Without freedom, what is the point of being Muslim? Human beings are individuals, each with his or her own unique personality. No effort to stamp religious conformity upon every single person in society can ever dismiss or hide this basic fact of human existence.
No orthodoxy, no memorized catechism, can succeed which denies human reason and scientific discovery. There has never been a religion that can remain true to its loftier ideals while trying to superimpose its narrow vision of the world upon everybody; there is no theology that can expect rapid intellectual and social progress while it maintains burdensome and unnecessary restrictions on freedom of thought and expression.
When religion becomes reactionary rather than progressive, when it denies people access to the doctrines of democratic thought and practice, that religion has outlived its purpose. The Arab Spring was right. It was–and is–a movement which represents a philosophy whose time has come and which can no longer be denied. Like the great revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries, an upwelling of popular demand for greater freedom in all aspects of life has begun again; the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. The struggle has begun and is joined.
People must be free to choose their own destiny; they must be free to choose what they believe and do. They must be free to establish their own moral code within the rising tide of popular demand for change; they must have the right to decide their own actions and determine their own future. Anything less is not freedom; it is coercion, a pretense, a trap.
No religious hierarchy should be allowed to keep in place a dictated obedience that does not recognize or allow multiple points of view–that does not allow freedom of conscience. Citizens must have freedom of discovery and exploration even unto uncharted territories in literature, music, art, sculpture, dance; they must have access to the philosophies of the humanities and the cumulative discoveries of science.
Freedom must always mean something more than pressure to accept ideas and practices being imposed upon a nation’s population by those in power. A religion deceives itself whenever it claims its adherents are “free” so long as they meet one condition: they accept everything they are told and never deviate from any of it; they must always behave in a precisely prescribed manner every minute and hour of the day.
This false notion, this grotesque malformed monstrosity, is the antithesis of freedom. It curtails those very rights that are essential to true freedom of mind and heart, of liberty and love. Imposing conformity by tradition and taboo, by terror and tyranny, is the diametrical opposite of religious, political, and scientific freedom.
Such religion enforces conformity like teaching obedience to a dog, rather than teaching people how to exercise their individual freedom and human rights in a sane and righteous manner. All religions that attempt to operate in this manner, by relying on brute force and corporal punishment, can never satisfy today’s demands for justice, fairness, and equality.
Such a regimented mindset is no better than myths and superstitions kept in place by ignorance or arbitrary authoritarianism–or by those who benefit the most financially and materially from such classism, racism, sexism, and chauvinism.
Everyone who does not agree with them must be threatened or punished, even unto prison or death. The enforcement of such strict dogma has, truly, a non-religious purpose for it primarily allows a self-proclaimed ruling elite to protect and sustain its own interests.
The richest and most powerful families benefit directly from a society dependent upon exploitation, prejudice and racism, and the denial of equal rights to women even though they make up half the population. The richest elites maintain the castes, the divisions, the hostilities for a reason: they grow richer while others suffer.
Thus they maintain a militant crusade against those who are different, against outsiders; such policies foster mistrust and hatred. Eventually and inevitably, such policies contribute to bloody internecine acts of terrorism and civil wars.
The ruling elite within the Status Quo smugly believes it can survive and prosper by maintaining this policy to keep groups divided and at each other’s throats. These high-placed families grow forgetful and over-confident; they lose touch with their own people’s needs for the population of every society will grow weary of the violence and endless bloodshed.
While it is a long and difficult journey, and a dangerous one, this moment in history calls for brave individuals, both men and women, to do whatever they can to aid the movement for freedom, equality, and justice. Other nations, other peoples have faced similar daunting challenges in the past and continue to do so.
The struggle is never easy but victory is not possible until determined individuals make a commitment to bring about change; social progress that lessens the hatred, intolerance, and sexism is not possible if there is not founded and nurtured a movement to champion freedom and humanistic values. Without such a movement, change moves at a snail’s pace, if it moves at all.
Independent-minded individuals can learn to identify the reactionary elements within their societies most responsible for preventing progress, freedom, and the true liberation of the human mind. Often this means identifying the individuals ruling at the top, the very ones most insistent they are protecting and guiding society. It takes courage to say “That is a lie!” and seek a different path forward, one with a commitment to humanistic values and democratic liberties.
It takes courage and determination to put the welfare of one’s nation above personal interests: to say you love your country more than anything else, and to expect the same of leaders who are supposed to lead and not merely preserve the Status Quo for their own benefit.
The struggle for black people to achieve freedom in the United States was not easy; the movement to achieve equal rights for women in America and around the world was a long and arduous struggle, yet in time both movements firmly established themselves and began enumerating their goals and achieving their full rights of citizenship and equality.
It is never easy to oppose the self-aggrandizing greed and power of the men at the top of the political and religious hierarchy in any society. Dictatorships are never easy to criticize, let alone topple, but it has been done before and it can and will be done again.
Theocracies are particularly difficult to challenge in an intellectual and practical manner; they not only hold the reins of power—religious authority, the police, the military, the media—but they maintain control over the attitudes and beliefs of a large part of the population.
This is not meant as a criticism of only one faith for all religions make the same mistake. In Western Europe, the Holy Roman Church tried the Inquisition, the torture and murder of dissidents (called “heretics”), the burning alive of men and women who did not conform to the established orthodoxy.
Yet we must keep in mind that religions that resort to brute force to enforce conformity are not true religions and have sabotaged their own moral authority; the ecclesiastical rulers at the top (priest or pope, rabbi or Zionist, mullah or supreme leader of the faithful) all have in common “forgetfulness”; they forget their true principles.
They confuse blind obedience with persuasion, with an individual’s consent freely given. Their dogmas are the enemy of a broader, wiser understanding of human history, of patterns of change and progress not dependent upon the whims and wishes of the few. Social and moral progress within human societies must not be stymied by an absolutist mindset that tolerates no criticism or disagreement. The love and compassion of their theology’s doctrines are set aside.
The gay population wishes to be allowed to live in peace; free-thinkers wish to determine their own beliefs; women wish to have their human rights; scientific minds wish to have the opportunity to study and learn.
Young people, the next generation coming of age, wish to live in a society known for its tolerance and fairness rather than its narrow-minded dogma and fanatical irrationality; people around the world wish to live as free human beings, free of political and religious control by established hierarchies kept in place by force or the threat of force.
Without freedom, life cannot be enjoyed to its fullest. The struggle is not easy; from past experiences we know brave men and women may run afoul of the thought police. People have been jailed, sometimes beaten and tortured, even killed for standing up for what they believe.
No one should underestimate the length and difficulties faced by such movements for freedom. No one should endanger themselves in an impulsive or reckless manner yet all must realize that to bring about meaningful change—a true social transformation–some degree of danger and risk may arise at any time. And yet, as the great American anti-slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass once wrote: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
The fight for freedom sounds an echo in our soul and we must answer. ��������9�
