By: Heba Salah
It is undeniable that religious beliefs inevitably influence individual behavior. In all faith communities, individuals turn to religion and seek advice from religious leaders to deal with and counter unbearable life events. Throughout its history, humanity has experienced numerous challenges, the latest and highly globalized of which is the COVID-19 outbreak. With this unprecedented pandemic brining to focus the globalization paradigm, some people from different faith communities worldwide wanted to fish in troubled water by promoting a distorted religious discourse in an attempt to convince their target audience that it is just a sort of divine “punishment”. They claim that God Almighty intends to punish “non-believers” and wrong doers unlike His believing servants! Consequently, they objected to the safety procedures taken to protect individuals with respect to suspending prayers in houses of worship!
Such kind of hypothesis is not new; however, they do exist and influence the community due to the different channels of communication including social media. Therefore, we need to consider other perspectives when discussing the wisdom behind the state of sorrow, fear and challenges humanity is currently witnessing over the pandemic outbreak. Beside the virus threatening our lives, we are actually facing a methodology of false thinking which is the root of so many evils threatening the peace of this world. It is the illness of “fanaticism” and “extremist ideology” that devoured all the refined concepts and religious teachings.
While countering the spread of COVID-19, we need to reflect on countering the lethal virus of racism. To this effect it is inevitable to engage in interfaith and inter-cultural dialogue which has become an essential part of religious institutions’ work to encounter fanatic discourse and promote the true sound teachings that save the world from “extremist ideologies” pandemics. The real challenge in this respect remains “how could we achieve real respect for the other who has different faith?” The fact that all faith communities and religious traditions agreed upon is that there are other aspects of natural disasters, which we should focus on as believers when considering the wisdom behind the current pandemic. The most important of which is how much do we appreciate our lives and all the blessings that God grant us without asking Him? It is a good opportunity to rethink about one’s own methodology or attitude towards this universe and all people. Are we thankful for our health, our families, and the provision that God has given us? Do we realize that every moment of life is a gift, and an opportunity to draw closer to God? This is the healthy thinking that every individual should adopt at times of distress and afflictions.
It is important to bring to focus the role that authentic religious institutions play in creating a world that supports pluralism and peaceful coexistence, which is is not an easy task in such challenging times, but it is possible. To put it in a simple language, sharing the same faith is not a condition for accepting the other. Rather, it suffices to share a nice meal and discuss social issues of concern. That is the beginning of putting people of faith on the right path of “healthy and respectful thinking and acting”. This is the methodology that KAICIID is successfully adopting in their attempt and endeavors to make this world a better place for everyone. The secret to their success is that fellows from different programs share moments of real “humanity” interactions through the entire experience of training. Fellows end up having an interfaith family in every part of the world working hard to implement what they have learnt along such unique experience.
Religions teach us to have a comprehensive balanced look at the entire situation—the positive, the negative and then coming to a conclusion. In other words, healthy thinking and acting means looking at life and the world in a balanced way, not through rose-colored glasses. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) said, “There is no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab, nor for a non-Arab over an Arab. Neither is the white superior over the black, nor is the black superior over the white, except by piety.” This piety falls under the concepts of love, peace and mercy that everyone, with no exception, must maintain in dealing with and treating the other. Living with this understanding, we are humble in our power and use the gifts we are given from God to make the world a better place, not to destroy it.
Edited and Published by Bonn, PIRON
Ulrich Nitschke, 27.4., 1.30 pm.