Reflexions

In one of his monthly papers, published by some official and anti-fascit newspapers, the Vice President of the young Federation did talk really honestly about his views on religions and Islam. He ended his thoughts by the following quotes of Bertrand Russel : "Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. [...] A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men." Which is too direct and too honest to be published. In fact, the amount of mail received but the Presidency, and the newspapers was unbelievable. Many "opinion makers" were shoked and asked for apologies and "respect for the message of God". The General Cha even made a long speech on "the Federation and Islam" to explain that "the Revolution was islamic by facts since it protects the poor and it is bringing back the justice and the democracy to people" ( which is very suprising for a man who ordered to shoot 10 imams when Tunis was taken). The Vice President just replied that he "respects Islam as a religion and not as message of God", before resigning. That is what we can read in his memories : "I read the whole Quran in Arabic when I used to be muslim. With “hindsight”, I would say that there is nothing really divine and “non-human” in it. I mean, when you read the Arabic poetry of el Jahiliya (the pre-Islamic Arabian age), its style and its content is even better and more deeply moving. It is weird how many verses are revealed “in time” to agree with some choices just taken by Muhammad in his real life even if they contradict previous ones. For instance (and there are so many others), before the Jews “betrayed” Muhammad in El Medina, verses were so far peaceful towards the Jews , asking for tolerance and acceptance of the people from different views and religions. Muhammad himself was telling his followers to hold the jewish tradition up as an example (how to look after the horses for example), and the direction for the salat was el Quds (Jerusalem). Soon after the Jews “complot” in el medina, the verset start (just in time) to become really radical and very violent towards the jews. Muhammad told his followers that they have from then on to take the Mecca direction while praying. He ordered to kill over one hundred Jews. The Quran started to become more and more warlike and asking for Jihad and executions as the ambitions of Muhammad to spread Islam were gaining in intensity. There are many examples like this, where you can see that you find everything and its contrary in Quran. Why? Because it seems not to be a predefined “Message” sent by God, but it is more a day to day philosophical and politic document that had been adapting to the events and the obstacles that Muhammad had to copy with spreading his views and undertaking armed conflicts. For me, it is so obvious that Muhammad was more a great politics and military leader, a human being that didn’t hesitate to order executions of the opponents, than an unharming teacher and peaceful saint. Just for the little story, have you heard about the one of Abdallah ibn Saad who was one of the secretaries of the “prophet”, taking notes of the Quranic texts being dictated.One day Muhammad being stopped, the secretary suggested the end of the sentence as he conceived it, and Mohammad, discreetly had adopted as divine text what Abdallah suggested. Taken of doubt about the divine inspiration, Abdullah had disavowed Islam and run away to Mecca. At the time of the catch of the city, Muhammad wanted to make him killed, but he escaped thanks to the intervention of his brother Othman. This is to say that we have so many evidences, and that we are far from sure that the Quran are “words from God”. But let’s suppose that it is actually a message sent by God. Do you know how many versions of the Quran were transmitted VERBALLY for decades before being “unifed”? To which degree can we trust this humanly “unified” version? Despite of this, people keep believing that Quran in an absolute divine truth and that Muhammad was receiving this message in a cave from an angel (which seems objectively for me less credible than many tales for kids). Why ? Quran was taught as the absolute truth in dozens of cities during 14 centuries, so it is very hard to put it in question. And after all, as wrote in the office of Fox Mulder, people “want to believe” to feel less anxious about the future. Some scientists even say that there is a “religion gene”."