RELIGION AS AN ENEMY OF HUMAN REIGHTS?

On Thursday 26/05/2016, there was a report in The Guardian - a British National newspaper - citing an incident in which a group of Egyptian Muslims ransacked the homes of several Egyptian Christians, and attacked them. 

Egyptian Muslims attacking Egyptian Christians; is this crazy or what? Are they not all Egyptians? And what is the reported cause of this vile attack by these Egyptian Muslims on Egyptian Christians? A story stating that a Christian was having an affair with a Muslim. This reported affair did not lead the Egyptian Christians to attack the Egyptian Muslims, but, for some demented reason, the Muslims attack the Christian.  Are they not all Egyptians and should the Egyptian heritage not take preference over their religious affinity, especially considering that both Islam and Christianity are not native Egyptian religions?

When one recalls the fact that over 20 Egyptian working in Libya, who also happened to been Christians, were captured and butchered by Daesh/Isis, the intolerance which these Egyptian Muslims are showing towards their fellow Egyptians is no less than a crime against our common humanity. Or, rather, these so-called Muslims, by their ignorance and intolerance, are placing themselves outside of the domain of civilized people.

Of even greater irresponsibility is the ineffective and cowardly, at best, and collaborative action of governments in some Muslim countries in stopping these vile attacks on Christians and minority Muslim sects.  If, for example, the Egyptian government cannot or chose not to accord what every self-respecting state should endeavour to offer its citizens - safety and security from mobist hate-crimes and the oppression by the state - is it not, unintentionally, granted, serving the cause of Daesh, in their intention to persecute all whom it decrees as its enemies?

Whether we consider the brutal crimes of Daesh, the ignorance-fuelled and horrendous murders of enlightened Muslims in Bangla Desh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, or the Machiavillian intrigues of powerful Muslim states like Saudi Arabia, I am increasingly coming to the view that Islam, as a whole, is, and will probably continue to be the biggest obstacle to the advancement of human enlightenment.

I would have wished for it not to have been so, but the writing  is clearly on the wall for all to see, even if we earnestly wished it not to have been so.

The governments of Muslim countries that respect human rights,  should make it a punishable crime for any of their citizens to attack any other citizens because of their religious beliefs or lack of such beliefs. That, of course, will require a philosophical and theocratic revolution in some of these countries, as it would require a secular state.

The freedom of the individual to remain in the highest state of 'freeness', providing he/she has not infringed or pose an imminent threat of harm to the liberty and mutual freedom of others, is, according to my operational philosophy, what all societies should aspire to. This, of course, means the rights of the individual having priority over those ascribed to the gods. 

Are the gods not like stones, with no voice of their own except that of those who purport to speak on their behalf? Would it not be better for the people to speak to one another on their own behalf?