Sacrifice to Appease the Merciful Allah!

NYC, USA

The Eid-ul-Azha popularly known as Qurbani Eid in South Asia is just over now. Like the change of the seasons this Qurbani comes into the Islamic world every year and the Islamic folks go crazy over it year after year after year. And this religious occasion had lead the utopia of merciless slaughter of tens of millions of innocent animals (cows, camels, sheep and goats) by devoted Muslims throughout the Muslim world. All these merciless slaughters were performed to please the merciful Allah!

The origin of this madness named sacrifice (killing animals) for Allah was derived from the myth related to pre-biblical Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim in Islam). This belief system of sacrifice is called burnt offerings in Bible. This was the system of sacrifice discovered for Jews, and Bible commanded this decree of God by hundreds of scriptures throughout the Old Testament. Animal sacrifice was prescribed for Jews and Christians by very strict Biblical injunction. Yet, Jews and Christians stopped this mad practice longtime ago once they realized that this is nothing more than an uncivilized and inhumane practice. But sadly though, the Muslims are busy killing animals to satisfy the angry Allah just the way ancient uncivilized peoples used to sacrifice human life (Naro baali) to appease their deity. Later in the course of human civilization, ancient people used to sacrifice animals instead of human. Hindus and various other tribal religions do occasionally practice this animal sacrifice even today.

I was inspired to write this essay about Kurbani by a marvelous essay (about Kurbani episodes) which I read last weak in this forum. I will come back to that later in this essay. Just when I started this essay, I got another sad story of real Kurbani (real sacrifice) of Abrahamic style performed by a devout soldier of Allah in Bangladesh. The daily star (Feb. 27) news was as follows:

‘THE Eid mood got suddenly overcast with gloom and horror on February 23rd evening as the television news caster served up a heart beat stopper for millions in the country. And courtesy satellite television millions outside Bangladesh learnt about it, too. What a shame! Golam Mostafa alias Tula Mian put his seven-month old child Solaiman to sword in the delusion of performing a religious duty 'directed by a voice heard in dream.' As his progeny lay slaughtered, a non-chalant Mostafa with his barbaric zealotry muttered the total nonsense about being dream-driven to act.’

This above mentioned mind-boggling incident is not an isolated case. No, I do not consider it to be a case of hallucination, or a psychotic case either. This is simply a case of religious fanaticism. Madrassah educated Golam Mostafa alias Tula Mia was not psychotic or schizophrenic. He may have hallucinated but that was due to his religious fervor. He believed strongly and literally what he learned from the Holy Quran about the incident of myth-related Kurbani story of Prophet Ibrahim. He thought about it, day and night, and as a result he dreamt that impossible episode. Result was the unbelievable cruel demise of his 7 month old son.

Big question is who is responsible? Where was the most omnipotent, most Merciful Allah at the time of slaughtering that poor 7 month old innocent child? Who should be blamed for this horrendous episode? I strongly believe it was the Islamic teachings solely responsible for his mindset. It was the fanatic zealotry behind his cruelty and madness. It is the same kind of religious zealotry makes a believer kill another non-believing human being! A fanatic zealot inspired by religion Islam is so strong and forceful selfish, that he has no regard for a life of a human, or animal. Only thing he cares for is his deity Allah. And to appease his blood thirsty Allah, this zealot can sacrifice even his own child, as we have seen in the case of Tula Mia. Heavenly pleasures (houries, wine, milk and honey) make these Islamic zealots inhuman creatures.

It is the same kind of religious teachings which can turn a peaceful and quite white American boy into a zealot Taliban (John Walker Lindh) having bushy beard and turban. Readers may still remember my article in NFB: “How one gets to be a Taliban”--in which I did prove with incontrovertible logic how a single human being can act differently with different beliefs and education. Culpability of Golam Mostafa rest on the teachings and belief of Islam. Had he not learnt about myth-story of the Abraham’s Kurbani—Golam Mostafa may not commit such inhuman act of sacrifice in the name of religion.

