The Christian Hawk; A Christian
Eye on Politics
The World Again Becomes a More
Dangerous Place...
“It is increasingly hard to continue
to scoff at those religious fundamentalists who see an
Islam/Judeo-Christian conflict as the final conflict which leads
to armageddon and to the Second Coming.Twenty years ago nothing
seemed less likely..... but during the last 5-10 years world
affairs have definitely taken a wholly unexpected
turn...“
February, 2006.
The
Cold War brought us some very anxious moments.
I
vividly recall the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 when the world
teetered on the brink of nuclear war. A few thought that
President Kennedy was involved in a desperate game of
brinkmanship with Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev but I have no
doubt that Kennedy's determination to stand up to the soviets
paved the way for many years of peace between the major powers
which was to follow that volatile stand-off. In short, the
Russians backed down and agreed to move the missiles which they
had been so craftily assembling in Cuba and which were targetting
American cities. But I certainly clearly recall a very cloudy and
grey November day here in the UK when we all knew that we might
have been just hours away from all-out nuclear war. The tension
showed on the faces of everybody one met that day. The following
day, when it was revealed that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had come
to an agreement, the relief was obvious and felt by hundreds of
thousands of people in many nations.
For
the most part, the cold war continued very predictably after that
with both east and west keeping their guns securely in their
holsters. Truth is: That fateful day in the autumn of 1962
frightened everybody.
There was joy all round when the collapse of the old
Soviet empire came, perhaps most vividly summed up and epitomized
in the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Now - at last - could the
world really expect and hope for a golden era of peace and
prosperity?
But
no, this opportunity only seemed to result in the 'enemy
within' of soul-sapping and
character-destroying liberalism intensifying its efforts
to bring moral destruction to the British and American
peoples.
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But
now we find a new danger which vividly captured the attention of
the entire world in the horrific events of 9-11. A militant and
uncompromising faction of a world religion apparently seeks (we
are told) to destroy democratic western civilization. The irony
is that many of the complaints which come from the clerics of
this religion are actually valid. They see the West as a scene of
repugnant immorality and – to be frank – a large
majority of us Christians would agree with this assessment. We
too are ashamed and embarrassed at much of what is happening
within our so-called “progressive
society.”
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So
the 'scene has been set' – it is no longer the democratic
West facing off communism, but now the democratic West is being
forced into a position of having to confront a new
religiously-inspired thrust of terrorism. Of course, it is
undoubtedly true that perhaps a majority of Islamics who actually
live and work here in the West do not support the zealots within
their own religion and indeed fear a possible backlash. This was
very plain after the July 2005 bomb outrages in London when UK
moslem leaders held their breath in case of a backlash. It did
not happen.
But
now a new development which may – ultimately – not be
entirely unconnected to all of this. On 27th January,
2006, BBC News reported the following,
“Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has
announced that he will ask Islamic militant group Hamas to form a
new government after its election victory. Hamas took 76 out of
the 132 seats in the landmark poll, beating Mr Abbas' ruling
Fatah faction. The comments came as Hamas faced increasing
international pressure to renounce violence against Israel. Hamas
also faces the possibility (that) foreign donors may
withhold millions of dollars in aid to the
Palestinians...”
(excuse my insertion of 'that' but the grammar which
frequently appears on the BBC News website is
appalling).
This
sudden (and apparently unexpected) development means that the
world is again becoming a more dangerous and volatile place! The
Palestinians have elected Hamas (fiercely Islamic and
fiercely commited to the destruction of Israel) to power. This
would appear to make any long-lasting peace deal between the
Palestinians and the Israelis even more unlikely than it ever
seemed before. Coupled with the Iranian government's refusal to
listen to the West in the re-launching of their nuclear programme
(which they insist is for peaceful purposes only), there are
again indications that two very different forms of society
(western liberal democracy and eastern religious fundamentalist
theocracy) could be on a collision course.
The
immediate fear is that Hamas will, indeed, seek to turn
Palestine into an Islamic theocracy as a remedy for the
rampant corruption which has long been suspected to be rife among
Palestinian leaders. But it is unlikely that Israel will allow
this to occur. There has also long been a strong Christian
presence among Palestinian Arabs and one would fear for the
future of these people.
There are, of course, one group of Christian
fundamentalists who believe that the final armageddon will occur
when Christianity and Islam finally turn on each other in full
fury. I have never personally been part of that particular line
of thinking (for instance, it would be very hard to see how
“western civilization” now represents Christianity in
any meaningful way; it would be truer to say that the
former 'Christian west' now only represents the
forces of 'liberal secular democracy'), but as an American
agnostic recently remarked to me in an e mail,
“It is increasingly hard to continue
to scoff at those religious fundamentalists who see an
Islam/Judeo-Christian conflict as the final conflict which leads
to armageddon and to the Second Coming.Twenty years ago nothing
seemed less likely, at that time it was still the forces of the
Soviet Union which appeared most likely to be involved in any
“final cataclysmic crisis” but during the last 5-10
years world affairs have definitely taken a wholly unexpected
turn; I don't think any of us expected communism to collapse so
suddenly and dramatically as a major threat to world peace. The
new world threat which quickly came along to replace it is no
particular nation but a volatile and explosive brand of a
religious faith which has been around for a long time. Suddenly
we need fear no single nation but, rather, a belief which perhaps thousands are
prepared to die for. The worrying thing is we could have
thousands of such believers already living among
us.”
The
Christian Hawk-4.
UK
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