Religion has divided us. Religious wars have claimed many lives and rendered millions homeless. It has created the biggest enmity among mankind. According to history, the Chinese have been existing 2070 years before Christ. The first history of Japan was told ten years before Christ. The Koreans have been existing 2333 years before Christ. The history of the Indians is dated back as far as 3300 years before Christ. It was learnt that Jesus Christ was born on AD 1 and died in AD 30/33 as history has it.

 

Muhammad was born in 570 CE, that was 570 years after Christ, and he died in 632 CE, in the Common Era. Now, these are the pertinent questions we need to ask ourselves: is there any proof to say that for all the thousands of years the Asians and the Indians have been existing before Christ, they have never heard about God and God had just left them to exist? How come the Quran, the Bible, and every other scripture that is sourced from the Jewish and Arab nations never mentioned anything about the Asians and the Indians?

 

Why is it that the history of mankind, as narrated in these supposedly holy books, only cover the Jewish and the Arab nations? Why did the Quran and the Bible never explain where the Japanese, the Koreans, the Indians, and the Chinese come from? How come the religions that claim to be the most holy religions in the whole world, and to have generated from the two sons of the same father, Abraham, are the most divided religions causing unrest and hatred among themselves and the rest of the world?

 

The Christians are Christians because they have faith in a certain prophet and book. The Muslims are Muslims because they believe in a certain prophet and book. A Jew is a Jew because he or she also believes in a religion and book. The Buddhists are Buddhists because they solely believe in their own way of worship, and so is every religion. There is no evidence to support that God intends a single religion for the whole world or that God intends to grant paradise to a particular religion. But it is reasonable enough to say that everyone will be judged according to his faith.

 

The world will become a peaceful place if we can grant freedom of religion to all, after all, life’s only certainty is death. The Jews will die. The Christians will die. The Muslims will die. The Buddhists will die, and so will every human being, but the judgement will not be done by any of us. Do you still think it is worth killing ourselves for religion? We all need to unite if we truly want peace in the world. It is time to stop giving in religious fights. It is time to stop following misleading religious leaders.

 

It is time to look at one another through the common thread of humanity, disregarding all religious differences. Let us create a culture that encourages peaceful marital relationships. A Muslim husband and a Christian wife can both live peacefully if they allow religious freedom in their relationship, and also free their children to choose the religion they wish to practice because only God can guide. If anyone tells you to wear bomb and kill your Christian neighbours, tell him to wear it and bomb on his own, since he claims to be going to heaven.

 

If anyone tells you to hate your Muslim friends, tell him you are not the one to judge them when they die. If anyone promises you heaven for killing another, ask him in what city is heaven, as you would like to see it first before you kill someone, because truly, if a terrorist believes he has a space in heaven, he will be the first to die without worrying about those going to hell. Open your minds. Stop joining those claiming to be fighting holy war. Your country allows freedom of religion, yet you claim to be fighting holy war. That is not holy. It is self-interest for personal gains.

 

Let us reject hate speech in our places of worship. Let Christians go to their churches peacefully. Let Muslims go to their mosques peacefully. Let everyone worship whatever they believe in. Let everyone respect the faith of another. If we happen to find ourselves in other religious communities, let us interact with one another with love, because we are human beings first, above every other thing. Let us stop forcing people to join our own religion, because if we do not have any personal gains in having big number of followers, why are we forcing people to join our own religion?

 

Let us leave judgement for God, for He alone will judge each and everyone of us. Too many of us have died already. Too many have been displaced. Too many are in abject poverty. And too many are at the corner of death. All these for the differences in religion. We need to stop making our lives miserable because of the mystery of creation. Let us embrace peace in our communities. Let us love one another, regardless of our religious differences. We are all one. We all come from the same source. We are family.