Of Animated Protestors and Inflamed Passions

"Cartoon protestors torch embassies in Damascus"

"Cartoon protestors try to rush US base"

"Cartoon protestors train their sites on web"

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you've no doubt heard of the "cartoon protestors" and their protests. The first time I heard this term, the only thing I could think of was an inflamed bugs bunny saying "Of course you realise this means war".

I am the first one to admit that religion fascinates me. I have serious trouble believing what most religions preach, but I still am quite intrigued by the capability of religion and its prophets to hold sway over vast swathes of people. After what little I have studied of religion, I have come to certain conclusions:

1. Religions are, at a very basic level, simply a set of moral rules. The problem with most religions is that there is no graceful way of changing these rules. A change/deviation almost always results in a new sect (or even religion) branching off.
2. All religions have what I call the fundamental streak. This usually coincides with a sect that chooses to interpret religious symbols/texts literally despite the fact that they might not make any sense in the modern day and age.
3. Most religions provide no means of enforcing the rules they proscribe.
4. Religions become more and more tolerant overtime. However, this relaxation has very little effect on the fundamental elements who tend to see their form of religion as purer than the one followed by the majority.
   
5. Lastly, all religion is based on an unseen authority whose existence can't be proved. Empirically speaking, all religion is a lie.

However, the fact of the matter is that this whole brouhaha is costing lives and property. All this for what? A loose system of rules which can't be amended? A concept which quite possibly could be a complete and utter lie? And who's to blame?

The problem with the Danish cartoons isn't necessarily that they depict Mohammed in a bad light. The bigger problem here is that they depict him at all. Islam as a religion preaches god as a formless concept. To give god, or any other Islamic religious figures a form is considered nothing short of blasphemy. The question is: Can blasphemy committed by a non-believer be considered blashemy at all? Obviously not. But one might argue that by publishing his cartoons in a newspaper the illustrator also exposed innocent Muslim readers to his blasphemous depictions of god. Seen from that perspective, the anger of a Muslim reader of the Danish newspaper would seem quite justified. Although this still doesn't justify the anger of all the Muslims who haven't even seen these cartoons themselves. Then why is it that buildings burn and people get shot?

The real reason I think lies in the greater sense of fear and insecurity that Muslims feel in the world today. Take the term "Islamic terrorism" for instance. It has become widely used in the media and is bandied about with reckless disregard. It is used to refer to the terrorists in Afghanistan as well as the rebels in Iraq. It is also applied with equal ease to Chechnyan seperatists. To the lay person the term simply means any terrorist who ascribes to a version of Islam (no matter how perverted that version might be). In real terms though, an Iraqi rebel and a Chechnyan one have less in common than an everyday Indian and an everyday American. Each of these people are fighting for their own cause. While its true that at times they do combine forces, it is no different from any two terrorist outfits (or indeed any two combat units) combining forces to accomplish a task.

In India, Muslims are discriminated against everyday. We don't see it, but its definitely there. Let me illustrate. I belong to a community (Sikhs) which makes up roughly 3% of India's population. Thats a tiny number. Having lived in Delhi all my life, I can say with some authority that the number of my Sikhs in Delhi can't possibly be higher than the number of Muslims in the city. However, in my place of work the total number of Muslims is less than 1% of the total. On the other hand, about 5% of the total workforce is made up of Sikhs. So where are all these people going? Do they not earn a living? Part of the problem is the parallel school system (Madrasas) where the quality of education is mostly sub-par. However, the very reason for the existence of this parallel system is the intense fear of discrimination that has been instilled in the Muslim community.

In Iraq, an occupying army systematically deprives a people of the assets of their own country. Make no mistake, the American occupation of Iraq is no different from the British occupation of India. Sure they have the technology, the resources and the media accumen to put a pretty face to it. But the premise remains the same. The Americans think they must govern the Iraqis (and "give" them their freedom) because the Iraqis themselves aren't capable of doing it. This is the same line of thinking that was used to justify colonisation in the 19th and 20th century.

In Afghanistan, everyday lives of real Afghanis are still run by ruthless warlords who are a law unto themselves. The fall of the Taliban served to replace one form of chaos with another. In Iran, religion chokes the lifeblood of the country and its people. In Palestine, a people fight for their houses, their farms and the future of their children.

All these are problems that have been seen in other, non-muslim countries too. In and of themselves, these problems have nothing to do with religion. Religion however is a great rallying point. It combines people all over the world inspite of their region, race, ethnicity or language. Islam is playing that role right now. To ensure that the cartoon protests never happen again, the world would need to come together and fix the everyday problems of people in India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Palestine and many other countries. The fact that all these people happen to be Muslims is just a co-incidence. We need to make sure we understand this, lest "Islamic terrorism" become a self-fulfilling propecy.


P.S.: Sorry if the cartoon looks crap. My illustration skills are a bit rusty.

Note to self: This is what happens when you use a digital camera to transfer a drawing to the computer.