Religious Riots are Trump Cards for Dictators and Dirty Politicians

Greatest/Most used/Proved very effective and DANGEROUS Rhetoric is PATRIOTISM. Danger of disappearance of Race/Religion/Country.
And using Patriotism to drive OTHERS AGAINST US is a very effective Rhetoric for ELECTIONS and all the difficult times in country
In ‘OTHERS AGAINST US’ always need to search an easy soft target, SCAPEGOAT or SACRIFICIAL LAMBS like ‘Foreigners’ or ‘Migrants’
Religious Minorities are usually painted or marked as “migrants” “foreigners” to be targeted for Religious Riots.
It is true that Sameul Johnson rightly said, “PATRIOTISM is the last resort of scoundrels”.

SOURCE: General Aung San: Dirty politics of using Ultranationalism to get popular support

RELIGION is the Trump card of dirty politicians and dirty governments

• They say politics is dirty.
• They say politics is religion.
• They say these all in contradiction with each other in one and the same breath.
• Politics is religion! Is it?

Of course not. But this is the trump card of dirty politicians.

In this way,

• they hope to confuse and befog the public mind,
• and they hope to slur over and cloud real issues.
• Theirs is the way of opportunism, not politics.

Religion is a matter of individual conscience while politics is a social science.

Of course, as a social science, politics must see that the individual also has his rights, including the right to freedom of religious worship.

But here we must stop and draw the line definitely between politics and religion, because the two are not one and the same thing.

If we mix religion with politics, this is against the spirit of religion itself,

• for religion takes care of our hereafter
• and usually has not to do with mundane affairs which are the sphere of politics.

And politics is frankly a secular science. That is it.

Religious freedom

Reverend Sanghas!

1. You have a tremendous role to play.
2. This is the highest politics which you can do for your country and people.
3. Go amongst our people,
4. preach the doctrine of unity and love;
5. carry the message of higher freedom to every nook and corner of the country,
6. freedom to religious worship,
7. freedom to preach
8. and spread the Dharma anywhere and anytime,
9. freedom from fear, ignorance, superstition, etc.,
10. teach our people to rely upon themselves
11. and re-construct themselves materially, spiritually and otherwise.
12. You have these and many more noble tasks before you.

Every student of social and political science knows very well that_

• such slogans as race, religion, language do not alone constitute nationalism.
• There are one or more races in almost every country.
• Nowadays, we have different religions being embraced by members of the same nationality.

Some of us have been going still about the same old way of ‘dirty’ politics. But is politics really ‘dirty’. It is not politics which is dirty, but rather the persons who choose to dirty it are dirty.

Each of us is a political animal as Aristotle declared

Politics means your everyday life. It is you in fact; for you are a political animal as Aristotle long ago declared.

• It is how you eat, sleep, work and live, with which politics is concerned.
• You may not think about politics. But politics thinks about you.
• You may shun politics. But politics clings to you always in your home, in your office, in your factories.
• There, everyday you are doing politics, grappling with it, struggling with it.

The worker works for his wages, the peasant tills for his living, the clerk and the official toil for salaries, the trader and the broker struggle for decent incomes.

It is, all, the question of livelihood.

• The worker wants to have higher wages and live in better conditions.
• The peasant desires to improve his land and his lot.
• The clerk and the official want something more than the drudgery of office, something more secure, more complete, and more independent.
• The trader and broker want fair opportunities for trading and business.

Thus you have to live and get certain things that are yours for your living, and this is your politics. This is your everyday life; and as your everyday life changes, so changes your politics.

It is for you to have such opportunities for your livelihood and better life that we say there must be freedom,

• freedom to live,
• freedom to create and develop nationally, and individually,
• freedom which can raise your and our standards without affecting others.

And this is politics. Politics then is quite human!

• It is not dirty.
• It is not dangerous.
• It is not parochial.
• It is neither magic nor superstition.
• It is not above understanding.

SOURCE: General Aung San: Dirty politics of using Ultranationalism to get popular support

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• Pressure on secularism (vicrram.wordpress.com)
• Time To Put Legal Limits On Religious Privileges (lincolnshirecommentator.wordpress.com)
• SSPX on “Religious Freedom” (mundabor.wordpress.com)
• Tyranny, Religion, and the Fight for Freedom (insightscoop.typepad.com)
• Rob Boston: Is There A War On Religion? No…. But There Is A Religious Right/Catholic Hierarchy Attack On Individual Freedom (alwaysquestionauthority.com)
• More See “Too Much” Religious Talk by Politicians – Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (policyabcs.wordpress.com)
• Why Religion? (irreligiousblog.wordpress.com)
• Book Review: Freedom of Religion & The Secular State – Bruce Everett – Rousing Departures (richarddawkins.net)

Tags: Aristotle, Dharma, Freedom of religion, Personal life, Politics, Religion, Social science, United States