Fighting for our Gods.

Two decades after the fatwa was issued Salman Rushdie states” It is very, very easy not to be offended by a cartoon, book or movie. Just close your eyes don’t watch it or shut the book”. Offensive cartoons or literature means putting one set of ideology or beliefs in a bad light or portraying it in derogatory terms. Eighty percent of the people are followers of some sort of faith/ religion or beliefs - the rest 20% constitute, atheists, agnostics, mystics and rational thinkers, who stand for irreverence, for a more egalitarian society that embraces change and rational thinking. These are the individuals who with their transformation try to organize the forces of love and compassion. Religion is a large commune, nation state sometimes divided by the latitudes and longitudes of geography. The primacy of a “sacred truth” is transmitted by mullahs and priests to this vast distinct flock, whose very sustenance is fueled by their religious larder of myths and legends, with the built in promise of subversion. The process of offensive literature is less atomic than contextual - Blasphemy is not a matter of ideology or meaning but of attuning oneself to the beliefs systems of other religions- their rituals, myths, commandments and context of scriptures. Mullahs’ priests and charlatans don the garb of a tiger to exhort their flock of sheep to tear apart like dogs those who cast aspersions on their faith. The movie itself is a crude imagery, a writhing tangle of celluloid, grabbing the fanatic’s belief as it masticates a senseless plot. Books/ cartoons lance these believers’ heart till they rent the air with a piercing scream of “Blasphemy” as they are inadequate to responding intelligibly to such silly provocations. William Empson coined the term” argufying”- a form of argument by false ascetics speaking with a devious tongue in defiance against the freedom of art and literature. Religions and their leaders profess that they are here to solve the world’s problem and spread peace and love on earth. But every time art/ literature gets inextricable entangled with religious ideology, this philistinism propagates and incites a tide of kitsch which unleashes terror and violence, not love and peace.As Gandhi stated” Intolerance is the worst form of violence” and any religion that encourages it - is devoid of divinity. If man has to fight for god, then the gods must be really impotent.