Jina-Renaissance in second 1001 words

Dr. Kamal Artin | Exclusive to iKurd.net

This is the second 1001-words essay in honor of Jina and Shahrazad. Many of us had a direct experience of injustice by fascism of the Islamic Regime (IR). We either couldn’t speak loud enough, or our cry’s fell on deaf ears. The world’s politicians were listening rather to the salesmen of this primitive, brutal, and manipulative regime. The national and international hypocrites ignored human rights and made deals with them. It was not in the interest of the corporate world to listen to those in pain of oppression. They described oppression as a normal cultural value of the primitives, by the primitives, for the primitives.

After over 4 decades and upon Jina’s death many more of those oppressed under the direct paws of the IR woke up. They joined the pioneers of 4 decades ago. Their screams under agony became a global public outcry. The world noticed the brutality of IR and so Jina’s death led to Jina-Renaissance. Now the renaissance is moving forward, has a peaceful path, and needs everyone’s input including mine and maybe yours.

As for me, I believe the movement needs to continue its peaceful path despite intimidation by the IR. The path to end religious fascism is with passive resistance and peaceful means. The goal is to end the IR and establish a liberal, democratic, and secular state instead. Despite some of its flaws, there is no better alternative than a liberal and secular democracy.

A major challenge in this path is how to broaden the number of participants in this pluralistic movement. Not everyone is ready to join. Some might be afraid of failure of the movement and some of revenge after its success. The movement has reached the point of no return. Its success is inevitable, even if it might take a while.

Regardless of their attitude during the last 100 years, everyone deserves to join the path! Most public servants of every state are citizens who think they are serving a nation. They depend on a government for survival; they might have been fooled, misled, or had no other options to serve even a brutal government. If such servants are not psychopaths, their humane qualities make them forgivable. A global amnesty might take away the fear of revenge and help many join the movement.

During the course of the movement mistakes are inevitable. The less mistakes the movement makes the sooner it gets to the end point. Behaving violently even against violent protectors of the IR is a mistake. Remember Gandhi didn’t want to bring himself down to the level of violent colonialists. Oppressors are violent, liberators do not need to learn anything from them.

No violence unless for direct self-defense is justified by humanity. Another mistake is dwelling on the past and preoccupation with who did what. This will be a waste of time and does not change the past. The purpose should be to try to find a solution for the future. Such a solution is multidimensional. An alliance of all participating factions of society is necessary to find the most pluralistic answers.

No faction has all the answers, but everyone together might have most of them. It is imperative that all factions from right and left apologize for their past mistakes and forgive each other before moving forward to build a better future.

Iran riot police are cheered on by the people in the Kurdish city of Mahabad as they refuse to crack down on anti-regime protests, Mahabad, Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat), November 20, 2022. Photo: Video/sm

Now it is necessary to organize a leadership council to plan the future. The future ought to offer a free election monitored by international observers. After such a step, the elected representatives make policies based on the will of the people.

No policy can be implemented without the approval of women and other minorities, whose independent counsel will have veto power. Religion should be respected and kept private. Religion is as private as sexuality is. Both sex and religion are sacred, if they provide comfort, joy, and satisfaction physically, mentally, or both.

Yet, no one is entitled to mix state and sexuality, or to impose a specific sexual style on the public, or to engage in sexual acts in public. Religion should similarly not have any such entitlement. To honor all peaceful opinions equally, all religious or opinion-based ceremonies and slogans in public need to be avoided. This will include praying in public; otherwise, it might indicate disrespect to other people’s opinion and style; it also could be a reminding nightmare for the victims of assault or religious oppression.

Some opinions have led to violence throughout history. One of the most oppressive opinions currently is Political Islam. Like other opinions, Islam might have had some peaceful points. However, its political form has caused harm to humanity and even to Islam itself. At times Arabs are blamed for this religion, which might be reflective of unconscious racism. This opinion was imposed by some and not all Arabs on many parts of the world. So, Arabs are not the enemy, but Political Islam is and it does not deserve survival.

Probably many Muslims reject Political Islam. Some need a non-political form of Islam only for a spiritual connection to a higher being they are most familiar with; those deserve respect if they keep it private. They deserve even more respect if they apologize to those who have been traumatized by Islam. When Political Islam leaves public life, Muslims will gain the respect of the free world again.

Some Islamic countries might be frightened of what will happen to their faith if Political Islam fails in another country. Such a failure might restore the credibility of spiritual and peaceful Islam. To do so those countries need to be proactive and support the collapse of political Islam wherever it is possible next.

Accepting such international support by those who pioneer in ending Political Islam is not selling out, but a necessity. This might restore the friendly relationship between nations to the time before Political Islam became dominant in world affairs. Let’s hope friendship, international cooperation and rejecting any domination will be the core of a successful Jina-Renaissance.

Kamal Artin, MD; 12-15-22; Background: Kermashan Jamea High School, University of Zurich, San Diego
University of California, Johns Hopkins University, University of Southern California, and in Private
Practice for over 2 decades with his loving dog, Dr. Fluffy. Former host of Dangi Be Dangan in Zurich, former president of KAES and KNCNA.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.