Kurbaan (Sacrificed)

I finally got to see a Hindi movie in a movie theater after quite some time. Kurbaan, a thriller with terrorism as its background, didn’t impress me much but it made me write on an issue which would probably never be resolved. The movie showed a few Muslim characters carrying anti America flame in their heart trying to spread terror in US through bombing planes and subway trains. Their reason is pretty obvious – American bombs are killing innocent Muslim civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, why shouldn’t we do something. Apparently, blood calls for blood and just like great Gandhi said, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Not that any attack on innocent civilians in justified, but if I think of those young boys who lose their loved ones in these American military attacks, it’s quite understandable that these kids are going to have lot of rage against America. Now theory of becoming terrorists and bombing public places to teach a lesson to enemy is debatable. I personally think it’s wrong but then who am I to say it’s wrong. I haven’t lost anybody to Americans. I don’t know what rage I would have if I were sleeping with my family under some shelter and a bomb just destroyed my home and took away my family’s life. It’s a tough question to answer but at the same time if my loved ones are victims of a terrorist activity, I would probably be supporting Americans.

In the movie an American girl asks a Muslim that if you guys hate America so much then why don’t you leave our country? The guy answers we will leave as soon as you leave our land. A very smart answer but go into the depth of it and you will notice what religion does to humans. Americans might be fighting in Iraq but an Islamic man in other part of the world will stand up and say stop killing my people. In Mumbai last year when terrorists went into a Jewish house and captured a Rabbi and his family, Israel wanted to send their forces to negotiate their release. I am sure they wouldn’t have done that if other religious leaders were being captured. The terrorists obviously targeted the Jewish house because of Israel-Palestine conflict that has seen Israeli government’s atrocities on innocent Palestine civilians. But then what did that harmless Rabbi do to deserve such an end to his life?
I may say religion is the root cause for these problems but ask people who believe in religion and they would say don’t blame religion. We humans will always fight. It’s just our nature - if not for Religion, we will find other reasons to fight. Funny thing is each religion believes in harmony. Just come to think of it, how many people actually change their religion? How many people actually take time to understand other religions? We are brought up with such an attitude where we refuse to accept other religion’s teachings even if they are good. We ridicule other beliefs because accepting them would mean betraying our own people.

Such discussions solidify my idea of not being a part of any religion anymore. I quit religion many years ago and that serves me well now. Humanity works for me.