Religion: The subjective interpretation of gibberish
There are thousands of religions, but only one reality - you know, the one God created. So choose carefully, lest the hairless monkeys get self-nominated for extinction...
I have to thank the modern jihadist movement largely initiated by Bin Laden & Company for confirming my distate for organized religion. There is a graphic floating around the internet showing all of the different versions and flavours of Islam indicating how and why they absolutely have to hate one another, but suffice to say it's massively convoluted and subjective. It's not even worth reviewing. Suffice to say most of what is going on in the Middle East constitutes an ongoing proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, however, apparently their frankenmonsters have gotten off the leash. ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram, Al-Shabab (Somalia), Houthi (Yemen), Hezbollah (Lebanon), GIA (Algeria), Al-Jihad (Egypt) stop me any time...
For a long time prior to the recent jihadist movement, Muslims didn't run around killing each other - it was strictly forbidden. Bin Laden & Company found that to be a very inconvenient restriction so they dredged up a 7th century concept called "Takfir" meaning "apostate" or unbeliever. Of course, there are supposed to be very strict rules around who can declare another Muslim "kafir", however, as we may surmise, those rules seem to have been recently re-interpreted.
"Takfir is the mirror image of Islam , reversing its fundamental principles but maintaining the semblance of orthodoxy . The Quran explicitly states that Muslims shall not kill anyone, except as punishment for murder. The murderer of one innocent, the Quran warns, is judged “as if he had murdered all of mankind.” The killing of Muslims is an even greater offense. He who commits such an act, says the Quran, will find that “his repayment is Hell, remaining in it timelessly , forever.” How, then, could groups such as al-Jihad and the Islamic Group justify using violence against fellow Muslims in order to come to power? Sayyid Qutb had pointed the way by declaring that a leader who does not impose Sharia on the country must be an apostate. There is a well-known saying of the Prophet that the blood of Muslims cannot be shed except in three instances : as punishment for murder, or for marital infidelity, or for turning away from Islam. The pious Anwar Sadat was the first modern victim of the reverse logic of takfir." Wright, Lawrence (2006-08-08). The Looming Tower (p. 124).
Clearly not all religions run around killing each other. Christians largely gave that up after about 1945 years, two world wars and millions annihilated. Now the carpet bombing, napalm, cluster bombs and drone strikes are reserved for 'other' cultures. Highly civilized. The key takeaway is once you go down the path of subjective interpretation of gibberish, anything can and will happen.
In God's name of course.
In God's name of course.
