M. Bitar, George Banna :
After any word or phrase related to religion, some feel accused, as if they are facing a new attempt to insult the faith, The problem here is not the severity of what is said about the religion and its followers, but rather the dogmatism of religious thought, which does not accept criticism, whether minor or major,The established tenets and sacred beliefs do not allow for any criticism, and all criticism must end in silencing. Silencing takes many forms, the most important of which is eliminating the critic by accusing them of treason, apostasy, and conspiracy, and by bombarding them with a barrage of insults and denigrations, coupled with inflated praise of the tolerant religion, a religion that knows nothing of terrorism and intimidation, The problem also relates to the place of religious and sectarian affiliation within the modern state system, The modern state and the modern nation require a primary affiliation that is incompatible with tribal, sectarian, or ethnic affiliations. It seems that some Arabs, or those who have adopted Arab culture, live in an era that does not suit them, and they are unable to harmonize with and interact with its characteristics, concepts, and requirements. They are prisoners of the past because they are convinced that this past was glorious because it was made by religion, so the focus should be on religion, the maker of glory!
For those who are centered around religion, religion, with its terror and enticement, represents the ultimate meaning of life, It is the beginning and end of a person’s earthly history and the source of their heavenly eternity, Whether this belief is wrong or right is irrelevant; what matters is the certainty that can only be shaken by eliminating ignorance, And where are the peoples of the region in eliminating ignorance? When these peoples have not even been able to eliminate basic illiteracy, what about knowledge, its acquisition and creation, what about culture, and ultimately, what about constructive and progressive thought!
All of the above is fundamentally related to a pre-existing, certain cognitive map, The believer comes to you with an open heart and mind, armed with a weapon derived from religious heritage, including verses, hadiths, and inherited values, At the first discrepancy or difference in viewpoints, the believer shrinks back to his pre-existing cognitive map, which is all he possesses, He stands bewildered, helpless, and stripped of his effective weapon, In a state that portends surrender, he resorts to assassinating his counterpart or interlocutor through exclusion, social execution, moral or national execution, or by belittling and distorting the interlocutor by considering him a dog, a wolf, or a rabbit—that is, an animal and not a human being, The matter ends in discord, which should have ended in accord, Instead of the proliferation of difference to generate creativity, the difference turns into a dispute and thus into a crisis that may end with the physical elimination of the other. And how many quarrels have ended in massacre!
In contrast to this pessimistic view, which portends a present and future nihilism that is difficult to reconcile with, and difficult to surrender to inferiority as if the chromosomes of these peoples were of a bad kind like Chinese goods, there are those who do not see things as we do, and there are those who see our creatures as religious, but possessed by civilization, creatures like other human creatures, except that they are attracted and strongly restricted by the external religious one that competes with the internal thought and prevents it from manifesting and may even kill it if necessary, It is a religious dictatorship that prevents the creation of independent thought, and prevents the formation of self-awareness and independence even in the simplest matters of life, The battles of the peoples are imposed, and the tools of fighting are imposed, and there are many difficulties in getting out of the circle of desperate, or rather deadly, defense of positions alien to the self, such as superstitions, polygamy, and paradise, etc., which will be the abode of the believer no matter what he does on earth. And in the hadith it was said, even if he committed adultery and theft, and to emphasize the correctness of the phrase “even if he committed adultery and theft,” this phrase was repeated twice!
The external, universal thought that is obligatory by necessity and ability turns into a burden or colonialism when this thought does not agree with the personal certainties imposed also from the religious outside., The tyranny of this thought forces the believer to be strict in defending the shell of his ideas, without the possibility or will to push what he wants to where he wants and how he wants, This is an expressive image of the dwarfing and shrinking of the self when it is confronted with a strong thought that contradicts its certainties, but according to the balance of power it is obligatory to it, In the result, this believer turns into a forced duality, that is, a forced passive from the outside and not an active from within.
The reality of duality requires a cure, and there is no cure without reviving the critical mind, which has atrophied and died due to the sacred beliefs that have eliminated the creative evolution of humanity, The people of this East are no different from the people of the West in that they all always want the best, and the best pertains to the present and the future, and cannot pertain to the past except in a false and arbitrary way, such as considering it glorious without glory, It is necessary to revive the “literature of confession,” and it is necessary to acknowledge that progress and regression are made by humans exclusively and not by heaven or fate. There must be a revolution against the self that is responsible for the form and arrangements of life!
*A caricature published in 1900 regarding an electricity-related disaster.
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