Religions have every reason to support each other

Dr Imtiyaz Yusuf is to be commended for condemning the terrorist attack on the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, as is the Asian Muslim Action Network for their letter of July 17. Like Dr Imtiyaz, I wonder why other major international Muslim organisations have been silent on this issue.

Dr Imtiyaz is also to be commended for championing interfaith empathy, and for suggesting that the Buddha might have been one of the unnamed prophets mentioned in the Koran. Hinduism has done something similar by accepting the Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu. Religions need to learn from one another, to assimilate and adapt what is best in each.  Religions ought to be more generous. If my religion has a belief or practice that you can benefit from, you’re welcome to steal it. Religion should have no copyrights, and imitation is the highest form of flattery.

It would be nice if Dr Imtiyaz’s generous sentiments could be propagated among the extremist wing of Islam – the Salafists, the Taleban, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and their ilk. Unfortunately these people are not predisposed to listen to anybody. Their response to Dr Imtiyaz’s call for acceptance of diversity is to try to exterminate that diversity. The liberals in many religions like to talk about “dialogue” as a means of resolving religious differences – but you can’t “dialogue” with somebody who refuses to listen, and whose only response is to chop off your head.

Dr Imtiyaz regrets that no Muslim scholar has written an academic study of Buddhism. I suggest that he break the logjam by writing such a book himself. Being a Muslim scholar living in Thailand, he is in an ideal position to do so. Such a book would serve the double purpose of educating Muslims about Buddhism and of educating the world about Muslim attitudes toward Buddhism. The only question would be whether the book represented the thinking of all Muslims, or only of Dr Imtiyaz and the Muslims who agree with him.

William Page

Samut Prakan