SECULARISM is a widely acclaimed virtue. But it is hardly understood by most of the people who preach or propagate it. The purpose of secularism is peaceful co-existence with mutual respect. The very ideal presupposes that no religious group would mount and pursue disguised invasion on any religion and its prophet or its proponents.
But some people undertake disguised invasion on others' religions and their prophets and their proponents covertly abusing the freedom of expression. They ignore that the particular freedom also entails, like every other right, some obligations. A writer's obligation to the readers and the society is to explore further truth without maligning established truth and to avoid, with scrupulous self-restraint, giving rise to misconceptions. One should not seek to dismantle the civilization to remake it from the ruins. That's psychasthenic -- utter madness.
There is a clear distinction between scientific exploration-- through experiment, excavation or whatever -- to reveal new truths and the illusive imagination engaged to weave controversies having no ground in realities. Deduction based on known facts, which is interpretation, is part of the basic nature of human beings, which makes them superior to other beings.
The upper-most democratic value, which exhorts every individual for pledging "I will depend your right to the last", has latent in it an untold edict to restrain oneself from showing disrespect to others' faiths in any form. The government of this country wisely patronizes all religions, without discrimination. We respect the state apparatus of our poor country for upholding the best and most precious democratic value throughout this nation's short history. In this respect, this country is unique.
Mostaq Ahmed
KUET
Khulna
Secularism misunderstood
FE Team | Published: August 17, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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