First of all, peace and joy to all, whatever religion or religious doctrine you happen to embrace! Engaging in some form of spiritual practice, as part of our daily lives, hopefully enlightens us, and enlightened people make for a better world. One would hope. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. Particularly now, in these troubled times.
If you look to the past, so many of the wars and conflicts that have been such an integral part of our world history have been fought in the name of religion, and it continues to be a major and escalating problem. I find it so sad and disheartening that religion is the cause of such hatred and violence in our small world. God must be horrified to witness so many people murdering and being killed in His name.
Differences in religion have created a multitude of sins from the Muslim and Christian Crusades to the current troubles in the Middle-East, Africa and Asia ( and elsewhere). For the most part, the Christians have left that 'dark' side behind. They seem to have evolved beyond the need to violently force people to believe as they do. Unfortunately, the Muslim faith seems to have progressively worsened. They wage Jihad on unbelievers; they even indiscriminately kill other Muslims, women and children included. I realize that there are secular and moderate Muslims who don't actively participate in the violent aspects of that religion, and that it's the fundamentalist radical faction that does, but it's not as small a group as they would have us believe. And it seems that the religion is becoming increasingly radicalized. I ask those Muslims, who might be reading this, to please help me understand their religion. If Islam is truly a, so called, 'religion of peace' why are you killing each other? Why is there so much violence in the Islamic regions of the world?
My hope for 2007, is that they, whose hearts and minds are filled with such darkness and hatred, are somehow able to find (and embrace) the light and love that is GOD.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Peace and blessings to all.
6 comments:
Perhaps you should consider coming out of the closet. It seems you have a twenty-first century mentality. I seem to think that if Islamic extremists and the Bush administration joined us in twenty-first century thought the violence would subside.
That, unfortunately, isn't going to happen as long as they keep killing in the name of their Gods.
The challenge is not to decide who is right and wrong; the challenge is to figure out how to behave toward those people that one is certain are Wrong.
dick clinch: I might have a twenty-first century mentality, but I'm still very conservative when it comes to foreign policy. I have lived all over the world and feel I have earned my perspective.
The violence in the middle-east predates the Iraqi conflict. It goes back decades and centuries. As long as they believe that there are no consequences to killing what they call Kafirs, and that they will actually attain God's glory for killing a non-believer then the violence will continue. They have a very different mentality from Westerners and whether you believe I am being alarmist, Islamic Imperialism is a problem. I have a post that I am working on that will illuminate that further.
Peace.
Peter: But how are you expected to behave toward those who are trying to annihilate you?
Sadly and reluctantly, I have to agree with your basic thoughts on this one. Though some of the support for our actions in Iraq is religiously motivated, I wouldn't consider it a religious war. The actions that took place on 9-11, though, were, and it's disgusting. Religious fundamentalism of any brand seems to be dangerous and violent.
doughnutjane: in essence, it really is a religious war. it started with Saddam's massacre of the Kurds and his subjugation and oppression of the Shia majority. though how he managed that, I have no idea. while the Kurdish situation could be considered ethnic cleansing, it really has its basis in religion. And the current sectarian violence, is very obviously religious in nature. I do agree that any form of extremism is dangerous.
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