Between your God and mine!

Goa Inquisition

It is probably due to cognitive dissonance. Finally listening, for once, to what they were saying, they must have had a revelation. It must have sounded so ridiculous that they must have thought of what they were smoking when they plunged head-on into the cult. Hey, heck no! They are not going to denounce everything. They had invested too much time, resources and life to give it away. The next best plan is to convince others. They would get the numbers. It cannot be so wrong if everybody buys their story. And they thought, while we are at it, let us monetise the whole concept!

Hence, the worldwide inquisition started. Because they felt they had been told the inside story about the Creator and thought they knew the backstory of everything's creation, they walked around with a chip on their shoulders.

It is funny how overconfidence leads to aggression. It does not feel wrong to inflict all the pain, injustices and cruelty upon another being because it is viewed as carrying God's will here on Earth. Nobody actually saw the memo or had the guts to ask the same. They risk the label of a heretic.

Another group would take the Word of God and spread it as a religion of peace but with violence and ambush. As if to soothe the bleeding wounds, they would send in nuns and nurses who have dedicated their lives to saving lives. To make the natives useful idiots, schools would be built with the conquerer's belief systems. Servants of God would parachute down to spread the Word and plead with compassion and forgiveness as if trying to whitewash their previous misgivings.

Another method employed to subtly convert the next generation was through the boarding school systems. Horror tales of promising students uprooted from society with the promise of a better life, which ended with tragic ends of torture and death, are rampant in the Australian, Canadian and American aboriginal communities.

Just when you thought this was a footprint of colonial times, think again. Subversive religious conversion of adults and minors has always been ongoing below the radar. Much evangelism work was ongoing under the pretext of providing educational, medical and emotional support. Good for them.

Recently, a video flared up on social media of strategies for converting Malaysian secondary school students and keeping their religious conversion under wraps until they reach adulthood when they are free to profess their religion of choice.

Firdaus Wong is sharing advice on TikTok with teachers
 on converting their students to Islam without their
parent's knowledge. F.B. pic; June 6, 2024.

This naturally created a lot of apprehension amongst parents who saw schools and other governmental institutions as hotbeds for religious activities. Murmurs about this had been in the people's consciousness all this while. Still, everyone naively believed that the Nation had adequate laws to protect people of different belief systems from professing their religion of choice. If formerly conversions were done at the end of the sword, now it is insinuated through subtle reasons like economic prosperity and rebel yells of the ignoramus.

For anyone to trust the legal system, laws must be carried out, and justice must be seen to be done. Over the years, as evidenced by the pile of cases taken up by NGOs against the State, citizens cannot be blamed if they were to think that there exists a sinister plan to subjugate one religion over the others. 

 

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P.S. As any other Indian mother would, Amma was apprehensive when her much-loved son had to spend two years training in a state in the Malay heartland. Her circle of friends constantly told her tales of many promising young Hindu men falling flat for the fauna and flora, fawning over females there, returning home with a different name and surname, spotting moustache-less beards, and refusing to partake in functions deemed necessary by their parents, i.e. final rites and ancestral worship. So, Amma saw a shaman to make an amulet to ward off evil spells. The only restriction to be observed while wearing the amulet was that it should not be worn in places considered unclean with negative energies. Well, what does the shaman expect in a hospital? Of course, there will be deaths, suicides, diseases and all the negativities that need correction! As a good son, yours truly did don the contraption. Expectedly, Amma had thought too highly of her offspring. He fell for the flora and fauna, but there was no inkling of fawning over or by someone!

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Is love jihad even a thing?

The Kerala Story (Hindi, 2023)

Written & Directed by Sudipto Sen

 This movie is kicking a storm in India right now. It is outrightly banned in West Bengal by the ruling party. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the courts have allowed screening for the time being, but the case is due to be reviewed in the Supreme Court soon. 

Some cinema hall operators have voluntarily decided not to screen the film for fear of reprisal from angry mobs. They cite not wanting to offend Muslim sentiments and the possibility of property damage. This only shows the schizophrenic nature of society. On the one hand, people talk about freedom of expression; simultaneously, there is a need to control the narrative.

