Iran and civilisation and religion

Let us put a  bit of historical context on this. 2,000 years ago it was quite acceptable to stone people who committed adultery to death. One day a renegade Jewish rabbi stumbled across an angry mob about to stone a female accused of adultery to death. As they were aware he was a bit "soft" on such issues they tried to catch him out. They asked whether he would sanction them carrying out the legal remedy for such behavior. His response? He asked that the first stone be thrown by someone without sin. The crowd skulked off.

Now it's not the purpose of this blog to indulge in religious debate. The author is far too thick and uneducated to discuss such issues. We do however do injustice and the need to challenge it. When there are bad laws and injustice, they only get changed by people making a stand. Sometimes that means standing up to an angry crowd. Sometimes it means saying something which will offend a few people. Sometimes it involves taking a few risks.

Those of you who follow international affairs, will know that a woman was scheduled to be stoned to death in Iran for adultery. She'd already been lashed 100 times and kept in prison for 5 years. The BBC reported yesterday that it looks like the Iranians have backed down - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10579121.stm. There is only one reason that the Mullahs have backed down on the sentence. International pressure. It is rather sad to note that modern Iran, one of the cradles of civilisation, seems to have become a byword for repression and injustice. It is not poverty, Iran is a rich country with massive oil generated wealth. It is not lack of education, as Iran has one of the better education systems in that part of the world. Strangely it also one of the most democratic countries in the region.

Sadly, it seems to me that all of Irans problems are down to one thing - Religion. Now at this point, for the record and in terms of fairness, I have to put on record for those who don't know, I'm a Roman Catholic. I'm not going to indulge in a "my religion is better than your religion" session here. I actually believe that having a religious state is a recipe for having a failed state. Some countries manage to pull off the trick. I think Great Britain has done it pretty well. I suspect that if you have to have a State Religion with your monach as the head, The Church of England under Queen Elizabeth II is probably about as close to the perfect set up as you are likely to get. In just about every other country on Earth, such a set up leads to religious division, conflict and strife. Sadly, it seems that the vast majority of belief systems have a "we are the one true religion and everyone else is heretics" mentality at their core (again let me say for the record I don't subscribe to this). The trouble is that once this gets enshrined in state affairs, bad laws get passed and people suffer.

All of the very worst regimes seem to have a state religion. It is a belief that we are right and everyone else is stupid and misguided. Perhaps the saddest and most perverse demonstration of this is the type of regimes that subscribe to the worlds newest major religion - Athiesm. The USSR and China inflicted unimaginable suffering on their people whilst maintaining this as their state religion.

I have a solution to all of this (like all of my solutions, one which will be completely ignored). I happen to believe that religion is a private issue, a code by which we conduct our own personal affairs. I think it has no place in the workings of ANY STATE. I think everyone should be guaranteed freedom to practise their beliefs and rituals, to a point where they don't harm anyone else. I don't think that being a religious scholar/cleric should exempt you from military service, give you a seat on the House of Lords or a say in the framing of laws. If you want that, you should be democratically elected.

In short, I believe that the job of a religious leader, be it a renegade rabbi 2,000 years ago or a Mullah today, is to ask us to examine our behaviour, ethics and morals and to ask us to conduct our business in a proper decent manner. Whether we do is up to us.