Each religion has its own way of invoking God's blessings at the start of any venture. For Hindus it is 'Om Vigneshwaraya...'. For Muslims it is 'Bismillahi....'. Christians start with 'Our father who art in heaven...'. Religion has a major role to play in the social life of India. Often its customs and value systems create tension for individuals. Let me narrate a story in the name of God.
3 weeks ago a colleague of mine happened to see a 11 year old girl from a middle class, Muslim, rural background. She came with loss of voice of a few days duration. No major neurological or medical problems were found on evaluation. Hence she was referred to my colleague. She was a good student and stood first in singing and dance competitions at school. Her teachers persuaded her to participate in the sub district level competitions. She was interested, but reluctant as her religious teacher (ustad of the madrassa) used to prohibit students from such activities. Finally she mustered some courage and participated. She won the first prize. But on coming back to the religious school (she used to attend madrassa in addition to the regular school), the ustad scolded her. he also declared that he and other students will pray to God that she should be punished for this and she will lose her voice. He recited a prayer to this effect. She lost her voice two days after this. Her voice reappeared after s few sessions of psychological interventions.
My aim in narrating this event is two raise a few doubts.
1) Is such rigid restrictions beneficial in the long run.
I think this will only alienate people from religion. I can give another example. Professionals working in the field of de addiction know that majority of persons dependent on street heroin (brown sugar) in Calicut and Kochi are Muslims. This could be because of the strong opposition to alcohol. Muslim youth cannot walk in their locality smelling of alcohol. Hence they resort to drugs which has no smell. Initially they use ganja and later graduate to hard drugs like brown sugar.
2) If I had reported this incident to the media will they publish it ?
Again my answer is No. Because they may fear that this will antagonize Muslims. But I think such a fear is baseless. True friends of religion should publicize such incidents and campaign for educating religious teachers on how to handle children. Every teacher - of religious subjects or otherwise should have basic understanding of how to behave to children.
I have no intention of hurting the sentiments of anybody. Every religion has its own kind of problems. Rev. Pope has just finished his round of apologizing to Australians and Americans. This was for the misdeeds of his priests who molested little boys. He also had to foot the huge bill for out of court settlement of pending cases. Several stories of torture and sexual assault by Hindu clergy in the name of exorcising evil spirits have been reported,
Ultimately God is merciful and all forgiving. Then why should his intermediaries and representatives be so cruel ?
ഇന്ത്യ
2 weeks ago
3 comments:
I believe that professions like singing and dancing are not socially accepted, throughout Islamic history.Islamic countries haven’t witnessed so far a Muslim woman or a Muslim man who has taken either dancing or singing as his profession.
So how can a true Muslim,allow his daughter or wife to participate in singing or dancing event where lot of males are expected to watch their performance? These acts may provocate (sexually)them!
There is no logic in faith,and a true believer in Qu'ran should obey the holy book.It is difficult for a Muslim to question his religious teachings/teacher ,and they have to choose either to become a True non believer or live as a true Muslim by following Qu'ran.
But most of the Muslims in Kerala are taking a practical/moderate approach and take care not to hurt religious feelings ; living as a true Muslim is not easy and some strait forward people like the Mulla makes life miserable!
In such a situation some unfortunate things as described above are expected/unavoidable.
The true question coming out of such incidents, is how long an honest society can progress/adjust with religion?
Well said, Harish and Vijay.
Richard Dawkins' book God Delusion is an excellent resource on issues like this.
Hi,
I share with Hariah sir on his concerns regarding the role that religion is performing. As Shahul has suggested books like "God delusion" will help us understand the evolution of such beliefs.But I think that such problems have to be approached in a pragmatic way,and sensitively. Community participation in care delivery can be a powerful technique. Influencing religious leaders and involving religious local people
in the care of sufferers will give them insights into the real effects of their preachings and beliefs. There were even arguments in favour of giving mental health training to practitioners of magicoreligious healings. On the other hand, open challenging or arguing will only bring us the animosity of the communities which can be catastrophic if your goal is communtiy empowerment. Stupidity is not a sin that needs punishment, but a disease that needs treatment. Imparting knowledge may be the solution. Acceptance, and the joy of participating in meaningful work can be the incentive for them to change.
Shibukumar.
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