Dear Javed Chaudry:

“There are dozens of factors,” you say, “which contribute to the political culture of a society [and] religion is simply one of them.” In the same breath you rush to add: “Religion is being discussed (and attacked) [on this forum] as if [it] is the predominant factor.”   

Perhaps I should point out that “the political culture of a society” that you mentioned is composed of history and tradition, both of which are the main ingredients of human conditioning, and religion is the spice that adds pungency to the whole concoction of human relations and the murderously patriotic values of its followers, causing nation to rise against nation. So religion cannot be let off the hook mildly; it is the main culprit in human affairs, whether you like it or not, and whether you agree with me or not. 

You’re right, of course, that many a time I have slammed Islam mercilessly, but I should perhaps explain that my beef is with “political” Islam, what has come to be known as Islamism, the Islam of prophets of doom like Osama Bin Laden; and we should have a bigger beef with the Christianity of the Born-Again idiot called George W. Bush and his cohort Tony Blair, but that is not our concern here, except that they head the most destructive democratic superpowers on the face of the earth today.  

I don’t think I have ever quibbled about the Islam of the Sufis, for example, but there are Muslims, and I am sure you know them too, who decry Sufiana practices as un-Islamic. Again, that is an issue for another day. For now, please rest assured that I know full well the various Islams that are out there, and what their basic tenets and coercive principles are, but they are not relevant to our present discussion.  

Basically, I slam those Muslim parrots who tout Islam without knowing the place of religion in our lives. They are the robots drunk on the opiate of the masses. More important, I am slamming our own collective and individual ignorance about how to connect with the unseen power we call God, and so I have never said spirituality has no place in our lives. 

In pointing out what you call my “miss [sic] concepts about a religion (any religion)” you suggest that I’ve “cited examples of persecution on the basis of religion,” and “Mr Mughal’s citations are correct, but I strongly disagree with the conclusions that he has drawn from them.” 

Without going into details about the Ahmadi problem in Pakistan or the case of intolerant and racist Saudi Arabia, let me say this: a religion is as good (and no better) than the people who profess it. Just as the Good Book tells us that the tree shall be known by the fruit it bears, so also judge I the people who profess Islam by the deeds they perform, and I don’t think anyone can take away one’s sacred right to face up to the mirror and say that something is truly rotten in the state of Denmark. 

Rashid Mughal 

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