2 comment(s)

1. Omotaylor | Jan 20, 2009 | Reply

   This is hard to comment on. Religion vs ethics and civil rights. Which will win? Well in a town like Kano, guess we know the answer.

2. Donald Chalmers, aka \\ | Dec 14, 2009 | Reply

   Religious police ? Now that makes no sense !

   I can tell you that I have just attended the 5th Parliament of the World’s Religions (3-9th December 2009) and spoke to many people from all faiths, and all of the one’s I spoke to were of the “open-minded” persuasion. They were prepared to listen, to compare what is good, and to speak. No one mentioned “religious police” in my presence, and I spoke to quite a few Muslims, also. I would think that such “religious” police are but an aberration allowed to continue in local fiefdoms, because the public has not the guts to say “NO !”

   All people have the right to fair treatment, which respects privacy, and when our freedom is impinged on, we should “Cut out the mumbo-jumbo, and believe in our own selves”. We must “Cut through the barriers”.

   Independent thinking’s “curiosity” is not a crime; “freethinking” should be applauded. Look to history. All the advances we have made over the millennia have been brought about by people encouraged to think. Islam’s “Golden Age” flourished at precisely the time when Europe was plunged into the dark ages, through the “Inquisition” and other inhuman practices, supported only by those who had a vested interest in holding the population to ransom.

   Once established, custom unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance – as is evidenced by the “religious” police mentioned in your article. Who do they really work for ? Not for the God of my understanding.

   Custom’s principal effect is to seize and ensnare us. Bound, we are like lambs to the slaughter. Why should we be penned ? We, God’s Children, are not cattle to be poked and prodded. Even animals, according to Solomon, the Old Testament’s most wise King, must be treated kindly (Proverbs 12.10). Only the wicked are cruel to theirs.

   As emphasized throughout the 5th Parliament of the World’s Religions, the “Golden Rule” is the common thread holding together all religions: “Do not do to others that which you reject for yourself”: “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you” etc.

   Jesus, who is also revered by Islam as a prophet, put it even more plainly: “Love your neighbour as you love yourself. Do this and you will live” (Luke 10.27-8).

   “Loving your neighbour as you love yourself” IS “loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind” (Luke10.27-28).

   Not only that, but Jesus also is reported to have said “Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you. Give to others, and God will give to you” (Luke 6.37).

   He also continued as he taught, saying “Why look at the speck in an other’s eye, but pay no attention to the log in your own ? You hypocrites ! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly the speck in your friend’s eye” (Luke 6.41-2), which surely means “Do for others just what you want them to do for you” (Luke 6.31) in other words.

   He was of course, speaking against the self-serving practices of the religious hierarchy of the day, who perversely extracted every ounce from “their” gullible “subjects” for their own support and comfort.

   All people are created equal members of the one human family. Reasonable people understand that “It’s right to right a wrong, but it’s wrong to wrong a right”, just as we know intuitively that “To right a wrong is right, but to wrong a right is wrong”. Left to our own devices, if we live in a community which abides by the “Golden Rule” (which is supposedly revered by all religions in all its forms), then we don’t need to engage other fallible people (especially “religious police”) to mind what is “our own” business, and which establishment uses an ungodly custom grown strong and enforced as “a law”….

   However, “There are just and there are unjust laws, but – an unjust law is no law at all”. No doubt, not all Sharia laws are unjust, but they must be administered only by the competent, not personally involved or personally motivated minions of a corrupted system gone bad.

   If what I have collected from Islamic sources here in Australia and from Nigeria (and posted as “Grand Perspectives at http://community.africanloft.com/_Grand-Perspectives/blog/254281/4392.html , and http://community.africanloft.com/_Islamists-The-Taliban-etc/blog/487317/4392.html respectively) is any guide, then the very concept of “Sharia Police” should be anathema to thinking Muslims everywhere, and relegated to the dustbin with other ignorant practices: for the Koran plainly states:

   “Many are the leaders who in falsehood defraud people of their possessions and bar people from The Path…. (Koran 9.34); Why follow obscure verses, desiring sedition ? (Koran 3.7); Some verses are precise in meaning: they are the foundation of The Book. (Koran 3.7); Fierce bigotry is the fierce bigotry of ignorance (Koran 48.26); Do not argue (or dispute) with the People of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), except with better ways … (Koran 29.46); Never charge a soul with more than it can bear (Koran 6.152); Righteousness is not whether you face towards the east or the west (Koran, 2.177); Give just weight and full measure (Koran 6.152). There is no fault in you if you make mistakes, but only in what your hearts intended. (Koran 33.5); Be just, even if it affects your own kin. (Koran 6.152); Speak of goodness to people. (Koran 2.83)”.

   This same holy book also says: “A kind word and forgiveness is better than charity followed by injury. (Koran 2.63); Let There be no Compulsion in Religion (Koran 2.256); Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful (Qur’an 9:5)”.

   This is absolutely consistent with what Prophet Muhammad (may peace and blessings be upon him, also) is quoted to have said in his last sermon: “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you”. This surely is yet another version of the Golden Rule: that which is pure and unadulterated: Love’s Truth, which is of God.

   “As long as widespread illiteracy, unemployment, inequalities in terms of access to productive resources and opportunities for betterment are denied most people, expressions of frustrations with governance under whatever guise will not end” (thanks to Olomide 28/07) .

   “Who feels it knows it, those who have ears should hear” (thanks to Love Nigeria 28/07) .

   See also my blog responses about a related matter – “Ethical Constitution” “Let there be no compulsion in religion.”(Qur’an 2:256) re “Nigerian Muslims want new constitution”.

   So that you may not think that my response to this article is partial to only one tradition, please see also my responses about religion at my blog ” Why The Primate Is Wrong “.

   Peace ! And let it begin with me, and also with you !

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