Just an article i wrote: "The oppressions of religion"

[nadeem]

Hi there,

I thought I'd share this article with you, that I wrote under tenth grade exams.

Oppressions of religion
Caution The quotations in this article are to be regarded as paraphrased, due to certain foolish restrictions on noting. Hence, the quotations are recited from memory.

Introduction

Most people believe that their religion holds the answers to questions such as Who am I? , Why am I here?, Whats the truth? etc. In the sanctuary of these answers they find the much needed comfort of certainty. You feel that youre on top of everything and that you have secured your future. The need to feel secure is something everyone would like, even I. It is the very sensation of safety that enables us to be free. For example, I wouldnt ride the rollercoaster unless I was perfectly sure that it was safe. Since I am sure, I have the freedom to ride it.

What many people do not realize, is the difference between feeling free and being free, feeling oppressed, and being oppressed. This ignorance makes them targets and victims of religious oppression. In other words brainwash. What religion does is to offer a fake sense of security, giving the victim freedom it really doesnt have. Allowing people to do things they should not do. This quote from Blaise Pascal should explain what Im trying to say

Never does one completely and cheerfully become so evil, other than when youre under religious conviction.

Since I know most about the Muslim communities, Ill use them as an example. The word Muslim will be used in this article to describe the people who fit the qualities attributed to them in the sentences. Therefore Im not referring to all Muslims, but those who fit my comments.

Blindly following authority

The significance of an authority figure is important in any system, but the need to criticize the ones who take this role even greater. If people wont keep an eye on their government, there would be tyranny. This is exactly what has been happening in religious communities. The scholars make the law, no one can dispute or criticize, and most important No one can contradict. And if you do criticize and contradict, expect to be punished. The worst part however, is that the followers of that religion condone and accept this power. This is especially true when coming to Muslims. While many of the modern Muslims are more immune to the priesthood of their Muslim communities, there are still many Muslims that follow the orders of their scholars blindly. This is quite dangerous indeed and one should know that from the many events recently.

The reason why religious scholars have gained so much power is that they offer their followers a sense of security. Promises such as the famous 72 virgins in heaven for every suicide bomber makes the bomber feel that suicide is just as safe as I believe rollercoaster rides are. But offering security is not the only trick these scholars have up their sleeves. They have gone so far that they will even take responsibility for your sins. They say If you do as we say, well take responsibility for your actions.

Who can resist safety and exoneration from ones responsibilities? Its the ultimate freedom!
And if thats not enough, theyll add that all of this is the true path of God. You may not believe that what Im saying is true, or even imagine that anyone can be so ignorant, but if you take into consideration that they have been living under this false sense of security since they were born, things might become clearer.

You should now know why people do silly things because of religion. These people believe that by for example blowing themselves up, they have secured a place in heaven. They believe that they have secured eternal freedom.

And this is religious oppression. You believe that youre on the right track, you believe that youre secure, you believe that your free and if you err doing what your told to do, others will take the blame. What a profound delusion. These people are heavily oppressed, and their helpless because they dont even know it. Theyre slaves doing exactly what theyre told and theyre happy with it. Theyre so brainwashed that the only thing they can think of is If I do as Im told, Ill go to heaven. If not, then Ill end up in hell.

This is no secret, but it almost seems as a taboo, no one wants to either admit or accuse, making it even harder to save people from this oppression in disguise. Among the ones who tried to rescue people from the mental oppression of religious authorities were the prophets and philosophers. They were not afraid to rub the truth into peoples faces. We have Socrates, Moses, Galileo, Jesus, Osho, Muhammad etc. All of which where persecuted, harassed and some were killed by the very people they were trying to set free.

Why did people reject these men?
It was because these prophets and philosophers threatened the fundament of their security. They threatened the ones who promised them eternal freedom.

Other kinds of religious oppression

Until now, Ive talked about very extreme cases of religious oppression. But there are in fact other kinds of religious oppression. We have for example food restrictions which the Muslims have on eating pig. Why dont they eat pig? The only reason they have, is that they were told not to do so. Thats the only reason most of them have. Theyre brainwashed. How do I know? Im also brainwashed. I dont think Ill ever be able to eat pig. I admit that I have an irrational pig-meat eating phobia.

Irrational is the key word here. You cannot escape all religious brainwash by logic, some places you have to trust yourself. This is the single hardest task Trust yourself. Thats actually what real freedom is all about trusting yourself enough to believe in your own choices. If you cannot trust yourself, then whatever freedom you may believe you have is in fact oppression.

This task is easier said than done. Living in a religious community youve been taught that the scholars are the only ones with brains. You dont get to make your own choices and must accept the holy verdicts of the scholars. And after sometime, you get used to people thinking for you, and accept that thinking for yourself is egoistic and even blasphemous. In change for your brain, you get the fake sense of security and eternal freedom.

Are these people necessarily religious?

Its obvious for me that these people do not really know the scriptures they claim to uphold. The Muslims say that they uphold the Quran, yet they dont know that Quran forbids such religious oppression.

We read in the Quran chapter 7 verse 28
They commit a gross sin and say We saw our forefathers do this and god told us to. Nay! Are your saying about god what you dont know?

We read in the Quran chapter 39 verse 18
They are the ones who examine all the words and then chose the best of it. These are the guided ones

Here we see that a person is responsible for building his own faith and that blindly following your family or deluding yourself to believe that you know god, is forbidden. You are to think for yourself. This is how youll get true freedom.

Religious oppression limited to religion only?

No. This kind of oppression is found in nearly every system where people follow authority blindly. Take for example the school system. Are the students allowed to criticize the teachers? Are the students allowed to criticize the books? Are the students even allowed to choose what they want to learn? No, no and no!

Students sit there and swallow whatever the teachers tell them, unless its highly contradictory to what they have been taught previously. Why do the students endure this? Can you guess?

It is because theyre offered the same comforting security of a free life. Theyre guaranteed good education, a good job, basically a good future. All they have to do is what the teachers tell them. Does this ring a bell?

Conclusion

We have now exposed how religion promises freedom but delivers oppression. We have learned how people will do almost anything in order to get freedom. We have also learned that if you want to be free from oppression you have to start trusting yourself and make your own decisions. We are also aware the fact that this kind of oppression is not limited to religion, but is a part of every system where people blindly follow authority.

My hope is that my readers realise that they should be cautious to freedom promises. The best way to achieve freedom is to fulfil your responsibilities. Youll find that being able to do the things that make your life meaningful is a great freedom in itself.

Thanks

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Some paragraphs were poorly formulated and insufficiently explained, this was because of the rush of exams. I hope the readers will go softly on those paragraphs.

Nadeem

[Alen]

As salamu alaykum wr wb.
Respectfully.

That is why it is extremely important that we, the true muslims, the true believers, come out and say loud and proud that we follow Qur'an alone and we reject hadith and sunna, just like sunnis reject shi+'a muslims openly for not accepting sunna and hadith.

I mean, if they are promising 72 virgins in Heaven for a suicide, then why don't we ALL, all 6.000.000.000 of us commit one, big, collective suicide and join the girls in Heaven, if that's true?

Of course, what these sunnis and wahabis need to know, is that Heaven is not limited with 72 virgins and if it was, then what kinda Heaven would that be that can't contain more then 72 virgins?

We need to come out of the shadow, out of the shade and tell the whole world that we are proud to pray 3 times a day, that we follow Qur'an alone, that we pray in ramadan, not in January or December as far as northern hemisphere is concerned.

May The Allah Almighty Most Merciful help the Lebanese survive the attacks from the oppressors.

As salamu alaykum wr wb.