This morning, during my daily quarantine Facebook trawl, a post caught my eye as it implied that somebody in Pakistan had blamed the COVID-19 situation on women wearing short sleeved tops! Amidst all the craziness that is surfacing during this pandemic, this seemed to simply take the biscuit!
Maulana Tariq Jameel, a Muslim scholar, and somebody given support by the Imran Khan led government, stated in a recent sermon that the immodesty of women was a reason for the current situation worldwide.
Aside from the feminist arguments, (which are being made very well already, from posts I have seen), it astounds me that anybody can call themselves religious and simultaneously blame women for this chaos. The truth is, it is not women who are the enemy, it is the ego!
As I mentioned in my previous post, in Hebrew, the word "Satan" means "the adversary", and one manifestation of this is the ego.
It may be tempting for some to think this attitude is isolated to Pakistan. But it is not. Many people like to point a finger at the Islamic world and lay down accusations of immorality. The, perhaps uncomfortable truth for many, is that the entire world is infested with people ruled by their ego. Many call themselves "religious" or "spiritual", but in reality, they are ruled by the complete opposite of God, the Light, the Universe, or whatever label they apply. This ego simply manifests in different ways depending on the cultural context. In Pakistan, it's violence against women, in other parts of the world, it's maybe something else equally as abhorrent... though women do seem to fairly universally bear the brunt for some reason.
Unfortunately, most will never acknowledge that they are on the wrong path. Could you imagine telling Moulana Tariq Jameel that he is an agent of "Satan" rather than of God? I imagine it'd go down like a lead balloon, because his ego gives him a false sense of superiority. It is very sad.
As per my previous post (linked above), "Satan" is a lowly cheat and fools most into not even realising that they're playing chess with him. That's one way to win a game, I guess.
Most people are happier being led, rather than being leaders, so when they see somebody say something with confidence, they think to themselves, "This guy knows what's going on, I shall follow him!". It's happening in the US with people following the absolute personification of the ego, and many of his followers consider themselves to be "good Christian people".
Does anybody actually *believe* that Jesus Christ would want them to be self-centred and self-righteous? Or are they confusing Christ with Ayn Rand?
I desperately wish people would wake up and see clearly for once.
If more people renounced their ego instead of their false idea of "Satan" or "evil", then we'd be a lot closer to achieving the goals of the great prophets who have graced the earth.
As I have said previously, nobody is immune from the ego, and I certainly am not perfect myself, however we can only ever do our best in growing into the best versions of ourselves by being aware of the game we are playing, and making some moves to renouncing our ego.
