Marx and Si Pedagang Agama

"Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions."

::Karl Marx having a hard time accepting Hegel 's "Philosophy of Law" ::

One of the reason why Marx dislike religion was because he felt that religion is hypocritical. It might profess and advocate valuable principles but to him, it also sides with the Oppressors. Jesus was known to advocate for the rights and welfare of the poor but still, it was the Christian church that merged with the Roman empire which took part in the enslavement of people for centuries. Martin Luther preached for the individual right to intepret the Bible but it also supported the Aristocratic rulers and denied the struggle of the peasants who fought against economic oppression during that era. It is also embedded in history that Churches in the Mid-Ages were preaching about hereafter and salvation in life in return for a reward in heaven while at the same time, they accumulated power and wealth gleefully. These are of course, historical instances apparent to Marx before and during his time which he observed and used to substantiate his analysis. We on the other hand, could of course list down other examples of how religion secured monarch status quo or preserved an empire from one civilization to another.

Marx's opinion that religion opiates people from seeing their sufferings and realizing real life oprression seemed to materialize in our local politics nowadays. Well, it was apparent during Tun Mahathir`s reign but it seemed that with our Premier `s call for Islam Hadhari and our society's submission to the ideals of religion notwithstanding the fact whether they understand what they are preaching or practising, more of our "beloved" Malay Muslim political leaders put so much effort in presenting themselves as god-fearing pious bunch. My only fear is that the images of political leaders performing ablution before issuing official statements publicly (re: our "beloved" State Assemblyperson from the sunny province of Port Klang) or swearing by the Al-Quran to prove her innocence ( re: the lady with the big, big hair) will divert OUR attention from the actual issue. They can perform as many ablutions as they wish or swear by ALL the Qurans sold at Jalan Masjid India, but none of that could religiously whisked away their corruption charges or other forms of political power malfunction. Don't drag God into your problems or even worse, hire God as your Advocates & Solicitor. You have enough money to hire lawyers to do the job for you. There is a term that Union Guy used repeatedly when he came across all this nonsense. He would be calling these people the "Pedagang Agama". Who are these religion traders? They are people that use religion to create delusion in order for the public to worship appearances (as public will always do because public will always be public, you see) which will divert them for the underlying reality. Sounds damn "sold-out" to me.