Faith and Fire.

Fire can’t burn faith

 (hindustan times blogs)

3 Comments

Burning the Quran is easy. So is setting the Bible or the Gita ablaze. So, for cheap-publicity-seeking pastors like Terry Jones who want to become religious heroes overnight, burning a religious text and spreading hatred is easy.

It is good that the US citizens did not support him and I am glad to see that the politics of a country which raised the pitch against Muslims is not backed by real people — Jones got no support, and thank your god for that.

The bigger question is: can burning some shreds of paper destroy an idea, a belief system, an entire faith? The question is rhetorical — as we all know — but I think people seem to have forgotten. The Chinese, for instance, are trying very hard to get the people of Tibet to forget Dalai Lama. But for Tibetans, he lives within their hearts and possibly in their spiritual DNA that will be passed on to the next generation, howsoever coercive the environment around them.

The cynical view is that the US did not allow the burning because it has its own interests to protect. “I strongly condemn that (burning the Quran),” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. “Of course, there is a risk that it may also have a negative impact on the security for our troops.” He was echoing Afghanistan commander General David Petraeus words a day before: “It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan.”

I think both Rasmussen and Petraeus did a small disservice to their people — and I don’t mean Americans alone. Average folks don’t want this kind of rubbish around them. Closer home, for instance, already the pitch is being raised for another round of confrontation around the Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid judgement, expected on September 24. I am glad to see responses that are largely muted and in keeping the Constitution as a basis.

The issue could also be as a recent paper explores, Tolerance versus Toleration. “Religious conflicts will not be solved or explained away once and for all,” the authors Lorenzo Zucca, King’s College London, say. “They will keep coming back… The master narrative of toleration is not capable of dispelling all the issues that arise between secular majorities and religious minorities.” It can also be explored in the wider contexts of “hate crime” versus “free speech” — though in this case, it’s merely a cheap publicity chase.

But for all media hype around this feeble and inconsequential chase, if there is one thing I am absolutely sure about, it is this: the human spirit is wider, deeper and stronger than any pastor’s despicable and deplorable attempts at causing dissonance. The Quran cannot be burnt, not because the military doesn’t want it, or President Barack Obama says it will be a “recruitment bonanza” for al Qaeda, condemns it or even because the people reject it. The Quran cannot be burnt because it thrives in the minds of liberals and beats in the hearts of billions.

Fire is powerless against faith. (hindustan times)