The controversy stems from the story's theme - love jihad and forced conversion. A Malayalee Hindu nursing student tells her life story. A bubbly student dabbles with Islam and is lured into marrying a Muslim man after inadvertently getting pregnant. She is brainwashed to hate her roots and family, is forcibly converted, given a new identity and packed off to ISIS-controlled areas to be a sex slave. The film suggests a concerted plan by Muslim groups to identify pretty Christian and Hindu girls and lure them into Islam. The protagonist lives to tell her ordeal after she escapes one of these ISIS hell holes. 

So what is the controversy all about?

Muslims have repeatedly asserted that jihad in Islam refers to the internal striving to improve oneself and fight inner demons, not a crusade to convert the world or assert dominance over others. They insist that ISIS' brand of Islam does not follow the teachings of the mainstream Islamic schools of thought. It represents a warped understanding of the religion. Unfortunately, practising Muslims are wary of outrightly condemning their antics to protect the sanctity of Islam. They feel it is not their position to judge and condemn for fear of being labelled a heretic. The punishment for apostasy is quite unnerving. This gives the religion a bad reputation among non-believers and widens the fissure between the ummah and kaffirs. 

Does love jihad exist? Is there a concerted effort to proselytise non-Muslims? In certain tribal societies in Central Asia, a man proves his virility by kidnapping his bride. This practice was prevalent with Turks about the time of the inception of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks found the blonde, blue-eyed Caucasian girls easy targets. Within a few generations, the Turks, once with Mongoloid features, became indistinguishable from Europeans. This practice worked perfectly well for the Empire to spread its influence and faith, as the conversion was assumed to be a one-way ticket. One can check out anytime but can never leave. 

Reports of girls leaving the comfort of their cushy lives to don purdahs and carry rifles heading for ISIS suicide missions in the name of love of religion (and beau) are not unheard of. The story of Shamima Begum and her application to reinstate her British citizenship comes to mind. 

This love jihad business is often portrayed as an RSS and BJP's political propaganda and an Islamophobic Trobe to polarise society for political gains. Interestingly, this phenomenon was first highlighted by a Bishop in Kerala way back in 2009. The presiding High Court judge in a forced conversion case that ensued later agreed that there was a well-known movement known as Love Jihad or Romeo Jihad. The official figures for this are elusive, but one finding put 1,400 from diverse ethnic backgrounds in India as victims.

In many so-called 'right-wing' YouTube channels, there is much coverage of Hindu groups supposedly rescuing Hindu and Christian girls from such ordeals. 

Even though accusations of sexual grooming of societies have been making their rounds for some time now, it is only of late that people in power have woken up to the idea that many communities in the U.K. and Sweden, particularly of Pakistani descent, have been slowly building a web of emotional and hierarchical connections with their young to intentionally manipulate, exploit and abuse them. Investigations into this gained momentum after the 2010 Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal in the U.K. The Prime Minister of the U.K. even admitted threats imposed by such groups and is under their scrutiny.

Finally, all the parties that hurl accusations and counter-accusations at each other have only one agenda. It is a numbers game. The endpoint is usurping power and control. Using victim card to garner sympathy and invoking God's name in their actions, the ultimate aim is to win elections. It is not about doing the right thing or being fair. The end justifies the means.

Meanwhile, the film's financiers are laughing all the way to the bank as the film smashes the box office and grosses unprecedented returns on investment. So far, in such a short duration since its release, it is said to be the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film of 2023.  

(P.S. The events portrayed in the film were reportedly inspired by the accounts of four women from Kerala who converted to Islam and travelled with their husbands to Afghanistan to join ISIS between 2016 and 2018. They were interviewed by a news website in 2019. They were part of a 21-member group from Kerala to join ISIS in 2016 and have remained incarcerated in Afghanistan since surrendering in 2019. The figure of 32,000 victims of love jihad mentioned in their trailer (later withdrawn) may have been exaggerated.)

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Rome was not built (or destroyed) in a day!

The Darkening Age (2017)

(The Christian Destruction of the Classical World)

Author: Catherine Nixey

My cycling buddy, JT, is fondly referred to as JC (Jesus Christ). Like JC, like a magnet, JT has been drawing in cyclists and potential cyclists in droves into his fold. After viewing his pictures and accolades on social media, his friends and relatives had all converted from couch potatoes to cycling-jersey-donning cleated cyclists. And these converts look at JT as JC. His every breath is sacred, and his every word is gospel truth. 

