He did it again

Once again, I must highly recommend my friend Jim's current post entitled, "What Causes War?" at http://letters-from-the-desert.blogspot.com. It is a quick but thought-provoking answer to the age-0ld question and a defense of the common misconception that religion is the cause of most wars. Please give it a read and then come back here.

Welcome back, to give it a little further thought on my part, I would add the examples of the Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq, the Protestant-Catholic conflict in Ireland, and even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is important to note that all of these peoples have had history of living side by side throughout the years until some political conflict took place. In Iraq, the majority Shiite are looking for their "pound of flesh" from the Sunni after being the underdog during the Hussein years. In Ireland, the British annexation of Northern Ireland fueled "the troubles". In Israel, it is important to note that the roles were reversed until the UN mandate establishing Israel in 1947. Until that time, it was militant Jews who were the "displaced" and were actively trying to foment an "uprising" against the majority Palestinians.

As Jim states, the religious aspect is added by astute politicos who are able to quickly galvanize the masses against their political opponents by using religious labels (again, look at Hitler). It is an easily understandable and quickly identifiable way to excite your power base.

It is important for us to understand that as we move through our day to day lives. Today we hear about a disturbed young man in Chicago who was casing a shopping mall with the intention of throwing grenades into the crowds on December 23rd. The press has highlighted the point that he was a Muslim convert and at the end of the story quietly mention that he has no ties to any terrorist organization. I would venture to guess that this particular young man converted to Islam in order to justify his desire to carry out destruction and not that he is desiring to carry out destruction because he converted to Islam. Yet, that will be the point that the press wants us to take away......oh, there you go, another crazy Muslim bent on Jihad against us.

Crazy people come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and religions. There are extremists in all religions (White Supremacists anyone? They claim they are the "true" Christians). We must remember that almost all the world's religions teach the same thing, love of God and love of each other. This over-arching message does not lend itself to terrorism or war in any fashion except to those who wish to pervert the message for their own selfish gain.

Please, as we read the news, watch CNN, and most importantly, deal with each other every day, look for the real reason. Think for yourself, understand the motivation, don't just fall for the easy answer. It's too easy to get sucked in and buy what being sold, that's how terrorists are made. They have anger that someone has wisely focussed into religion as an answer and they don't stop to think for themselves.