God is War
 |
| A Palestinian child whose dear ones were killed Pic from Malayalam weekly |
They are killing each other because their gods are
different. Each of the gods is a jealous entity. Yahweh, the God of the Jews,
admitted his own jealousy. He told the Jews, his chosen race, “For you shall
worship no other god, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” [Exodus 20:4]
Allah of Islam makes no less claims. While Yahweh allows other gods to exist,
Allah apparently isn’t as generous as that. La ilaha illallah.
Both these gods together have caused endless
misery on the earth. They have made their chosen people squeamishly narrowminded
and incapable of living in harmony with others. Why on earth did anyone think
of putting these two people together on a desert?
Mahatma Gandhi was right. He was
against the creation of Israel as a country for the Jews. He was not one who
would give credence to fairy tales such as a race being God’s favourite and so
on. “I am not moved by the argument that the Jews must have a country of their
own,” Gandhi said. “Why can’t they make their own country wherever they are
living? If England belongs to the English and France to the French, Palestine
belongs to the Arabs.”
Giving a portion of that Arab land to
the Jews was like giving enough space for the camel to put his nose in the
tent. Gave them an inch and they took a mile. And they kept on taking more. It’s
not much unlike what the European invaders did to the American native
population. Whose country was America? No wonder the Mahatma did not say: “If
America belongs to the Americans, Palestine belongs to the Arabs.” Today’s
America is an ally of today’s Israel. No wonder.
Having said that, it must be asserted
loudly and clearly that terrorism is not the solution for anything. What the
Hamas did to the Israelis is utterly inhuman. I wonder what Allah thinks of his
Hamas warriors? Is He keeping seventy virgins each for them all in Jannat?
I have argued time and again that the
most fundamental remedy for this sort of wars is an effective education that
makes us all grow up beyond the childish tales in our holy books which we take
seriously. Yahweh’s jealousy and Allah’s solipsism. Eden and Jannat. And a
whole lot of stuff in other religions too.
We need to civilise our gods first.
Can we be better than our gods?
You say God is love. But I see that your
god is war.
The only murder I long to commit is a
divine one. To redeem humanity!
Request: Don’t take this
post literally.
Very powerful words... can they be heard by Gods?
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteWhat is occurring now in the middle east on top of the gurglings in the Balkans and the ongoing (out)rage in Ukraine... I hear the despair in your words and add to it my own... YAM xx
Tragic.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't people see there's so much more similarity in our shared experiences than the differences written in these holy tales!?
ReplyDeleteSo heartbreaking what's going on right now.
ReplyDeleteWar solves nothing. Innocent lives are lost. What makes it sadder is that we see two wars happening simultaneously and there seems to be no end to either war. What a miserable and sorry place our world has turned into!
ReplyDeleteWhen religion is used to promote nationalism there is a loss of humanism.
ReplyDeleteSo true!
DeletePowerful and thought-provoking post.
ReplyDeleteReligion was supposed to make better human beings of us? Look at how how it's dividing us! I think you're right. Our gods have to do better, first.
Allah, Bhagwan and Yahweh are synonymous to the the almighty creater. They have different names in different religion but the prayers are answered by the same person. The sooner people get this concept into their heads, faster peace shall fall onto this earth. Peace out 🙏
ReplyDelete