Is it wrong to proclaim one’s Faith? How is it never wrong to wear a Cross on the neck as a mark of being Christian? How is it that atheists write of their faiths in Nothing and yet never make news? Then why is it that the International Herald Tribune is aghast at the new Islamic practice in Egypt of exhibiting a small prayer-bump or the zebibah on the head as a symbol of fidelity to Islam. Touching the ground by the forehead repeatedly during Namaz creates a small bump. The Tribune slyly quotes a law firm messenger, Ahmed Mohsen, 35 who glibly points out the social value of having a bump on the head in an Islamic country. The zebibah opens up hitherto closed doors.
There is something vicious in the way the paper quotes an errand boy, so to say. Should one judge the value of being Christian in Ireland from a waiter in Dublin? The article is biased against Islam and its practises, highlighting the zebibah as a symbol of the greater conservativeness sweeping the nation. Why has the international media not spoken out against Evangelical Christianity in the US and even in India? South Indian demographics are being quietly changed by intolerant and fundamentalist Evangelical Christians.
The Faithful in every religion have to face many obstacles in the practice of their Faiths. Ridicule, disbelief and outright anger hound those who want to practice perfection. Egyptian youth are no exceptions. There are stories of how a godless brother eggs on another sibling to get the mark of prayer fast. The latter, a Muhammad Hojri, proudly declares that unlike so may others, he does not care for the honour of this world but for God only. This writer is pro-Faith and sees no harm in such practices. If anything helps anyone to reach God, it is fine. Only there should not be any violence done to others at all for any reason.
It is an axiom of every true religion that one should love one’s fellow- person for God loves each one of us. To impute this zebibah as a mark of ideological conservatism and the possible cause of increased terrorism is to miss the mark. Terrorists are never religious people. They are violent men with inferiority complexes who conveniently use religion to enjoy sadistic, egocentric pleasure. Just because a US army prison guard makes the sign of the Cross thrice daily and then goes tortures the poor prisoners, Crossing does not become bad. Reading the Tribune article one would think Crossing definitely opportunistic and wicked in the extreme.
Image: Malumaat
