Even the devil can quote scripture
HAS anyone noticed that the biggest act of charitable giving in human history has been inspired by an atheist?
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is leading by example in an initiative for billionaires to give half their wealth to the poor. He doesn't wear his beliefs on his sleeve, but there is no doubting them either. "Isn't there something special, perhaps even divine about the human soul?" he was once asked by Time Magazine. "I don't have any evidence of that", he replied. Warren Buffett, the world's leading private investor, who has joined Gates in this unprecedented act of financial generosity does not subscribe to any religious belief either.
The list could go on. Ted Turner, who made what was previously the single largest charitable donation in history, is a humanist. He occasionally prays, but likes to keep it brief. Such people help others, not in the hope of eternal salvation, but simply for its own sake.
Many Christians, Muslims and other believers are motivated by their faith to work selflessly for the good of the community. The positive effect of religion in many lives is obvious. However, the idea that there is no basis for moral behaviour other than belief in, or fear of, God is plainly nonsense.
There is material on the debit side for religion which, when fanatically pursued, can be used to validate acts of savagery that few humanists could ever justify.
The case of Dr Karen Woo showed the dark face of religious fundamentalism. A humanist with no religious agenda, according to her parents, she gave up a six-figure income when she moved from London to Afghanistan to offer medical aid to the poor in a predominantly Muslim country. She planned to get married in a secular ceremony later this month to her fiance Captain Mark Smith, a Northern Ireland-born former soldier, who now works in Kabul.
On Saturday, I spoke to Capt Smith's parents. His father Richard, a former RUC fraud investigator, told me how, days earlier, Mark had been back in England for the funeral of an old army friend who had been blown up. He had stayed in Karen's flat before flying back on Tuesday of last week.
Then came the call to his mother Carole's mobile at 5.58pm on Friday. She had set a Super Mario ringtone to alert her to Mark's calls and started to joke with him. "Mum, Karen's dead" he cut her short. Dr Woo and the other non Muslims in her van had been lined up along the roadside and shot dead. The one Muslim with them had been spared.
Like many apparent acts of religious bigotry, it was also motivated by greed for the bodies were stripped of valuables. Religion can be used to support inhuman as well as humane acts. The thieves justified themselves on the grounds that the dead may have been trying to propagate Christianity to Muslims, a crime in Afghanistan.
Islam is not the only religion capable of inspiring inhumanity against non believers. The atrocity is reminiscent of the Kingsmills massacre in which gunmen asked a group of workers their religion before shooting all the Protestants. Ironically the only Catholic thought he was about to be killed by loyalists who often picked their victims on the basis of religion. I remember Billy Wright, the UVF and LVF gunman who was a born again Christian, quoting scripture to me to justify this.
At this point, though, we particularly need to hear from Muslims how they feel about violence that is justified by religion. The Sufi cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri made a good start when he issued a fatwa against Islamic extremism, warning that suicide bombers would burn in hell. Last week he addressed an anti-terror camp for young Muslims in England.
But it is only a start. Qadri has also recommended the death penalty for a Muslim sect who believe Muhammad is not the final prophet sent by God. Qadri reaches this conclusion for the same reason that he condemned terrorism; because he read it in the Koran.
That appeal to scripture to justify the unconscionable has a familiar ring to it; it is often used by Christian fundamentalists when they seek to undermine the civil liberties of others or justify offensive comments.
People of faith generally need to recognise that sincere belief or reliance on a reading of scripture may get you to heaven but it does not necessarily make you a kinder person than a non believer. It certainly doesn’t give you the right to impose your beliefs on others or justify acts of barbarity. Even the devil, as Shakespeare put it, can quote scripture to his purpose. Old Nick is also a sincere believer in God – it says so in both the Bible and the Koran.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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