On religion, human nature, and walls

Yesterday we went to visit the Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin. It is a beautiful work of Ottoman architecture, replete with abstract art, calligraphy, and stained glass. The mosque serves as a devotional place for many of Berlin’s large Turkish community. Our tour guide was expressive and practiced. He was telling us all these things about the nature of Islam, and we saw so much goodness in the ideas upon which the religion is formed. Yet I am one to think that is true of almost all religions. I went to preschool in a Church, spent Fridays with a Jewish family, grew up in a very liberal Hindu home, was fascinated by Sufi poetry, and contemplated the peace found by Gautam Buddha.

Faith is a truly beautiful thing. Of all human emotions and needs, trust in a higher being is possibly the most abstract and hard to define. Religion can be a set of guidelines, a motivation, a restriction, an interesting thought, or a capstone of someone’s identity. I have always thought of religion as a single phenomenon with different forms. The tour guide, similarly, was open to comparing and contrasting. He acknowledged similarities between Islam and other religions, but he was also surprised at some of them. More importantly, he thought that we would be surprised at some of the similarities. Indeed, if we were surprised at similarity, would we not think that the norm is difference? Though it might be approached and crossed and not too wide, a norm of difference is nevertheless a wall. Furthermore, this wall may be impenetrable in some eyes – for instance, the xenophobic graffiti outside the mosque. All my multireligious experiences have led me to the belief that there is no wall and no true difference between these religions. Yet since I am not researching myself and am researching Berlin, the tour guide’s attitude towards comparing religions showed that he too saw the existence of a wall (no matter how progressive his thoughts about it).

A lot of my friends are atheists. That too is a personal decision, but it is often because people give up on the purity of faith. Religion has been corrupted to extremes. Terrorism comes to mind, but I am also thinking of the devadasi system, political evangelism, and the many cults that have killed followers. Time and again, religion has been used to control people, as an oppressive force rather than an uplifting, personal connection. And how can such pure theology become a tool for negative ends?

I don’t know if humans are innately evil or innately good. I do know that humans can corrupt faith or commit actions that will forever stain history, as we have seen here in Berlin. The Topography of Terrors, the wars and spying and killing, Sachsenhausen…all these things have made me wonder at humanity. Individuals have proposed theories such as the Lucifer Effect, but I cannot really say that I agree with any one of these explanations. The lack of compassion and empathy that has been demonstrated throughout history remains a mystery.

Yet, on this trip I have also seen triumphs of the human spirit. The Turkish football club’s story is inspiring. It is the only soccer club that competes on a professional level and contains Turkish players. Currently it has nineteen teams of all genders and ages. To get to this point, the club has struggled against discrimination from the government as well as from fellow soccer players. Even today, there is threat when traveling to eastern Germany, where neo-Nazis have taken over the football clubs. This was interesting: poverty in eastern Germany led to a vacuum that allowed neo-Nazis to establish strong influence over the population. The financial support was accompanied by a flow of backward ideals. The human power to hate is so strong, but I think that the Turkish soccer club’s love of football keeps them going against all these things. The director was charismatic and sincere, a combination that inspires confidence in those he leads. The club works with youth to give them a goal, confidence, and motivation. Furthermore, the club supports homosexual soccer clubs and teams (“Gaymes”).

This unity of groups that are being oppressed is kind of revolutionary. Before, there were many walls: one between Turkish population and others, one between gay people and others, one between religious minorities and others. That unity means that within these groups there is now only one wall. It separates open and closed minds.