The Value of Life
One can only assume from unbiased observation, from all observable yardsticks of collective values and behaviours that Judaism is a religion of life, a celebration of life, an appreciation for life, a religion that holds life dear and seeks to protect it by any and all means.One can only assume from the historical record and from recent world-shattering, world-wide events that Islam is a religion of strife, a celebration of war, an appreciation for fanatacism, a religion that holds life in scant regard and seeks to persuade Muslims to sacrifice themselves for the greater glory of Allah.
How, one wonders, could it be possible that two great religions of antiquity are so assymetrically opposed? Both require faith in the universality of a single divine spirit devoted to the good of humankind and requiring devotion from true believers in return for the solace of soul this devotion ensures. Both enjoin its devotees to behaviours reflecting a written code of conduct.
Perhaps they are not all that different in origin, evolution and acceptance/application. Perhaps there is a great similarity between the two religions/cultures when one compares the pure devotion of the religious addict, the fanatical interpreter, the adamant eagerness of the true fundamentalist. Perhaps the difference is in pure numbers: Islam covers a great global range; Judaism is confined to a relatively small group. Fanatical Islamists are far greater in number and influence, in potential danger to those they target, than the comparatively smaller and far less culturally war-like fundamentalist Jew.
Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that as with all matters in which mankind is involved, a certain evolution in thought, behaviours and actions must accompany any culture or religion to reflect civil, legal, intellectual and scientific progress. Accordingly, it may be seen that those of the Jewish faith have been more amenable to an interpretation of scriptures that largely benefit humankind, while those of the Muslim faith have been more rigid and authoritarian in their interpretation of scriptures that largely benefit the clerics among them, while impoverishing intellectually, materially, and co-operatively, the larger collective worshipping Allah.
Both religions demand respect for human life and address the issue by the adage that to save one life is as though countless lives were saved; to take one human life is comparable to the taking of countless lives. Life is sacred. So we see Israel acting in the sincere belief that this is so, by striving to curtail activities which impact on loss of life, while Muslim terrorists declare their complete disregard for human life in their statements and deeds, while at the same time celebrating both as paeons to Allah.
Muslims collectively, their political representatives and the terrorists who claim to represent them as well, know full well that Israel will take the most dramatic actions to rescue its own, to save the life of each and every Israeli. Israel takes upon itself full responsibility for the sanctity of life for its population and will do anything within its power to safeguard its population. A game then ensues where aggrieved and war-thirsty Muslims know they will briefly have the upper hand in their chess-game of war encouragement if they have a Jewish hostage, but it civilian or military.
They know, from past experience, that they can bargain successfully to exchange a single Israeli prisoner for hundreds of Muslim prisoners extracted from Israeli jails for overt acts of terror. Palestinian men and women dedicated to completely destabilizing the State of Israel in a motive of revenge for real and perceived wrongs are set loose to re-commence activities directly inimical to the State of Israel and its population, in exchange for the life of a single Israeli.
The perspective is this: Palestinians engaged in destructive acts of aggression are apprehended and set aside to prevent them from further acts of mayhem and murder. Israelis are engaged in a defensive mode to ensure individual and group survival.
Who values life more, the individual and group who prefer to nurse a deadly grievance and wreak vengeance, or the individual and group who seek to redress wrongs and reach a state of understanding and peaceful co-habitation with an opponent?
posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 14, 2006
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