Mohammad Khatami: Religion must not be hijacked by superficial literalists
“Nihilism as a mere philosophical indulgence may prove socially quite harmless. Nevertheless, what we are witnessing in the world today is an active form of nihilism in social and political realms threatening the very fabric of human existence. [It] assumes various names, and it is so tragic and unfortunate that some of those names bear a semblance of religiosity and self-proclaimed spirituality. Vicious terrorists who concoct weapons out of religion are superficial literalists clinging to most simplistic ideas. They are utterly incapable of understanding that, perhaps inadvertently, they are turning religion into the handmaiden of the most decadent ideologies. While terrorists purport to be serving the cause of religion and accuse all those who disagree with them of heresy and sacrilege, they are indeed serving the very ideologies they condemn…
“Christian thinkers in the nineteenth century put forward the idea that religion should be seen as a venue for social solidarity. Now that the world is on the verge of chaos, struggling with violence, the notion of Christian solidarity should prove helpful in calling for peace and security. In the Holy Koran, human beings are invited to join their efforts in ta
June 18th, 2004 at 9:28 pm
Amen. Very interesting, and a point that needs to be made over and over again … and it seems that it is. Here are some of the quotes I found in my quote book that touch upon the same subject:
“… if everyone is left to judge of his own religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is wrong; but if they are to judge of each other’s religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is right; and therefore, all the world is right, or all the world is wrong.”
– Thomas Paine, “Rights of Man”
“… the revival of religion is always … the revival of bigotry …”
– John Stuart Mill, “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion”
“I feel my body weakened by the years / as people turn to gods of cruel design / is it that they fear the pain of death / or could it be they fear the joy of life?”
– Glen Phillips, “Pray Your Gods”
June 19th, 2004 at 11:07 am
Hey, Rolf,
I read in Playboy that there is 190 Al Quida members or so worldwide.
I always wonder about media distortion about this whole thing.
Statistically what are the odds of dying from a terrorist attack?
Couldn’t the media focus on other bog killers like the common cold or the car or natural disasters?
Arent those deaths just as deadly?
In fact wouldn’t it be better to look a terrorism as another natural hazard in a hazard filled world?
Surfers live with the idea of getting eaten by a shark. But they are not terrorized by it, though being eaten would be a terrible way to die.
June 19th, 2004 at 11:22 am
Often I think the worst aspect of us humans is that we tend to be afraid of the unknown. Therefore the greatest question to most is “what happens after I die?