Christian Anguish, Muslim Contempt
If nothing else, there should be a sense of universal justice in the Holy Orders. Regardless of the religion; those who represent it at the highest levels should strive to represent themselves and their religion as being accepting and respectful of the beliefs of others.Yet we've seen time and again that collectives of Islamic scholars and jurists and clerics have condemned Christianity and Western governments for instilling suspicion and hatred of Islam and fomenting "Islamophobia" resulting in what the scholars and clerics claim to be the end product: jihadist terrorists.
It's not their inaction in condemning fundamentalism and violence emanating from within their sacred texts, interpreted by extremist clerics that is at fault. It is not their lack of a united voice stating without equivocation that the violence being exhibited by committed jihadists through one incident of abhorrent and degraded attacks after another world-wide that is at fault.
It is the startled and fearful reaction of the West to these ongoing attacks that remains the sole explanation for the growing radicalization of Muslim youth.
There is an amazing cognitive dissonance in this continuing inability to recognize cause and effect. That jihadists springing to deadly action against a perceived enemy is a causative not of Western disaffection with Islam, but a response to Islam's irresponsibility in inadequately addressing itself to the failures from within its own religious communion.
A small notice in the newspapers: Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped a month earlier was discovered finally, dead, his body partially concealed in an empty lot in Mosul, northern Iraq. Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stressed his Shia Islamist government is committed to the protection of Christians in Iraq. "The perpetrators of this horrible crime will not run from the hand of justice", he proclaimed.
Where was he and his protective forces when three Chaldean churches were bombed in Mosul, two in Kirkuk and four in Baghdad? And the explosions that hit the orphanage operated by Chaldean nuns in al-Nour, and the convent of Dominican sisters in Mosul Jadida? Was his voice raised in concern with the ongoing abduction of Chaldean priests, and when an Orthodox priest was kidnapped, beheaded and dismembered?
Where, for that matter, were the combined, concerned and committed voices of Muslim clerics around the world, those who love to reproach the West for tormenting Muslims by publishing cartoons inimical to the honour of Muhammad, claiming that Islamophobia is the cause of Islamic jihad and terrorism?
Respect and honour are a two-way street. Respect must be earned, and honour will be freely given when it too is demonstrated to be earned.
Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 it was estimated that Iraq's Christian population was between a half million and 800,000 in numbers. It's estimated that approximately 50% of that number has fled the country. They represent fewer than 5% of the population, yet one-third of refugees leaving Iraq.
Churches are bombed, destroyed, closed down. Targeted killings of Christians are rife; people are persecuted, subject to threats and violence from Muslim extremists. The options: conversion, or leaving the country.
Christians must pay taxes to be enabled to retain their homes and their faith. They're ripe for elimination. They cannot profess their faith openly. Women are coerced into wearing the veil. Crosses are destroyed and torn from churches. In all fairness, the religion born of Christianity, itself born of Judaism, should step forward in protest, but it does not.
Where is the honour in that? Where is the respect due to disdain given to others' religions?
Labels: Justice, Middle East, Political Realities, Religion
posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 14, 2008
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