I read the following article today, talking about how Islam is brutalizing Baha’is in Iran. While the article itself is interesting and has valid points, the only thing I think the author was not being clear on, is the fact that Islam as a religion is a religion of Peace. Islam as a self serving tool for clergy, regimes and fundamentalists on the other hand is anything but peaceful. This made me think of something I read in One Common Faith commissioned by The Universal House of Justice that sums it up very nicely:

“Few today among those who have some degree of objective familiarity with the subject are likely, therefore, to entertain an illusion that any one of the established religious systems of the past can assume the role of ultimate guide for humankind in the issues of contemporary life, even in the improbable event that its disparate sects should come together for that purpose. Each one of what the world regards as independent religions is set in the mould created by its authoritative scripture and its history. As it cannot refashion its system of belief in a manner to derive legitimacy from the authoritative words of its Founder, it likewise cannot adequately answer the multitude of questions posed by social and intellectual evolution. Distressing as this may appear to many, it is no more than an inherent feature of the evolutionary process. Attempts to force a reversal of some kind can lead only to still greater disenchantment with religion itself and exacerbate sectarian conflict.”

I find this very interesting as I see this on a daily basis in media and around me, i.e. past religions’ clergy and institutions struggling so obviously and so painfully simply because there is no divine source for these needed changes and by twisting the Bible or the Koran into something else, it is nothing but man made inventions that backfire very quickly. What I find amusing though is, for the lack of a better word, the childish nature of these institutions and clergy to prove that their Prophet was the best one or the most powerful one and that he was the very last one. Reminds me of arguments I would have in kindergarden about how my dad is stronger than others. Does any parent set a date on which they tell their child, this is the last advice I am giving you and this is the very last day I will care for you? No! So why would God do that to mankind by sending a last Prophet and then leave us forever?