BEFORE World Interfaith Harmony Week completes its run of events by Feb 28, thought should be given to building a coalition of world religions similar to the multicultural political alliances to unify ethnic diversity.
The formation of a global faith alliance or coalition is urgent and important, requiring high priority in the wake of a teenager’s arrest in Singapore at end-January for planning to attack two mosques in Woodlands.
While the teenager received inspiration from the New Zealand mosque shootings in 2019, a disconcerting fact is the unwillingness of religious authorities to assess whether their method of teaching scripture has in some way provided motivation for terrorist activity.
Out of 12 world religions, seven have over the course of the last 90 years seen fervent devotees strap up for a militant life – bombing, shooting, and knifing the followers of other religions that they despise.
These seven religions have a combined number of followers totalling six billion out of a world population of 7.8 billion.
If you study the names of these seven religions and trace the root meanings, you will find that all the seven names are related to these words: peace, godliness, disciple, completeness.
So how did these religions end up having some followers who become invaders or terrorists proclaiming that God is the commander behind their acts of violence?
Religious authorities blame deviant interpretations of scripture produced by terror groups, but mainstream interpretation across several religions is also to blame.
Many participants of the Jan 6 storming of Capitol Building in Washington DC, seat of the US Congress, had consistently been told in sermons that their hero was anointed by God to be president of the United States and hence cannot be removed by human authority.
There is one flaw common to both extremist and mainstream interpretations of scripture, and that is, the absence of holism.
The mainstream interpretation by at least three religions promotes exclusivity – same as the extremist interpretations.
It may seem harmless to you, just as the claims to exclusivity by five-star property developers are harmless to society.
But the competition between property developers is regulated by the Housing Ministry. Who regulates the competition between religions? Nobody.
Their exclusivity claims are harmful to global society and the effort to promote human unity.
The key exclusivist claim is that only one religion enjoys current favour with God or has a complete hold on the truth.
Only this one religion can get you to heaven without doubt. All other religions are like fake gold. This is dangerous bipolar thinking.
No property developer will claim that he alone can build real houses, and that the houses rival developers build will collapse one night when you are sound asleep.
Fortunately, within every religion there is a deep inner hub of spirituality that favours holism and inclusivity.
A holistic interpretation of scripture requires all major scriptures to be read and not just the scripture of your religion.
With inclusiveness as the guiding principle, you come to realise that all religions are valid because they form the bedrock of civilisation.
To deny the validity of any religion is to deny the value of that civilisation to its people.
On the other hand, to promote your religion as superior to all others is to claim that your civilisation is always the world’s best.
What is the difference between such a mainstream position and the extremist position that since other religions are not valid they can be trampled upon and their followers killed?
Here’s a vivid illustration of the difference between holistic thinking and bipolar thinking: Imagine a vast ballroom in a five-star hotel.
Holistic thinking is accepting the fact that you can reach the ballroom by several paths such as taking the basement carpark lift, the escalator, the staircase, or the main lobby entrance. Upon reaching the ballroom, you can get in through any one of the many doors.
Bipolar thinking is the insistence that the only way is to come in through the main lobby entrance, and the only correct door into the ballroom is the one closest to the stage.
However, God is the world’s largest ballroom with many doors and all the doors are open.
Unfortunately, mainstream preachers in some religions induce their followers to adopt bipolar thinking. This is exactly the same error committed by extremist preachers.
To combat religiously inspired terrorism, the first question to ask is whether all religious preachers know how to think holistically and interpret scripture holistically.
If they are bipolar thinkers, they can only wreak damage by making you adopt an “us versus them” militaristic attitude.
When a preacher stokes your ego by asserting that you belong to the one and only religion that can take you to heaven, you should know instantly that this bipolar thinker is feeding you with the same brain-damaging food that extremist preachers give to terrorists.
In future articles, our column will guide you on how to think in a holistic way so that you can interpret any scripture of any religion holistically and become a global citizen who cherishes living in a magnificent garden of diversity.
The writer champions interfaith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