In another situation, I was invited to celebrate the passing of a relative. I also had the pleasure of listening to a sermon before the merriment. The pastor asserted that we are all weak by nature, prone to make mistakes and fall prey to temptation. He proposed his 8-step programme to his flock to emulate religiously and reinforce it weekly at their Sunday service. In not so many words, he told his congregation to go out to the world and spread the good Word.

In both cases, it appears that if the audiences are dogmatic to follow what they hear without using their faculties to sieve the chaff from the wheat, they will not be able to explore their true potential. They simply cannot be all blinkered and refuse to see beyond the rhetorics. 

I think early practitioners of Abrahamic faiths are guilty of this. Some went one step further. As stated by St Augustine, "… all superstition of pagans and heathens should be annihilated is what God wants, God commands, God proclaims!" 

Come to think of it, this is how jihadis think. They interpret the scriptures as they deem fit and impose their understanding of God's desire upon all. 

The ruins of Palmyra 

  

This book covers a time in human history in Europe, roughly between 385CE and 532CE, when Christian thinking slowly came to replace ancient 'pagan' philosophy. From an era when life and its purpose were questioned and re-questioned with philosophers putting in their two cents worth and scribbling on parchment, it morphed into a time when the Church determined what life is and how life should be lived. They impose their will on others, and in modern slang, "it is our way or the highway!" forcing many to immerse into the new teachings or leave for new lands. In the process, almost 99% of the knowledge is either lost or burnt. Outstanding human achievements in architecture and art were demolished, vandalised or defaced.  The human anatomy became vulgar, and there was a pressing need to amputate limbs, breasts, phalli and even Hellenistic noses.

It probably started in Palmyra's Temple of Athena in Syria, circa 385 CE. The idea of a goddess symbolising wisdom and war was too much for newly converted Christians to stomach. They only saw the exaggerated display of wealth and the glorification of a pagan deity. The accentuated silhouette of their body embarrassed Christians. Years of growing conversion climaxed with the imposition of their will on the rest. It immensely helped when the Roman monarch embraced Christianity and agreed to enforce God's law on Earth.

Hypatia of Alexandria

Ancient Alexandria saw the monumental work of Euclid and Ptolemy. To the new converts, their jobs were blasphemous. If the good said that God created heaven and Earth and everything on it in six days, so be it. Who are we, the product of the Original Sin, to question? The idea of a female mathematician-philosopher, Hypatia, running around telling people about the stars and the skies was repulsive. The sight of men learning the art of calculation was not in. In the name of religion, they killed and mutilated her body in the most inhumane way. All her work and wisdom from Alexandria's Great Library, one of the cradles of the Classical World, went up in flames.

History, as the Christian victors wrote it, made us believe that the pagan world became progressively disillusioned with the traditional Gods and rituals. They started disbelieving their myths and twisted tales and willingly embraced Christianity to seek the truth. The reality is not that.

Roman public bath

Early Christians were disillusioned with the world they lived in. They were fearful of a strange hostile world possessed by demons and made it their God-given duty to destroy these demonic representations. And they viewed these temples and deities as such.

Damascius, one of Hypatia's students, saw the actions of the zealots. He returned to see 532 CE Athens, a slowly evolving city. The Romans were interested in maintaining good governance providing public amenities, and religious tolerance. The new converts had different ideas. When more people saw Christianity as their newfound belief, they increasingly saw public baths and temples as demonic playhouses. Their orgy of destruction forced conversion, destroyed public property, deprived heathens of their livelihood, and chased philosophers away. There were even snooping squads, and people were rewarded for snitching on their pagan fellow citizens. The Academy, the birthplace of classical culture, was no more. Just one per cent of Latin literature would survive the purge; countless antiquities, artworks, and ancient traditions were lost forever. 

Come to think of it, what the Christian zealots did in Pre-Christian Rome was no different from the present-day ISIS or Taliban.

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No warranty, No guarantee!

