The Fight Against Despair

The fight against despair

by Robert Thompson

(translated by the author)

OpEdNews.com

 

I am a committed practising Catholic Christian with very clear views on the political problems which we have to face in the modern world.   In the main, these difficulties arise from the way in which political extremists have managed to take over the feelings of ill-educated persons who only have a very vague idea of the religious traditions from which they come.   This explains the fear of the other, and the hatred arising from it, which (sadly) we see all around us.   It is our duty (for all of us) to fight against not only this hatred, but also the fear from which it arises.

 

We should all fight this battle against the attempts by extremists such as Mr George W. Bush, Mr Ariel Sharon and Mr Oussama bin Laden to polarise our fears and our hatreds around the gulf which they encourage between the various families of the spiritual descendants of Abraham, whether they be Jewish, Christian or Muslim.

 

Mr Bush wishes to gather support for his plans for financial domination a coalition of people who claim to be (according to what he himself says) Jewish and Christian traditions to crush the Muslim who hold the most substantial oil reserves.   However, to do this, he has first to persuade therm to abandon the fundamental principles of the religious currents from which they believe themselves to come.   By his repeated calls to the greed of individuals, his re'gime has managed to obtain massive support among the electorate in his country, and he has thus created a climate of fear and hatred towards those who do not accept his point of view, especially if they are Muslim.   This appears to explain his declaration of a "Crusade" after the attacks of 11th September 2001.   An explanation which I received from the U.S.A. is that he used this word, which so clearly evokes memories of the mediaeval invasions of the Holy Land by rapacious European adventurers, without knowing what it meant.   Having since then been able to listen to speeches by his adviser, Mr John Ashcroft, I cannot accept this explanation.   I have the impression that he chose intentionally to fan the flames of hatred of the other, i.e. he or she who has no link with either Judaism or Christian traditions, to be able thereafter to boast that he was offering his country a saviour - despite the fact that he did not have the courage to join the armed forces when his country was at war.

 

We all know that the Bush and bin Laden families have had friendly links for many years, and we should not show any surprise that the declaration of this "Crusade" has given extremely precise support to the theories expressed by Mr Oussama bin Laden.   The latter no doubt foretold that Mr George W. Bush would say exactly what suited the extremists of al-Qa'eda, namely a declaration of war not against the Islamists but against Islam itself.

 

As for Mr Ariel Sharon, he fans the flames of the feelings of guilt of the western nations regarding the Jews persecuted in Europe, to be able to make them believe that the Zionists have the right to rob and crush the Palestinian people in direct contradiction with the teachings of traditional Judaism.

 

Whether we be Jews, Christians or Muslim, we must never follow these people who contradict our belief that our God loves us and that He is compassionate and merciful.   Let us unite to reject these false prophets who refuse so crudely to follow the teachings of that part of our faith which we have in common.   They are not worthy truly to represent either Judaism, Christianity or Islam.