Knowledge of religion could bring about peace

I was sitting at the launderette the other day, and a child was running around the machines asking a million questions to his annoyed mother. I tried to keep reading and ignore them, but kids can be obnoxiously loud. When the mother finally got the boy to sit down and do homework, he still couldn't stop talking and asking questions.

"What are the five pillars? I'm going to draw them!"

"The five pillars?" his mother asked, unsure.

"Of Islam!" the boy shrieked.

I was shocked. I'm sure I laughed out loud, which must have been rude. But I kept staring at my book, now focused more on their conversation. The boy could not have been more than eight years old, and his homework was religious studies.

His mother sat down to help him, asking if the pillars were real or metaphorical. He pretended to know what metaphorical meant for about 20 minutes, insisting they were "real pillars! REAL!"

The answer he was really seeking was metaphorical. The pillars include professing your faith, performing ritual prayers, paying a tax to help the needy, fasting for Ramadan and a pilgrimage to Mecca. That is the foundation for the Muslim faith. Piety and helping others.

And yet, in today's world, we have people willing to blow themselves up in the name of Islam, killing as many non-Muslims as they can in the name of their god.

But the Qur'an has a term, "People of the Book," which refers to the religious followers of the Torah, the common text shared between Jewish, Christian and Islamic followers. It states outright that we all worship the same god, and though the Muslim way is "correct," Christians and Jews are still followers of Allah, aka God. 

How would those bombers answer to that part of the Qur'an? They are killing their own people according to their religious texts.

Religion is a powerful thing and has the potential to start conflict worldwide. But knowledge is just as powerful. The knowledge and understanding of other religions reveal a lot of similarities.

Gandhi once said while he still considered himself Hindu, he believed all religions had error and all had truth. He said he realized he should "hold (other religions) as dear as Hinduism."

Whether or not you agree with this idea, it is impossible to deny the common ground in most religions: we are to follow God and love others. Simple, basic. And yet we fight.

Maybe if we understood more about each other, we wouldn't have to deal with holy war and the suffering it brings. British students take religion classes when they are young, something I didn't have the opportunity to do until college. I would have liked to know sooner. I would like for all of us to know sooner— before we let things get out of hand and start hating one another instead of loving and accepting everyone.

Contact Shea Anderson at anderson84@marshall.edu.