The feeling of hatred, caused by religious intolerance, is self-destructive. Those who foment hatred and animosity must realize the fact that all religions of the world essentially preach peace and harmony
THESE days many people hate each other. Not only do they hate, but also try to harm one another. This is partially a result of anger that people express because of religious differences. They harbour the notion that it is a holy cause on their part to eradicate the growing evil in this world, disregarding the fact that their enemy may not necessarily be evil. Sometimes, innocent people become victims of hatred just because they go to different place of worship or wear a different kind of headgear.
In modern times, any kind of hatred is a lethal enemy of the whole civilization. But the phenomenon is not new to us; it has been there from time immemorial. However, hatred emanating from religious differences seems to be more lethal, particularly when accompanied by modern trends of indulging in vendetta games. The combination of old habits and modern trends is devastating.
Owing to the latest modes of communication, nowadays more people have become aware of the issues that were previously kept as hush-hush subjects. Whenever something terrible happens, all of us know about it and react to it immediately. Some of us react in a mature manner, and some otherwise. This makes us develop something called the ‘flight-fight response’. As we become more mature, all of us have to make some conscious choices. Those conscious choices are often difficult. One of them is: Are we going to continue to behave the way we have behaved for thousands of years, or are we going to develop a ‘critical mass of consciousness’ that would imply that we are all in this together? There is no such thing as ‘us’ versus ‘them’.
Some people argue that the feeling of hatred is deadlier than ever this time round, because religion has come to play a greater role in the affairs of mankind. The fact is that hatred does not come from religion, but from our insufficient knowledge of God. Our understanding of God is ethnocentric, bigoted, racist and prejudiced. We are still very tribal in our understanding of God. Unfortunately, our ideas about Him are based on primitive notions. Our claim to God is parochial.
Religion has nothing to do with waging wars. The notion that the history of war is also the history of religion is untrue. In the words of a scholar, “This is the century of religious evil. We had the century of secular evil in the 20th century.” But, we have seen that despite being anti-religion Hitler used to quote God. The Nazis had a purely secular doctrine. Far more people have been murdered and tortured by secular ideologies than religious doctrines in the entire history of mankind. The last century was soaked in blood spilt in the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars.
The problem is that we think that “only we” are loved by God and try to prove that we are better than the others. God’s help is with us. He is in our camp. This misperception about God tantamount to monopolizing divinity for self-interest. How about those who say everybody who fights a war God is on their side? God was on Hitler’s side. God was on the side of those who caused the events of 9/11. That is one of the dangers of religion and one of the causes of the problem under discussion. If God is on my side, I can do anything. We have to do away with this thought and really search for God.
One thing that needs to be told here is that there is a difference between belief and faith. A staunch believer may not be an ardent faithful. If holding on fast to one’s belief was considered the real test, everyone from the Kamikazes to those believing in secular ideologues would be known as people of faith. God’s truth is public truth, and it applies to every dimension of life. Anyone who feels the presence of God, feels the presence of truth, justice, beauty, goodness, evolution, love, compassion, understanding, insight, inspiration, creativity, intuition, meaning and purpose in life.
In this regard, another important issue is the self-righteous morality of some of us. We believe that we belong to a morally superior society. Fair enough, so long as we don’t impose our values on others, they shouldn’t have a problem with that. The problem raises its head when we pry into other people’s lives. God has given us the power to choose. It is His divine will that we make choices and try to prevent bad things from happening. Bad individuals exist everywhere. We have to judge a society by its collective goodness, not by its individuals. We should decide what we want. We should stop calling other people evil.
To put in simple words, religious hatred is an outcome of injustice. This feeling transforms into evil that grows to be the collective rage of the subconscious of the followers of a particular religion who perceive that certain injustice is being done to them. This perception of injustice is considered an unforgivable crime, where the seeds of fear, anger and delusion start to take root. It is a kind of anger that’s pretty self- destructive.
Many religious scholars influence feeble-minded people. They are the people that exploit religion by inciting hatred, and use it to justify killing. They are in the ‘hate business’. Almost every religion seems to preach love, peace, and tolerance. These people often hate the people believing in other religions. And those who are hated, reciprocate the feeling in the same way. And some people who preach religion often develop their hateful messages from the very holy books that preach love, peace, and tolerance. Despite the fact that each religion claims to have all the solutions to the problems of the world, many religious scholars have tried to prove religion as part of the problem.
Especially, with the Internet boom in the ‘90s, the face of hatred has changed for the worse. Hate-mongers have been, ever since, trying to develop new and creative approaches to perpetuate online extremism. Such hate-filled rhetoric against other religions often turns from mere textual messages into something that provokes violence. We have to speak up, and not just speak out, against such bigots.
Before casting a stone at someone else, we need to look at our own self and ask, “Do we have the seed of evil inside us?” Can we bring about the change that we wish to see in the world? There is no way that leads to peace; peace is the way itself. And peace is all powerful. It has its own organizing principles. We don’t have to resort to violence. We’d rather be peaceful ourselves. Every death that’s a result of religious anger breeds more hatred. If we don’t obliterate hatred from our society, it will lead us to complete destruction.
The feeling of hatred, caused by religious intolerance, is self-destructive. Those who foment hatred and animosity must realize the fact that all religions of the world essentially preach peace and harmony 
