PROBLEMS WITH RELIGION

Most religions these days are not taken too seriously by their followers. People today, in the West, if they profess to be followers, are not fanatics. Education has had a reasoning influence on people's minds and they take their religion mainly in name only. I admit that people often go back to it when the going gets tough and they need a little help from God. However, for everyone who professes that God has helped when asked there are millions who will swear the opposite. Of course, a lot of this is down to the way we govern ourselves in this modern age. The state makes the laws we have to abide by and this does not include religion in any way, it's called secularism. How people think about religion is left up to the individual, as it should be. Total freedom to chose the way you live, compatible with state laws, is the way we, in the West, like it.

Unfortunately Islam is not like that and there lies the problem many non Muslims have with that religion. There has never been a reformation in Islam and of course, Islam is more than a religion, it is a political system too. Hence, when fundamentalism raises its ugly head, it is ugly. Fundamentalist Muslims hark back to laws that their prophet, Mohammed, promulgated. These may have been fine in the seventh century and, it must be said, were not dissimilar to those practised by Jews and Christians at that time. In fact, Mohammed read both the Torah and the Bible and plagiarised much of their contents for his own teachings. The really hypocritical thing about the fanatics is that they insist on implementing seventh century laws by the use of all things modern including the internet, social media, modern guns and explosives and modern transport none of which Mohammed had. Should they go back to just using swords and camels they would, of course, be truer to what they believe in and preach and a lot less dangerous to others.

The religion could have moderated like others under the normal passage of time and evolution but that has not come about. This is mainly due to the draconian punishments prescribed by the Koran and faithfully dished out by mullahs for any form of dissent or free speech which is seen as a gross infringement of God's will. Muslims are terrified of criticizing anything stated in the Koran. If they do it's called blasphemy and they find themselves under sentence of death. It is truly amazing for a religion that repeats, ad nauseam, the fact that God is great, that they rely so heartily on earthly punishments for perceived sins against heavenly laws. Why not let God be the judge and punish accordingly or perhaps they think he is incapable of this task?

Muslim education starts with primary school children having to learn the Koran off by heart and being warned at that early age of the perils of going against the holy book. This even happens in Moslem schools in Europe and should not be allowed. A Moslem mother in London in 2013, actually killed her six year old son because he didn't get it right. It is an excellent method of brain washing and stifles any form of free thought. The same method was used by the Jesuits centuries ago and we all know what they got up to. Probably one of the wickedest promises made in the Koran which Moslems fervently believe, is the fact that if killed in a war situation they will go directly to heaven and will immediately be granted a gaggle of virgins to play with. It is this promise alone that is responsible for the many suicide bombers the radicals seem able to persuade.

Many of what we call moderate Muslims condemn these suicide bombers yet they keep coming. Radical preachers seem able to persuade these impressionable mainly young men, that blowing themselves up and killing loads of other people will be blessed by God and they'll get their instant reward and gratification. I have never been able to find out what is in it for women. A genuinely sick teaching that non Muslims just could not believe because they have the freedom of thought and the ability to question without being challanged. If all the Muslim preachers formed a united front and openly stated that this is a sin and that the perpetrators would be rewarded by a hefty stint in Hell, things might change, but the brain washing is too embedded for this to happen.

Other religions see things differently. Jews don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah but they live amongst other people all over the world and get on with them. If there is any trouble with the Jews it is usually started by Christians and Muslims. Christians, on the other hand, do believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and not only that, but the actual son of God. They therefore look upon the Jews as misguided, unfortunate, and therefore probably heading for a spell in Hades. However, Muslims can only be heretics because if Jesus is the son of God there can be no further prophets, and as heretics they will surely burn in Hell for ever. However, these days, both Christians and Jews are quite prepared to live and let live on the basis already mentioned that they take their religion less seriously (not all Jews or Christians admittedly but they also don't go round suicide bombing people for the sake if it). They feel that people should be free to choose their religion themselves. Islam doesn't work like that. Muslims believe in forced conversion and do it all over the World wherever they can. Plus if you are a Moslem and you convert to some other religion you are immediately under sentence of death and if nobody else gets to you, it is incumbent on your family to carry the sentence out. What sort of loving religion demands that? Muslims in general have this fanatical belief that they are right and everybody else is wrong and, in fact, treat people of other religions very badly when they can get away with it. Just look at the poor Egyptian Christians and how they are treated.