Throughout history, religious people have literally demonized groups of people other than their own. I started thinking deeply about this topic after considering the (former?) views of the Nation of Islam (NOI.) The NOI was founded on July 4, 1930. At least until the 1970s, they had preached that White people belonged to, in the words of Malcolm X when he was still a major leader in the group, “a filthy race of devils.”
However, at least since the 1980s, the NOI has backed away from such talk, at least in public. Still, if pressed on the issue, they will say that considering White people’s uniquely bad treatment of non-White people, they have behaved like devils, and the description is accurate.
This idea compelled me to think even more deeply. First, how does one demonstrate that all White people have behaved like devils? What about White people like Robert Green Ingersoll, Thomas Paine, Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Kurtz and countless others? Even Malcolm gave the great abolitionist John Brown a pass. These kinds of Whites help disprove the NOI’s contention that the White race was created by an evil bigheaded scientist named Yakub 6,600 years ago.
Secondly, are the crimes of White people really unique? Some of their crimes seem to be unique. For example, as Thomas Paine pointed out, White slavers did not enslave Africans as prisoners of war. Rather, they invaded the continent and kidnapped innocent people.
However, some Blacks have committed reprehensible crimes against humanity. For example, there are the Black-on-Black genocides in Rwanda and Burundi. Moreover, some historians believe that the Chaka the Zulu warrior might have killed as many as two million Africans during his reign.
For these reasons and others, some Black religionists have told the NOI’s leader Minister Louis Farrakhan that we are all devils, not just White people. Farrakhan had expressed agreement with this view. That, then, means that the NOI’s teaching about White devils must be false, and that the NOI should admit this and denounce the teaching.
In any case, could the NOI be onto something? If the behavior of White people justifies calling them devils, why stop there? We could say that considering the history of patriarchy, sexism, and misogyny, all men are devils. The NOI for example, preaches and practices female submission.
Considering the history of homophobia, one could argue that all heterosexuals are devils. Heterosexual religionists in Africa still call for the death penalty for LGBT people. Heterosexuals have committed hate crimes against LGBT people, driven gay teens to suicide, discriminated against LGBT people and in numerous other ways made their lives a living hell. Members of the NOI, for instance, still angrily denounce gay men and refer to them as faggots, and to homosexuality as “faggotry.”
In light of the history of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bigotry and violence committed by Christians, perhaps people could call Christians devils. Christians have carried out numerous pogroms against Jews in Europe, have harassed and discriminated against Muslims, have condoned the use of torture against Muslims, and have used bigoted statements against Muslims in unjust wars.
Some could contend that Muslims are devils. Their theocratic governments are among the worst in the world. No religious extremists treat women worse than do extremist Muslims. Conservative and reactionary Muslims hate LGBT people, and in some nations, have the death penalty on the books for those involved in same-sex relations. Extremist Muslims have made Christianity illegal in some nations, and in some nations, extremist Muslims are carrying out ethnic cleansing against Christians. They have destroyed non-Muslim cultures and history gleefully, including the destruction of Buddhist statues.
Finally, it could be argued that human beings are devils considering our desire to hunt and kill innocent animals for fun and profit, our thoughtless and wanton destruction of the environment, anthropogenic climate change, and so on.
Returning to the discussion of the NOI, some people believe that Whites are unique in their clever uses of technology to subdue people. However, Syrians and other non-Whites have used chemical weapons, and there are many extremist Muslims who are dying to get their hands on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) so that they can violently bring down the “decadent West.”
Can devils change? According to the Bible, Lucifer changed from good to bad. Can a devil change from bad to good? If not, what are “good” human beings supposed to do to devils? Kill them?
In reality, there are no devils. As Ingersoll pointed out, there is no devil or God. There is only good and evil. Just delete the “d” from “devil” and add an “o” to “God.”
Playing the devil blame game is stupid, childish and dangerous. People from all backgrounds must denounce this foolishness consistently.