© Copyright 2015 Dagblad De Limburger / Limburgs Dagblad.

RADICALISATION

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ReligionAs A Monster

Mark*, the father of the two children that were abducted from Maastricht to Syria by their own mother, found himself at the centre of a media hype in march 2015. And his story was hot new not only in the Netherlands. Reputed foreign newspapers such as Haaretz and The Guardian and TV stations like Al-Jazeera reported about Umm* who managed to set off for the caliphate together with Luca and Aysha in spite of an international warrant for her arrest. An open letter by Mark.

The question was

if I wanted to

convert to Islam.

The answer was no.

Mark

“

The events of the past fortnight have set me thinking again about religion in general and Islam in particular. Let me be quite clear about this. I haven’t anything against religion. It can be an excellent means of finding consola-tion or courage or protection or an instrument enabling you to give a place to the inexplicable.

I was born a Roman Catholic. Religion was handed down to me as a completely natural thing. But as a teenager I started having doubts. Perhaps the sermons in church were boring or the ministers of the church uninspiring. Maybe my age and the usual revolt against parents’ authority and the world at large were the causes of my abandoning religion. As soon as I became more knowledgeable, about the evolution theory for instance, it became clear to me that religion is first and foremost a symbolic means to an end. At the same time to me it did not look like the obvious route to explain life’s big questions. I do believe though that in essence any religion is valid in itself.“Eventually I was asked whether I wanted to become Muslim as well. - No.”However, religion is also misused to scare people, to obtain power, to suppress doubt, to justify superiority or legalize or trivialize negative excesses. In my relationship with a woman that was Muslim by birth, she had ignored that religion for years but all of a sudden made a religious U-turn and I felt obliged to scrutinize what Islam stands for in everyday life. I observed that she valued rituals highly: such as cleaning yourself before prayer, praying five times a day at regular intervals facing south-east, wearing a headscarf, the hijab, and buying the Koran. All of it struck me as rather forced. Meals for the kids had to be postponed, routine household chores were done later or not at all. Eventually I was asked whether I wanted to become a Muslim as well. - No. The views I had held all my life hadn’t changed. I wasn’t thanked for questioning her rituals. My why-questions particularly weren’t answered. As a Christian I had learned for example that the number 7 represents ‘a multitude’: Moses’ wandering with the Israelites through the wilderness lasted 7 times 7 days.’ So this would have taken 49 days. No,

actually it took much longer. Similarly, praying 5 times a day doesn’t mean literally 5 times but as often as you can. Facing south-east? Would Allah be vexed when you would say your prayers facing north? Would you arouse Allah’s wrath when you would be eating pork? Would you be less Muslim consequently?After she had left for Syria with the kids it became clear to me that Islamic State (IS) uses religion to obtain power. IS abuses the fact that many people are illiterate or unable to comprehend what is really meant. Doubters are corrected with the sword, the knife and Kalashnikovs. Under the guise of the caliphate, where the true religion can be practised, where the Islamic faith in its purest form is supposed to exist, religion has become a monster,

disfigured by fanatic, misguided believers originating from ninety different countries.That is the origin of my fear. My fear that my kids up there will succumb under the never ending avalanche of religious mania. Because they have to become what IS demands that they should become.Talking to the Muslims in the neighbourhood where I live I find that they are all pretty unanimous in their verdict. This is a nightmare on earth. An assault on true religion. But what I do miss however in the Muslim world at large is self-criticism. I have seen too few mass protests of Muslims against IS, against radicalism and the abuse of religion. What I also miss is respect for individuality. Looking in the mirror and asking yourself what you think of a particular issue seems inconceivable. Above all, there is fear. Everybody knows somebody that thinks radical. And all this in a closed world that distrusts all that comes from outside. This must be extremely suffocating.True, in Europe there have been a number of protest demonstrations, but for completely different reasons. Often directed against Islam in general and motivated by fear as a bad counsellor. Europe and the US tend to forget that their expansionism and colonialism, often under the guise of religion, had the same effect and permanently created bad blood. Now ‘our’ chickens have come to roost. Insatiable greed for riches kept bloody dictators on their throne for years and we are now suffering from the consequences. People should be free to practise their own religion but don’t impose a religion on others. Should my children want to become Muslim – if I ever get them back – that is fine with me. But only when they have reached an age enabling them to intelligently make their own choices. A Christian is no better than a Muslim, Jews are not superior to Palestinians. We are all different but above all equal. Mutual understanding and respect create, I feel, that aspect of God that we all have in our souls. It doesn’t matter whether you call it Allah, God, Yahweh or Buddha. The good that is in all of us, that is what matters.

*For privacy reasons names in this article are fictitious.