Now back to my original Eid story. The heartbreaking essay titled, “The Eid Story” (NFB February 19) by Mr. Lutfur Rahman has opened my past memory of similar cruel and horror stricken episodes during Qurbani not once but twice. The same horrific scenarios (unborn calves inside the torn opened gaping body cavity of the sacrificed cows) were seen by me in two such occasions of animal sacrifice. Yet, there was not a slightest remorse to those hungry meat eater pious Muslims and everything was just fine by the fatwa of our merciful mullah Huzoor.

Again, heartfelt thanks to Mr. Lutfur Rahman for rewarding NFB readers his well-written but tears rendering essay about his true experience of an episode of Islamic sacrifice. Mr. Rahman left some painful heart touching (Hridoy Bidarok) questions at the end of his marvelously described essay, which should open the eyes and minds of the conscientious readers. His questions were as follows:

Mr. Rahman wrote:

“Going to bed belly full in a scarlet cow that night, Allah’s purpose did not appear too apparent to me. For a long time before falling asleep I could here strange voices asking:

How could an omnipresent, omniscient, ever merciful Allah sanction such torture and destruction of another one of His own magnificent creation and its unborn fetus with, what appeared to be, such callous disregard?

To which higher court of authority does a mother cow and her unborn calf seek justice and deliverance? Are mother cows and their fetuses exempt from coverage of mercy ?

And whose sin, whose piety and whose penance?”

Who will answer those intelligent questions asked by Mr. Rahman? I am quite positive that none of the Islamists will ever come forward to answer these questions! Immediately after the horrendous incident of September 11, Rev. Billy Graham was in the famous CNN Larry King show discussing the days events. Rev. Graham told the audience that after that horrific Sep 11, many people asked him: “where was the all powerful and merciful God when these Arab terrorists flew their aircraft and crashed them into the WTC and Pentagon building? How God let such horrible things to happen? Why can’t the almighty God not interfere with such a terrible episode?” Mr. Graham said (nodding his head down) “I could not answer those questions; I do not have any answer why God did not interfere.”

The fact of the matter is—God never could interfere to any dreadful acts of human beings nor could he ever interfere with any such natural devastation like cyclone, hurricane, earthquake, flood, etc. He never did interfere when millions of human beings were gassed to death by Hitler or when thousands of people were drowned with the sinking Titanic. Similarly, God never did intervene when hundreds of man, women, and children were perished when an Egyptian Aircraft went down in the icy water of Atlantic Ocean! The truth is that God never could interfere—when millions of human beings were perished by deadly diseases before the discovery of medicine by humans. He never could interfere when one fourth of the world populations were perished by bubonic plague!!! These are all documented cases. Bubonic plague used to scare the ancient folks all over the world. Similarly, small pox (Guti Bosonto) and cholera (Ola Utha) used to dread our grandfather’s generation (as the Allah’s Gazab) in the early twentieth century. It was the discovery of antibiotics and other medicines that conquered these pestilences. The God, who may have been too powerful at one time, had nothing to do with the eradication of these deadly diseases. And these are cold facts of the progress of human civilization.

If one analyzes all the facts and figures of the growth of human civilization in a cool head, one will find out quite easily that our God, Allah, or Baghaban was never omnipotent, omniscient, all mighty or Merciful!!! May be He never did exist in reality. Only He exists in the human imagination! May be, we the humans actually created Him and gave him all those mouthful adjectives only to make Him a big thing worthy of worshipping! May be, Allah, God, or Baghaban was never omniscient or all powerful. May be, Allah, God or Baghaban is completely a deaf and dumb entity! He never hears anything, knows anything or does anything by Himself! He never did talk with any Prophet, nor had He revealed Himself to anybody! And that’s why Mr. Rahman’s questions will remain unanswered forever. May be, we the humans shall have to find the answer of those intelligent questions asked by Mr. Rahman in his essay of Eid Story. We the humans should discover the way to love each other. We the humans should stop these mockery of worshipping God by sacrifice at the expense of others life. Only then, could there be any lasting peace on earth.