Mookuthi Amman (மூக்குத்தி அம்மன், Nose-ringed Goddess, Tamil; 2020)

This movie is obviously a bashing against BJP's imminent entry into Tamil Nadu politics. Since the 1930s, Tamil Nadu politics had been secular (read anti-Hindu). From the time of EV Ramasamy and subsequent leaders of the state, they have always claimed to be atheists. They all fell prey to the British's devious 'divide and rule' strategy. They also subscribe to the now-defunct 'Aryan invasion theory'. They believe that the story of Ramayana is the story of Northerners (Aryans and Brahmins), of King Rama, colonising the Dravidians led by Ravana. What they fail to realise is that Ravana actually hails from the region around modern-day Uttar Pradesh, hence from the North too. He usurped the Lanka kingdom from his half brother, Kuberan.

EV Ramasamy had always been sceptical of the Hindu hierarchical order. His idea was the Brahmins were out to aggrandise themselves and vilify the lower castes. Being a social activist, he started the Self Respect Movement and worked hard towards women empowerment, caste equality, anti-Hindi rhetorics and opposition against Brahminical dominance in Tamil Nadu. Subsequent leaders in breakaway parties also followed the trend.

Hence, the idea of a Hindu friendly party working hand-in-glove with a splinter party in Tamil Nadu gets most of the politicians here hot under their collars. Even though they claim to be irreligious in their outlook, they are often seen to be wooing and appeasing their Muslim and Christian vote banks.

This film may remind viewers of Hindi movies, PK and OMG - where the gullibility of devotees and the shenanigans of godmen are laid open. It tells the depressing story of Engel Ramasamy, a freelance reporter. His family comprises his single mother and three younger sisters. His father had run away soon before the last sister was born. Ramasamy crosses path with a powerful sage, and pretty soon he realises that he needs to fight the sage to save a big plot of land that belongs to his family temple. And the Goddess of the temple manifests in front of Ramasamy to be of aid.

Many viewers are unhappy that the filmmakers decided to paint all Godmen with the same brush - of being power-crazy, devious and cheats. We get an eerie feeling that references are made to Nithyanda (of the 'me-in-you' and 'you and me' fame) as well as to Sadhguru where his Cauvery Calling collection is queried, and alleged tribal land is misappropriated. Ram Baba Dev is not spared either, for his business ventures are also mentioned. There is a scene of a possible conversion of a minor which suddenly gets forgotten in the hullabaloo of the story. A clip of a pastor engaging in spiritual healing got snipped as the director felt it would offend the Christians. What about the sentiments of Hindus, they say? Even though the Goddess proclaims Jesus to be her friend, she becomes 'jealous' when Ramasamy's mother seems keener to visit Thirupathi than her! Is it a coincidence that the protagonist's name combines Ramasamy (EV@Periyar) and Engel (of Frederich Engels who co-wrote 'The Communist Manifesto' with Karl Marx)?

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Back to the driver's seat!

Hindu View of Christianity and Islam (1992)

Ram Swarup

The thought of my simple-minded mother heartbroken over her beloved son's conversion from his birth religion into an Abrahamic religion was deterrent enough for me to maintain the status quo. The vision of her disappearing into the horizon as I am saved by the second coming of Christ at the end of times and the image of her burning in hellfire whilst I, because of my foresightedness in following the Shepard, savouring the sweet nectar of bliss was just too much for me to stomach.  

I cannot blame her for feeling the way she felt. After all, it is her life experience. In her eyes, as the script of Ram Swarup's view suggests, there is no reason to embrace another religion as the Hindu religion has it all. It has been around since the beginning of time. There must be a reason why unlike the other new kids of the block, its philosophy of living in harmony with our inner self, the environment and the cosmos resonates with other Eastern, African, American Indian and other ancient belief systems.

My mother perceived the Abrahamic religions as disruptive, combative and condescending at best. Her childhood encounters reinforced the idea that the nuns that she had met had ulterior motives in their niceties. She had seen families torn apart and marriages disrupted because of the divisive natures of Western belief systems. In her eyes, Hinduism has been and is still able to provide emotional solace and intellectual support to last this lifetime and the ones beyond. Period. 

Ram Swarup is a respected figure. Starting as a freedom fighter, he later was a prolific writer on matters critical against Christianity, Islam and Communism. Through his association with the publication house, Voice of India, he churned out many Hindu revivalist articles. The West sang praises of his scathing articles about communism but was not so complimentary on his views of Abrahamic religions. 

