War between “religions of peace”

War between “religions of peace”

4 March 2015 Off By Naginder Sehmi

(English translation of an article in French that was published in LE TEMPS a Swiss national newspaper.)

LE TEMPS – 19 February 2015

OPINION

THE WAR BETWEEN ” RELIGIONS OF PEACE”

Naginder Sehmi*

Men leaders – women leaders do not exist in most of the religions especially those of the Book – continue to loudly proclaim as they have done for centuries that their religion is nothing other than peace. They are wrong.

What is written in the sacred books does not form religions, but the way people practice them, following different interpretations that their religious leaders impose on them.  Two diametrically opposing interpretations of the practice of Islam that we read in LE TEMPS of 27 January, 2015 highlight the red light that we continue to ignore.

We forget that the religions of the Book have originated from fights between small tribes, followed by massacres carried out by the Romans, the bloody conquests by newly islamisized Arabs, the Crusades, and colonization of nearly the entire world by the sharp fervour of Christians. It should be noted that during the last two centuries many treaties were signed after every war, the Holocaust, genocides, exterminations and domination in order to attain commercial and political stability but never, ever, has a treaty been entered into to settle conflicts between religions.

Religious wars persist, killing mostly the faithful believers.  Combating religious extremists from outside has never been a solution because they follow the rigorous teachings of the Book. The extremists as well as the majority of the people who lead a righteous life are the product of the same one community.

As a result, the solution to the problem is inherent in that community. All other measures are momentary and sadly ineffective except for saving a few lives. In this sense the polemic discussion broadcast on the RTS programme Intrarouge of 27.01.2015 did not benefit anybody and the debate turned out to be fruitless.

Fortunately, the majority of the Christian world has extricated itself from the grip of religious dogmas. Thanks to modern education, people have integrated basic values of the religion in the state affairs, in the society and even in personal behaviour.

In this respect, I would not be far from the truth if I said that Switzerland is in the lead. The famous Swiss theologian and thinker Hans Küng did not say for nothing that we cannot have peace between nations before there is peace between religions. Switzerland accommodates the survivors of monstrous wars of all faiths, loges and feeds them.  This is the most religious gesture and it has no name.  Will a day come when the people of other countries would do the same thing and become truly religious?

Those who continue to insist that the shocking situation in the Middle East  has no link with the religion  are liars, because they refuse to accept that it is  the entire community composed of  the extremists and the moderates that represent the religion. All else is only theory. If the community has no desire to revise its sacred outdated books using the extraordinary amount of knowledge that we have acquired, it is almost impossible to stop the war between the religions of peace. Who will follow the wise advice that Reihard Schulze enunciated in LE TEMP of 29. 01.2015?

Human beings are shameless; it is in their nature to adore bloodshed.  Any person who could undo this Gordian knot and show a way to have peace between religions would be my prophet, if I am still alive. Otherwise, sauve qui peut, at least during this century.

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* Retired teacher and hydrologist, has published an autobiographical novel ”TWISTED TURBAN – A THOUGHT-PROVOKING JOURNEY ALONG CULTURAL BORDERLANDS”. TWISTED TURBAN