Perversity of Religious Belief

It is often asserted, even in the face of contrary evidence, by the believers of course, that the ‘truly religious’ people do not do any ham to others; that the terrorists are a misguided lot; that those who incite communal violence are in the grip of momentary passion; that the believers who commit human sacrifice and those who refuse to provide proper medical assistance to their nears and dears on religious ground are illiterate people; that these ‘aberrations’ cannot be used as a yardstick to measure the true nature of religion, which is essentially spiritual and hence benign, we are told.

Well, we reproduce a news item that shows, yet again, the darker side of religion. It shows, starkly, what grave harm people inspired by ‘true faith’ in religion do to others even in ‘normal times’.

Indian woman dies after being refused abortion

(The Hindu, Chennai, November 15, 2012) 

A woman of Indian origin has died after doctors in Ireland refused to perform an abortion, telling her that “this is a Catholic country”, sparking widespread outrage and renewed calls for immediate reforms to the Irish law to allow termination if the life of the mother is at risk.

Savita Halappanavar (31), who was a dentist, was 17 weeks pregnant when she died from septicaemia, according to an autopsy carried out two days after her death on Oct 28. Her family said she asked several times for her termination as she had severe back pain and was miscarrying but doctors at University Hospital Galway refused on the grounds that abortion was illegal in Ireland.

Her husband Praveen Halappanavar said he was certain that his wife would have still been alive if the termination had been allowed.

It was her first pregnancy, he said, and she was “on top of the world” before she started suffering back pain. When the pain persisted, she asked her consultant if she could be “induced” but was told “no”.

Savita Halappanavar

“They said unfortunately she can’t because it’s a Catholic country. Savita said to her [consultant] she is not Catholic, she is Hindu, and why impose the law on her. But she said, ‘I’m sorry, unfortunately it’s a Catholic country,’ and it’s the law that they can’t abort when the foetus is [alive],” he said.

The hospital has launched an internal investigation in addition to a separate inquiry ordered by Ireland’s Health Service Executive.

Mr. Halappanavar recalled that Savita “was so happy and everything was going well” until she was admitted to hospital with back pain.

“On the Saturday [Oct 20] night everything changed. She started experiencing back pain so we called the hospital, the university hospital... I got a call at about half [past] twelve on the Wednesday night that Savita’s heart rate had really gone up and that they had moved her to ICU. “Things just kept on getting worse and on Friday they told me that she was critically ill.” Savita died on Sunday.

Ireland Prime Minister Enda Kenny did not rule out an independent inquiry as pro-choice groups demanded immediate changes to the law.

“It would be very appropriate that we don’t rule anything out here, but there are two reports and investigations going on at the moment,” Mr. Kenny said.

Ireland’s strict anti-abortion law means that women routinely go abroad for abortion. Earlier this year, the government set up an expert group to make recommendations in response to a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights judgment that Ireland had failed to implement existing rights to lawful abortion where a mother’s life was at risk.

Left-wing MPs Clare Daly and Joan Collins, who had introduced a bill in Parliament earlier this year to allow an abortion in specific life-threatening circumstances, said that had their proposals been accepted, Savita would have been alive.

“A woman has died because Galway University Hospital refused to perform an abortion needed to prevent serious risk to her life.

“This is a situation we were told would never arise. An unviable foetus — the woman was having a miscarriage — was given priority over the woman’s life, who unfortunately and predictably developed septicaemia and died,” Ms Daly said.

We do not think that the medical fraternity who refused to extend the required medical facility to that unfortunate woman are ‘bad people’; except for their religiosity they are ‘good people’. It is their ‘true faith’ in religion inspired by their faith (not just ‘as small as the mustard seed’ as their holy book demands, but ‘enough faith to move a mountain’) in their compassionate god that prevented them from extending medical help that was well within their reach.

As Steven Weinberg said, “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion”.

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Business and Politics of Blind Faith

Ram Puniyani

Sanal Edamaruku, a rationalist is facing the legal trap for abusing others’ faith. (April 2012) At the same time in another event, Nirmal Baba, who is supposed to be having divine powers and who has been flashing his paid programs in over 40 TV channels, advising people on solving their problems with various’ divine’ solutions, is facing case of fraud. Recently a local court has directed the police to register a case against him for allegedly cheating people. Both these cases coming in different religions have a deeper connection. In case of Sanal Edamaruku, he was able to show the root of the water seeping from the feet of Jesus Christ on cross in Mumbai’s Irla area. This water was regarded as divine and many followers were thronging the place to have access to the divine water. Sanal showed that water was from the choked drain and getting pushed up by capillary action. Sanal is facing the wrath of section of the community for hurting their faith.

