It is perhaps that 1/10th of 1 % of extremists in all faiths, yes; every extremist belonging to Atheists to Zoroastrians and every one in between is cherishing this tragedy and pointing fingers at Hindu faith. The fanatics like Pat Robertson and Falwell must be having a heyday, as they want to harvest human souls from the heathenish cultures.
It would be wrong to laugh at any one, as all the faiths have their 1/10th of 1% of extremists living among them. With a few exceptions, who are way too small to be arrogant, every group has their proportionate contribution to the world violence.
The language of a few writers broad brushes Hinduism, as a civil society we need to set standards, and take a principle stand in encouraging a language that causes community building in public medium, as opposed to presenting opinions that enflame prejudices.
The phrases like:
- Hindu women are commodities.
- Hindu women are expected to birth males. If they don’t, they are beaten or slain.
- There are the baby girls who, simply because they are female, are put on piles of dry grass and burned. Or they are placed in bags and fatally stabbed.
- The father doesn't kill the man who rapes his daughter; instead, they dispose of her,
- And a wife who was tortured with cigarette butts by her husband because she bore only girls.
- Then there is the woman whose husband poured hot coals on her abdomen after she bore a daughter
Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. In the year 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year, 440 men were killed by an intimate partner. As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy. Forty percent of girls age 14 to 17 reports knowing someone their age who has been hit or knowing someone has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend. – (Resources: www.endabuse.org - www.ncadv.org www.ndvh.org - www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/help/dv.htm - www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/help/dv.htm and others).
Thousands of women in the United States were killed by their husbands/boy friend, this is how the animalistic man behaves. Would blaming Christianity serve the purpose? Absolutely not. Men were no different 2000 years ago regardless of their religion, ethnicity or national origins. My contention is that, it has nothing to do with the religion; it is the violent instinct in men DNA'd into us, these violent men need to feel safe and secure, as a society we need to help them.
So, let’s not point fingers at any religion, as we cannot wiggle out of our own ills. Blaming religion is an act of gutlessness that builds avoidance to deal with the problem squarely, let’s take the stand against all evils in the society and place the blame where it belongs; humans, and not their religion.
Let’s consider placing long term plans together; it involves education for the coming generations, to teach the children at home and schools to treat other humans with dignity or there are consequences to it in the civil society, in addition to the morality of their personal faith. There are homes where this nurturing cannot be achieved, if each one of us can do more than our own share, we can plan on retiring with fewer violent men in the society. If we have violence today, it is because it was allowed it earlier; it is in our selfish interests to create societies that value co-existence, harmony and peace.
The short term solution is to develop citizen’s council of individuals who are not biased towards other humans to monitor and report these incidents in an open manner. Details have to be worked out to create appropriate checks and balances. Each one of us is responsible to do at least our share, and let that begin with you and I before we look to others.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio, discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He founded the World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: "good for Muslims and good for the world." His personal Website is www.MikeGhouse.net and his articles can be found on the Websites mentioned above and in his blogs: http://MikeGhouseforAmerica.Blogspot.com and http://MikeGhouse.Sulekha.com . He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com. Mike lives in Carrollton with his family and has been a Dallasite since 1980.
