Fear, hatred & annihilation

WORLD : RELIGIOUS THEOLOGY

Root of all fundamentalisms is the fear of being obliterated…
22/11/2009


9/11 reminds the world the brutality of extremism that the US went through, which took lives of 2,993 people including the hijackers. The entire world knows that the brutality was the outcome of extremist religious theology – which is considered to bring peace. But unfortunately that came out to be one of the prime reasons of conflict in the society. Though there is enough written, talked and investigated about the issue – terrorism, there is a little scope of analysis on the fact that all extremisms – whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish – are rooted in a profound fear of obliteration.

The historical case of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, where ten thousand to possibly one-hundred thousand Huguenots (French Protestants) were killed by the Catholic mobs out of fear that Catholics were losing power and getting increasingly overshadowed by the Protestants is worth to mention. Peace-mongering popes like Pope Gregory XIII showed his frustration stating that, "That massacre gave him more pleasure than fifty Battles of Lepanto." Another case of Christian extremism is the attempt by Guy Fawkes and other Catholic revolutionaries to overthrow the Protestant aristocracy of England by blowing up the Houses of Parliament.

Similarly, Jewish extremism was rooted from the same fear. Two incidents created a feeling among Jews of being ceased to exist, making them severely violent. First is the Nazi atrocity. Out of fear of being completely extricated by Nazis’ conspiracy, Jews took swords in hands. Second is insecurity of losing the Jewish state of Israel in the Middle East. Thus, it was irrelevant for Jews whether they were killing Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian or Palestinian, all were their enemies because all of them were against their land of Israel. And finally, Islamic faith became too “violent” in the modern days. Only God perhaps knows how many are killed by people influenced by Islamic extremism. However, history shows that Islamic terrorism is rooted from the days of the fall of Ottoman Empire. One of the reasons behind al-Qaeda’s coming into existence and Talibans or Iraqis becoming violent and are in killing spree today is the fact that they are severely afraid of losing their faith and culture due to excessive influence and domination by the West.

As China’s stand against Tibetans’ desire of achieving independence is gradually becoming visible, the Dalai Lama may continue to protest peacefully but common Buddhist Tibetans may not continue the same for long. Remember, it would not take much time for Tibetan Buddhists to be violent.