RELIGION & THE SUPREMACY URGE

The fire of hope lit by the people of South Korea, who rose to prevent their country’s president from imposing martial law, warmed spirits everywhere. Thank you, Koreans! Having hailed and thanked, and hoping that a helpful Korean will explain the secret behind this triumph, I invite reflection on a different and broader question:

Why are the great religions of the world failing to challenge moves in nation after nation for supremacy and against equality?

The supremacists’ confidence is unconcealed. They smilingly ignore resolutions of the UN General Assembly, judgments of the International Court of Justice, and instructions from the International Criminal Court. Moreover, they appear to know that their country’s “religious” or “spiritual” leaders will remain silent when dissent is crushed and when minorities are persecuted.

ASSAD’S FALL IN SYRIA

A major political development in the Middle East must interrupt the discussion I’ve begun. Syria’s 53-year-old Assad dynasty, in power since 1971, has been toppled. Bashar al Assad, the former London-based ophthalmologist who ran Syria from the year 2000, succeeding his father Hafez Assad, is said to have fled with his family for Moscow, where he has evidently been assured safety by old friend Vladimir Putin.

Like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein (1937-2006), the Assads of Syria belonged to a supposedly non-religious and nationalist “Baathist” party, which once held sway in more than one country in the Middle East. Unlike Saddam of Iraq, who had a Sunni background, the Assads of Syria belonged to the minority Alawite sect, which is distinct but Shia-aligned. Iran had backed the Assads.

Imposed by the gun and buttressed by Alawite loyalty, statues and other symbols of the Assads’ personality cult dominated the Syrian landscape for more than half a century. Now these symbols are being trampled underfoot. Once more history repeats itself, but it is worth marking that until yesterday “stability” was fairly widely hailed as a Syria hallmark, even though the brutal repression under the Assads was well known.

Which means that until history repeats itself (very slowly at times), and ends a period of tyranny, supremacy can shine, smile, and laugh.

What Bashar Assad’s fall will mean for Iran, or for the greatly diminished Hezbollah, with which Assad had allied himself, or for Israel, which occupied and annexed Syria’s Golan Heights and saw the Assads as deadly foes, or for other neighbours of Syria, are not questions that can be quickly answered. Russia, which helped Assad for a dozen years or more, appears to have had its hands full with its war with Ukraine and could not in the end protect its ally.

For the time being at any rate, Turkey, which backed a major faction of Syria’s successful rebels, may possess increased leverage with Damascus. Turkey also hopes that the change in Damascus will enable the return home of the Syrian refugees it has hosted for years, said to number around three million.

Netanyahu’s claim that Israel’s crippling of Hezbollah has contributed to the regime change in Syria cannot be refuted. However, Israel’s seizure of fresh Syrian territory as “a buffer zone”, in addition to the Golan Heights it had previously annexed from Syria, only adds a fresh chapter to its disgraceful record of aggression and expansion.

AIDING FELLOW MUSLIMS?

I must return to my argument. Despite the “Islam” invoked in the name of the group that has toppled the Assad regime, no one can suggest that religion, in this case Islam, has brought to Syria some kind of justice or democracy or peace. Sectarian clashes have been central to the Syrian story, not the principles of Islam.

Syria aside, it must be asked, has the world of Islam helped the people of Palestine as they face expulsion, elimination, and erasure? What support have the people of Palestine received from the world’s largest, richest, or strongest Muslim lands in Asia and Africa? From Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Nigeria? Couldn’t someone ask: has Islam failed Palestine and Palestinians?

It must likewise be asked, where in Israel has the world seen the observance of Judaism’s core command to human beings, which, we are told, is to “do justice, be kind, and walk humbly”?

We’ve instead seen Israel showing contempt for justice, a qualm-less elimination of women and children, and an arrogance fueled by the power to kill. Both religion and history tell us that arrogance and tyranny will not endure beyond a certain time, although that time frequently seems to extend longer than is fair. In any case, the question remains. Has Judaism taught justice to Israel?

HOW VISIBLE IS CHRISTIANITY?

Couldn’t someone similarly ask, where has Christianity been during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War? Has Orthodox or “Eastern” Christianity, the religion of the majority in both Russia and Ukraine, saved Ukrainian or Russian lives? Orthodox Christianity aside, has either the Roman Catholic Church or Christianity’s Protestant portion, to each of which hundreds of millions seem to subscribe, given hope to the multitudes in Europe and the U.S. who are worried by rising currents against democracy, equality, and partnership?

What about Buddhism, the religion with which vast millions in China, Japan, Korea, and other Asian lands identify? Does anyone claim that Buddhism is overcoming the repression and killings that have marred Myanmar for decades? Earlier, Cambodia’s killing fields had produced their horrific crop despite the dominance of the country’s Buddhism.

In terms of numbers, the world’s fourth great religion -- Christianity, Islam and Buddhism having been mentioned already-- is Hinduism. Does anyone assert that Hinduism is resisting today’s grim attacks on democracy and equality in India?

It is plain that something other than “religion”, as the world has known that word, is needed. What is that “other” thing? Can anyone describe it succinctly? Most of us sense that this “other” thing or force has to be spiritual, moral, psychological. This other force might build on “religion” of the kind the world knows. Or, who knows, it might have to act independently of “religion”.

History seems to say to us that this force must involve the human conscience. It may demand from us a step or two of courage. It might call for obedience to laws -- or for the disobedience of unjust laws. And it probably demands a firm rejection, whether vocal or silent, of supremacy, an assent, vocal or silent, for the equality of all the earth’s humans, and an assent also for goodwill and mutual respect between them.

“MERE NUISANCE”

As far as the world of Islam is concerned, the Middle East’s Muslims, who have been the primary victims of Israel’s bombings and annexations, must have wondered a thousand times why seemingly strong and well-endowed “Islamic” states such as Turkey, Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia have not come together to protect innocent fellow Muslims. The future will conclude that for decades the so-called Islamic world saw the erasure of Palestinians as a mere nuisance, not requiring serious reappraisal or a joint response.

The future will also want to know how Syrians now jubilant over the fall of Assad will treat one another, and how any new government there will treat the country’s different ethnic and sectarian groups.

We recognize a “good” intervention when it occurs – as we did when the Koreans stood up to prevent martial law. We recognize a “good” intervention by its flavour, by its spontaneity, by its innocence, by its unselfishness.

If governments and “religions” will not act, we the people may be called upon to do something. In many countries today, however, the people cannot assemble with safety or even exchange ideas freely. Which means that in countries where assembly, dialogue, and partnerships are possible, we the people should take every opening to foster, if possible, a “good” intervention.