Religion Kills

Mythology precedes religion. It is based on ignorance and fear.  Religion relies on faith. Early settlers had no knowledge about the reasons for the fury of nature, sicknesses and diseases and death. They attributed it to the spell of evil spirits and started worshipping their icons in temples. Offerings of sweets and animal sacrifice to please these imaginary ghosts were also the norm. A collection of such communes all over Europe was referred to as Pagans. Their temples were approved by the rulers. Sanctified by State.                                 Judaism is the earliest of all religions and is still practised by the Jews. It has its origins in Jerusalem from where it spread to Europe and America.                                About two thousand years ago, another religion, Christianity, took birth in middle-east Asia; again around Jerusalem. In the beginning of the first century, the followers of Jesus of Nazreth, reached the then flourishing region of Rome. Around the years 39 to 60 AD, fabled Nero was the Emperor. The preachers of this new religion, Christianity, faced not only stiff resistance but also the wrath of the well entrenched Pagans abetted by the State. At times there were fierce fights and merciless killings. Pagans, who worshipped multiple icons in huge temples were appalled at the Catholics who worshipped only a dead man on the cross. A messiah, who unbelievingly resurrected after being killed on the cross. The clashes between the two continued for three centuries with the flow of blood never abating. The flow of hoards of followers of Jesus continued with unrelenting pace. The number of faithfuls slowly increased in the Roman capital. Emperor Constantine, in the early fourth century, finally relented and accorded the patronage of the State after meetings with the Bishops. The upswing in Europe never subsided ever since. Through out all ages ecclesiastic and politics always complement each other. Both draw mutual support, sustenance and legitimacy.            In the year 380, Emperor Theodisius granted State patronage to Christianity undermining Pagan authority. Emboldened by the comradiere, the Catholic pontiffs alongwith their supporters, went on a rampage. Thousands of Pagans were killed and maimed. Their temples desecrated and the idols violated. Until this period the world had never witnessed such organised carnage in the name of religion and God. It never ceased thereafter. Internecine clashes with Jews meanwhile were underway everywhere.                                The seventh century saw the dawn of another monotheistic religion, Islam. Once again in the middle-east. Mohammad from Mecca, now Saudi Arabia, later revered as a Prophet, claimed divine invocation from Allah in his dreams. Sermons from Allah were supposedly revealed to him in a cave where he routinely reclused himself. He shared these revelations with his cousin, Ali, who later married his only surviving daughter, Fatima.                           Muhammad was a very able leader. The locals who followed the existing faiths and sects started hounding him. In 622 he fled to Medina. With the support of Ali, Islam started spreading rapidly, both, by sword and preachings. Within a decade he became very powerful and returned to Mecca which surrendered without a whimper. After the death of Muhammad in 632, Ali, his first disciple, became the Imam. Within an year he compiled the revelations into their sacred epic, Koran.                              Koran later became the rigid, immutable, dogmatic guideline for all followers until eternity.  Besides directives for a strict puritanical way of living it also decreed how the non-believers and practictoners of other faith, Kafirs, were to be dealt with. It even sanctioned death by beheading.                       Even as the body of the messiah was being readied for burial by Ali and Fatima, Abu Bakr, Muhammad's trusted lieutenant, called a meeting of the top commanders and declared himself as his heir.                 To establish his legitimacy and control he went on a furious converion spree which was mired in brutal killing of those who resisted. His followers, Sunnis, unleashed a wave of terror all across Arabia, Gulf, Egypt, Turkey.                                                Abu Bakr, after merciless killings and conquests, declared himself as the first Khalif. His writ run large from Turkey to Iraq with the capital at Istanbul.             Islam is a political religion. It also encompasses social and judicial control through the Haidith and Sharia.                          Ali, meanwhile focused around Yemen and later Levant. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. It was only after the death of the fourth Khalif, that he donned that title. His son Hasan was poisoned and the younger, Hussain, killed in the inter-sect battle at Karbala. Violence and killing, in this supposed religion of peace, continues unabated to this day.                                  Another esoteric religion, Zoarastrism, was practised in Persia from 500 BC. After the conquest by Islam around 640 AD and subsequent persecution its followers sought refuge in India. Other fledgling faiths, sects like the Kurds in Iraq, Ahmedias too were killed in huge numbers.                                   Islam sought to proliferate into Europe, notably Spain and later attempts at Italy in the medieval period. A bloody feud with Christians followed. These were termed as crusades and continued for decades. It left about a million killed or injured.               The history of religion in the present millennium is littered with bloodshed and killing. All in the name of God.