Paris Terror Attacks | Religion. Terrorism. Condemnation.

I flew into Europe yesterday to be greeted with news of Terror Attacks in Paris—and we should not forget the recent Charlie Hebdo attacks too.

At the heart of the conversation once again is religion; a group of religious people sincerely believe a celestial father has commanded them to kill others, and reward them with 77 virgins once the mission has been accomplished.

Of course there are evil and psychopaths all around who would not hesitate to kill others—but you cannot deny the fact that when armed with the above doctrine, a rational person would easily become a psychopath and already psychopaths would become more diabolical.

Religion, especially Islam is a mother lode of bad ideas and until we decide to have the difficult conversations on the falsity of killing others to become a martyr as well as condemn the other dangerous doctrines, we will face more of such heinous attacks.

Sure, there is always going to be politics interlaced with such atrocious killings, but we cannot rule out the key motivation and doctrines which easily create these human killing machines.

Over 128 innocent people have been killed plus 8 others have died killing these people. Several others have been injured in the multiple but coordinated Paris attacks.

While ISIS is being pointed as the political and religious brain behind the barbaric killings, one of the killers is also reported to have shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ before opening fire in a crowded concert hall.

You cannot separate ISIS’ seemingly political fight from the religious mandate it has clothed itself in—on the back of which it continues to recruit young Muslims to take centre stage in its fight.

Several Muslim leaders across the globe have come out to condemn the attacks just as they always do, but that to me is not enough. Waiting for attacks to happen each time before condemnation is pretty useless.

If there ought to be condemnation, it must be directed towards those religious doctrines which easily fuel these attacks. The doctrines remain sacred and unchallenged—and we expect these attacks to disappear?