“Islam is a monotheistic religion, Hinduism is not.” I find many people on this forum say that.
This is a typical inaccurate and over-simplistic idea about Hinduism prevalent among certain sections, I think largely due to improper understanding and excessively dogma-driven approach. The fact is that while Hinduism recognizes multiple gods/divinities, a Hindu believes in a supreme divine eternal truth from which the heaven, the Earth, and indeed the entire universe have been formed and undergo cycles of creation, flourishing, and destruction. The Vedas clearly state that there is one truth, which the wise men say in different ways. One “Brahman” as the basis of everything, is also the central theme of the Upanishads. The Bhagvad Gita again revolves around the concept of a single Lord Vishnu that is identified with Brahman. Thus, whether one identifies Brahman (the supreme divine truth) with Lord Vishnu, or Lord Shiva, or even Goddess Durga doesn’t matter to a Hindu. Similarly, in Hinduism, the presence of multiple other divinities and demigods, other than one’s primary deity, are indeed perfectly acceptable due to the realization that everything has sprung from and is a part of that One, and has a distinct role to play in the larger scheme of things.
“Islam prohibits idol worship, Hinduism preaches it extensively”.
It is true that Islam has zealously banned icons, and idols. Indeed, in the morally decaying pre-Islamic Arabia, the wrongdoers were idol worshippers. “Idol worshipper” has thus been made into a derogatory phrase, often used as an insult. During the 800 years of Muslim rule in India, it was from time to time used as a tool for socio-political suppression of Hindus by certain invaders and rulers, As for Hinduism, I being a Hindu, have yet to come across a Hindu commandment or read a religious book that “extensively preaches” idol worship as such, as the writer claims. The fact is that Hindu philosophy provides enough freedom to express the divine in various artistic forms, because it is virtually the only philosophy that believes that the divine can have multiple forms or “avatars”; that there can be multiple paths to achieving a higher spiritual goal, all equally valid and worthy of reverence.