After production of the infamous movie followed by violent reaction in several Muslim countries, there have been calls that we need to do some introspecting to find out why we are always at conflict with other religious communities whether these are Christians, Jews, Hindus or Buddhists. Barring rare incidents, other communities have learned to live peacefully, and co-exist in a number of societies. Reference several op-ed columns and letters, I want to express shock on few writings which show off pride, while comparing with other societies, our family values, invariably blaming others not having such values. We need to understand that no religion warrants teenage pregnancies, extramarital relationships, children out of wed lock, abortions, old people as destitute, unwanted children on the street etc; if there is any please enlighten the readers. All these evils have nothing to do with religion as every religion asks its followers to lead a simple, family-oriented life.
Industrial revolution in the West changed the societies over there —- instead of extended families, nuclear families concept emerged as workers have to extensively travel and live away from hometowns/ family homes. Later even these nuclear family units also started breaking down but we can’t generalize the issue to blame all the non-Muslim societies. It’s same as we shouldn’t generalize when we find deep rooted scars and issues in those Muslim societies still run by tribal cultures and values (of course justifying these evils in the name of religion) —- don’t we know about underage marriages, marriages without girls’ consent, settling of disputes by giving girls and women ( who virtually live a slave life in the other tribe), young girls marriages to old men for money, bridegroom paying bride’ family – if all these evils have nothing to do with Islam, then why blame other religions.
Yes, we need to do introspecting, but starting it from a false standing will not do any help.
