You have gathered at this conference to advocate your religion. Each of you belongs to a particular religion, faith, or spiritual belief. Many of your beliefs are not chosen; the majority of you were born to parents who live within a particular country and so your religion is something that you were born into and brought up with, and eventually, you will die in that religion. Then, you will find the great promise and hope that religions have offered related to the afterlife.
I wish you would consider attending under the title of “No Religion” in the 8th Parliament of the World’s Religions gathering. From where I’m standing, according to the historical documents and primary sources in religions, "No religion is a religion.” In other words, rejection of religious beliefs systems is a religion.
When all the superstitions and illusions that have been inflicted on the body of religion, disintegrate – when all the dust and filth lying on the surface of religions is removed, and when all the threats and capital punishment are taken away from all religious laws including an attack on human dignity, apostasy, and the death penalty for turning away from the religion of your ancestors. If all these shortcomings and defects are eliminated, still the world's population won't be affiliated with or trust any religion.
You have gathered in this virtual conference to put thoughts and ideas together which can lead you to discover even more ideas about the weaknesses of religions. Furthermore, all your attempts are to find paths for promoting cooperation by sharing your common religious thoughts, perceiving the differences, and eliminating every single thing which can be erased.
Nevertheless, have you ever thought about the thousands of unanswered questions that are popping into your follower’s brain instead of appearing into the brains of unbelievers who are beyond you? The unanswered questions that human beings are seeking to find real answers.
The common motto in Islam is reason and rationality which takes precedence over everything. Then if you look deeper in the lower layers, you will realize, that under the title of absolute determinism, restrictions will be formed around your rationality.
What is the meaning of revelation? You believe that angel Gabriel appeared to him and commanded. In the Qur'an, revelation means “And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness" (91:8) and/or "and shown them the two ways ˹of right and wrong˺?"(90:10). In other words, religion proceeds with inspiration and revelation while revelation is part of the perceptions of intelligence. Now, do you think the rationalities have accepted the revelation and the Prophetic Mission or not? The vast majority of people are usually offended and upset by that religion if they are forced to accept a Shari'a or faith because they don’t have enough power to stand against force or threat and choose their own religion freely. Religion literally means a path or manner. Then this path gradually creates tumors in the body of religion and these tumors become cancer over time.
Can you accept a person by your side who is not affiliated with any religion, and chooses not to identify with a religion? A person who has left all religions and beliefs around the world behind? Do you really accept his presence among you?
A religious community that promotes violence does not accept this request. They have used coercion to force their followers into religion. They do not let their followers be cut off from their organized religion. For example, for certain jobs related to security and intelligence organizations, the employees can't quit their job, and if they try to escape from it, they will surely be killed “accidentally”. Religion has become the same as these organizations. Then, what are the differences between them? Put differently, you have entered by force and can't leave. Those who were in the time of the Prophet witnessed the slogan of Muhammad who said, “I was ordered to fight people until they confess that there is no God but Allah." As the power of Islam increased, the residents of Mecca were obliged to surrender and were forced to accept the religion of Muhammad even they defend their beliefs as much as they could.
Do you think surrender means transformation? Obviously, the answer is "NO." History has shown that these threats and coercion to convert to Islam endangered the lives of the Prophet and his family. Indeed, the persecution had turned into resentment and led to many crimes at that time against the Prophet himself and his family.
You can include this important issue in your discussions that "No one should be forced to convert to a religion or be prevented to leave a religion." This applies to children and their parents too because children who are born and raised in a religious Muslim family have no right to break away from their parents’ religion; otherwise, they face the death penalty as a punishment if they leave their faith and beliefs.
Leaving behind religion is the red line in religious communities. This is why we criticize religions for forcing people. Those who were contemporary with the prophets were forcibly converted to Islam by the power of the sword. Furthermore, the strong punishment in Islam is the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion.
What a great suffering tragedy that people convert to religion with murder and leave it with murder! Then, this religion was handed over to our ancestors, they brought the same religion for us. They all emphasize that a person should not say anything against God because the person would become impure and an infidel, indeed, these words are to make the man himself more aware. Religions have caused people to lose the power of hearing and seeing the truth and have not been able to understand the reality; however, they will be unable to stop or prevent human rational thought.
I expect you all who have gathered on behalf of religions and sects’ communities to consider a position for non-religious people in your gatherings and invite them to debate this issue in your international forums.
Jun17, 2021
