Religion: The Same, But Different
Karl Marx had made many, many comments in his time, most of them mangled beyond any reconisable form. That's okay, though, as many of them were off, in some cases by a single word.
Like so:
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people." (From Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right)
Where if he wanted to be more accurate, would have read this:
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the crystal meth of the people."
See what a difference one little word can make? What Marx thought was accurate, that religion would dull protest of the oppressed, was in fact it's opposite - just with a different target. Religion hasn't exactly calmed people down, but given them yet another excuse to go at each other's throats. Just ask these kind souls...
It looks like the stupidest conflict in the world (North Ireland) and the second stupidest conflict in the world (Israel/Palastine) are about to have company: a group of people, disguised as policemen, bombed a 1200 year old shi'ia mosque. It is unknown who did this, but you can imagine the response: 19 (so far) sunnis have been killed by angry mobs roaming the streets, prisoners being executed by vigilantes, and shiite militia attacks on 90 (so far) sunni mosques.
Most sunni groups condemmed the original attack (and obviously aren't big fans of later ones), and have put out a call for peace, and the top shiite cleric in Iraq (al-Sistani) has forbidden any attacks on sunni mosques and has called for seven days of mourning.
But... (knew that was coming, didn't you?)
He and Vice President Abdul-Mahdi have both hinted that religious militias could be given greater roles in defending holy sites.
Don't see any problems there, then!
Like so:
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people." (From Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right)
Where if he wanted to be more accurate, would have read this:
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the crystal meth of the people."
See what a difference one little word can make? What Marx thought was accurate, that religion would dull protest of the oppressed, was in fact it's opposite - just with a different target. Religion hasn't exactly calmed people down, but given them yet another excuse to go at each other's throats. Just ask these kind souls...
It looks like the stupidest conflict in the world (North Ireland) and the second stupidest conflict in the world (Israel/Palastine) are about to have company: a group of people, disguised as policemen, bombed a 1200 year old shi'ia mosque. It is unknown who did this, but you can imagine the response: 19 (so far) sunnis have been killed by angry mobs roaming the streets, prisoners being executed by vigilantes, and shiite militia attacks on 90 (so far) sunni mosques.
Most sunni groups condemmed the original attack (and obviously aren't big fans of later ones), and have put out a call for peace, and the top shiite cleric in Iraq (al-Sistani) has forbidden any attacks on sunni mosques and has called for seven days of mourning.
But... (knew that was coming, didn't you?)
He and Vice President Abdul-Mahdi have both hinted that religious militias could be given greater roles in defending holy sites.
Don't see any problems there, then!
Labels: Religion
2 Comments:
Unfortunately, I think the Shia-Sunni conflict in Iraq is only going to heat up. Not only that but it has chance of spilling over to religious conflicts in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and a few other muslim countries. It's amazing how little it's taking a few thousand insurgents or so to drive the agenda in that country.
It's certainly a very low flash-point conflict. I agree with you opinion on most of the at-risk countries, but I don't think Saudi Arabia is one of them. I'm hoping none of them end up in civil war of course, but...
Thanks for the comment.
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