By Ali Sina.
I am an Iranian and I love my country of birth very much but I do not
love any other country any less. I love Canada just as much I love Iran
because Canada is my home. I also love China, India, South Africa,
Bolivia, and even Iraq. My love is universal. I am proud of my country
of birth, my culture and heritage but I feel the same way for other
countries, their heritage and culture and I want people in other
countries to be proud of their heritage too. What each nation has
achieved individually is not theirs only but is the heritage of
humanity and must be cherished by all of us.
Ideas and beliefs are transitory. Actually ideas are constantly
changing and being renewed. Everyday we learn new things and
accordingly everyday we change our minds slightly. Our views can
change dramatically over the course of a few years. This is
inevitable if one keeps learning new things. Those who never change
their minds are those who never learn new things. They keep
regurgitating their old beliefs and never look beyond their tunneled
vision.
You can rally people around yourself and create a fictitious unity by
generating hate in them. Give them a common enemy and unite them in
their common hate. Find an escape goat and blame everything on it. The
holy prophet did that. He inculcated the hate of the Jews and the
non-believers to unite the Arabs. Khomeini used the Baha'is and the
Jews as scape goats. He blamed Israel and America as the culprits for
all miseries of Iranians. Hitler did the same. His scape goats were the
Jews.
But unity achieved by instigating hatred of another group and
highlighting the differences is not a lasting unity. Islamic unity did
not last long. Soon after the death of Muhammad and after Muslims
exterminated the Jews and the Christians from Hijaz they started to
kill each other. The first battle took place between Ali the Caliph of
Islam and Ayesha the favorite wife of Muhammad. In that battle many
died. Then it was the Battle between the Khavarej, a hard line Muslim
group and Ali. In this "battle" Ali lost about 8 men but when the
Khavarej 4000. The truth is that these men were not ready for war,
They had gone to protest with no arms at all, Otherwise it is
impossible that in a battle 4000 men die while the other party give
only 8 casualty. This senseless slaughter lasted only one or two
hours. Both sides were Muslims and related to each other by blood.
The ambition for power, the greed for booty and the lust for women
captured in wars gave Muslims incentive to attack Iran, Syria and
eventually other countries. Islam will only grow as long as there is an
enemy to subdue and to hate. As soon as there is no one left, the
Muslims will start fighting among each other as they are doing between
the Shiites and the Sunnis in Pakistan. Islam is a religion that
thrives on hate. Muslims need enemies to remain united. That is why
they need "Zionism" and the "American Imperialism". All Muslims
are fighting with each other but in one thing they are united and that
is in their hatred of Israel and America. If you take away these
enemies from them, they will tear each other apart.
Hitler was not only an evil man but also his method was wrong. His
brand of unity founded on race superiority and hate did not last and
could not have lasted. The average public in Germany was not aware of
the holocaust. He killed the Jews and oppressed the freedom, but he was
unable to kill the idea of freedom and the dignity of human being.
Today the Germans are united by understanding and cooperation, not
through hate of someone else. And yes the abhorrent idea of racism is
dead. We killed it and for all intent and purposes it is dead even
though there are still few who are racists. The cohesive force between
the Muslims is not dissimilar to what bonded the Nazis. Islam is also a
doctrine of hate and just as Nazism is doomed to disappear.
Fascism drives from the Italian word fascia, which means a bundle of
woods. This was an old Roman emblem. The idea is that a single stick of
wood can be broken easily, but when you bundle many sticks together and
fasten them with each other, they become strong and unbreakable.
Fascism creates the concept of "we" versus "them". It is
divisive and the unity of "we" is sustained by keeping alive the
hate of "them". In fascism and all fascistic ideologies the unity
is achieved by the fear and hatred of others. The political ideology of
fascism is based on "a system of government characterized by rigid
one-party dictatorship and forcible suppression of the opposition of
minority groups" (Webster). Nazism and Islam are both inspired by
fascistic ideas. In Islam, just as in Nazism the minorities are
underdogs, their rights are denied and violated and the might is
revered as right. The best description of fascism is given by the
Prophet in this verse "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah; and those
who are with him are strong against Unbelievers, (but) compassionate
amongst each other." (Q. 48:29)
But times change and today's world is different from the world of 70,
or even 10 years ago. The Internet is bridging the gap between the
nations and dissipating the misunderstandings. Today the fascistic
ideologies can no longer survive. People are talking with each other,
exchanging ideas and discovering their oneness.
1400 years ago a narcissistic megalomaniac demagogue could have fooled
ignorant people around him. Seventy years ago, a mad charismatic
charlatan in Germany could incite nationalism and instill pride in the
defeated Germans of the WWI by inflaming their racial superiority.
Today only a fool will think of himself superior because of his race,
nationality or religion. Today unities are achieved in diversity. Today
we celebrate our differences and are proud of our multi-culturalism.
Today people are wise. There has been much cultural exchange, racial
and national intermingling for everyone to experience that we are one
people. Today one cannot call for unity based on racial supremacy. Of
course there are always crazy skinhead youth that are on the fringe of
the society and are nothing but misfits and outcasts. Those are
exceptions to the norm.
The same goes for Islam. Islam owes its success in inciting hate. Hate
of the non-Muslims and superiority of the believers over non-believers.
Quran not only condemns the non-believers and relegates them to the
blazing fire of hell, (Q. 2:39,, 22:9, 69:36) it also instructs the
Muslims to slay them wherever they find them (Q.2:191), do not befriend
them (Q. 3:28), fight them and show them harshness (Q. 9:123), and
smite their heads (Q. 47:4).
But this is a changing world. The world can no longer continue to
harbor these fascistic ideas. The world is now poised to embrace its
unity and celebrate its diversity. Ideologies that promote superiority
of one group and hate of others, like Nazism and Islam have no place in
our world.
Today, we have to unite our people through love. Playing with their
feelings of nationalism, race or religion to unite them is unethical
and counterproductive. These are foolish thoughts that would have
worked in the past when people were not educated. It works on ignorant
people. Today we are more educated and are accepting of other races,
and ethnicitiesWe are humans and we share this oneness with all
humanity.
We can replace old and antiquated ideas with new ideas of universal
peace, oneness of humankind and equality for all. These are powerful
ideas. These are the ideas of the new era of mankind. This is a new
age, and oneness of humankind is the spirit of this age. Democracy is
possible only through pluralism. Pluralism is the beautiful word, which
means unity in diversity.
Setting ourselves free from the mental bondage of Islam requires more
than denouncing it. Many of us who have walked away from Islam are
still Muslims in our outlook. Islam teaches superiority of the
believers over non-believers. We may think of ourselves superior by
virtue of our race, nationality or anything else. That is not freedom.
Islam also claims to have the monopoly of the truth and condemns any
other thought as satanic. If we hold to our own way of thinking as the
ONLY right way and look down at other people who think differently,
call them superstitious and their thoughts unworthy of consideration,
we are thinking like Muslims. Only a person can claim to be free from
Islam who has no feelings of superiority in her heart, who has no
thoughts of self-righteousness in her mind and who truly sees herself
as the child of humanity and one with this Universe.
In a free world to ask: "what is your religion" would be a
politically incorrect question. We fight the thoughts that inseminate
hate. We do not fight people. People are sacred; thoughts are not. If
we continue this hatred, we will be disintegrated. We will lose
everything. When we get rid of Islam there should be no more fights for
religion or truth. We will be free to believe in any religion we like
and discuss whatever we please. We can promote our religion and we can
speak against any religion. Everyone will be protected to express
himself and no violence or discrimination will be tolerated.
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