God's wrath on WTC |
On this day 20 years ago, four
airplanes were hijacked by 19 men who then flew them straight into certain
symbols of modern civilisation: the twin towers of the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. The Capitol was targeted too but the guy who flew that fourth
plane missed: his God was not happy with him, perhaps.
It was all
done for God. One man called Osama bin Laden decided that his God was not happy
with the “unjust, criminal and tyrannical” America. So he killed 2977 innocent
people some of whom were in those buildings which came tumbling down and others
were in the planes hijacked by his warriors. The youngest victim was Christine
Lee Hanson, a two-year-old child travelling with her parents. The oldest was
82-year-old Robert Norton who was going with his wife to attend a wedding. Innocent
people. As innocent as a two-year-old is. And as innocent as an 82-year-old is
when it comes to the vengeance of gods.
Are the gods
really hungry for the blood of Christines and Roberts and whoever?
In 1880
Dostoevsky imagined Jesus returning to the earth. No sooner had he started
making meaningful bonds with people than he was arrested by none other than a
cardinal of the church established in his name. Jesus’ crime? He was undoing what
the church was doing. Jesus was acting against the church! The cardinal
threatens Jesus. “Tomorrow,” he tells Jesus menacingly, “Thou shalt see that
obedient flock who at a sign from me will hasten to heap up the hot cinders about
the pile on which I shall burn Thee for coming to hinder us. For if anyone has
ever deserved our fires, it is Thou. Tomorrow I shall burn Thee.”
Jesus pities
the cardinal and leaves the place, not without giving a gentle kiss on the
lifeless lips of the old cardinal.
God’s men
versus the gods, that’s what we have now. Was Osama bin Laden a man of God as
he claimed? Are the priests and yogis and terrorists of today men of the gods
whom they claim to represent?
No way. Paraphrasing
philosopher Nietzsche I’d say that all their gods died long ago with a whimper
just as Jesus vanished from the cardinal in Dostoevsky’s story.
Bishop of Pala |
A bishop and
some jihad
A controversy has been set in
motion in Kerala by another man of God, the bishop of a Catholic diocese. This
bishop put it on record that the Muslims in Kerala are practising Drug
Jihad in addition to Love Jihad in order to charm away the Catholic girls to
the Muslim fold as the Pied Piper did with the children of Hamelin.
There are
love marriages taking place between people of different religions all over
India including Kerala. That has been happening from time immemorial. There is
drug abuse too in many states of India including Kerala. By all available data,
Kerala is not a particularly outstanding state in drug abuse. Many other states
are ahead of it. Are Muslim jihadists at work there too?
The Bishop of
Pala who stirred the hornet’s nest seems to have too many ulterior motives and
saving the Catholic youth of Kerala from jihadist traps is not one of them. The
Church is passing through a tumultuous period with quite many bishops and
priests facing serious criminal charges. There are rapists and murderers and
swindlers among the top hierarchy of the Church. And India’s current Prime
Minister is a man who is just waiting for an opportunity to pounce upon top
leaders of non-Hindu communities and organisations in order to facilitate his
dream of creating a Hindu Rashtra. A facile way of appeasing Modi’s love of
Gods is to indulge in Muslim-bashing. Kerala’s Catholic Church has chosen the
facile way, it seems.
This is not to
say that the Muslims in Kerala are an innocent lot. There are many jihadists
among them. There are many misguided youth who claim to be doing Allah’s job but
are actually doing the devil’s job. But how many? The NIA probed the case in
Kerala three years ago when the allegations were made by several powerful
agencies including the Catholic Church and found that there was “love
but no jihad”. Now if a similar investigation is carried out, it will be
found that there is substance misuse but no jihad.
If there are
crimes, the legal system should take care of that. One big problem in today’s
India is the failure of the legal system. Our judiciary has a religion now.
Everything from universities to hospitals has a religion now, sadly. That is
one of the many perversions gifted to us by Mr Modi. But the Bishop of Pala
should have resisted the temptation to fall so low as to use religion for nefarious
political purposes. The Catholic Church in Kerala had a much better standard in
the good ol’ days.
Jesus would run
away from the Catholic Church of Kerala if at all he bothers to return once
more. What about Allah or his prophet? What about Rama or Krishna? Concerned
faithful can answer those.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that Yeshu would not recognise this tangled web that has arisen in his name. None of those whose stories are told and reinvented and twisted to others' nefarious desires would approve of the politicisation (?_!) of faith structures. YAM xx
Those who were friends till yesterday become enemies today just because of this sort of politicisation or whatever it is. This Bishop's statement came as a shock to me just because the Church in Kerala has always shown better sense than that when it comes to rousing communal passions.
DeleteWorld stands divided in the name of God. The ulterior motives of religious
ReplyDeleteLeaders are poisoning the minds of people who stand divided in the name of God. Let everybody learn to use reason before falling into the vicious cycle of black sheep.
The problem, I think, is that many of the top religious leaders are corrupt and in order to cover up their evil deeds they use this sort of strategies.
DeleteHope your words knock sense in somebody
ReplyDeleteI too hope so though that hope is far-fetched. Religious people think of me as an incarnation of Satan or something like that.
DeleteA very relevant post articulated correctly.
ReplyDeleteI have just followed it up with a new post.
Delete