Over the past few days Ghanaians have been trying to digest the constipation inducing news that about ten of our nationals have eloped to join the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

For most people it is a shock that cannot be measured. A lot of people are trying to come to terms with how anyone would decide to up from their home and leave to join a group that is so self evidently callous. It would take a level of unprecedented denial for anyone to deny that ISIS is brutal, so for Ghanaians we cannot process how anyone could willingly join them.

Another thing people cannot fathom is that this is a fresh University graduate, a seemingly down to earth person who has turned extremist seemingly out of nothing. But that is hardly unfathomable; most of the world’s biggest terrorists have been educated to incredible levels. It is how they twist whatever ideology they want to sell to their followers and get them to commit such diabolical acts.

So yes, I understand how people can use whatever tool they want to carry out whatever acts they want. And people can twist everything to suit their needs, it’s in our nature as humans.

But the problem with religion which this issue throws into sharp focus and which everyone likes to bend over backwards and deny is that it provides too readily a framework for these zealots to abuse. Irrespective of whether Osama bin-Laden or Abubakr al-Bagri heartily believe the hate filled rhetoric they spew out, the fact is that a supposedly divinely inspired worldview, backed by a supposedly infallible holy book, is at their disposal. And these books are man’s creations, with man’s flaws; but their divinely ordained status means their all too glaring man flaws are exploited by these fanatics, and in most cases they even wholeheartedly believe what they’re doing.

We can dance about it all we like, but the Quran is filled with hate filled war mongering commandments in many places. Take Quran (2:216) – “Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not.”

Or Quran (3:56) – “As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help.” Or Quran (3:151) – “Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority”.

Or Quran (8:12) – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them” And believe me, this is not even a tenth of the problematic verses in the Quran (quotes via this link)

And neither is this restricted to Islam alone. The Old Testament has its own problems, in some cases even worse stories and morals than the Quran could ever dream of. And the concept of the afterlife (hell and heaven) in and of itself is problematic. For instance, a lot of these terror groups win converts and get them to commit heinous acts with promises of an afterlife nobody could ever disprove. That is an unlimited supply of gullible suicide bombers waiting for anyone smart enough to take advantage of.

So we have holy books filled with barbarity (you can argue context all you want, but if any God ever felt such measures were ever necessary they’re probably not the benevolent beings we love to make them out to be), we have people indoctrinated in faith from birth, and we have folks smart enough to use it. Even if you maintain the actions of those criminals have nothing to do with the religion (a BIG if), you still have a system training gullible idiots to be used for massacre.

What needs to be done, and what atheists, humanists, secularists, and free thinkers alike continue to advocate, is to teach children the crucial human attributes of logic, reason, and challenging authority; or science. Being told that this is your religion, and God is infallible and therefore his word cannot be challenged, that breeds a situation where these all too fallible books would be used to exploit the faith programmed into people from the time of their conception.

The Bible has flaws, so does the Quran and many other Holy Books. That is not the fault of the authors, who wrote their books in a far different time and during the infancy of our species. For them a lot of the scientific inaccuracies, myths and fables, and yes, barbarism, they put in there made sense for what man knew at that point. A lot of that does not fit anymore, and continuing to maintain their infallibility when we simply should know better now is what is gradually driving our civilisation to self destruct. (climate change, Islamic fundamentalism, contraception . Etc)

So as we contemplate the action by this young University graduate, as we attempt to comprehend what seems incomprehensible, we should look at the role our wholehearted resolve to cling to religion has played in this tragedy. This boy had no chance against the great machinery that is ISIS, with his brain already programmed to accept Allah’s words as truth. And those were what was used to seduce him; a corrupt system, the promise of glory fighting for the one true God, and the prospect of an utopian world in which the Islamic worldview is paramount.

We can bicker all we want, and already I’ve heard the Islamic clerics claiming the teachings of ISIS are not that of Islam. That is why I talk about the ugly truth nobody wants to hear, because the argument of context is not enough when real people are dying barbaric deaths through the teachings espoused in these holy books. The only weapon we have as a species, that has gotten us this far, is reason; therefore we should be suspicious of any worldview that calls on us to suspend it.

That is all I hope for my country.

Quran (4:74;76)

“Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward; Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah…”

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