The Preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO says, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.” A man is the sum total of the ideas, behaviours and values he collects. The values are those beliefs which he holds to be true. These values are groomed by parents, family, peer-groups, religion and society.
A study says that we are guided and dictated more by religion than anything else in the world. The religious values teach us how to live a life and what to do and what not to do. It is a worldview that answers the basic questions of life and its purposes. Interestingly, it also suggests the nature of relationship a person has with his co-religionist and with people of other religion. There have been wars to prove that one religion is better than another.
Islamist fundamentalism is an extremist brand that targets the ‘mind’ of a man and dictates his cognitive, emotional and intellectual processes. It makes one believe in only one belief system which he follows; other religions are false, he is told. This creates a worldview that is very rigid and inflexible.
There is nothing wrong in grooming someone in the religion one is born in. The problem starts when he is given only one way of thinking and is groomed to not only defend his religion but ensure that others — derisively called infidels or kafirs — also follow his religion or else perish. Also, he is groomed that his religion is supreme and all the other religions are inferior and it is his core religious duty to convert others either to Islam or fight with them. His only purpose of life is defending and propagating his religion. Instead of being a rationalist, he turns out to be a fundamentalist.
This upbringing in a hate-other environment and ‘we’ versus ‘they’ captures the subconscious mind of a young child kept in a rigid Islamist milieu. He is habituated to think in a particular way. His first and foremost loyalty lies with Islam which supersedes his other loyalties — for the nation or the Constitution. For him, his religious laws are above the laws of nation or rule of law. When he grows up, bubbling with Islamist fervour, he becomes a tool in the hands of manipulative religious leader. He cannot tolerate either the good values of other religions or ill-values of Islam. For him, anything against the indoctrinated Islamist value is blasphemy. He can go to any extent of killing someone who he believes has dared to expose the ills in his belief system.
He becomes a hate-monger and just needs a spark. He picks up stones when he sees ‘others’ celebrating their religion in their own way. He finds it hard to tolerate the other way of life and starts believing that his religious duty demands he should do something to lodge his protest. For this, he is not even averse to taking lives. He picks up anything at his disposal to use it as a weapon to murder anyone who he thinks is an infidel. He is ready for Sar Dhar Se Juda.
The aim of a fundamentalist Islamist is to impose the tenets of Islam over the whole world, i.e. Islamisation of the world. In India, the purpose of this group is Islamisation of India.
Islamic fundamentalism is a global phenomenon. The aim of this movement is to return back to the ‘original’ principles of Islam as was followed in the 7th century Arabia. The dangerous part of this philosophy is that it enjoins upon the Islamist believer to convert all the other non-believers to Islam by force, violence and might.
Whatever has happened in Udaipur is the handiwork of the same exclusivist mindset that finds coexistence with people of other faiths a detestable idea.
The writer is an independent columnist. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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