প্যাট্রিক কন্ডেল: আমাদের লোক – ৪০

রিপোস্ট: সাম্প্রতিক ঘটনার সঙ্গে প্রাসঙ্গিক বলে।

"ধর্মগুলোকে ঘাঁটানোর কী দরকার! থাক না ওসব নিজেদের মতো!" - এই জাতীয় অতি সুশীল শান্তির বাণী অন্য অনেকের মতো আমিও শুনি। ঘনিষ্ঠজনদের কাছ থেকেও। তাদের কথার অর্থ দাঁড়ায় একটাই: ধর্মগুলো যা খুশি করার অধিকার রাখে, কিন্তু সেগুলোর বিরুদ্ধে কিছু বলার প্রয়োজন নেই। 

কিন্তু প্যাট্রিক কন্ডেলের মতো আমিও মনে করি, ধর্ম নামের ধারণাটিকে অপমান করাই প্রয়োজন। কারণ সে আমাকে অপমান করে পদে পদে। এবং শুরুটা সে-ই করেছে। শাণিত ও লক্ষ্যভেদী বক্তব্যের সাড়ে তিন মিনিটের এই ভিডিও দেখে নিশ্চিত হোন, ধর্মগুলো কীভাবে নিজেদের কৃতিত্বে অপমানিত হবার যোগ্যতা অর্জন করেছে। 

প্যাট্রিক কন্ডেল,   

অডিও লিংক (১.৫ মেগাবাইট) 

ভিডিও দেখুন ট্র্যান্সক্রিপ্ট-এর নিচে: 

Okay, this is a quick video for those, mainly, Christians and Muslims who keep telling me, for reasons I can never quite fathom, that I have no right to insult their religion. I don't know who made up that rule (and nobody was looking) but apparently somebody did. So let me give you my perspective on it now, if I may.

I give your religion as much respect as your religion gives me. There's nothing complicated about it and I have every right to insult a religion that goes out of its way to insult, to judge and to condemn me as an inadequate human being: which your religion does with self-righteous gusto. When it comes to insults, your religion started this - not me. If your religion kept its big mouth shut, so would I. 

But given that it doesn't and given the enormous harm that your religion has done in this world, I'd say that I have not only a right but a duty to insult it: as does every rational thinking person on this planet. In fact, I think it should be compulsory for everyone to insult your religion every day. No . . . not every day . . . five times every day. Oh what the hell. Ten times. One for each commandment. And even that wouldn't be enough. Because the moment that your religion claims any kind of jurisdiction over my experience, you insult me on a level that you can't even begin to comprehend. Even if your beliefs had substance, the arrogance of that would be insult enough. But the fact that they have no substance and are merely a transparent raft of delusions and lies, magnifies the insult enormously. And for this reason, not only do I have a perfect right to insult your religion, I have a right to insult YOU personally the moment I have to hear about your poxy religion.

The moment you offer me any kind of scripture-based opinion about what I should believe or the values I should hold or especially the morals I should exhibit, then you can expect to be graphically and comprehensively insulted for your trouble and I sincerely hope they hurt your feelings, harms your personal well-being and damages your self-image to the extent that you have to go and lie down for ten minutes before you can even pray.

If I'm not allowed to express my sincerely held belief that your religion is a crock of dangerous, evil, dehumanizing, superstitious, garbage then it seems to me that I don't have religious freedom but you do. Because I can assure you that I hold that view with a passion and a solemn intensity that can match anything that you've got to offer. It is, for me, a core defining belief and a pillar of my whole reality: an absolutely unshakeable, fundamental conviction that resonates to every fiber of my being that your religion is, in fact, a crock of dangerous, evil, dehumanizing, superstitious, garbage that pollutes and degrades the world I have to live in and I'm not happy about it. And I feel morally obliged . . . nay, compelled, to make this known loudly and often, regardless of who claims to be offended, because not to do so would violate everything I am and everything I believe in. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I'd feel like a liar and a coward and, well, something of a moral cockroach. And that would weigh very heavily on my conscience. 

I'm sure you understand.

লক্ষ্য করুন, ভিডিওটি সাবটাইটেলসহ দেখার ব্যবস্থা আছে।