Warning - Ignore God at your peril

‘Is God Dead?’ The words that filled the front cover of TIME magazine on 8th April 1966 became one of the most controversial headlines in history. Religion, secularists argued, was no longer necessary. Faith, they claimed, had been superseded by science, technology and the ‘triumph’ of secular rationalism.

While ’66 was a bit before my time, the same message permeated my childhood in the 70’s, running into my time at university and work in the 80’s and 90’s. Then the ‘noughties’ hit; the twin towers fell and, so the commentators said, ‘the world changed.’ Religious hysteria and fundamentalism were ‘back’ on the political agenda.

The truth, of course, is they never went away. Religious wars never stopped; religious prejudices remained as strong as ever; persecution of religion only made matters worse; fundamentalists never stopped winning converts and religion continued to matter. All that really changed was the attitude of secularists who refused to accept religion still had a hold in society; failed to understand its power as a force for either good or ill; and influenced western governments too obsessed with fighting communism to see the dangers of future religious regimes in Iran and Afghanistan.

Those who claim not to be religious can find it impossible to understand why others embrace faith or spirituality. They also cannot understand why, if people of faith are ignored, ridiculed or persecuted, some of them will get very angry. They forget (or choose to ignore) the fact that religion impacts society in a positive way most of the time, dismissing the wealth of learning, teaching and common sense religion offers and arguing instead that it is always dysfunctional. It becomes easy for them to marginalise religion, to attempt to eliminate it and, when this happens, there is always trouble in store.

The rising tide of Islamist and other forms of fundamentalism is the inevitable harvest the West is reaping for promoting this kind of ignorance about religion, and snubbing its importance. This isn’t to condone it – let alone sanction the violence that too often erupts in God’s name – but it does point the way forward, giving clues as to how to tackle the problem. And, at long last, post 9/11 and 7/7, governments are beginning to do what they should have done decades ago; talk to people of faith; find out what they actually believe; listen to their concerns; seek their counsel; try to understand rather than condemn and aim to work with rather than in spite of them, while – importantly – refusing to compromise fundamental democratic values.

Good work is being done. The tragedy is it has come fatally late; that the overall messages are inconsistent and that different groups are so caught up in their own selfish agendas that there is no real change to seen on the horizon just yet.

Muslim leaders are too quick to focus not on challenging extremists in their midst but on lecturing non-Muslims instead, telling them their behaviour is not Islamic.

Secular authorities worry about a possible backlash if they appear to suggest otherwise and, with no skills or - so political correctness leads them to believe – the authority to critique Islam, they turn a blind eye to clear, anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynist statements made by supposedly moderate, mainstream Muslims.

Government ministers perpetuate the double-speak, insisting Islam is a religion of peace as they wage possibly illegal wars in Islamic countries, imprison Muslims without charge and refuse to call for immediate ceasefires when more wars break out. Muslims then point the finger of blame again, this time suggesting Western foreign policy fuels terrorist acts, while conveniently ignoring or not daring to challenge the twisted foreign policy and appalling human rights records of several Islamic countries.

Meanwhile, the growing ranks of fanatics in other faiths see Muslims getting attention and impacting the political agenda. Feeling this puts their own particular version of ‘The Truth’ under attack, they step up their own extremist efforts at every opportunity, shutting down still further the cause of pluralism, damaging the sensitive process of integration and thus storing up yet more trouble for the future.

The secularists seize upon this whole ungodly shouting match as grist to their own particular fundamentalist mill, spicing the whole vicious circle with a blend of ignorance, persecution and ridicule of the kind that gave rise to the problems in the first place.

Only a world steeped in confusion such as this could construct possibly the most horrific oxymoron ever created – ‘War on Terror.’ And until this hypocrisy stops, on all sides, there will be no shortage of takers willing to do bloody battle on behalf of the gods they have created in their own image.