What’s so Abnormal with the New Normal of Quran Burning?
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Recently I was taken by shock to see the holy Quran burning on flames. What surprised me the most was that the hostile action was defended by the humanitarians who advocated for religious freedom and rights. What no one cared about was the sentiments of the Billions of Muslims worldwide. It seemed the most offensive thing to me as a Human. The one thing that is indisputably capable of offending all the people of a particular group is played with and stripped off its sacred title. It was even allowed by the Swedish government.
I still remember in my school days, calling a fat girl fat and name-calling a colorful and bubbly boy, were not aggravated assaults. Discussing the skin tone and advertising cosmetics with the slogans such as ‘Fair and Lovely’ were still legal. I am privileged to live in a time where the virtues of humanity, freedom of speech, and human rights are adorned. Unlike the old times, when we were not introduced to body shaming, and self-gender-determination rights, when slurring of any kind was not considered unethical. The slurs like Hijabi, Brownie, Wooly Boy, Butter Chicken, and Chick were non-offensive. But then to become a suitable human species we unanimously decided to withdraw from these unhealthy pleasures.
The pronoun ‘they’ for he/she is the newest addition in the testament of ethics. Recently I was sitting with my friends and a lively discussion was going on about sexual orientation and the right of self-gender determination. The entire sexuality diction from homosexual, hetero-sexual, bi-sexual, gay to lesbian, and the entire spectrum of the rainbow was under discussion. All of a sudden, my friend used a new word, ‘poly Amore’. The only thing I understood was that it is a French word, and did sound like one. Although I am aware of polygamy, poly-amore was kind of a new expression for me. My expert friend explained that poly amore is used to refer to those who love multiple people and can feel sexual attraction to multiple people at the same time.
Surprised enough, even though I am not that ancient, the last time I remember we used to call them cheaters. In the past inability to stick to a single partner and changing multiple partners was called cheating and was taboo but not anymore. So, polyamorous is a real thing, and judging someone for on cheating his/her/their/it spouse is anti-human. Hay day for all the cheaters, who get caught red-handed. Claim you are part of a rainbow, and like to be pronounced polyamorous.
Personally, my humanity vector does not operate on the old-fashioned normal, and I am fully prepared for the new normal and too invested to keep my humanity intact. I leave it up to you whether sleeping with different people is being unfaithful, or even what cheating on a spouse means. The important thing is that we have evolved to the point where we are finally free. We are free to practice our ideas, beliefs, and self-oriented norms. Nothing else really matters, homo sapiens are free and safe from the external pressure of self-determination. We can all be what we want to be. No more witch-hunting. No more burning rituals. No more churches deciding what is legal or illegal. The only thing that bothers me is the double standards of this apparently humane and free society.
If name calling a fat person fat and calling polyamorous people cheaters is offensive, then why is the burning of Quran not considered to be offensive? Just because it is pleasurable for those people advocating the religious rights to insult Islam and offend the Billions of Muslims that consider that book to be the highest value of their lives.
The questions we should ask; are we able to unlearn our collective consciousness based on our collective memories? Have we never missed the pleasure of the public display of burning a witch? Or has that joy gotten another object of interest? If yes, let’s explore together why
Today, the world is fighting for freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of religious rights just like in the past world was fighting for the same things under different pretenses, witches were used to get burned to save humanity and religion. It means for saving humanity and protecting religion we still need to burn something because it’s very deeply rooted in our collective behavior. The fight for religious freedom in itself has become a kind of new religion. Like all religions, there must be some rituals to celebrate the deity.
Imagine, there is an annual festival of freedom of speech, in say, December and the annual festival of human rights in March, and the annual festival of freedom of religious rights in July. Imagine what it would look like. The true believers are walking uphill humming Humanity! Humanity! Dressed in long and loosely fitted white gowns. Marching uphill dancing and enjoying freedom of religious practices. By reaching the top all superhumans full of humanity dance in a giant circle, a huge fire in the center.
Western humanity celebrates its annual festival of religious rights, the heat of determination that everybody has a right to practice whatever religion they choose, all religions need respect, and all religions are equal. The euphoria of humanity and Western supremacy of giving equal importance to polyamory, climate change, and religion. What are they burning this time? They should be burning something. After all, they have to save freedom of religious rights. Apparently, the Quran can be seen burning alive by the promoters of religious freedom and humanity.
It is just a matter of time before the religion of religious freedom will get the official status under the UN charter and then, questioning the rituals of the religion of religious freedom will be an offense punishable by law. Imagine, every year this religion celebrates religious rights and freedom of religious practices by burning the Quran. I am privileged to live in that ultimate humane society where judging and name-calling are not allowed, where ‘human right’ is the essence of civilization.
Everyone enjoys the fruits of human rights, haters, vandalizers, and agitators. Unlike past, everyone is safe under the protection of humanity, and that’s how it should be. Me being a brown, Muslim, ignorant, and remote thus the half-human, trying every day to integrate in this ultimate humane society. I have learned all the right words and the right expressions.
I am witnessing the glory days of humanity when women are fighting for their rights to be topless in swimming pools and be equal to men when two men are brilliantly parenting kids when sex workers are addressed as traders, where junkies are being provided syringes to be safe. Shaving the head or not shaving underarms is protected under human rights. Being polyamorous is socially acceptable. And the religious rights are safe. But is it because humanity has burnt yet another Quran?
