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An Imam’s wife was seriously sick and needed a blood transfusion but she had AB+ blood, a very rare type. The hopeless Imam begged the help of the local MP to help find the blood. After a long search they found only one donor, a Hindu woman. When the Imam discovered the donor is non-Muslim, he was disappointed and refused the blood.
This is the common and abhorrent attitude of various religious because of information gapping. Although they are satisfied in their pray conditions and lifestyle, they refuse to accept different religions and their ideas. The situation is more critical when militant groups create conflicts and kill people in the name of religion. The present situation of the world makes it crucial for a new truth to be born.
The attributes of the new truth should be a unique combination of both internal and external essences, mind and body, religion and science. Science represents the external and religions stand for internal feature of truth. The truth only can be completed when external and internal; science and religion will be totally united to each other. For the last two centuries, however, science, the body of truth, developed and expanded tremendously. But religion stood still. The spirit of truth could not grow as was needed. A big gap between science and religions occurred as a result, especially the Muslim world. Not only fanatic groups of Jews, Muslim and Christian but also the secular leaders have uncompromising resentments towards other religions, and are obsessed with being the superior religion. That makes agitation and unrest common circumstances.
Although we are living in the era of information, the majority world doesn’t know the values of a Global family and the purpose of life. Both the religious and the non religious are moving with same mission to establish the ‘Peace and Prosperity’. Religious people can contribute more than politicians, educators and social leaders. But they are silent and isolated. A true religious believer has no race, no country, and no boundaries. We are all bothers and sisters, members of God’s Family. Our life motto should be ‘Living for the sake of others’. We will be successful when will inherit God’s love, life and lineage, and take in mind God is our living Parent. The important information 90% world populations believe in God and religion. If we truly believe and practice ‘Global family values; one family under one God’ as part of our traditions, there is no power that could destroy the ultimate goal, world peace.
However, the whole world is moving to establish the peace and happiness fighting with the degradation of human values! In this situation 'New Media' can provide all the facts; it will prevent confusion and provide clear guidance for the betterment of individuals and leadership based on true love, responsibility and commitment.
The internet and multimedia as well as ICT can play a prophetic role to promote the Global family values and can unite the whole world into a community. My desire to see the priests as internet users, and the establishment of a cyber café community in religious institutes. If those cyber cafés would open for all, priests could arrange online peace dialogue positively with other religious people centering on one God, better understanding and consciousness will not be so far. The global consciousness will easily be matured.
Today’s world even our mind is divided based on religion and information. However divided individual, family, community, nation and religion should unite which only possible by loving, serving and understanding others.
In Bangladesh, priests never touch the internet; avoid the cyber culture and expand propaganda in sermon also, “Internet is a satanic culture, and is a trap of Jews-Christian to destroy Muslim young generation!” Not only this but also there is hidden cultural conflict between parents and children about the using the internet. Middle class parents’ feel that the internet is a pornographic media by which our children’s morality will fall! But most of the parents and social leaders don’t have the experience with the new media. They don’t know through the Internet anybody can know anything, anytime from anywhere of the world!
Last three years in Dhaka and surrounding areas, a huge number of private cyber cafés have been established. More than 90% subscribers of those cyber cafes are young and teenagers. What do they visit? Almost 2/3 of the time they are visiting pornographic sites, chatting or playing sex games. Very fractional number is used only web mail and job search engine. Dhaka’s cyber cafés are very congested but the monitors are safely surrounded by boards to insure the user’s privacy. But parents are very worried that the use of the computer will lead to the dilapidation of their children’s characters. The religious leaders are also very tense about the expansion of a so-called free sex culture.
In early 1994 DrikTAP Bangladesh’s first electronic mail was set up with the vision to provide global network facilities to local and international development activist organizations. Within short time the situation has been developed. Now Bangladesh has almost 70 ISPs. Including the biggest NGO Grameen Bank, Proshika and BRAC has also own satellite connectivity. But the service providers are only focusing to the city area and are not interested in the rural areas, even though 80% of the country’s population lives in the villages. They are reluctant to provide digital communication to the poor, with the thought that the villages are not profitable regions. Even though there is a great prospect and need for a rural internet program as like as ‘Grameen Phone1’.
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Writer Profile
Shahjahan Siraj
Shahjahan Siraj is a multiemdia designer, film maker and development practitioner (http://www.machizo.com/siraj) in Bangladesh. He is the founder of Machizo Multimedia Communication, however editor and publisher of 'Climate Radio', 'UnnayanTV' and 'UnnayanNews'. (http://www.machizo.com)
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