|
Terrorism, Religion, and
War
By Sherman A. Hope, M.D.
Brownfield, TX
The tragedy
of 9-11 focused the thinking of most Americans on terrorism. We have been led
to believe that the tragedy was caused by an evil enemy, who suddenly appeared
out of the Middle
East, and
who, for no reason apparent to us, undertook to do harm to the United States and her people. We have been taught
that this enemy is of a different race and religion and is shrouded in evil. Unfortunately,
our nation and her leaders have failed to look at the real cause of the hatred
of these people called terrorists and their supporters. However, the cause, at
least in part, can be traced to the policies of our nation in dealing with the
unrest in the Middle
East,
specifically the plight of the Palestinians. For the past century there has
been an uneven and unjust American policy in dealing with Palestine and Israel.
Christianity
throughout the centuries has persecuted Jews. With the enlightenment and
reformation of the 19th century, the Jews hoped to be accepted in
the world, especially in Western society. But repeatedly governmental and
church policy gave them only limited opportunity and protection; therefore,
early in the 20th century a movement arose by some Jews to return to
the “promised land” (Palestine), and form a nation called Israel. With the exception of a few Jews,
Palestine had been inhabited by Arabic people
for the past 1800 years. This Jewish movement to return to Palestine is known as the Zionist movement,
and was relatively peaceful until the end of World War II.
However,
after World War II, the Western world, and especially the United States, gave full support to the migration
of Jews (most of which were from the results of the maltreatment of the Jews in
Europe) to Palestine. This migration was accentuated by
the political support of America’s “religious right-wing Christians”
working hand in hand with American Jews. Most of the Christians in this
movement believed that it was necessary (i.e., prophesied) for the Jews to
return to Palestine in order for the Second Coming of Christ to occur. This
means that these Christians believed it was God’s will to expel the local
inhabitants (Arabic Palestinians) and
establish a nation of Jews. This was culminated in 1947, when the United States pressured the United Nations to
establish the nation of Israel. This resulted in expulsion of
750,000 Palestinians from their homes in Israel and forced these displaced people
into refugee camps in Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.
The
Palestinians, as well as Syria, Egypt, and Jordan, resisted, but Israel was financed and armed by the West,
especially the United States. Israel prevailed in two decisive wars. She
conquered even more land than was allotted by the United Nations and expelled
more Palestinians, who to this day are still a displaced people. Israel continues to confiscate land from
Palestinians for Jewish settlements, displacing even more Palestinians.
Now, after
over 50 years of being deprived of their homes, their political freedom, and
their heritage, the third generation of these deposed people have resorted to
the kind of desperate resistance that people with little hope use. Small groups
or individuals resort to acts of resistance, i.e., terrorism. Their life
situation has led many of these refugees to adopt an attitude of despair. After
all, life seems to have no future because an enemy has taken their homes,
killed, imprisoned, and tortured members of their family, and sought to destroy
their culture and religion. With the attitude of desperation and despair, many
of these displaced persons are susceptible to following any religious fanatic
or a radical political leader that encourages them to be a martyr for their
homeland and religion. If the person becomes a “holy warrior,” not only has he
or she become a patriot for the freedom of Palestinians, but also they have
become a religious martyr and are thus guaranteed a place in paradise. And if
one is going to fight, especially if he expects to die in the struggle,
certainly he would want to strike out against the correct enemy. This has
resulted in not only terrorism in Israel, but it also set the stage for lashing
out at the main military and financial supporter of Israel—which for over 50
years has been the United States. Therefore, it follows that it is both a
religious duty as well as a patriotic duty to do harm to America, either on the battlefields in the Middle East or in the American homeland.
Anti-American
feelings have grown in the Arab and Moslem countries because of the United States’ support for Israel. Currently, the support comes not
only from the Jewish community, but even more so from political right-wing
Christians, as well as from some of the more zealous evangelical Christian
groups. In my opinion, they have a mistaken interpretation of the Bible. These
sincere but misguided religious persons think that everything in society is
getting worse and therefore the end of the world is near. They think that the
world’s condition is now ready for Jesus Christ to return, but he cannot do so
until Israel is established. In their minds,
then, it is the “will of God” for the United States to help this prophecy come to pass.
Of course Israel does not see herself as a tool to
facilitate the return of Jesus, but naturally she goes along with this popular
mindset to enlist the support, both financial and political, of the United States.
In the past
several years, the effort to maintain separation of church and state has been
eroded. Now we see the political activities of the religious right, as well as
of the Jewish community, promoting their religious outlook by supporting and
pressuring the federal government for more military support and financial aid
for Israel. This includes going to war against
Israel’s potential enemies – such as Iraq.
As the Iraq war has progressed, we see that the
stated reason for the war never really existed (even though our political
leaders seem to have thought so initially). Yet we continue to fight on. We paint
those whom we are fighting, that is, those who opposed our invasion and now
oppose the occupation of their country, as insurgents, terrorists, and members
of the “Axis of Evil.” We use multiple other demeaning labels as if these
people were subhuman. Yet they are people who were both created by and loved by
God. Most of them were not interested in international politics and only want
to be left alone to raise their family and practice their religion. Perhaps
imposing a western style democracy (at the point of a bayonet) sounds like a
good cause, but as we maim and kill people each day, we also create more and
more people that will always hate the USA, and many will seek revenge—yes, by
terrorism both in their homeland and abroad.
Our
nation’s idea of creating this democracy has resulted in further violence in Iraq, with Sunni’s fighting Shiites and
Kurds. Violence continues daily with the murder and maiming of innocent
civilians, combatants, leaders of all groups, and American soldiers. Billions
of dollars are spent monthly to occupy this country. The elections thus far do
not seem to have stopped the internal conflict, and as various nations around
the world withdraw their troops and support from a policy of military
occupation of Iraq, one must question why are we
there. Do we really think we are stopping terrorism in the United States by continuing the war, or is the
reason to support the policy of those with a religious agenda for the Middle East. In the meantime as we try to
rebuild and “enforce peace” in Iraq, we threaten other Middle East countries that are potential
enemies of Israel—Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, some of which have Palestinian
refugees.
So what is
the answer to international terrorism? At least in part, it is to treat all
persons with respect and equality. The United States must see that fairness and justice
come to the Palestinians, as well as to the people of Israel. In addition, we must not think
that we can impose our life style, our religion, or our method of government by
military force. For every “enemy” we kill, a hundred more are created among his
family and friends; for every home we search, a thousand more become bases for
our opponents.
Perhaps now
is the time to say we have accomplished our mission and did what we planned—destroyed
any potential for weapons of mass destruction and brought down Hussein. We
should declare that our job is completed and leave their country. Training them
to have a military force before we pull out has the great potential of making
their internal conflicts even more bloody. Let them put their country back
together in a manner compatible with their culture and religion. Our trying to
make Iraq conform to our Western culture and
religion only creates more enemies, and yes, more terrorists—not only in Iraq, but throughout the Moslem world.
The longer we stay in Iraq and the longer we are unjust in our
policies toward the Palestinians, the more danger our homeland is a target for
terrorist attacks.
Let each
person in our nation embrace the love of God as each individual perceives God
in his heart, but let our nation not try to force by law or military conquest
the beliefs of any religious group of our country onto another people. We
should not use religion as a tool or excuse for national policy. Separation of
church and state was fundamental in making us a great nation, so let’s keep
religious dogma out of national policy. If a particular religious group wishes
to restore or support Israel, let us give them the freedom to do
so with their own money and influence, but not use the power and money of our
great nation to promote any particular religious dogma.
Updated
Monday, October 24, 2005
|