Nirmala Baba, Nirmaljit Singh Nirula, a failed Businessman had disappeared in 1970 and then later repapered claiming to have divine powers and started building up his enterprise by organizing paid TV shows in which those in the audience were initially paid to ask solutions for their problems and later people in thousands thronged, paid money to enter these TV shows, ‘Nirmal Darbars’ and Baba started dishing out ‘solutions’ while his bank accounts swelled. In few years time the ‘faith-business’ flourished and now Baba is a multimillionaire with good deal of property under his belt.

The large section of followers thronging for the divine water seeping from the feet of Lord Jesus, to explain the source of water came as an insult of their faith. To the multiple people seeking solutions from Nirmal Baba, it was again a matter of faith. The boundaries between faith and blind faith many a times are very blurred. As such faith and reason have been counter-posed in the society. Faith has been ruling the roost in the areas of ‘unknown’ and the future. It has been constructed around the supernatural powers and clergy of different religions or self made Godmen have been the custodian of faith. Many an areas which were in the domain of faith shifted to reason over a period of time like nature of earth, eclipse, diseases etc.

At the same time faith has been used or manipulated for different purposes in society, including for political ones’. Ram Temple movement is the example of such use or abuse of faith. Hiding behind Sharia to continue with certain retrograde social practices is another such example.

The natural phenomenon being interpreted through the angle of faith, Earth is flat, God created life in such and such fashion, is one thing and to create a well planned show to rouse people’s faith and then to make business of it with the help of section of TV, media, unmindful of their social responsibility is another side of the same coin. One concedes that the insecurities of the society have gone up by leaps and bounds and this faith gives a emotional support to many to sustain in the midst of the hardships prevalent all around. Still we do need to bring out the boundaries where the rational thinking, the one our Constitution ordains us to promote, needs to be adhered to sincerely.

Nirmal Baba

In case of Nirmal Baba state has correctly woken up and case has been put up against him. In case of Sanal state and society need to protect him from the trappings of law to uphold reason. The mechanical interpretation of laws ‘hurting the faith’ of others needs to be sanitized for protection of the mandate of Indian Constitution to promote rational thinking and to protect the likes of Sanal.  In case of Nirmal Baba, the media, which has aired the sponsored shows of Baba and built up his fraud, needs to introspect.

The claims that these are matters related to religion are again far away from the truth and have a distorted perception of the complex phenomenon of religion. The core part of any religion is the morality developed by the prophets and society over long period of time. The institutions built around religions and the hyper-emphasis on rituals, sharia is an insertion by the clergy, who has its own vested interests and which has ensured the suppression of rational thought all through. One recalls the battles between Charvak and clergy related to the oldest struggle of reason to come up in social thinking and pull the society out of the clutches of the vested interests of clergy.

Giordano Bruno

In Europe the scientists like Bruno, Servatus, and Galileo suffered immense torture at the hands of powerful mediators of the institutional religions. One must re-emphasize the difference between the teachings of the prophets-religions and emphasis on identity and rituals by institutions of religion and variety of Godmen. Prophets were for radical changes in the society to come out from the evils prevalent in society, they were for change and for justice. The institutions built in their name are there for status quo and for preserving the system where few benefit and most in the society suffer. The rational thinkers, scientists had to face imprisonment or other harassment for discovering things like Earth is round, diseases are not due to wrath of God etc.

The response of the clergy was a severe condemnation of this rational thinking as it would undermine their privileges in the society. While Europe has seen its battle against the blind faith, faith based knowledge; it seems at broader level that we in India are still struggling to come out from the impositions of faith. One can say that even in recent times those who stood for social change and justice like Jotiba Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar Ramaswamy Naicker and Bhagat Singh resorted to rational thought and those for status quo of social relationships took recourse to identity of religion. Their politics took cover under the name of religion and they harped on faith and issues built around identity issues.

The continuation of the mind set of feudal society has got mixed up with the new challenges of globalization and contemporary insecurities faced by the average people. Nirmal Baba may be a crude example from the battery of these Godmen. There are others who are more sophisticated and have a vast reach through diverse mechanisms. Godmen, faith merchants are those who have en-cashed on the insecurities of people by mixing the creation of miracles with faith, mixing spirituality and faith in a variety of ways.   As Meera Nanda, an eminent social scientist, in her book ‘The God Market’ has demonstrated this phenomenon has expanded by leaps and bounds in last three decades. The proliferation of Babas of different hues all around has put a brake on the growth and promotion of rational thought and scientific temper. The patronage of high and mighty to these Godmen, or persecution of people like Sanal is a matter of deep concern and is a mirror showing us as to where our society is going in the matters of faith.  

