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Spiritual Meditations ( 6 Jan 2023, NewAgeIslam.Com)

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Any Religion In Its Purest And Pristine Form Is Sheer Primitivism And Savagery........Bertrand Russell

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam

6 January 2023

Don't Stick To The Savage Islam Of Arab Peninsula As The Real Islam. Imbibe The Spirit Of Changing Times. Allow Changes In The Quran Wherever Alterations Are Required

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One has to understand Bertrand Russell's quote in terms of ('positive') changes that happen in any religion's chronological order and history. I also hasten to add that Russell should have used the word 'earliest' to make his statement more comprehensible. Let me elaborate this.

Can the 'civilised' world accept the Old Testament-influenced Judaism and Christianity? Can any sane person worship the rabidly jealous god of the Old Testament? Fortunately, an educated modern Jew or Christian doesn't deny this.

Can the Quranic Qisas (eye for an eye) or Sangsaar (stoning to death) be accepted in the modern set up and context of Islam and the world? But the fact remains that original Islam approved of these abominable practices and Talibans/ISIS still promulgate them.

The earliest Hinduism was sickly Brahminical and based on the nauseating Manu Smriti. Can that be accepted in an egalitarian set up?

Those who still believe in the earliest form/s of religion/s are literalists and have an 'unbreakably granite' thinking (Salman Rushdie's recently coined apt phrase for the hardcore fanatics in all religions).

A religion has to evolve to survive. That most of the Muslims across the world are rigid, obstinate, cantankerous and Quran-driven obscure creatures is because they (esp. Talibanis/ ISIS, among others as this faith is full of militant outfits) believe in the Quran in toto. So, whatever hocus-pocus is written there is the ultimate truth to them. Their belief in pure, pristine and the earliest Islam is their undoing. What a pity!

All religions and their followers have conceded that their scriptures are full of idiocy, inanities and interpolations except for Muslims. Muslims still believe that what Muhammad did and preach in an Arabian desert is still unalterable and worth emulating. That’s a Himalayan blunder.

Don't stick to the savage Islam of Arab Peninsula as the real Islam. Imbibe the spirit of changing times. Allow changes in the Quran wherever alterations are required. Rectify the grammatical errors and discrepancies in your holy book. Bring more clarity and make it seamless. I didn't know, your Allah spoke so ambiguously or it was his wont.

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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.

 

URL:    https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/religion-primitivism-savagery-bertrand/d/128812


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