By Gurnam Singh | Opinion |
Like many others, I have been horrified by the recent mass killing of innocent Jewish people on Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, reportedly carried out by a father and son with apparent links to the so-called Islamic State.
Over the past year, we have also witnessed extremist “orthodox” Jewish voices in Israel seeking to justify the mass killing of innocent men, women and children in Gaza. Sadly, such mindless acts of violence are a regular occurrence across the world.
Though the geopolitics of what can only be described as political terrorism, my specific concern is with how in each case, violence is framed by those who commit the violence and their handlers as religiously legitimate, and even righteous.
IS KILLING OKAY?
Yet across the Abrahamic religions, the killing of innocent people, except in the narrowest sense of self-defence, is unequivocally condemned.
In Islam, the Qur’an teaches that killing one innocent person is akin to killing all of humanity. Yet in the shape of the Taliban, Al Qaeda and ISIS, we have witnessed unimaginable acts of terror.
Christianity emphasises the sanctity of life with most Christian traditions regarding the intentional killing of innocents as a grave sin. But, through the European colonial project, this didn’t prevent the various Christian denominations from being implicated in enslavement and mass murder of people on a global scale.
Judaism likewise upholds the supreme value of human life, viewing the murder of innocents as a profound violation of God’s law. Yet, there can be no denying that many Israeli Jews are comfortable with the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The same moral clarity exists in the Indic Dharmic traditions. Hinduism teaches ahimsa (non-harm) as a core ethical principle, holding that killing innocent beings generates negative karma and disrupts moral order. However, today, in the name of Hindutva nationalism, we see the terrorisation of over 200 million Muslims in India and a cultural genocide on the many distinct peoples and belief systems of India.
While Buddhism generally promotes non-violence (ahimsa), there are instances where Buddhist monks and priests have been implicated in violence, often linked to political conflict, nationalism, or extremist interpretations. A notable example is the role of extremist monks in Myanmar in inciting anti-Muslim hatred and violence.
Sikhi also strongly condemns the killing of innocents, grounding its ethics in the equality and dignity of all people, permitting force only as a last resort to protect others from oppression or grave injustice. However, one only needs look on social media to see shameful episodes of Sikhs committing violence often against other Sikhs and/or migrant groups.
RECONCILING VIOLENCE
Given such a clear and consistent rejection of the mindless violence and the killing of innocent people across all major faith traditions, how do those who commit senseless and indiscriminate violence reconcile their actions in the name of faith?
Humanity has managed to make some many amazing discoveries, from the origin’s of the universe to the nature of matter itself, yet, we cannot find a satisfactory solution to what is effectively mindless violence.
Unless we can find some kind of answer that we can all agree upon, my worry is that, with the advent and availability of increasingly powerful tools of violence and war, such killings are likely to grow, especially during times where right wing populism and ethno/religious nationalism is on the rise.
Gurnam Singh is an academic activist dedicated to human rights, liberty, equality, social and environmental justice. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Warwick, UK. He can be contacted at Gurnam.singh.1@warwick.ac.uk
* This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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