i-Religion or Religion

Technology was untouched from religion initially, but gradual involvement of religious groups has infected it. We are sharing two stories about religion that are just opposite in nature to each other. The stories can tell you about the dubious behavior of any religion towards modern technology. Religion is struggling hard to decide whether to embrace technology or to leave. On one hand technology can bring people together through the latest trend, i.e. socializing them on a website or a web application, while on the other it will always open doors for rationalization, as people will meet each other, share thought, read stories and will use their intellect to settle down at any view point.

The first story is about the use of technology—

Mr. Seikh follow his religion strictly in concordance with daily prayers and other rituals in mosque. Every day he goes to mosque, offer prayer, and thereafter read portions of Quran on his mobile. The iQuran application turns out to be very useful to him.

He says that, "Though there are pocket sized versions of Quran available but it cannot be more convenient than having the full Quran in mobile. It is so easy to carry and so easy to use. Finally, it’s all about reading out those words, whether from book or from mobile. It does not make any difference."

Here it can be easily accessed that technology has played a great role in bringing religious aspects to a person’s life without any extra effort, it is on your fingertips. It helped Mr. Seikh to offer extra than the least required. That’s how your faith in your religion gets more strong, means by involving yourself more in it. Esp. for young it is for a great help, they can explore whatever they want about their religion.

Now, here is the second story where you can easily identify that a religious preacher had gone tizzy over the use of technology.

There is a place in India known as Banda, where runs an Islamic school, 'Madrasa Jama Arabia Hathaura,' in which every year thousands of students enroll for religious education.

This year management of school has banned use of multimedia phones inside its campus. They did not stopped here with their decision; they even went on burning many multimedia mobiles of students to establish the gravity of their ban. However, management has allowed the use of simple mobile handsets. The reason behind this call can be described as amateur thinking.

Maulana Kari Habeeb, head of the school says, "We found students browsing anti-religious contents and other immoral stuffs, therefore we decided that it would be better to ban such devices that can distract students from their motives, for which they came to religious institute."

Here is the ultimate reason, he further adds, "Teachers complained about students logging onto social networking websites and wasting time."

It is true that some students can be addicted to social networking websites spoiling their fruitful time, but what about those who were utilizing the web facilities to enhance their thinking. Atleast burning phones was definitely not an option and a pleasant example to set.

Everything has its pros and cons, but here, there should not be any doubt that there are far more advantages than disadvantages. After all, a student in between those pupils only would have developed apps like iQuran to engross inter-religious relationship of a person. Is it a type of hypocrisy by the religious preachers, or is it about fear of rationalism?