WeAre1

By Anonymous

We live in a world today where a religion defines a man, rather than man defining a religion. This art project is about the perception of religion, specifically the stereotypical view of religion, vis a vie what religion says about the topic of peace. I have taken a verse from The Qur’an (Islam), from the Bhagavad Gita (Hinduism) and from the Bible (Christianity), and tried to show how despite all these religions having the same message on peace, that man has come up with his own interpretations and caused misinterpretations and negative stereotypes.

All the verses that will be used will be about peace, and that of only God having the power to right and wrongs, not man. These holy scriptures all talk about peace, in their respective languages, however when it comes down to it, the message is the same. War=Bad, Peace=Good. Just because one terrorist is Muslim, does not mean all Muslims are terrorists, similarly, if one Christian is part of the KKK, does not mean all Christians are KKK, finally just because on Hindu is a rapist, does not mean all Hindu’s are rapists. Man’s actions should not be related to his religion.

Different people understand different messages from their respective holy scriptures, meaning they have different interpretations and unfortunately any negative actions they take, they say it was because of what they interpreted ‘God’ saying. Hence bringing on negative stereotypes being opposed on these religions.

For my art project I will use T-shirts as the medium, each T-shirt will represent the color of peace for the specific religion, and print the following texts on it (see below). I will then ask 3 of my colleagues, (Muslim, Christian and Hindu) to wear the T-shirts (Hindu - Bible verse, Muslim-  Bhagavad Gita verse, and Christian- Islamic verse). This shows that there are no barriers between these religions, no one religion is bad, and thought diversity and understanding is the key to destroy these negative stereotypes. Under it all, we all believe in peace.

This project was influenced by current world affairs.

WeAre1

Qur’an- (Olive Green)

Surat Al-Furqān  [25:63]

And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace

Bhagavad Gita- (Saffron) CH 2 verse 66

One with an uncontrolled mind cannot have spiritual intelligence, one devoid of spiritual intelligence never mediates on the Ultimate Truth and for one who never mediates on the Ultimate truth there is no peace and for one destitute of peace, where is happiness?

Bible: (Indigo)

Psalm 29:11

The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.