Out of many meanings of the word religion, the one which should have been the most important for human nature is “the religion is to resolve to mend one’s errant ways”. But unfortunately the mankind except few exceptions has restricted its meaning to “belief in and worship of a god or other superhuman agency”. The foundation for all the man made problems that rose from the religion is because of the followers of respective religion who accept and believe in the latter meaning of religion and either they ignore the former meaning as it is difficult to follow in life or they just reject that view as it will not help in their false propaganda and expansion of false religion.
In this article let us discuss the religion and its fanaticism in accordance with the second meaning as accepted by the most in the world, although in actual sense what we are discussing here is the pseudo – religion and not the religion.
At present the religious fanaticism which is popularly termed as terrorism is equated with Islam, the Islamic terrorism. But is this restriction of the fanaticism to only one particular religion acceptable? Are these Islamic terrorists who say their agenda is to create a world where only Muslims should inhabit are the only religious fanatics in the history of mankind? Or this sort of religious fanaticism is just a process in the history which recycles and reappears at regular interval of time with varied faces?
There are various reasons that can be outlined for religious fanaticism. There is no religion which is born out of fanaticism. The founders of the religion followed the term religion in its truest form to mend one’s errant ways. But their followers were more interested in increasing the number of people under their religion tags, no matter whether they were truly religious or not. Once a King or Ruler accepted a particular religion it almost compelled the people of his ruling to convert into that particular religion even against their will as people rarely wished to go against their administrator. Then when a King occupied other territories the same things repeated. Then came the Kings who started to occupy other states not in a motive of expanding their kingdom but to expand the religion. These acts were profoundly supported by the religious leaders who guided the King. Violence was opted as a way to spread the religion, to destroy the monuments or buildings of previous religions and as a response to these acts the people who were fantic to the previous religion also resorted to violence to save their religion. Thus a cycle of never ending violence was started which is continuing till date and will continue in future, only the forms and the religion in the lead will change.
In India the upsurge of Buddhism, Jainism was in accordance with the acceptance of that religion by the rulers. Later with the revival of the Hinduism the population under Jains decreased whereas the Buddhism sort it refuge in neighbouring countries where it flourished and expanded. With the invasion of the country by the Muslim emperors there was spread of Islam and Christianity spread with British invasion. The conflict between different religions still exists and it will exist for a longer period.
Roman emperor Constantine can be considered as first Christian fanatic. In a bid to repress non Christians and even Christians who did not follow the dictum of the emperor and pope he resorted to violent methods. Muslims, Jews and even the native Christians were massacred to occupy Jerusalem.
Then came the Nazism, under the tyrannical ruler Hitler. Though it had racist and political motives it should be considered as a important historical event which has given rise to many other religious fanaticism. “By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord” – this is the statement by the Hitler to support his attack against the non Nazis, particularly the Jews.
As a response to the Hitler’s Nazism rose the Zionism, the movement headed by Jews. Though the concept of Zionism originated much earlier than Hitler’s massacre’s it was Hitler who could be held responsible for the propagation of the Zionism in full scale and which eventually ended up in the present Islamic fanaticism. The Zionists in the pretext of getting their own country committed heinous crimes in the Palestine, committed mass murders and occupied the land which belonged to Palestinians and made Palestinians refugees in their own land. Unfortunately for many reasons many other nations and even the United Nations accepted the Zionist Jews. But the religious fanaticism did not end with the formation of the Israel state; it further sprouted now in a new form, the Islamic terrorism. In the disguise of helping the fight for survival of the native Palestinians the religious fanatics gained entry into the peoples mind and then the spread of Islamic fanaticism spread to other regions of the world. Though there are many reasons which pertain to particular country the above said historical facts still plays a major role to spread the fanaticism.
The question that remains in the end is ‘will this religious fanaticism ends?’ Unfortunately by looking at the past it appears that it is never ending till the mankind’s end. Though we are advancing in the scientific field and call ourselves as the best creation of god, in terms of religion we wish to go back to the pre scientific era and use our science to create more and more weapons to destruct ourself.
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