As I look at the world around me, I see a common theme in many of the major battles, controversies and issues both the world at large and many of us personally are experiencing. This is the battle between the ancient and the modern, and specifically between religious beliefs (as expounded by the religious establishment and religious/cultural communities worldwide) and modern principles (as intuitively adopted by the educated and liberal around the world).
Here are a few examples of the battles and controversies I am talking about, not in order of importance:
1. The rise of Hindu fundamentalism in Indian politics…and the battle of this fundamentalism with secularism (witness the umpteen incidents of hindu-muslim violence in recent years)
2. The religious right in the US trying to keep Terri Schiavo alive…a woman who had been brain dead for years and kept alive in a vegetative state she would have most likely been horrified to choose via a conscious decision
3. The internal struggle my Princeton educated Pakistani friends felt as they experienced a ‘liberal arts education’ and felt guilty about all the sins (a drink?) they felt like experiencing but knew they would regret after dying as they walked on a thin thread over fire
4. Certainly the real war on terrorism…the one in which liberty, freedom and equality are fighting against religious persecution, subjugation of women, and the exploitation of the common muslim by rich Islamic theocrats, oil billionaires and mullahs
5. The battle for gay equality (similar to the already ‘won’ battles for female and black equality) being forcefully fought against by the religious right in the US
Aren’t the fundamental forces behind these battles the same? It certainly feels that way to me. And if they are….doesn’t one have to ‘win’, at least in the legal arena (i.e., international law, national law) for peace to reign?
