Demented devotion is dangerous
AS ADVOCATES of free speech and freedom of expression will know, you can tolerate pretty much anything — except intolerance.
It is why religion, for all the positive aspects it may bring to a devotee’s life, can have such a negative impact.
And when it comes to intolerance, religion has no equal. The
Catholic Church here had an absolute obsession with people’s private lives for decades while hiding horrific sex abuse carried out by its own clerics. The Church still takes a dim view of gay people, describing sexual activity between members of the same sex as a “mortal sin”. It’s the same in other religions too, with a gay Muslim man only yesterday speaking in The Star about how he felt shunned because of his sexuality. Yusuf Murray says he feels he can no longer pray at his mosque in Blanchardstown, after its leader Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri said the gay lifestyle was not right as it contradicted the Koran.
It’s just a few weeks since I wrote on these pages how, while not being a fan of Islam, I had admiration for Dr AlQadri as a progressive figure within his community.
He hails from Pakistan, a country I believe is being held back by an almost demented devotion to Islam.
The same sort of dangerous devotion that has seen author Salman Rushdie just about survive a sickening stabbing attack.
The 75-year-old has spent 30 years under death threat as his 1988 book, the Satanic Verses, is considered blasphemous to Muslims.
The fact that an author of a book, which people can choose not to read if they don’t like it, would spend so much of his life under threat shows the effects of religious dogma.