Sometimes We Need To Reflect On Just Who We Are
We are quick to demonize Islam, calling it a male-centred, oppressive and aggressive religious belief. But in doing so, we forget not only our own history and past practices, we forget our own present-day sins.
The Christian Crusades constituted perhaps the bloodiest and most aggressive campaign against innocent people ever conducted by a religious civilization based – supposedly – on the teachings of Jesus.
The Spanish Inquisition, carried out by our religious ancestors pioneered new methods of the most horrendous kinds of torture, constantly inventing new methods of vile and extreme ways to destroy human life and dignity.
More recently the Church blessed the weapons of American soldiers in Vietnam. Religious leaders extolled the battlefield activity and supported the wholesale destruction of human life in a modern Crusade against “godless communism”.
Courgeous Woman
In a moving and heartfelt column in today’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd, a devout Catholic, plumbs the depths of degradation and evil within her own modern Church. She cites the hypocrisy and the contradictions that exist even now, at the heart of her own religious community.
She recounts an aspect of her recent trip to Saudi Arabia in which she discussed the oppression of women in Islamic countries, with a group of young professionals. She sees a parallel in our own society.
The key paragraph in her essay concerns Jesus and Muhammad and the men who distorted their message.
“To circumscribe women, Saudi Arabia took Islam’s moral codes and orthodoxy to extremes not outlined by Muhammad; the Catholic Church took its moral codes and orthodoxy to extremes not outlined by Jesus. In the New Testament, Jesus is surrounded by strong women and never advocates that any woman — whether she’s his mother or a prostitute — be treated as a second-class citizen.”
She seems to be suggesting that we all take a moment this Sabbath Day and reflect on ourselves and our own behaviour, rather than point the finger of accusation at others.
“Worlds Without Women” doesn’t take long to read. But it’s worth pinning up on the wall and reading more than once.
