The world never recovers from death arising from extremism and in some cases retaliation based on beliefs, tradition or in support of a god we even hardly know.
The most notable of such killings in recent time was that of Sri Lanka church and hotel attacks that has cost more than a hundred lives and while the world mourns the dead and provide relief, death in such proportions happens in our country Nigeria on a weekly basis without reports and coordination.
Bottom line is that life is no longer sacred. Anyone can take life of many others in support of a God that makes life a sacred one or to score a point either political or tribal.
As declared by the law of the Jew been the belief of many other religions, the book of Leviticus declares, ” Here I give you this laws, and live by them” and our sages emphasised: live, but not die.
The books of the various religious groups says that God created man in his image and likeness and since our philosophy teaches that God has no form or image, nor localisation in space, then what kind of likeness is there to talk about? How can a man, possessing form, dimensions and a definite location in this world have the likeness of something that do not even have a specie.
Human beings apart from the rest of the creatures is the only creature of all those created and living on earth that possess intellect and freedom of will I.e freedom to choose between good and evil. Both of these remarkable qualities are responsible for scientific, technical and social progress, but people are also responsible for those great tragedies that happened in the past and unfortunately continue to happen before our very eyes today.
Today, there are individuals that are prepared to sacrifice their own lives and the lives of others, the lives of innocent people for the sake of something that in their opinion contains ” supreme or higher ideals”. The question is, what kind of value can be higher than human life?
If man life is the absolute value in itself. It is only in the instance of three violations that the law declares” die, but do not transgress ”
The value of one person’s life is not lesser than that of the other. He who plans a terrorist act, he who plans to kill innocent people is voluntarily depriving his own life of any value and in so doing offers the possibility of taking punitive actions against him even without a court decision.
If God almighty wanted all people to worship him in the same manner, then, it was in his power to create us as such. The fact that there are scores if not hundreds of different ways to serve God in this world, and the fact that man is born belonging to this or that faith is probably his divine will and that order which he established. Why then do people kill for a god that is diverse?
Equality does not imply that people are identical. This mathematical rule is fully applicable to our life. If we are different people created by one creator and are called upon to serve him, then he must have given us the ways he wanted us to serve him.
I hold the belief that the talk about religious extremism is absurd. Though an extreme form of disrespect for other peoples based on faith differences, religious extremism does not exist. There is political extremism that uses slogans of this or that religion as a cover to achieve its goals.
It takes more than religious fanaticism or hatred to make someone take innocent lives.
People who commit terrorist acts are usually embedded in a network of familial and friendship ties with allegiance to a closed group, be that tribal, cultural, national, religious or political. Historically, the conditions for the murder of innocents by terrorism or genocide have occurred when one group fears extinction by another group. Ordinarily people are motivated to “kill people by category” through their own group identity.
Viewed from inside the group, that can seem national, terrorists are brave altruists protecting the group from powerful outsiders.
Terrorism is a militarised public relations ploy to advance a grander tactic, not a profession or an overarching ideology.
The key to combating extremism lies in addressing its social root, and intervening early before anyone becomes “devoted” willing to lay down their lives for a cause.
Another key is breaking down stereotypes. These are not necessarily religious or racial stereotypes but generalized stereotypes we all hold about people around us. When we categorise one another, we are particularly concerned with social status and competition, viewing people of low status as incompetent and competitors as untrustworthy.
Throughout history, violent acts and genocides have no respect for class or status. We are all potential victims. One of world’s richest men lost three of his four children to the Sri Lanka incidence and it just could have been any of us.
The world need to rise and begin to love one another more before a few of us kill the rest of us.
Ayo Ologun is a broadcast journalist, a social commentator and he writes from Osogbo.
