¢ Special for Family of
the Heart Seminar, Dec. 11/05
The Roots of Violence
(2)
By
Rashid Mughal
One last thought before
we get together Dec.
11 for the 'Politics, Religion and Terrorism'
seminar to examine
where the roots of terrorism reside
if they do not reside within the self.
I have
said often enough that unless we move away from religious
jingoism and the parallel linguisticism of politics and
science, we would be indulging in an
intellectual
exercise in futility.
It is all very well for
the intellectuals among us to trample all over the
macrocosm out there, jumping from Israel to Palestine,
George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq, and so on, and to
wax rhetorical about historical injustices, political
revolutions and religious reforms which even today
continue to breed more brutal history and more
brutal reforms, but we must not lose sight of the fact
that the essential problem of humanity has remained
unresolved.
If it had been resolved,
we wouldn't need to come up with this seminar, would we?
So, once again, I am
going to divert our attention inward, to the self, to the
still small voice that comes from within, and I sincerely
hope that our learned speakers—Najeeb
Kazmi, Tarek Fatah, Zia Ahmed, Abdul Mutaal, Nargis
Ebrahim, and Farzana Hassan—will
shed some light on this process as the only path to
personal and universal redemption for all of humanity.
I must make one thing
very clear:
I do not expect our
learned speakers to agree that I am on the right path and
they are not, neither do I wish them to submit to my
esoteric ideas; but I figure it would be interesting to
see where each one is coming from and whether we shall
leave the North York Central Library feeling much the
wiser or as bamboozled as ever.
Given the enormity of the
subject, countless books will continue to be written about
those three words, Politics, Religion, and Terrorism, much
as they have been in the past, and they will continue to
be written about until the mythical Day of Judgment.
The point I wish to put
forward today is a little known fact which may sound like
a bomb blast to a lot of people—yet
it truly is worth pondering.
I want to suggest
that human beings are violent creatures simply because our
God is vengeful and violent, given all the rantings of
the jealous and vengeful Creator/Narrator of the Torah,
Bible and Koran.
I am sorry to
disappoint all the chapter-and-verse fanatics out there
who expect me to quote references.
All three "revealed"
books smack of God's ego, his benevolence and his hatred
and malignant jealousy.
Is it any wonder, I wish
to posit, that Man is a mirror image of his so-called
Maker?
Please think about it.
—30—
© 2005
Rashid Mughal
December 03, 2005
___________________________________________________________