WHY GIVE A RELIGIOUS OVERTONE TO A FIGHT AGAINST INJUSTICE?

The news coming from Syria is shocking. The photos and videos of children suffering and dying from the toxic poisonous gas make one seriously sad. The unrest that started as a political rally against injustice has metamorphosed in to a grim sectarian war. Each faction is trying to outdo the other in the ever-increasing inhumane atrocities. It has taken a religious overtone that is increasingly threatening to involve the surrounding nation states.

No religion or their sects ever teach violence, deception and indiscriminate killing but still that is where time and again many of their followers are lead to by their leaders.

The greed of a few people for power, influence and money is always behind this sudden emergence of ultra- religious fanatic behaviour. The fight should be against that person or persons but it is a terrible folly to attack his religion and even a greater mistake to use the religion to attack him. All religions and their various sects are essentially good and teach almost similar things, then, why there is ever a need to fight one another in the name of religion.

Everywhere in the world, a few charismatic people in their selfishness and greed invoke the name of religion to justify their actions, accrue public support, and perpetrate heinous crimes.  It is a person or a group of persons who become corrupt, unjust, greedy and commit atrocities. The grieved people should revolt against them but should not do the same mistake of using religion for their purpose.

 Doing so is counterproductive. Because then the fight completely deviates from its original objective.  It becomes a fight between two religious ideologies rather than a fight against the original injustice which most of the times is left unresolved.

 Many innocent people are killed or maimed and the criminals of one or the other side continue exploiting people and plundering their nations’ assets. Sadly, that has been the story in the West in past and is now repeating itself in all the developing and underdeveloped countries.

These problems cannot be solved by other countries, however willing. Unless majority of the people in these countries develop the faculty of critically appraising the motives behind the edicts of their leaders, this sad state of affairs will continue.