The faithfuls, for whom bloodshed ofkafirs is an article of faith, must know that ‘god is one'. For those who hold the world to ransom claiming divine injunction, there is ‘only one god' and the rest is kufur or heresy

Is there an escape for the beleaguered world from the violence unleashed by the faithfuls, following the recent resurrection of medieval ideologies for whom bloodshed ofkafirs (non-believers and apostates) is an article of faithIJ Is the panic-stricken world fast reaching a stage of conflict and doom which eminent US political scientist Samuel P Huntington had predicted in his book, The Clash of Civilisation and Remaking of World Order in 1996IJ

Recently, Khaled Asaad, a respected scholar who devoted over five decades of his life to preserving the majestic 2,000-year old ruins of Palmyra, an ancient city in the Syrian desert, was beheaded by the Islamic State. last month, it   released a video showing child soldiers summarily executing 25 Government troops in the city’s Roman amphitheater.

And nearer home, Pakistan has emerged as an epicentre of terror in the region and is a frequent witness to intra-religious feuds marked by shooting and bombing of the faithfuls by other faithfuls. All such assassins claim religious sanction! Thekafirs (Hindus and Sikhs) have already been accounted for in Pakistan.

Within the ‘secular’ Union of Indian, the population of pandits, the flag-bearers of the original pluralistic culture of the valley steeped in Vedic traditions, has dropped nearly to nil, following the cleansing by the kafirs, by those claiming to be the faithfuls, backed by guns.

All this destruction of symbols of kafirs/heathens and their killings are a part of a tradition lasting over hundreds of years. Wars were fought and civilisations exterminated. Genocides were committed and religious places belonging to kafirs or heathens laid waste. And they (crusaders/Ghazis) did all this in the name of their god and his messenger.

We, in this part of the world, have suffered this bigotry for long. When Christianity, and later Islam, came along with the traders within a few decades of their birth on the shores of Kerala, they were feted and welcomed.

India’s encounter with Christianity goes back to the fourth century when some Christians landed at Malabar to escape religious persecution in Iran at the hands of Christian orthodoxy who considered them to be heretics. later, they were joined by refugees from Syria and Armenia flying from Christian heresy — hunters. The Hindu rajas and the general public received them and didn’t bother about the god they worshiped.

However, Hindu-Muslim relations changed with the invasion of Sind by Muhammad bin Qasim in the early eighth century, followed nearly three centuries later by Mahmud Ghazni’s pillaging raids deep into India. Two centuries later, Muhammad Ghori attacked India and after defeating Prithviraj Chauhan, established the Delhi Sultanate in 1208.

Since then, till the 18th century, it was a sordid tale of religious persecution, forced conversions and desecration and demolition of places of worship of the Indians by invaders and a section of locals who had converted to their faith, mostly under duress.

Apart from the motive of gathering plunder from fabulously rich India, the raiders were indeed energised by their religious fervor. Mahmud Ghazni, who repeatedly vandalised the famed Somnath Temple in Gujarat, had taken a vow to wagejihad (holy war), every year against the kafirs (idolaters) during the solemn ceremony of receiving the Caliphate honours on his accession to the throne of Ghazni. The precedents set by the likes of Ghazni are followed by the faithfuls till date.

In the case of Christianity, it was in 1542, that India saw its bigoted face when Saint Francis Xavier and his Jesuits from Portugal landed in Goa and later spread their operations in other parts of South India. The saint had come with a firm resolve of uprooting paganism from the Indian soil and planting Christianity in its place. The details of persecution of both Hindus and Muslims by the saint and the administration under his instructions, are well documented.

For Indians, Christianity was no longer one more way of reaching the divine. Hindus were facing medieval imperialism that was fired by an ideology of proselytisation, with all the implicit brutality and venality. In 1698, when the East India Company’s charter was renewed, a clause was included that laid down that chaplains were to learn native languages so as to instruct natives in the protestant faith.

Even today, in nearly half of the Western democracies, the state provides direct subsidies to religious charities. One-third clergy in the state-recognised religions is on the state’s payrolls. In 40 per cent of the countries, the state acts as a dues collector for churches!

like the Islamic state in Pakistan has been exporting terrorists to India and providing them with training and arms, the church, funded by affluent West, has been trying to destabilise non-Christian societies (particularly India) by stealth, under the cover of serving the poor and sick.

Ghazni, Ghori, Saint Xavier….. East India Company, may be dead and gone. But the mission, they lived and died for continues. Techniques and strategies have changed with time. But the goal remains unchanged — establishing the god, and his messenger as a sole representative; and simultaneously seek the destruction of other traditions.

Behind the hands that pull the trigger, behead a hapless non-believer, detonate bombs, blow up bamiyan buddha, lay waste the ruins of Palmyra, or trade souls for a loaf of bread, is a mind-set shaped by religious texts (or its interpretations) and a theology, saturated with hate for non-believers, their traditions and identity. The war against terror thus has to be fought with by arms, and ideas as well. The insular mind-set will have to be countered by an alternate narrative.

This is where India becomes relevant. It’s home to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and numerous other indigenous traditions, with a common silken thread running. No doubt, each of these faiths has an identity of its own. But they not only co-exist peacefully but go beyond. Far from having inimical feelings, the followers of Indian born faiths have genuine respect for each other’s beliefs. Jews and Parsese, when faced with religious persecution back home, found safe refuge in India.

The Indian paradigm probably holds the key to end the dogma inspired strife that has enveloped the world for hundreds of years. It’s in this context that a ‘global Hindu-Buddhist initiative on conflict avoidance and environment consciousness’ is being organised by Vivekananda International Foundation, in collaboration with International Buddhists Confederation and the Tokyo Foundation, Japan in New Delhi on September 3 to September 4. One hopes this initiative will kick-start a process leading to a more peaceful world.

We believe that ‘god is one’ with countless manifestations. For those who hold the world to ransom claiming divine injunction, there is ‘only one god’ and the rest iskufur or heresy.