they shall think."(Arthur Shopenhauer). If one could train people how to think, he/she could control their thoughts, actions, and beliefs. Thus, religion gives one or a few selected men the power over millions of others; and power corrupts. Although one associates religion with good, holy and pure, it is not always used for pure causes. While religion in its true form can be used to do bring out the good in all people, it can also be used as a weapon.

Throughout history wars have been fought, innocent men, women, and children have been slaughtered in the name of God and religion. Does God, "the merciful, the compassionate"(The Koran) revel at the death of innocent men? Was God's glory magnified all that much as the crusaders took the city of Jerusalem? Or is it man who benefits at the cost of his fellow human being? Consequently, the main theme which religion was meant to transcend to man is often manipulated, and people ignorant as any other animal follow it blindly.

And blind obedience, along with other misuse of religion, is what Salman Rushdie comments on in the story "The Prophets Hair", in the book "East West". One theme, which

Therefore, the two characters in the Guide and The Prophets Hair could be called the antithesis of each other. Although both characters were transformed through the use of religion, one was transformed for the better while another for the worse. While Hashim forced religion on other people, Raju did not-people came to him for hope and advice. Raju also did not think of himself as a holy man nor was he a man who judged, while Hashim who all the while breaking his own religious laws judged others before judging himself. In addition Raju's brought people together instead of breaking them apart, he was also sublime in his way of preaching unlike Hashim-who made it a point to be overt.

Judging people also creates separations between people, even people related by blood. For example as Rushdie states "Within a few hours, however, the glassy contentment of that household, of that life of porcelain delicacy and alabaster sensibilities, was to be shattered beyond all hope of repair."(Rushdie 42) As soon as Hashim became a devout follower he began to judge his son and daughter on their devotion to the religion. He "accused his daughter of lasciviousness, because she went around the city barefaced..."(Rushdie 46) This caused his once close family to break apart, just as in life religious difference create many segregations of people who before being aware of their religious indifference lived like family. For example during the independence of India from the British Raj, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs were all living side by side in peace, until religious differences between them was invoked by politicians for their own gains. For instance in the novel "Cracking India" by Bapsi Sidhwa states "A Sikh youth whom Ranna has met a few times, and who has always been kind, pretends

But why do fundamentalist burn books? They burn books because they are trained to think that way, because books are knowledge and knowledge is power. Thus if every one had power, one man or one religious leader could not control the whole. For fundamentalism to work one has to be ignorant, and it is ignorance that religious leaders like Ayatollah Khomeni of Iran used controlled masses of people.

be used to change people for the better, as well as how religion can give peo

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Approximate Word count = 1517
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)