Much debate is going on around us, especially on social media, about religion. Comments express the size of the tragedy in the Arab and Muslim world with respect to the use of religion in political conflicts.
Some believe that the Arab and Islamic world live the tragedy of fifteenth century Europe, and thus time difference between us and Europe seems about almost five centuries, according to this view. Others argue that what is known as the Arab Spring sparked religious controversy after Islamist groups emerged to the forefront of the political scene in some Arab states and took control by virtue of the profound experiences in political manoeuvring, attracting audiences and deceiving millions of ordinary people in the countries where the majority of people are looking for hope in a dignified life and a safe future.
In all cases, religion has become a matter of political controversy, and this is dangerous because this eliminates the distinction between the sacred and the profane, the stable and the variable, subjecting religious values to insult and subjective criticism.
Amid the controversy in the social media, the reality of the Arab world and its future seem far from reassuring, as if the page of the legacy of fourteen centuries of cultural and humanitarian heritage of Islamic history and civilization was turned and millions of Muslims went searching for the identity they think is missing!!.
Some say that atheism turned into a “phenomenon” in many Arab and Islamic countries in response to the spread of extremist religious discourse.
Atheism accompanied several shifts in contemporary Arab history, and always came in response to setbacks and defeats and disappointments experienced by Arab and Islamic peoples in previous historical periods. But today it is accompanied by a heated controversy by virtue of a new variable. The social media plays a prominent role in debates and in the circulation of news.
No one can confirm atheism has turned into a “phenomenon” in the absence of systematic and standardized measurements by which to attain or approach a degree of certainty, but it can be said without exaggeration in this regard that there are factors that seem ‘religious”, and these factors have contributed to the present situation. These factors include the subversive and radical spread of religious discourse and the failure of extremist groups to assume power in some Arab countries. Everyone discovered the emptiness of their ideology and the falsity of their projects, making them another face of traditional political parties accused of despotism and authoritarianism. In the light of this miserable reality, a lot of young people lost hope and faith in everything.
It is terrible for political currents and groups to associate themselves to religion and monopolize religious discourse. When they fail, it appears as if religion fails, and this is not right. Religion does not have a magic solution, but calls for adopting the right means. However, doing business with religion insults religion. Millions of Muslims thought that these groups are committed to the law of God, and are taken care of by God, but when these groups acted pathetically and cynically in political and economic affairs, a negative reaction happened. First, the enemies of religion rushed to undermine religious values and. afterwards, a slice of young people lost faith in everything, and had narrow options among which was atheism.
In general I do not want to focus here on atheism because I have not considered it a phenomenon as the number of atheists does not exceed, for example, a thousand (according to estimates attributed to the Egyptian Fatwa last year) in a large country like Egypt , which has a population of about ninety million people.
Frankly, atheism does not worry me as much as I am concerned about the presence of religion in the heart of conflicts. Attention should be paid to the harbingers of religious strife that is formed in the Arab region and the Islamic world. Religious-ideological wrangle is no longer only between Sunnis and Shiites but also between Muslims and Christian on the social media.
One of the reasons for this grim reality, I think, is the deterioration of education and social and scientific development in the Arab and Muslim world, and the spread of the culture of exclusion and rejection of the other and hatred, and the search for metaphysical solutions to worldly problems. The conflict is between the past and the future, science and superstition, but religion is innocent. Islam is a religion of reason and science, not a religion of superstition, ignorance, excessive selfishness or exclusion…