The litmus test of the values of Babas and those putting cases against the likes of Sanal has to be, how much these elements are talking of prevalent social injustices, how much they are promoting the morality inherent in their religions? On this count the God men are tongue tied. It is time we build the conduits to promote rational thinking and confronting the tricks played by the likes of Nirmal Baba and those propagating the existence of miracles out of phenomenon which can be explained by scientific inquiry. 

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United Colors of Fundamentalisms

Terror Attack Hits Norway

Ram Puniyani

India hardly recovered from the ghastly terror attack of 13^th July, 2011 Mumbai that terrorism struck in Norway. In Norway on 22^nd July, Friday, around 3.20 PM in the afternoon the high-rise, where Prime Minister’s office is located in central Oslo, was targeted resulting in blowing out windows and facades of close by buildings; just few hours later a gunman putting the dress of a police officer opened fire on youngsters at a summer camp of ruling Labor Party, in Uloya Island. The twin acts of terror killed 93 innocent lives.



Mourners in Oslo 25 July 2011
(Courtesy: Wikipedia)



Even before the horror of the act was registered, the verdict about ‘who did it’ was out, and the usual suspects in acts of terror were named, all around, by media and experts. The ‘experts’, ideologically motivated commentators and section of media revolved their discussion around Al Qaeda chief Ayman-al Jawahitri, saying that he is the culprit of the act. It was commented that the Al Qaeda, the dreaded Islamic terrorists have done this. Incidentally Norway is also involved in the war in Afghanistan.

As it turned out the culprit was a Norwegian, Anders Behrig Breivik, a 32 year old Christian farmer who has been part of right wing ideology, a neo Nazi racist, opposed to multiculturalism, Islam; Muslims and immigration of Muslims, seething with anti Muslim sentiments. His blogs are reflective of his ideology whereby in the name of tradition he opposes the development of European Union and Multiculturalism. Also he profiles Muslims as being supporters of Al Qaeda and so of terrorism. It seemed through this act he was opposing the liberal policies related to immigration of the Norwegian Prime Minister.

Despite this being true, the common perceptions have been manufactured to hate Muslims and Islam by projecting them as the terrorists. Whenever the word terrorist is said the image of a bearded Muslim flashes up. This is mainly due to the machinations of US-CIA through the media. Same way in India, the Muslims are projected as terrorists and the perception here is that all terrorists are Muslims. Some commentators go further to say that while Muslims are terrorists due to religion’s preaching’s, those from other religions have political goals. All this is a total distortion of facts. Going to the depth of reality will unearth the role of US in creating the whole ‘Jihadi terror’ phenomenon, and it is US again which has played the worst role in doctoring the mass consciousness against Islam and Muslim.

2011 Norway attacks flower march
(Courtesy: Wikipedia)

The tragedy of this bomb attack reminds us of various phenomena in the society. To begin with the first and major suspicion for any attack on terror in India and at global level is put on the so called Jihadi groups, thereby on the Muslims. By now some of the verses of Koran have been taken out of context and misinterpreted to create Islamophobia. One recalls that the promotion of right wing Al Qaeda-Taliban was promoted by United States in its goal to throw away Russian armies from Afghanistan, which was occupied by them on the request from the local Communist Government. US planned to turn Russia’s Afghan occupation in to its Vietnam, as US had to bite the dust when it had attacked Vietnam.

Since US armies were totally demoralized due to the humiliating defeat in Vietnam, US- CIA planned to set up Madrassas in Pakistan in collusion with ISI. In these madrassas the radical version of Islam was taught to the young Muslim boys.  The verses of Koran exhorting the Muslims to kill the infidels attacking them were taken out of context to indoctrinate the young Muslim boys. As a matter of fact these verses were meant for the war situation to protect the Muslims as a last resort.  When seen in isolation it seems as if the advice to followers is to kill recklessly, when seen in the context, it is clear that these verses were said during the war and it was a defensive struggle for new converts to Islam.

A special syllabus was developed in Washington to be used in these Madrassas. These Madrassas produced the Al Qaeda breed. Osama, again a US creation was brought in as leader of Al Qaeda and was provided with 8000 million dollars and 7000 tons of armaments. The indoctrination of Al Qaeda-Taliban recruits was aimed to make them join anti Russian forces to defeat Russian army.

