terrorism | Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author)

I’ve just read a disturbing post from soulfultroubadourdotcom. It deals with the case of two boys who were badly beaten for wanting to leave the church. So badly beaten, in fact, that one of them died. I think most people would consider this a dreadful crime. Unfortunately, the people whod did this must have felt they were fully justified.

This is what’s scary. These people thought, and I suppose continue to think, they were fully justified in what they did. This did not happen in Syria, or Iraq, or Libya or any of those countries that we think of as being barbaric, but in the USA. These people were not extremist Muslims, but Fundamental Christians.

By what right they think they have to call themselves Christian I really do not know. Nothing they did is what I understand to be following the teachings of Christ. These extremist ‘Christians’ are just as bad as the extremist ‘Muslims’, and yet we in the west seem to ignore them.

OK, they don’t go round bombing people (yet), thinking you can force people into believing as you do, but are they really much better? Beating young men because they don’t like the message you are preaching is just as bad in my eyes.

Extremism is dangerous, whether it’s religious or political, whether Muslim of Christian, Right or Left. People ignore these folk because they call themselves Christian, and that is the religion of the west. Of us, even if we are non-believers.

So we tar all Muslims with the same brush. They are all wicked people who chop of the heads of non-Muslims, but we ignore those Christians who think to force people to their religion by other acts of brutality.

Jesus said (Matthew 7:5) How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

I have written a poem about hypocrisy. I’ll post it later next month, possibly.

I would love to hear what you think about this. If you would like more details, go to https://soulfultroubadourdotcom.wordpress.com/2016/10/

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I was greatly shocked and saddened by the events in Paris on Friday. I am afraid that I cannot understand the mentality of these people who think it is right to kill and maim in the name of their God.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about these in the last two days and have decided to put some of my thoughts down. I am also publishing early as it is pertinent right now. My usual blog will now be a week on Tuesday and will be a sample of my writing.

Firstly, I could not understand how Isil, Isis, Islamic State or whatever they call themselves, could not see how their actions hardened the thoughts of people against them and provoked hatred for Islam, but then on Sunday I read a comment from a friend of a friend on Facebook. He said that Isis is doing this in order to deliberately provoke an Islamaphobic backlash so that they can say they are in a war. Or perhaps they want to actually provoke a war, but to what end? Do they really think they can win with most of the world against them?

Having said that, I still cannot understand how people can believe the lies told by these people. Firstly, they are fighting against people who worship the same God, whatever they call Him, Allah, God, Yahweh, Jehovah etc. They even look upon Jesus as a prophet. Do they really think that God would like them to kill other people who already worship Him, albeit in a different way? Would it not be more acceptable in the eyes of the Deity to have people come to Him in belief rather than being killed with no attempt at conversion?

Christians, Jews and Muslims are all Children of the Book. Jews and Muslims both trace their ancestry back to Abraham. Moses is in both the Bible and the Quran, hence the 10 commandments also. There are a few differences in these between the Old Testament and the Quran. To me, it seems that the Quran elaborates more. Now one of the Old Testament commandments says ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ It leaves it at that and says no more about it. The Quran, on the other hand says that one should not ‘…take life, which God has made sacred—except for just cause.’

It seems to me that the extremists have taken that and said that killing Christians and Jews is a just cause. However, the Quran goes on to add ‘…unless it be for murder or spreading mischief in the land.’ Allah, therefore says that murder is wrong. It goes on to say that unjust killing of an innocent person is wrong also. Were those people out on a Friday night, at the end of a long week at work, not innocent? How many of them had committed murder or ‘spread mischief in the land?’

The Quran states that Christians and Jews are ‘People of the book’ and are in the ranks of the righteous…for them is a reward with their Lord. This does not seem to say that killing Christians and Jews is right.

Now I am not an Muslim, and therefore only know what I read in books and on the Internet about the Quran. If I am wrong in any of my statements above, I am willing to stand corrected, but I do know many Muslims that are as appalled as most of the world about these atrocities. They all say that this is a twisted form of Isla,.

I have heard it said that Christians used to be as bad, and that we went out to fight the ‘Infidel’ as we called the Muslims at the time. But that was over 600 years ago. We also had the Inquisition and tortured people into ‘belief’. We have come a long way since then and in the modern world these things are looked on as appalling. It seems that Isis wants to go back to those days of barbarism.

It is also true that the worst feuds are between close relatives. Well, it seems that is true of religions too. 3 religions that have such a lot in common and always seem to be at each other’s throats. First the Jews were treated very badly in the Middle Ages and then, of course, the holocaust, then the Crusades in the Middle Ages waged by Christians against Muslims, now terrorism by groups like Isis.

I will just finish by again by sending my sympathy and thoughts to the people of France. They must not let these terrorists win. They must keep on doing as we British did during the Irish Troubles and get on with their lives. That’s the best answer that they can give to t he terrorists. Don’t be terrorised!

If you find any of what I have said above to be inaccurate, please let me know via the comments section.