No Religion Can Advocate Violence

No Religion Can Advocate Violence

I am titling this post from what I read somewhere in print or a website. I let out a guffaw. That is all I could do, especially because, as I remember, the statement came from a judge.

Basically, the statement claims that religion, in the Greek and Roman mythologies, in the Jewish canon, in Christian morals and ethics, in Islamic tenets, the Norse epics, the Vedhas and commentaries thereupon, Buddhism, and others not listed (like tribal stories in Africa and other places) had never been used to justify violence.

Oh, yeah! Let me offer a snippet of history (covering more than two millennia) that endorses the statement: the Crusades never happened; Spanish Inquisition never happened; taking a cue from Moses, Joshua did not bring down the walls of Jericho; in the name of Allah, Muslims never raised a sword against anybody, or planted bombs for murdering people; no one died in the Mahabharata war in Kurukshetra; Cholas marched all the way up to Ganges without hurting, visiting violence on anyone; Sinhala Buddhist armies (an oxymoron) never massacred Tamils, who in turn, took up arms and brought on Sinhalese fatalities; Myanmar Buddhists never drove Rohingya Muslims  into India; White Christians in the US followed every dictum of Jesus and treated their slaves as brothers and sisters; Emperor Asoka did not see scores of dead bodies in Kalinga and was a peacenik from birth.

I bow down to the claim that headlines this post. I have nothing more to say.

Raghuram Ekambaram