All major religions are based on faith that God is the source of our reality and that serving the shared interest and well-being of the human family and preserving/taking lessons from the natural world are ways to acknowledge and act on this reality. Yet the rise of extreme rights from all major religious groups today assert that reality by creating division among its own adherents, dehumanizing others and unleashing sufferings on the innocents – be it the inhumanity in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, Holocaust in Europe, violence in India against minorities, undue restrictions on women in Afghanistan, and anti-immigrant sentiments in the West, to name a few orchestrated by religious fanatics and government aided by religious rights.
Secularist and atheist who deny faith (“opium for the people” as some of them say) have also demonstrated similar fanaticism in forcing people to their ideology and caused massive human suffering such as the Bolsheviks in Russia and the Maoist in China leading to millions of deaths of innocent citizens and peasants who had nothing to do with their revolutionary fervor. The records of such countries against minorities, be it Tibetans, Mongolian or Chechens are well documented. The Secular West also conducted similar atrocities such as in South America, Africa and the Middle East besides their own lands.
The fact that the large-scale war crimes in Gaza continues unabated under both the Republican and Democratic administration in the USA is a clear testimony that the rightists and the leftist are equally pre-disposed to ignore the suffering of “others”, in this case Palestinian Muslims and Christians.
Faith still dominates the vast majority of humanity. Their quiet practice of faith and avoidance of violence are seldom highlighted as the true blessing of faith and contribution to human welfare. Perhaps this silent majority needs to get off its placidness and renew the vigor of faith that calls for action, in addition to the rituals. As the Qur’an says and repeats, “Believers who are passive—except those who are disabled—cannot be equal to those who actively strive for truth and justice in God’s way with their possessions and their own lives. God excels those who strive for truth and justice in God’s way, with their possessions and their lives, to a degree much higher than those who are passive. To each, God has promised goodness and reward, but those who actively strive for truth and justice will have a grand reward above those who are passive—a reward of higher order, forgiveness, and mercy. God is Ever Forgiving and Merciful! (Chapter 4-The Women/verses 95-96)
