Opinion: Unification, not Divisiveness is the Way Forward for Humankind.

Religious crusades are nothing new.  They are as old as the history of mankind itself and despite, or even in spite of our histories, religious conflicts are now arguably more visible, more destructive and more far-reaching than at any time in human history.

I'm an atheist so, rightly or wrongly, count myself as neutral in religious arguments of any persuasion or colour.  However, I'm not immune to effects or the debates that surround the religious arenas.  I was brought up in a Christian nation (or at least it was when I was growing up) and have married into a (tolerant) Muslim family, and what I notice is that to a larger extent Christianity seems to have purged it's respective differential demons.  By this I mean that the various forms, or sects, of Christianity seem to have buried the hatchet, literally, and have come to accept the existence of each other without resorting to the violence and divisiveness of the past to resolve their respective differences, such that they are now able to co-exist in a respectful, reasonable and peaceable manner.  To a greater extent, I would suggest that Christianity, as one of the two most followed religions on our planet, has learned from the lessons of it's past and has put its' good foot forward, so to speak.  It is at relative peace with itself and with its' place in the world today.

Pope Francis with Archbishop Ieronymos of the Greek Orhodox Church
on Lesbos recently. (Pic from the Guardian)

Of course, people will point out that most Christian nations have secular, liberal education systems, falling church attendances and a lack of true devotees as reasons for this 'amicable' situation, with the Church's putative lowered status in the world being a direct consequence of its' lack of religious voracity and virility in the 21st Century.  Maybe so, but these points are for another time and do not form part of my argument today.

One can only ever talk in generalities when discussing a particular religion as a whole I think; there are always exceptions, always the individuals (or groups of individuals) who don't fit the picture and I can't do anything about that and do not intend to get into those sort of arguments here either.  So by applying the same generalist looking glass, I would suggest that Islam has not reached the same degree of inner peace (for want of a better description) with itself as Christianity has.

The array of Islamic sects today is truly bewildering.  When I look at modern Islam I see a religion that is divided, but not just divided, it is broken and ceasing to function as a religious entity tied together by the single unifying message of the Koran.  It always makes me think that the various divisions we see today in Islam are something akin to (but not an exact match for) the laws of Gavelkind in Ireland.  

Gavelkind was the colloquial name given to the law governing the inheritance of landholdings (offically called the Penal Law, 1704).  It stated that landholdings were to be subdivided among all surviving sons when the land holder died so that, over time, plots became ever more divided through each passing generation.  In the end plots became so small that the only crop that could be grown in sufficient quantities to feed an ever growing population was the potato.  So that when in 1847-50 the blight struck, Ireland went through the horrors of the potato famine which led to the eventual deaths of more than 1m people.

Just as the subdivision of the landholdings divided the families of Ireland and so weakened them in the process, Islam has also become split and divided, each sect peddling their own version of Islam, but always (and this is the point) to the detriment of every other form of Islam.  It's a type of religious oneupmanship and in so doing it is weakening itself and diluting the true message of the Koran which has gotten lost in a sea of sectarian violence.  Islam has become a monoculture of divisiveness that shows every sign of subdividing further unless the current waves of sectarian violence and segregation are quelled and a single path can be found that is wide enough to encompass all the many schools of thought.

The light needs to be shone from on high by Islamic scholars holding a torch of unification and peace, bringing a message of togetherness and not divisiveness to the people so that the path can be found and illuminated for all the followers of Islam.

Like him or not, T.E.Lawrence saw the worth and the value of a untied Arab (Islamic) nation.  Whilst his vision was of a political union, the principal remains the same.  But even as he endeavoured to unite the various factions, tribal subdivisions (and British treachery) were already pulling the rug from under his feet.  In the end, through the various political wrangling's of the British and French, combined with the lack of a united Arab response, the sub-continent was divided up as the colonial powers saw fit and it was left to the Arab (Islamic) nations to bear the brunt of the consequences that still loom large today.

We are all one.  We are all the same.  I wish you peace, whoever your God maybe.