It is after 9/11 2001 that US media popularized the term ‘Islamic terrorism’, it was a deliberate propaganda to demonize Islam and Muslims to prepare the ground to attack Afghanistan and then Iraq. In India the likes of Osama, Swami Dayanand Pandey; Assemanand and Company, were bred and brought up in the organizations with the goal of Hindu Rashtra and these terror suspects were determined to show their ‘bravery’ by following the dictum of ‘Bomb for Bomb’. The association of Islam and Muslims with terrorism became firm in poplar mind and Indian investigation agencies have been recklessly arresting Muslim youth, even when the blasts have taken place in front of Mosques and other places of Muslim congregation. Even after 13/7 2011Mumbai attack, the similar theories have been put out by the agencies and one hopes that these authorities will start delinking their biases from professionalism.

As far as Europe-US are concerned we have seen in the past also that there have been terrorists and terror groups which have indulged in acts of terror. Irish Republican Army declared few years ago that they will not indulge in acts of terror. Timothy McWay bombed Oklahoma in 1995 killing nearly 165 people. The current rise of intolerant, right wing ideology in Europe and partly all over the World has a lot to do with the global changes, post the rise of US as the sole superpower. US has been dictating the world, for the sake of its economic interests, particularly those related to control over oil resources.  The attack in Norway shows very interestingly as to how the economic problems, which are plaguing the World, are being diverted to the issues related to xenophobic, intolerant view of society. The Norwegian terrorist is not an isolated person voicing these views. In Europe there are various trends which promote hatred for Islam and Muslims and oppose the immigration of Muslims.

Swedish daily Expo claims that Anders is a part of group called Nordisk, which is a Neo Nazi group and focuses on political terrorism. He has leaning towards Christian Fundamentalism. Since at the moment Breivik’s fundamentalist ideas are focused against Islam-Muslims, he finds himself close to the Hindutva fundamentalism, no wonder as RSS led Hindutva fundamentalism is currently targeting Muslims in particular. Breivik may be unaware that these Hindu fundamentalists are also on the spree to kill and intimidate the Christians in Adivasi areas. As such the Breivik’s Manifesto seems to have derived lot of inspiration form the RSS Combine. He appreciates the acts done by Hindutva groups of targeting Islam and Muslims. Breivik has quoted from the Hindutva ideologues criticism of Islam and Muslims. No wonder B.P.Singhal of VHP, a RSS affiliate said the Breivik’s cause is correct but method is wrong.

Terror trends are so parallel all over the World, here a person inspired by Christian Fundamentalism is taking to terror, in Afghanistan-Pakistan Al Qaeda type of groups are fed on the diet of Islamic fundamentalism and the likes of Aseemanand and Pragya Singh Thakur base themselves on Hindu Fundamentalism. The culture of liberal values and ideology of struggle for dignity and rights of people are being substituted by the fundamentalist ideas all around. Fundamentalism generates Hate against ‘other’ religious communities leading to heinous crimes, witnessed in different parts of the World, particularly in South Asia and occasionally the one like this in Europe.

There is a deeper unity in the ideologies of all fundamentalisms. Globally there are two major factors promoting Fundamentalism in the name of this or that religion. One, when a privileged section of society feels threatened by the rise of assertion for equality by the deprived classes, women included. Two, when a superpower promotes it proactively to use the products of fundamentalist mind set for its economic-political goals. These trends come up in the wake of social changes where the weaker sections of society are trying to come up and assert their rights. In such situations the entrenched social groups resort to the politics in the language of religion. This in turn co-opts and uses the marginalizing section of people, those getting marginalized due to social processes, and unleashes an identity politics which ensure the status quo. At superficial level they target the people of other religions. At the deeper level this fundamentalist related political ideologies are opposed to the values of Democracy, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. They inherently believe in the birth based hierarchy of caste-class and gender. This is where Breivik will appreciate what Hindu Fundamentalists are doing in India. India must have been mentioned by him because it is here that ideological sophistry of Hindutva elements against Islam-Muslims is a so aggressive and visible from last few decades.

The tragedy is, one fundamentalism feeds another. Promotion of Al Qaeda and accompanying radical version of Islam is used as a pretext by other fundamentalist tendencies to strengthen them. The Norway tragedy should wake up the World to the reality of this dastardly economic-political reason of terrorism. Religion should be for moral values, terrorism is a political phenomenon. Like in Norway the economic crisis is leading to the rise of intolerant views. It is time we address the deeper political issues, we should work for global democratic system, we should also aim for global peace movement so that this aberration in the understanding about terrorism is overcome, so that we can really engage with the deeper issues related to the deprivations of society. This is what will help us eradicate the phenomenon of terrorism.

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