In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Interpretation
The quote criticizes religion as a source of conflict and calls for an honest examination of its impact on society.
Salman Rushdie's quote reflects a strong condemnation of the role of religion in perpetuating violence and injustice in the world. He argues that while society often discusses religion with a veneer of 'respect,' this narrative fails to address the real harm and crimes committed in its name. Rather than allowing religion to be a protective cloak for wrongdoing, Rushdie urges a more candid conversation about its influence, suggesting that innocence cannot shield individuals from accountability in the face of religiously motivated acts of violence.
In practice
In a debate about the role of religion in global conflicts, one might use this quote to challenge the status quo.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
Good advice is rarer than rubies.
Steam seems to have killed all gratitude in the hearts of sailors.
It is the Germans who are responsible for the fact that I became a fabricator of arms. If not for them, I would have constructed agricultural machines. (...) If someone asks me how I can sleep at night knowing that my arms have killed millions of people, I respond that I have no problem sleeping, my conscience is clean. I constructed arms to defend my country.
I know that as a very young child, I was afraid of death. Many children become aware of the notion of death early and it can be a very troubling thing. We're all in this continuum: I'm this age now, and if I live long enough I'll be that age. I was 20 once, I was 10, I was 4. People who are 20 now will be 50 one day. They don't know that! They know it in the abstract, but they don't know it. I'd like them to know it, because I think it gives you compassion.
You made us for yourself, Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. In this creative restlessness beats and pulsates what is most deeply human - the search for truth, the insatiable need for the good, hunger for freedom, nostalgia for the beautiful, and the voice of conscience.
To make marijuana against the law is like saying God made a big mistake.
When we can see the image of God where we don't want to see the image of God, then we see with eyes not our own.
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