Religion as Ideology

Lately I have been perplexed by the fact that religions often can’t be criticized in the same manner as other ideologies or belief-systems. Nobody takes offence if I say that communism is a old-fashioned and stiff system of thought, but if I say the same things about Islam, I will be accused of racism or islamophobia.

However, religion is not a genetic feature of any man. It is a learned ideology or belief-system in exactly the same way as communism or fascism.

Our thinking is blurred by the fact that religions are to a large extent inherited in families, since these belief-systems are learned at home or at school. This learning almost always happens when we are not mature enough to make up our own mind in these matters.

Religious ideologies are often followed in families for several or even dozens of generations. Religion becomes a often a self-evident fact. People often don’t even realize that are any other options than the traditional religion of their family and neighborhood.

This is a fact of life especially in the communities that have no clear-cut boundaries between the religious and secular authorities. Religious ideology can be the main motivator for the whole community and criticizing the religion can be interpreted as treason.

The whole idea of changing one’s religion can be totally alien in these societies and they simply can’t understand the fact that religion is a ideology and not a unchangeable part of personality.

Especially difficult the chance of heart is in the Islamic countries where death is often the ultimate penalty for renouncing the Islam. Christians should not forget that giving up religion warranted death penalty in the Europe also for centuries.

In the face of it, it can be hard to remember that criticizing a faith is not the same as criticizing a person that adheres to that faith, as often as it is understood in that manner. One can always be easily cured from following a rotten ideology, as it requires nothing more than a chance of heart.

Christianity and Islam are different than communism in that they claim that their main selling points are not of human origin and they cannot therefore be criticized in the same manner as other ideologies are. They are above thence above all criticism and it is often blasphemy even to criticize them.

Islamic world is a just now in a very similar situation as the communist world was a couple of decades ago. A tremendous ideological pressure is forced in the members of these societies and criticizing the ruling ideology is often not real possibility at all.

Islamic world is often seen in the West as a monolithic mass, as the old communist world was seen. Often we know nothing about the pressures that are building under the façade of ideological unity.

The hold Islam has in these societies is far greater than the hold communism had in the satellite countries. In Islamic countries there is a far greater number of dedicated followers of the ruling ideology than communism ever had. Neighborhood watches and spying of all citizens are easily organized.

Long rule has made the Islamic system of teaching the default way. In several countries a very large proportion of population will never know of anything else than the truths of Islam.

There can be an illusion of a unified population, as could arise in the communist era. A traveler in the old Soviet Union could wander for weeks without encountering anybody that would profess to opposing the regime. There are Islamic countries where a wrong word about religion can land you in very deep trouble indeed.

However Islam needs not to be an oppressive force in societies. Turkey is a fine example of a Islamic country where religion has been sidestepped and society as a whole has been largely freed of its stranglehold. This road is open to all Islamic countries, if the matter is taken seriously and necessary action is taken.

Religion can be a private matter also in Islamic countries as it has been in the Christian West for a long time now. Christianity had in the medieval times a stranglehold of all the western societies for centuries that pales the grip of today’s Islam. Christianity’s example shows very clearly that religions can mutate and evolve when societies around them are changing.

The renaissance of the Islamic world cannot however begin before religion releases its icy grip from the neck of these societies. Islamic religion must first give up it’s earthly powers, as Christianity has already done in the West.

It is in our own interests to do everything we can to facilitate and accelerate this kind peaceful chance in the Islamic world, as the ideologically unified Islamic communities in our midst are a growing threat to our liberties, if they persist in pursuing political and ideological goals that are incompatible with otherwise commonly held goals in our societies.