Skip to main content

Food for thought ...

Excerpt from:
http://exclusives.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1548748.cms

Do you think secular individuals and group will have a different view on such issues?

Shahi Imam:
Our problem is that we misinterpret secularism. No individual is secular. It is that states that are secular. States must not discriminate one religious community from the other. Thus the Christians and Muslims have the right to protest and request the government to follow equal treatment, to be called secular. Religious matters should be restrained. In the name of creativity, innovation, freedom of speech and thought, one has no right to hurt anyone of another faith.


I usually don't agree even a speck with Shahi Imam - but I think I agree with a part of the above statement. Individuals have faiths - hence they cannot be secular in every sense of the word - even Gandhiji went on record to state that -'I prefer Hinduism to other religions'.

However, I don't think secularism means not preferring any one faith - it simply means having equal respect for all religions. Faith makes you strong - and secularism makes you stronger. A secular person might himself prefer following a particular religion, however must respect teachings of other religions as well. Further, the more important part is, that he should not interact with another individual with a bias based on his/her religion; not prefer or spurn an individual because of his/her faith - preferring a faith to follow is okay - but preferring people on basis of faith is incorrect !
In a nutshell - faith is a matter of personal preference - lets not make it a public issue or a criteria for our public interactions!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How will travel industry transform post-Covid

Unlike philosophers, journalists and teenagers, the world of entrepreneurship does not permit the luxury of gazing into a crystal ball to predict the future. An entrepreneur’s world is instead made of MVPs (Minimum Viable Product), A/B Tests, launching products, features or services and gauging / measuring their reception in the market to arrive at verifiable truths which can drive the business forward. Which is why I have never written about my musings or hypothesis about travel industry – we usually either seek customer feedback or launch an MVPised version and gather market feedback. However, with Covid-19 travel bans across the globe, the industry is currently stuck – while a lot of industry reports and journalistic conjectures are out, there’s no definitive answer to the way forward. Besides there is no way to test your hypothesis since even the traveller does not know what they will do when skies open. So, I decided to don my blogger hat and take the luxury of crystal gazing

A Guide to Privacy on Social Media [apps]

The recent announcement by WhatsApp to update its privacy terms - and 'accept or leave the app' stance - led to an exodus of users from Whastapp to competing, privacy-conscious apps such as Telegram or Signal. A week after the exodus began, Whatsapp clarified its stance - and WhatsApp's CEO went about providing a long Twitter clarification . And then, many returned, many who considered moving stayed put on Whatsapp. This post is meant for those who are still sitting on the fence - it clarifies questions like: What is this all about? What do I do? Is Whatsapp safe? I've heard Telegram is Russian - so how is it safer than Whatsapp? I can't move because my business contacts are on Whastapp - how do I secure myself? PS: I've modeled this post based on several conversations I've had with friends and family on this subject, dealing with the chain of questions they ask, then objections they raise, then clarifications they seek - and finally the change resistance

Ekla Chalo re

Watched "Bose- The forgotten Hero" on Saturday. Gem of a movie and probably the best of Shyam Benegal. Subhash Chandra Bose has always been an inspiring character in the history for the youth. This post however is not about the movie, its about the lead song 'Tanha Rahee' which is based on the poem 'Ekla Chalo Re' by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. I had pasted the English translation of this poem on my blog earlier. http://the-complete-man.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-times_30.html However, yesterday I found the original bengali text of the poem and found that the meaning in the above translation was not exact. So I have endeavourer (with the help of Shubham ) to re-translate it into English and Hindi by myself. Here is the output of my work: Bengali Jodi Tor Dak Soone Keu Na Asse Tobe Ekla Chalo re Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalore Jodi Keu Katha Na Kai Ore Ore O Abhaga Jodi Sabai Thake Mukh Firae Sabai Kare Bhay Tabe Paran Khule O Tui Mukh Fute Tor Maner Kath