In this book, he asserts that the political differences between tribes, people from different parts of the world were content with their pagan beliefs, living in harmony with Nature with their own set of social mores that kept them going as a society. The Hindu type of faith spread eastwardly as far as Japan and westwardly as far as Central Asia. In fact, the Lithuanian language shares keen similarity to Sanskriti language. The last pagans in the Baltics who were forcefully converted by the Templar Knights had many Hindu deities. In fact, the Africans were not in a dark continent, but, on the contrary, were illuminated with their own advanced philosophy.  The Native Americans, whom the Spaniards looted were not just bison-hunting savages but with their profound way of life. The Aztecs and the Mayan who were systemically infected and forcibly converted to accept Christ at gunpoint had a shared belief system with the Hindus.

The Abrahamic religions need to put their act together. They need to engage in public relation to erase their checked past to rebrand themselves. They should erase the perception, to the non-believers, of a jealous God who is hot on the trail of a recruitment drive. Or perhaps, their past intentions persist, but their modus operandi may have varied. The perception of a heathen is the religions are means to exert power and a modality to squander money.

Ironically, India, a subcontinent that was referred to as the fatherland of mankind, exuding with advanced knowledge and skills has morphed into an ignorant, divided, self-hating society that has forgotten its past glory and needs validation for its own existence.

On a happy note, the author believes that the future is bright as India has reawakened. Even though it was pushed under the wheels of the bus of the Industrial Revolution, it has wriggled itself out to clasp its hands on to the driver's seat. Now, it needs to steer its wheels.

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Affairs of heart are irrational

Sufiyum Sujathayum (Sufi and Sujatha, Malayalam; 2020)

It started with a slow but discernable sporadic increase in reported cases of Hindu girls eloping with Muslim boys. Then came in the honour killings. The media picked it up. Everyone else then came out with their experiences of so-and-so female members of their families ex-communicating from the rest in pursuit of true love. To these girls, it finally meant embracing a new religion, new name, erasing themselves of their past lives and age-old traditions.

People started calling this phenomenon as 'love jihad' - a supposed form of religious warfare by Muslim boys to entice Hindu girls into conversion through marriage. It was a numbers game. They allege that that was another modality to increase their representation in the community. In 2009, it garnered national attention with claims of widespread conversions in Kerala and Karnataka. There were also similar accusations by British Sikhs and minorities in Pakistan. Even though the National Investigative Agency (NIA) in India found common instigators in 'love jihad' cases, the police and the court dismissed them as pure fabrications with no substance. As there was a hypothesis that these brides were prepared to be made ISIS bride, it became a terror issue, hence, NIA came to the picture. 

Another point not mentioned in any of these arguments is the lack of young boys in many of the places where 'love jihad' takes place. There were no economic opportunities in these states and the young men had to go off to work in the Gulf States or Singapore. Young girls with raging hormones and Muslim boys, in the spring of youth, left behind to mind religious and theological duties were the best ingredients for a perfect storm. And suave hunks with Bollywood movie-star look as many of these Sufi practitioners have, as some are from the Middle East, sparks are bound to fly.

As these girls who are alleged victims of forced conversion were major in the legal sense and were intelligent and educated, the courts could not nullify such unions. Anyway, affairs of the heart are never logical and cannot be argued in a sensible manner. Blinded by romance, the world is a wonderful place and pigs can fly.

Even though movie pundits on the social media hailed it as another must-see movie of 2020, I seriously think one can give this one a miss. It tells the story of a vocally-challenged Hindu Karthak dancer whose only job seems to be to cycle around the village and play with children in the madrassah. In the small town where the only member of the male gender is an uncle or from the geriatric population, a tall bearded young man is a sight for sore eyes. She is fascinated with him and his way of life - his mystical dances and songs. She falls flat for him despite the arrangements made by her parents for her to be married to a groom working in Dubai.

Long story short, she is emotionally blackmailed by the parents to get married.

Ten years on, she returns to India with her husband, after the Sufi lover dies. The rest of the story is about her letting go of her boyfriend and coming in terms with her status as a wife and mother, leaving her juvenile puppy love behind.

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The blind leading the blind!

Sathyathai Thedi  (Seeking the Truth; @Asothoma Sathgamaya, 2013)

First, it was Zakir Naik who was heard telling his congregants that the old Hindu scriptures did indeed quote of the arrival of a messenger of God. In his usual style, he went on ranting his references to the said inscriptions. Just that people are too set in their mindsets to accept that, he alleged.

