Politics of Religion
by Wazhma Afghanistan
Politics of Religion
Our global village is plagued with
perpetual
clash of humanity and one humanity
is facing
millions of threats in most parts of
this
village. Many of the countries and
even regions
are in constant crisis and conflict
for various
political, religious and economical
power
struggles. We usually hear that “its
all
political game” that has created tension
and chaos among these countries, but
the
painful part of this political game
is that
religion too has been mixed in politics
for
power. I understand that most of us
reading
this will not like to hear that we
are all
somehow part of this religious politics,
but in the coming paragraphs I am going
to
prove this hypothesis as a matter of
fact.
In parts of the world, where countries
state
politics are rooted in religious beliefs,
there are growing versions of interpretations
by political leaders to get to power.
Particularly,
countries where majority of population
are
Muslims and the country is called “Islamic
Republic of XX”, state politics are
also
based on Islamic Sharia or Islamic
jurisprudence.
But the main question is whether we
have
a common and most of all “true” interpretation
of Islamic jurisprudence in these countries
or if needed we “interpret” Islam as
per
our own subjectivity or the biased
objectivity.
But before religion becomes part of
politics,
it’s important to understand how it
evolves
at various levels of institutions like
family,
community and societal.
Growing up in Islamic environments,
I have
always heard that Islam is an original
religion
and has been continuously being implemented
and acted upon by Muslims since the
times
of Prophet (P.B.U.H) with no additions
or
omissions. But why is it that Muslims
enforce
the Islamic laws on arbitrary basis
which
are different for themselves and for
others.
Muslims condemn killing and brutal
inhumane
acts against any human beings but they
kill
and exterminate another human being
because
another human being relates to another
sect
of Shia or Sunni or any other sect
forgetting
that Islam is religion of unity and
hasn’t
been disaggregated as Shia’s Islam
or Sunni’s
Islam.
I am sure that some of us would say
that
actually it’s other political movements
that
manipulate Muslims against each other
and
there are great games behind dividing
Muslims,
but my question is again that is it
that
we are weak in our faith in Islam?
Is it
that we are so weak in our faith that
we
are more susceptible to manipulation
and
games and go against our beliefs? Or
Are
we sure that we actually believe our
beliefs?
My main argument in this last question
is
that since for most of us religion
has been
part of the patriarchal culture, we
haven’t
been able to explore religion in relation
to our firm beliefs. I mean that religion
has come to us but we haven’t gone
to religion.
One day I asked my mother that how
do we
know that our children are Muslims
and understand
their religion because I haven’t seen
us
teaching our generations about the
religion.
She said actually Islam gets to our
children
through parenthood blood and even when
a
child is newly born we deliver a prayer
anthem
(Azaan) to his/her ears and that way
we are
sure that our child is a Muslim and
will
behave and comply with Islamic laws.
We can also argue that because we live
in
Islamic society so our socialization
process
is fully Islamic and our children learn
to
be “good Muslims”, however, I would
again
question that if our society interprets
religion
quiet differently for different purposes,
and establish segregation between Shia
and
Sunni and other sects, then are we
sure that
our children are in the right track
of Islamic
socialization? It’s not only segregation
of Shia and Sunni but actually a lot
more
than that. We are compromising humanity
for
self interest, we believe that our
religion
actually commands us to get education
but
do not let our daughters to get education,
we believe that usage of any intoxication
is not allowed in Islam but we grow
poppy
in our lands. We believe that only
superior
to Allah is the pious of us but we
usually
make women inferior that men and give
Islamic
justifications. I have heard from many
Islamic
scholars that Quran Says” Al Rijal
Qawamun
alanisa” which according to them means
men
are superior to women. But we ignore
the
contextual reasons for this verse and
the
actual meaning of “ Qawamun” that is
related
to financial responsibility and financial
guardianship of men for their families
but
we interpret this verse for the social
interaction
with women and say that women are inferior
than women because Quran says so.
As the world is witness of the growing
conflict
and crisis in many parts of the world
and
one of the main causes is that religious
groups want to rule the countries as
per
their own interpretations of religion.
In
such circumstances, I think in such
critical
conditions, the governments and the
United
Nations need to come up with solutions
to
decrease the tensions and crisis in
these
parts of the world. One way would be
for
states to define governance and state
building
efforts as per a common definition
of justice
and efficiency for people. By a common
definition
of justice I mean a “justice system
which
can guarantee human rights as a global
need
rather than being limited to one religion”.
Here comes the question of how to form
a
common definition of justice in a country?
National commissions of people representatives
and great assemblies of people can
be sources
to come up with such a definition,
which
is mainly based on people’s religious
and
traditional values but by common I
mean that
all kinds of religious values of all
kinds
of people should be considered within
a constitution
of a country.
When I talk about social justice for
people,
I mean that all people with different
religious
beliefs should be treated same within
a legal
framework of justice in a country.
This means
that the legal framework of a country
should
be able to address the justice needs
of all
religions within their national justice
unitary
systems. It is important to have the
justice
system based on a national consensus
on human
rights and social justice because if
that
system is based on a single religion,
not
only that other religions can not be
treated
equally and fair but also there is
a lot
of different interpretations of religion
by different scholars and clerics as
per
their own values and beliefs. Most
often
people’s religious beliefs are mixed
with
their traditional values and therefore
their
judgments and perceptions of justice
are
not purely religious and can not be
just
to other people who do not belong to
their
circle.
It has also been seen that justice
systems
in a country that has limited its laws
and
regulations to one religion, as arbitrary
justice which means case by case dealing
of justice as per people’s religious
beliefs.
Afghanistan saw a recent example of
such
arbitrary justice, with governments
dealing
with a convert of religion who was
put to
capital punishment. In contrast, when
war
lords proposed their amnesty bill that
was
favoring their bale in spite of killing
innocent
people during 1992 civil war and damaging
the national interest but it was considered
religious because it means for peace
and
reconciliation. Although the religion
does
not support such mentality, but since
this
was some powerful group’s interpretations
of religion, it was approved by the
government
justice system as well so they looked
at
the process of reconciliation without
analyzing
its massacre of human rights.
At the same time, it is important for
the
governments to have a governance system
that
all religions can be practiced freely
and
without any barriers, and the government
should be also having national programs
on
providing educational and awareness
raising
programs for people to know their religion
rather than interpreting as per their
traditional
values. If the governments are not
able to
adapt their governance system freely
for
all religions and not favoring one
religion,
it is likely that various opposition
groups
will be formed against the government
who
are the victim or want to rule a country
as per their own values.
We need to learn that religion is a
spiritual
need and should not have political
dimensions
and we can only secure humanity if
we nurture
our religion spiritually not through
our
political ambitions.
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