Category: HumanWithConscience EN

To my friend, the islamophobic,

Allow me to call you ‘my friend’, for I got to know you quite well since I read what you write a lot … even though you might not remember me at all. I see your posts on the social media weekly, sometimes daily. It is all about the achievements of the western society and the threat of the Islamic doctrine, which slowly will cut out the heart of our European standards, so you tell us. Every article you share is about Sharia law, about Muslim depreciation of women, about the hate against homosexuals in Islamic societies. I see your fear and I see your injured pride … for you have been suffering to make this society what it is now! You were one of those people who were brave enough to confront the chauvinists, the patriarchs and the homophobes so now gay couples can get married, women can become leaders of countries and sexuality is not only measured by accomplishing a pregnancy. You were a freedom fighter and this is not only meant in an intellectual way as the scars on your cheek can tell. I can understand what you’re going through and you have my sympathy. Continue reading “Approaching Islam”

When we speak of globalization, we target at present ‐ depending on the location and cultural background ‐ a variety of topics that lie at the interface between migration, trade agreements, the internet and the spread of disease. If one focuses a little closer on the effects of globalization, one meets also the question of the moral import, which heats the minds at many places, although in very different ways.

Especially one Western export is on an unstoppable triumphal march through all cultures and religions on the whole planet. We call it ‚Romantic Love’. It doesn’t matter whether it is in India, where it started to replace as ‚Love Marriage’ the arranged matrimony, in mainland China, where it goes hand in hand with the consumption of trendy brands or even in Muslim countries where young people nowadays strive to find justification of romantic love in the Qur‘an. The idea of romantic love in the sense of a monogamous, life long, emotional contract has been spreading like a virus through the minds and hearts of (young) people worldwide. Continue reading “Romantic Love – It’s Origins and Flaws”

In April 2014 just before leaving India I went with my family for a short vacation to Rishikesh. Our two year old son was especially impressed by the big Hanuman statue at Parmarth Niketan. He looked at the large, muscular god and pondered on his open heart were Rama and Sita resided. Off course for a little German boy these were not two gods but simply a man and a woman. May be he saw his parents in them, may be his grandmother and grandfather, may be some other loving couple. He called him ‚Hallo Mann!’ since this was the closest he could think of to the Sanskrit name Hanuman. ‚Hallo Mann!’ is German and means as much as ‚Hello man!’. We bought him a little statue of the god and it has a place of reverence on his small table where his toys are assembled. But he never plays with it. He greets him regularly: ‚Hallo Mann!’ he says. He has a connection, that’s obvious. Continue reading “Hanuman’s Heart”

I’m a huge movie fan … and not only movies … I also love to watch intelligently made tv-shows. I love the plots, the drama, the human fates and manufactured destinies. I must admit I mostly love the more naive shows, especially ‚Star Trek’. ‚Star Trek’ kind of turned me on to become a tv-show-fan. I saw all episodes of all series … at least three times each. When I knew them by heart I was looking for other visual food. I watched ‚Six Feet under’, ‚The Sopranos’, ‚True Blood’ and others. I must say I really enjoyed them in the beginning. But then after a while I got a bitter taste in my mouth. Why would I ingest so much morbidity, the adoration of evil, the normality of feeding by killing others? Continue reading “Standards of Ingestion”