Now I hear the same pitch being repeated. This Christian evangelist film tries to sell the idea that the Ama Veda did hint of Prajapathi, the Lord of the Universe, being Jesus Christ himself. Somewhere in it, it was apparently mentioned of the Creator who needed to be sacrificed for atonement. In their eyes, it fits perfectly in their narrative that Jesus, who is God himself, had to be sacrificed to wash the sins of Man.

The whole film can be described as a hermeneutical gymnastic as the protagonist goes on rattling verses after verses from the Veda, Upanishads and even Kural to drive home the message that the Bible is indeed version 2.0 of the ultimate Truth.  

Imagine the audacity...

The alternative title of the film is Asotha Sathgama. As we know, it is an ancient mantra, also named Pavamana Mantra, is from the Upanishad. It is recited during offerings, and it encourages us to open our inner realisation to come out of our ignorance to embrace the transcendental reality. A fourth line of 'Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shantihi' is often added to emphasise us to be at peace with the Universe.

asato mā sad gamaya,tamaso mā jyotir gamaya, mṛtyor māmṛtaṃ gamaya

"from the unreal lead me to Truth, from the darkness lead me to the light, from death, lead me to immortality."

I gather that the makers of the film refer them to belong to a new denomination called 'Indian Christians'. Unlike the Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Churches or Protestants who garnered knowledge from the respective areas that they prospered, these Indian Christian have no qualms in appropriating pearls of wisdom of the Hindu tradition. After all, Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. Hindu, in ancient times, referred to the civilisation around the Indus Valley. 'Indians Christians' just cherry-pick the knowledge of their ancestors to seek their perceived ultimate Truth of their Maker.

St Thomas' arrival 53AD

The story revolves around a retired Brahmin Sanskrit scholar who comes out from being a closet Christian, much to the ire of his son with whom he is staying. His conversion soon becomes an embarrassment to his family and the members of the Brahmin community where he is respected. The scholar slowly teaches everyone in the community his own understanding of his new religion. Pretty soon, everyone in the community sees the light and embrace Christianity one by one, including the short-fused son.

The filmmakers are hoping to connect to the segment of the population who see the practice of Hinduism as a ritual filled archaic meaningless practice. These ignoramuses, in the lowest ebb of their lives, when they are vulnerable and are looking for straws to clutch, see evangelists as their saviours. Unlike practitioners of the Hindu faith who are seekers of knowledge, these Christian soldiers are out in the field to attend to the nitty-gritty nut-and-bolt issues of daily life. With the threat of death or sickness, a hand in prayer goes a long way in gratitude and seeing things in a different light. This is how faithful lieutenants are made.

All these do not make sense. We claim to respect each other's religion, but yet we are quick to run each other's faith down to proclaim that our's is superior. In reality, we are all groping in the dark trying to put two to two to paint a composite picture is what life, the journey and the reason for our existence are all about...

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Does the shepherd really have his flock's interest at heart?

We were told to surrender to the care of the shepherd. We should trust him unconditionally, for he has your best interest at heart. He is selfless and would not call it a day until the last sheep is accounted for. He would not harm his flock. Every member of the herd, small or big, meaty or skinny, young or old, is equally important to him. He will not rest his head until every member is safe and sound. So we were told. And it made perfect sense then. Pack your worries, fold it and give it for safekeeping with the shepherd. He would guide us through, and we would be safe. We will be saved.

Now that we have crossed the hurdles, we become conceited. We think all these successes are our efforts, ours alone. 

When we are told of the good shepherd and their noble intentions, we ask them to think of the true nature of his plan. He has no altruistic purpose. His sole aim to fatten his pack. Every sheep lost is lost revenue. His seemingly caring attitude is merely to fatten us to prepare us for the slaughter. Just like a 'mother hen' grooming a tender spring chicken for the profession, we were just being marinated for the grill. 

We can be the occasion sheep that wanders away, that may be mauled by predators or that he wants us to believe. We may be discarded as a recalcitrant, be abandoned as an insensible loss. Are our actions somehow going to turn the status quo on its back?

The majority find it easier just to follow the pack. It is too much hard work to think. Searching for the truth is too laborious.

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