It was a scene that one would think could come only from a ghastly violent story: burning a prisoner alive. But ISIS did just that in full view of the world, fulfilling the textbook requisites for terrorism, and igniting a firestorm of rage and recrimination even throughout the Muslim world. The murderers cried “God is great” as their hapless victim pitifully sank to his knees. This time, their victim —whose remains were crushed after he had been burned— was likewise a Muslim. Blaming religion will not bring us any closer to a solution. Religion is an insistent, persistent phenomenon of human history. It can however be understood, although the crimes committed in its name defy all reason and condonation.
What place does religion have, if any, in secular modernity? Says Habermas: “Faith remains opaque for knowledge in a way which may neither be denied nor simply accepted.” In the simplest terms possible: Secular knowledge does not really know what to do about the claims of faith. Lest this lull us into complacent thinking—if secular society does not know what to do with religion, then religion can go on flourishing on its own— it will be well to remember that the discourse of modern society is secular discourse. The Legislature seldom, if ever, passes laws because of religious reasons. Courts studiously avoid resolving cases on religious grounds. Artists seldom take up religious themes. And religious debates and discussions are listened to not because they instruct but because they amuse. The result may very well be, if modern society remains undecided about its relation to religion, that religion is sidelined as some vestigial appendage of secular society!
How then do we deal with those who behead or immolate their victims in God’s name? The Bible says that I am my brother’s keeper, even if my brother happens to be a thief or a murderer. The Decalogue commands me not to kill. But when secular society is really unsure about how seriously to take the Bible or even whether or not to pay any heed to the Decalogue, then the next obvious problem is how we must reject this brand of fervor and militant religiosity that slashes, burns, kills and maims!
When one thinks of the fundamentalism that one finds in Islamic communities and even Christian evangelical churches, then it is not difficult to see that we sit on a tinderbox just waiting for the moment of combustion. To insist that things be done as one reads his Scripture (be these Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu scriptures), then one is immediately confronted by the fundamental conviction of modernity—that the State and the world community should be neutral towards world-views, that all may enjoy the freedom to believe and the liberty to worship. Fundamentalism is intolerant, and intolerance spawns violence because the pluralism fundamentalists so vexatious and unsettling is the very sundering of the seamless robe of a world-view that religion once provided against which they do battle. Contemporary society’s neutrality in respect to sectarian allegiances cannot take the form of apathy, because that is already to assume a posture against religion!
The concept therefore of “post-secular society” is a signal to both State and religion that while religion continues to be a force in society, the increasingly pluralistic complexion of society requires of religion respect that goes well beyond mere tolerance. Habermas writes: “If together they understand the secularization of society to be a complementary learning process, both sides can, for cognitive reasons, then take seriously each other’s contributions to controversial themes in the public sphere.” We cannot give up on religion, but neither shall we be deferential to its manifestations when these take such brutal forms as the immolation of foes. Even in a secular society, Moloch is unwelcome!