Sunday, February 2, 2014

Humanity and Religion (part 2)

-The role of each human as khalifah Allah (Quran didn't mention khalifah in a political way; it struck me that it's a role designated so that every human has to play it) is to spread Islam. "Ya Rasul, balligh!" (O Messenger, deliver!) Thus there is an obligation that is made dutiful onto every Muslim; so the fatigue of proselytizing is solved by making sure everyone does it; Islam is thus a religion made to be inherited, from father to son. Thus, there is a need for Islamic family system to take its shape; 'muhrim' and 'non-muhrim' is just the tip. We have got in Muslim society a very rigid family system that has no place for bastards and interfaith children, as well as gays and lesbians. Sexuality is shunned except for the heterosexualism; and heterosexualism is regulated strictly within the context of the family; one would observe very little physical touch among Malays, due to the perception that touching is sexual. Sexuality is regulated heavily; one might say that it is rationed only for the purpose of procreating new Muslims.
-But the laws result in a necessary segregation between Muslims and non-Muslims. It is a familial segregation, a fraternal segregation. Thus fundamentally, Muslims and non-Muslims become fundamentally different from each other; they are segregated on a familial level. Muslims can't marry non-Muslims unless they convert; the laws serve as another way to proselytize non-Muslims. And that is fine; Muhammad had envisioned a belief system in which the heaven is made exclusive for Muslims. Non-Muslims go to hell; there is no other way around. Of course some argue that every soul gets to go to heaven not due to them being Muslim or not, but through the merits of their deeds. But merits here are often understood as being 'Muslim': Islam is everything that is good. Good equals Islam.
-Thus the laws often in the end favor Muslims, discriminating against non-Muslims, despite the fact that it is not intended to be so; theoretically there shall be no discriminating, nor shall there be an intention to discriminate against people; the real targets are the non-Muslim belief systems. They ought to be eliminated; the belief systems operate based on what Islam perceives as lies; "Truth will prevail, while the lies perish."
-Of course Islam isn't alone in discriminating; consider the time period when the Catholics of the Iberian peninsula got swept up in religious fervor and discriminated against Muslims and Jews. It got nasty; Muslims and Jews were uprooted due to their non-Catholic beliefs. But this is also an unintended consequence of the idea that only those who accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior gets salvation in the end. Jesus is the key. No key, no heaven. Thus Christianity and Islam both have to be proselytizing in order for their ethics to work the way they were intended to work. The Bible said in the Gospels that the Apostles were ordered to spread the Word of God; Muhammad said that 'deliver from me even if only a sentence.' Proselytizing becomes the new religious game, surpassing the previous idea of tribalism: each nation has its own god. No; God has become an international concept; each nation must accept that there is no God but Allah; in fact there are no nations; just a nation. An ummah.
-So universalism is born through the conception of God as being One and Only and for All; and the conception of an exclusivist Heaven. This ran in contrast with previous order of the nations. No longer is polytheism or henotheism allowed. There is only one God, and only one Nation; a Nation formed by human. Thus we got back to the formulation of 'human.'

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