Genuine Secularism Versus 'Converted Secularism'

Submitted by Swahili Dinaz (India), Oct 12, 2005 at 10:52

The doctrine of secularism has been 'converted' by Islamists and the Left, as a handmaiden to enable the spread of Islam across the globe, through clever use of internal divisions and guilt mechanisms prevailing among ordinary decent folk, so that we are shamed against professing our religious faith if it be other than aggressive Islam.

[Brief note on current status of secularism: The world reacts with surprise that the US President has to swear in as a Christian and to stand by Christian values in public, or that there can be a debate over biblical creationist theories in the land of Star Wars. The only Hindu kingdom of Himalayan Nepal is facing a severe insurgency for over a decade now, with considerable international and communist-jihadi support, fostering a turn to secularism -- which can only mean even greater freedom for conversions to Islam and Christianity. The much-maligned caste system continues to thrive among converts to Islam and Christianity, which is why they are now demanding reservations for the converts! There is no missionary reform among ranks of Christians towards affirmative action for the benefit of low caste and tribal converts within the Church. Despite all their loyalty to Vatican, not a single indigenous Indian merits canonisation in the 2000-year history of Christianity in India. The early Hyderabadi recruits to jihad in Dubai and Jeddah were called 'Hindis' and made to wash clothes as servants of the mujahideen. So much for Islamic brotherhood! Communists are threatened by Confucianism, Tibetan Buddhism and something as innocuous as the meditation-and-excercise regimen of Falun Gong in China.]

If the highest interpretation of secularism means freedom to lawfully choose and practice your positive beliefs without coercion or interference from external agencies, it is already inimical to the tenets of both Islam and Communism. In that event, it becomes important not to be cornered into defensive postures from within embattled secularism, which can only mean defeat.

Islamists claim special divine dispensation over all others (who may only be permitted to offer proof of self-negating secularist intent in the short run). If you are not within this falsely projected straitjacket of secularism, denying your own religio-cultural heritage, you must be a 'rabid fundamentalist' -- an adjective for practicing Hindus in wide currency in the purchased mainstream English-language media in India. Aggressive merchandising of such motivated dictates without an authentic public debate has only served to limit the appeal of genuine secularism.

Muslims, to the contrary, must be allowed to follow the Sharia'; public space must be accomodated for the five daily prayers; civil laws and practices be suspended if they are not according to Islamic faith, and 'Secularists' must prove themselves to be 'worthy of their salt' by accomodating Islam in the public space -- a privilege to be ceded solely to Islam by all other faiths -- even if it means clipping the wings of fair justice, secularism itself and other more positive, humane and inclusive doctrines, in the short run.

The genius of 'Leftist-Secularism' has succeeded in putting all other faiths on the defensive, weakened from within and bereft of arms before a true vigorous onslaught of Islamic jihad. We are now approaching the next stage in this conflict, already put on alert by worldwide threats of terrorism. This seems to be a very well-planned initiative in the four years after 9/11.

In these four years we have all been made aware of this full plot, thanks to the alertness and universal networking of people like Dr. Pipes. We know where the attack on genuine secularism comes from, and how it serves to weaken our robust defences. Secularism can only survive among those who still hang on to our heads despite seduction from the Left with presumptuous overriding claims on humanitarian ideals.

Those who flinch at the level-headed pragmatism of the Bhagvadgita fail to comprehend its timeless exhortation to use fair means (without seeking authentication certificates from pusillanimous collaborators) to defeat evil on its own ground, before it succeeds in brutalising the world into submission.

Genuine secularism can be protected only in those pockets of societies that have believed in keeping their powders dry and ideologies robust against 'converted secularism' and the advance of Islamic "Human Rights." Only with sufficient networking and united action based on mutual respect can it be possible to staunch and permanently disable the Islamist juggernaut. To be able to do this, alas, a precondition would also involve the giving up of missionary conversions that eat into the innards of robust non-Abrahamic communities in the name of -- again -- Secularism!!! The bottomline is that all followers of major faiths except Islam are capable of modernising and reform from a broad humanist perspective in the face of unmitigated evil.

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