or ideology as enemy of peace. Religious/Spiritual leader (Ghuru) often enjoy having influence over worshippers. To gain power, they use emotional preaching style to incite young people into having frenzy mood so the leader can easily lead them on to action (in the name of a God or gods or what was written in the holy book). This common tactic is being used to increase membership of the group. The temple full of frenzy worshippers turned into a brawl. Violence followed. Shooting and stabbing began with kirpans (Sikh’s ceremonial daggers) right in front of the eyes of spiritual leaders. One of the Sikh Guru ended up dead in Austria. In the United States, the shooting of an abortion doctor is not a separate aggressive event against abortion. Mobilization of conservative Catholics on abortion issue has been going on for some time by the Church leaders. Some priests who lead worshippers in protest against doctors in front of several abortion clinics around the country have to take responsibility in the killing of Doctor Tiller. Lack of tolerance – non-acceptance of the fact that people can think differently about the question of “When Life begins” or “the rights of women to be in charge of their own body or their reproductive organ” is at issue here. Deadly competition among religious followers exists everywhere, even among the “supposedly” peaceful Buddhists. In Thailand, different Buddhist sects compete every day for followers, especially those with political connections and money to contribute to the temple. Friendship can also end between people who quarrel among themselves as to those who worship a monk from the Thammakaya sect, and those who worship the leader of Santi Asoke sect. We also hear news of Muslims killing Muslims (Sunnis and Shi’ites) in the Middle-East, and fanatic Islamist martyrs killing thousands of other people including Muslims (9/11 plane crashing into World Trade Centre). Fanatic worshippers of Hindu religion also kill ordinary Muslims and vice versa. They then burned each other temples and mosques. In Indonesia, there were fights in Aceh Province between Muslims and Christians. Because there are too much conflict and violence that happens on account of religion, the UN General Assembly made a Declaration on the Elimination of All forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion and Belief, and passed a resolution 36/55 on the same topic in 1981. NGOs have also organized many meetings at the UN Headquarters and elsewhere to bring religious leaders together for an Interfaith dialogue. But the outcome of these dialogues does not seem to help much in eliminating intolerance. When facing each other at interfaith meetings, religious/spiritual leaders tended to “talk at each other” (preaching), instead of “talking with one another”. Arrogance and feeling of religious superiority over the others often get in a way of good communication.
