Review nº 5

Article ‘The moment of truth’

Although the choice of religion is supposed to be a private personal right for every human being, in many parts of the worlds this right is under threat. This issue is profoundly developed in the article ‘The moment of truth’ from a publication of The Economist newspaper.
The article begins depicting the case of a Jewish New Yorker who after having experimented with several creeds and lifestyles, one day while reading the Koran he realized his religious faith was on the Islam and he converted to it. This life-changing moment can be gradual, but quite commonly things come to the head in a single instant. This instant can be triggered by a text, an image, a ceremony or some private realisation. In the west it is generally taken for granted that people have a saved right to follow their own religious path, and indeed to invite, but not compel, other people to join them. America for example, promotes religious liberty, but this is very much the exception, not the rule, in human history. In most human societies, conversion has been seen as an act whose consequences are as much social and political as spiritual. That is why conversion is becoming a hot international topic. Conversion will never be seen as a purely individual matter when one religiously-defined community is at war or armed stand off with another. And in any situation where religion and authority are bound up, changes of spiritual allegiance cause shock-waves, as was the case during the reign of the Ottoman empire, or during the Soviet Union times, or in former territories of the British empire. And in many ways religious freedom is receding, not advancing, as in India where people who changed their faith often hide it for fear of losing their rights to state jobs and university places.
This article deals with a reality that is usually hidden to the rest of the world by their countries of origin. Religious matters are quite debatable nowadays especially in the occidental hemisphere but in the east things are quite different.
To sum up, religion has been, is and will always be matter of worldwide controversy. And as people need a faith in which believe, oppresive regims will use religion to try to manipulate and control their communities.