What is the Vedic perspective on Islam?

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and the practicality and the principles need to be balanced together.
Any other questions? So, what is the theology of Saudi Arabia? Do they also have some version of prospective theology? Yes. Actually, if we look at the life of Mohammed, in general, in India, there was this division of power between the brahmanas and the kshatriyas. So, the brahmanas had intellectual and spiritual power, the kshatriyas had martial and political power.
And whichever culture or whichever religion, whichever ideology has spread very fast, they have always had to have these two coming together. So, Buddha, Buddhism was almost like an isolated religion till Ashoka took it up. So, that is again a brahmana and kshatriya coming together.
Similarly, Christianity was a perceived religion. Jesus was primarily more like a brahmana. Paul was more like a kshatriya.
And then afterwards, later on, of course, the Byzantine Emperor took it up. Now, in the case, so like that, we can look at various various thought systems. They spread by the combination of brahmana and kshatriya.
Now, in Mohammed, in Islam, Mohammed, in one person is seen as both a brahmana and kshatriya. You know, he gave spiritual knowledge. He gave the Quran.
And he was supposed to be like a spiritual or intellectual teacher. But he was also a warrior. He himself fought wars.
And when it comes to wars, quite often, sometimes some ethical principles have to be, are compromised in the real politic of war. So, now, in the subsequent history of Islam, most Muslim leaders have followed the martial example of Mohammed much more than his intellectual example. So, although they may quote the Quran, and they may say that we have great faith in the Quran, but quite often, their focus has been on the martial example of Mohammed, how he fought, how he won and whatever he did, the means justify the ends, sorry, the end justify the means, that ideology that was there.
So, that was being adopted quite a bit. Now, on an average level, there are many Muslims who are pious. And an exceptional level, there are, there have been many Muslims who have been very advanced saints also.
But as a, as a society, the leaders within Islam who have been influential, are the leaders who have followed more the martial example of Mohammed than the, than the intellectual or spiritual example. And that is why, individually, there may, there are Muslims who have seen the practice of Islam as a means towards spiritual growth. But collectively, Islam has been much more political search for power than a spiritual search for truth.
So, if the Brahmanical example is followed more, then there can be a spiritual search for truth. And there have been Muslims who have done that. But at a collectively level, where the leaders are concerned, so, this separation of the Kshatriya and the Brahmana, that is not there at all in Islam.
Although they have their, they have their intellectuals, but quite often, the intellectuals are the people, only those intellectuals become prominent, who, who support the radical political leaders. And that is how the intellectual aspect is subordinated to pursue the political aspect. So, there is a significant amount of religiosity within Islam.
In fact, Prabhupada, on many occasions, appreciated the religiosity of Muslims. He said that, for example, that, that many Muslims, you know, since their childhood, they teach their children Quran. And they know the verses from the Quran.
But unfortunately, in India, many Hindus, they do not teach the Bhagavad Gita like that to their children. So, he said that many, many Muslims, Prabhupada lived most of the time in Bengal, and sometime in Varanasi. So, that is where he had it, and Mumbai also.
But mostly, his childhood was in Bengal. That is where he observed. He said, he would say that whenever a Muslim gets a substantial amount of money, the first thing that he does is, he builds a mosque, or he contributes to building a mosque.
But he says not many Hindus do that. So, Prabhupada appreciated the, the, the individual cultural practices that Islam fostered among its followers. Now, Prabhupada did not get involved too much in, in, he kept his presentation quite transcendental.
So, he did not get involved in the Hindu-Muslim politics that was there. And so, he just documents as a fact, he does not deny that many of the Hindu temples were destroyed during Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, during the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and other places. And all this is a result of the radical ideology.
Now, I am not going to go into the ideology per se. But the point is, there is at an individual level, Muslims do practice their religion quite diligently. But at a collective level, the influence of the radical leaders is often quite more than that of the moderate leader, moderate leaders, whoever they are.
And that is why the religiosity is there. But that religiosity can very easily be shifted to radicalism, where often the ends justify the means. So, if we see the terrorism, some critics try to equate.
Actually, you say Islam is violent, but actually every religion is violent. The Christians fought the Crusades. And they, when they, they try to quote some incidents from the Hindu religion also, where people, the kings were violent.
But if we see the whole idea of terrorism, that is the exact opposite of Kshatriya warfare. See, Kshatriya warfare means two people will fight who are both equal, equipped and alert. Now, a horse rider will fight with a horse rider, a chariot warrior will fight with a chariot warrior.
Terrorism is the exact opposite. Now, you attack people who are not equal, who are not, who are not equipped, who are not alert. So, there are trade warriors who attack civilians who do not have weapons, and who are just going around their normal way of life.
So, in that sense, terrorism, we cannot even say that it is a, it is a draw, it is a derivation from the Kshatriya example of Mohammed. It is a complete perversion of, of the Kshatriya principles. Completely, it is the closest example that we can get in the Vedic literature is Ashwatthama’s killing of the Pandava warriors at night, when they were sleeping.
And that is condemned totally in the scriptures. So, the radicalization of Islam is because the prominent leaders of Islam have followed more the martial example. And even within the martial example, they have this idea of the end justify the means.
And that has been misappropriated quite a bit. And that is how the although at an individual level, there is adherence to religiosity, but at a collective level, there is a high level of susceptibility to radicalization. Does that address your question? So, thank you very much.