Q562 :A new thinking is gradually developing which
suggests that hatred and fighting between different types of believers
are due to religion and sects. Without religion, people will have less
to fight for on religious grounds. It is suggested that if people
throughout the world implement a system of education which is geared to
strengthen the best human values, they will be in a better position to
control all sorts of evil. Please netment.
A562 : This is not a new concept at all. People have
advanced this idea time after time throughout history, but a careful
study of human history and the causes of conflict between people,
nations, races and religious groups is sufficient to reveal that human
beings fight under any banner and for whatever cause, and in pursuit of
self-centered goals. Such a study is bound to conclude that greed and
selfishness, as well as laying one’s hands on what belongs to others,
are the main reasons for starting armed conflicts. Ideals and human
values are always forgotten whenever it netes to the pursuit of
personal and national interests. Western civilization has tried hard
to shed its Christian values and replace them with secular human values
that give prominence to human brotherhood, freedom and equality. Ever
since the French Revolution, these values have been paramount in
European thinking, while religious values were gradually weakening. Has
this helped Europe, or the West in general, to reduce the frequency of
wars and armed conflicts? Whether we look at the relations between
European states and nations or between Western nations and the rest of
the world, the answer is unquestionably in the negative. In the 19th
century, Europe witnessed so many wars between European nations,
despite the fact that all Europe is presumably Christian. Moreover,
European nations went out to colonize vast areas throughout the world.
When they did so, they only paid lip service to their Christian values
and conveniently preferred to forget all about freedom, equality and
fraternity. They were happy to treat the nations of those areas which
they occupied as second class people, deprive them of the wealth of
their land, keep them ignorant, uneducated. They also adopted a policy
of “divide and rule” to create hatred and enmity between the people of
those nations. In the 20th century Western nations pulled the world
into two great wars in which religion had no role whatsoever. Moreover,
the West helped create Israel on Palestinian land, totally ignoring the
rights of the Palestinian people. What human values could stop future
wars if human beings can easily develop a system that gives legitimacy
to driving a whole population out of their rightful land to bring in
their place another nation that has no claim to that land whatsoever
apart from the fact that their ancestors lived there 2000 years ago? It
is true that religion could be used as a justification for war. The
Crusaders were a good example. But religion provides the best hope for
humanity to avoid war. If people take their faith seriously and abide
by its teachings, they are certainly less likely to fight than if they
were driven only by selfishness, greed and a feeling that they have the
power to impose their will on others. Religion implants in human beings
the feeling that they are answerable for their actions, while human
values, no matter how refined, will have man as the ultimate arbiter.
We know that man is greedy by nature. Therefore, man cannot be trusted
to implement justice when he feels that he will never have to account
for his actions.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )