Civics Exit#23

#23 What happens when a religion is distorted or misused for political (and/ or other) reasons? Give examples to support your answer.

Some countries in the world combine State with religion and build up a Theocracy. Amongst those theocratic states are Iran and Myanmar/Burma. These governments persecute religious minorities that seem to become threats to their political goals and religious ideals. Religions that are used for political reasons are always distorted or misused by that process.

The Islamic Republic of Iran tends to dislike religious minorities such as the Bahá’ís or Zoroastrians, both religions that originated in Iran. Those religions are outside of the national religious interest and are either threats to the government or not loyal to the fatherland according to the Iranian Government. They use the holy Islam to justify their acts of persecution and cruelty towards those minorities. The Islam faith is equated with being loyal to the country, that means that if you are not a Muslim, you are not being loyal to the government and in cases of minority groups are persecuted. This politicization of religion forces the people to be Muslims and does not tolerate anything else besides that. People within the religion suffer of this distortion. Women, in particular suffer a great deal of strict rules and regulations that limit their freedom. Women are regarded as creatures whose only duty is to serve their family and men. ¹ They are not allowed to divorce their husbands. These changes in laws are not from the Qur’an and will give false impressions to non-believers or to people of other beliefs. Another major problem in Iran is the omission of drug use mainly among youths. The government consciously neglects this wide spread problem so that they can keep a vast majority of active youths, that do not agree with the Islamic Government of Iran, quite and in this way diminish youth that become aware of the states’ doings. Moreover, the Qur’an states that other Prophets, or people of the book, have to be respected, in this case the persecution of Zoroastrians and Bahá’ís contradicts the Holy Scripture. In the Qur’an it says: “If any of the idolaters ask you for protection, give them protection until they have heard the words of God. Then convey them to a place where they are safe.” (Surat at-Tawba: 6) In Iran it many times occurs that the clergy who runs the country, changes or interprets the Holy Qur’an so it can be in accordance with the goals they seek to accomplish.

Political powers such as the Hamas in Lebanon, Taliban or Al-Qaida in Afghanistan are responsible for suicide bombing, raping of girls and destroying the image of Islam in the World. In these bomb-attacks innocent non-believers are harmed or often killed. Furthermore people who do not believe in Islam are treated with prejudice. Not to mention their own believers who are abused and exploited through the selfish actions that the leading clergy undertakes. Another factor that contributes to the steady distortion of Islam is the wrong interpretations and sometimes false translation of the Qur’an. In almost all translation of the Qur’an in English language it says that Men are the protectors and maintainers of women² and at some point the men are allowed to beat their women if they are not obedient to them. In America a woman, for the first time, translated the Qur’an and found that the critical word idrib had 26 different meanings, and chose “to go away or “to leave” rather than “to beat”.³

All religions have experienced distortion or misuse in the past and still in the present. Christians have misused Christianity with Indulgences in the middle ages, which would remission their punishment for the sins that people had done. Pope Pius X undertook these indulgences to raise money for the St. Peters Basilica in Rome. The burning of witches, who had intellectual knowledge about natural spices, which was also done in the name of Jesus Christ, was a distortion of the Christian faith. Terrorist attacks by radical Christians in the USA, Canada and Australia increased over the past twenty years. Radicals are convinced that Abortion Clinics are wrong because they kill embryos that should be granted the same rights as a child or adult. They bomb clinics, shoot doctors in charge and are responsible for deaths, injuries and building damages. Anyone who works at an abortion clinic is, in the eyes of Christian extremists, guilty and everyone that supports such an institution must be fought with deadly forces. Distortion is seen is many factors, another current event is the sexual abuse of the Roman Catholic clergy with children, mostly happening in the United States.

The military regime in Burma also contributes to the distortion of religion, particularly Buddhism. The government is responsible for the systematic destruction of over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma, forced labor, forced child soldiers and the displacement of more than a million people. Christians are also targeted by the government and the army has destroyed hundreds of Christian villages. Burmese Buddhists follow the Theravada line of Buddhism but not only non-Buddhists are affected by the government’s doings, also Buddhist monks who protest and March against the military government suffer injuries and were even killed.

Religions change and will not be the same when they become involved into politics. As the above examples showed how people misuse Religion as means for ends, it happens with every line of religion. For leading clergies, like the Islamic Republic of Iran, the combination of religion with state grants them a great deal, in theory they can do whatever they like and claim that it is a Prophets will or else wise justify themselves. Practically speaking this is exactly what happens. The true essence of the Holy Scriptures becomes neglected, forgotten and people of a country are led astray. Politicization of religions are not effective, consequential, people dislike theology, are isolated from modern free beliefs and suffer a great deal under religious authority.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source:

• ¹ = “I say it…and I say it with strong emphasis: The woman is a creature for the home only…” http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-564272

 ² =          (The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah   4)

³ = http://www.religioustolerance.org/islabuse.htm

• http://www.religioustolerance.org/relviol.htm
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/18/AR2005071801293.html
• http://www.worldchristianministries.org/default2.asp?active_page_id=235
• http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39173

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