What Do You Follow?
Everyone has filled out some
application asking them to state their religious beliefs or abstain from doing
so. Of course, this is for reasons of diversity, ensuring that there is a
‘cross-section of society’ (whatever THAT means) within an organisation. But
why do we care so much about religion? If I were to approach 10 people in the
city centre, I’d probably find 2 or 3 people from the same religion. I probably
don’t know about half of the religions that exist in the world yet, when it
comes to mainstream religions e.g. Christianity, Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism etc
we are so concerned with labels because everyone has to ‘belong’ to some group
of beliefs, even if that is no belief.
But it doesn’t stop there! Because
once you’ve attached a label to yourself, you’re expected to conform to the
standard, expected to follow every single inch of the religion in the same way
everyone else does. Of course I can only talk from my own experience as a
muslim, but there have been many many times when I’ve heard people telling
other people what they should or shouldn’t be doing. Before I get my head
bitten off here, I understand that we should GUIDE people however there is a
very fine line between guiding and imposing and that is what so many people fail
to realise.
Within Islam itself there are many different groups of beliefs and
it is obvious that some peoples beliefs are stronger than or completely
different to, others. In my opinion, that’s ok.
I don’t care what religion you follow,
what relationship you have with your God/Gods/Goddesses, how many times a day
you pray, how many times you go to church. IT’S YOUR BUSINESS!! When I’ve had
people telling me things I should/shouldn’t do because its ‘against my
religion’ I’m polite, I listen, and then I walk away because quite frankly, I
don’t have time for people who have nothing constructive to say to me. Before
you judge others, look at your own actions, look at how well you follow your
religion first.
Another thing that amazes me is when
people of a different faith to you say ‘well why are you doing that, isn’t it
against your religion?’ EXCUSE ME?? Who are you to judge me? Ok, tell me if I’m
being a hypocrite in what I’m doing because that’s a personality fault, but
don’t tell me what I should be doing according to my religion because I don’t
think everyone follows their religion perfectly. Again, it’s a case of judging
yourself before you judge others.
I’m bored of people asking me what
religion I follow and judging me on that. I am a person beyond the label you’ve
attached to me. I have a personality. I have so many friends from so many
different backgrounds and I see absolutely no issue with that. I have friends
that are Sikh, Hindu, Christian, Muslim and even atheist/agnostic. My
relationship with God is nothing to do with anyone else. Just because you think
that you follow your religion better than the next person, does not give you
any right whatsoever to judge or to impose your beliefs upon others.
People need to start growing up, start
getting over religious labels and start accepting people for who they are. If
you claim to know what someone should be doing according to their/your
religion, maybe you should start doing it.
All too often religious beliefs cause
unnecessary conflicts such as the war between Palestine and Israel, the
Troubles in Ireland. Does this mean we should give up religion? In my opinion,
NO. I believe we should give up attaching such a ridiculous importance on
religion as a label. It’s how you transpose your beliefs into your everyday
life that reflects who you are, not some label sorting you like the Sorting Hat
of Hogwarts.
Religion is progressing and
developing, we’ve seen the New Age Beliefs, the controversy around Scientology,
which in various countries (UK excluded) is a recognised religion. There are so
many ‘religions’ we don’t know about so why get so caught up on the ones we do
know about?
‘Religion, it has given people hope in
a world torn apart by religion’ – Jon Stewart
All Love xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment