Thanks to Venkat again for bringing this to my attention.
This is so bizarre, simply cannot understand what the heck is this chap on about. I can only suspect that the guy was smoking banned substances. I don't even know where to start to deconstruct this. When did we find out that Christianity and Islam are competing against each other? other than in the diseased minds of the terrorists and perhaps this chap?
His history sucks as well, he has forgotten the Kingdom of Granada, the movement into the African countries which had missionaries and christian populations, Philippines, etc. etc. So it has expanded into an European Christianised nation. Also the immigration from Muslim countries can be positioned as the entry of Islam into Christian Europe.
He is positioning the current terrorist events in India as a reaction to Hindu fundamentalism which shows even further lack of history knowledge (has he forgotten Operation Gibraltar?).
He is talking about evangelical Islam establishing its universities, Say what? which one is that then? the Advanced University of Burqa and Jinns in Helmand Province, Chancellor Mullah Omar and Dean of Studies, Osama Bin Laden? Or is he pointing to the Lal Masjid Madrassah? And he wants Islam to setup a secular university?
And he also shows that he also does not know about the history of the old universities that he mentions. Oxford as a centre of evangelism Christians? Similarly, there is no evidence that Harvard was formed by or for evangelical people or purposes. Perhaps he has been smoking banned substances.
Reading his profile on Wikipedia now confirms that he is of the loony side of the world and is eminently ignorable. Just read his conclusion!!!!
Very amusing, Kancha, please keep these coming, this provided me with some major chuckles!
Religious terrorism: The way out
Kancha Ilaiah
The best way to get out of the fundamentalist morass is to work out an evangelical agenda says Kancha Ilaiah.
The Hyderabad blasts ripped open the vulnerability of all city centres anywhere in the country and in the world. Terrorism blowing off the lives of innocent people moving on the course of their day to day life cannot be stopped by any state as a bomb could be planted anywhere and that could blow off any number of people. For all the terrorist attacks in the world fundametalist Islamic forces are shown as the source. While the other sources of terrorism need to be investigated and non-religious reasons for such terrorist mind formation need to be brought out.
Any operators of terrorism need to be prepared for sacrifice including the instant death of persons involved. Two obvious examples were the plane pilots of 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre and also the human bomb that exploded to kill Rajiv Gandhi. If the LTTE kind of terrorism originated out of nationality struggles, the other modes of terrorist struggles seem to have emerged out of religious challenges or insecurities.
If the Islamic fundamentalist forces were the real source of terrorist attacks in the Indian sub-continent and elsewhere we must see why this is happening from that society? Why not from Christian society or why not from Buddhist society?
Even to plant bombs at public places the terrorists not only prepare for death, while preparing to kill others, they do a lot of research about the places, the planting of bombs and lot of strategic planning should also go along with it. For example, how much planning must have gone into using of airplanes, for hijacking them and training the people for that massive task with known prospects of their own death in the 9/11 attack, for that matter for the Hyderabad attack?
In this post-capitalist globalised world, Christianity and Islam are competing with each other. Ever since Islam captured Constantinople and gradually transformed Turkey into an Islamic nation, it did not expand into any European-Christianised nation. It also could not expand into the Buddhist world. But subsequent to that period it mainly expanded into Hindu Indian sub-continent. The main reason for its expansion in Hindu Indian sub-continent seems to be the caste system and its easy convertability into Islam.
Certainly there could have been evangelical Islamic teams like Sufis working for such massive conversions in this part of the world. Islam now ceased to be a competitive evangelical religion and its expansion in India has slowed down quite significantly. In the present democratic India it suffers from the fear of minoritism. In the post-Independence India instead of Islam, Christianity has been growing and that is because of its evangelical agenda.
There is a feeling among the evangelical Christians that India is a place for expansion as it is suffering from caste and untouchability. Though both Islam and Christianity are facing the violent resistance of the organised- upper caste led Hindutva politico-spiritual forces, very organised Islamic fundamentalist groups seem to have chosen terrorist attacks as a checkmate to Hindu resistance in India.
We can see a major contradiction between evangelical Christianity and Hindu fundamentalism. But Christianity seems to think that an open evangelical challenge based on caste discrimination is a best checkmate to Hindutva fundamentalism. Since Hinduism cannot become an evangelical religion as it is based on Karma and caste it has no scope to challenge such democratic competitiveness in the sphere of religion.
In Islam those youth who are willing to sacrifice for the sake of their religion would have been a great source for its expansion if it were to choose an open democratic evangelical path.
In fact, religious evangelism found the need for negotiating with scientific discoveries and innovative techniques of propaganda. This method of spreading of religious ideologies proved to be very positive and development oriented. From King Ashoka's earliest evangelical efforts changed the conditions of ancient India and other countries like China and Srilanka. In the Christian world from the days of geographical discoveries, Renaissance and Reformation evangelism played a crucial role in expanding science and applying it for human advancement and also spread of that religion.
An evangelical Islam would have established its own advanced universities. Many forget the fact that Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia and so many great Euro-American universities started as evangelical theological centres.
The Islamic world did not build globally competitive and scientifically matching theological or secular universities because an open democratic theological and scientific discourse is not there on their agenda.
The best way for getting out of the present fundamentalist and terrorist morass of any religion is to work out an evangelical agenda of its own. Even the Shia and Sunni bloody fights within Islam can find a solution in evangelism. They can democratically compete with one another as Protestantism and Catholicism compete. All the youth who are wasting their energies around terrorist activities could be drawn for positive and democratic expansion of their religion. Then their abilities to sacrifice, investigate, discover things would be put for a positive use, of course, for their own religion and also societies at large.
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!
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