[todaysdate]
By Eric Blauer
I must confess that I am perplexed and often frustrated by the insistence of many on the left side of the political spectrum who demand that we all should own the blame for the actions of the Islamic Jihadists across the globe.
There seems to be an unwillingness to hold anyone accountable for their actions. I think it stems from an unwillingness to believe in the place of judgment. There seems to be little room for judgment in the progressive view of the world or eternity. To say someone is acting evil or to call out an action as wrong, is then portrayed as an act of self-righteousness instead of a correct assessment of the truth of the situation.
According to this world view, there are no bad people, only misunderstood people who became that way because of other people’s actions.
Islamic Jihadists are raping young women, terrorizing religious sects and creating a refugee crisis like the world hasn’t seem in centuries. They have beheaded aid workers and journalists, butchered artists, cartoonists and film makers in the streets of European cities. Yet some would have us judge policies instead of the people committing these crimes.
We can’t seem to confront the fact and face of evil and continue to put our heads in the sand hoping that the nightmare of human evil will turn to a dream of human goodness. While westerners ponder revisionist history, skewed views of theodicy and supposedly oppressive economic theories, innocents are gunned down in streets, displaced from their homelands and taken hostage by the perpetrators of fundamentalistic religious fascism.
The terrible irony of one of the stories I read, was how the first three municipal French policemen showed up on bikes to the shootings at Charlie Hebdo without any guns, only billy clubs. They had to leave because of the Jihadists had automatic rifles! If that is true, one has to seriously wonder if the outcome of that tragic event could of been different, if the police were armed with guns instead of bikes and batons? This type of human wish-dreaming about society and human goodness ends up putting innocents at risk. We have to live in the world we have, not the one we wish was here. To do less than that is dangerous and advantageous to those in the world who capitalize on religious and cultural naivety.
Some people might be surprised to know that Jesus called murderers “Dogs” in Revelations 22:14-15:
“Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.”
Such language is unpalatable for some. They are unwilling to believe that God judges the actions of people, but the biblical narrative ends in just such a reality. We will all stand before God and give an account for our lives. It’s popular to lambast Christians who believe in the final judgment and hell as “Bible thumpers” and ‘fire and brimstone’ preachers. But these truths are in the Bible and it’s been part of the historical church’s creeds like the Apostle’s Creed, The Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed.
“And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds (Revelations 20:11-13)
Ultimately, eternity will harvest the seeds sown in earthly lives and each person, no matter what belief they chose to follow, will have to face the “book and the judge”.
Until then, we must face up to human depravity and the reality of evil and we must fight fundamentalistic religious fascism with the tools of peacemaking like education, relief and development, medicine and the broad spectrum of human rights work.
But we must also be vigilant, prepared and protected from the violent ideologies that breed the type of atrocities we are seeing in our day, to do anything less is irresponsible.
Ok Eric, I’ll bite. Why can’t we do both? I believe the people who do things like the Charlie Hebdo shootings should/will be held accountable for their actions. I also think their actions don’t happen in a vacuum. The way we treat other nations and cultures and individuals certainly matters. Our actions affect others. The Bible says that too.
Elizabeth I agree, we will all be held accountable for our lives, as I affirmed in my article. I’m all for addressing the roots and the fruits but not as justification.
The Paris ISIS jihadist shot shoppers then went on a self excusing diatribe of his murders because French people pay taxes to a government that fights ISIS and other jihadists. That mindset is bolstered by those who defend jihadists by arguing their own points for them.
I also think that western straw man falls apart when you look at African jihadists like Boko Haram in Nigeria. They may have butchered around 2000 people this week in pursuit of their own islamic caliphate. Are they slaughtering kids and women because of the West? I don’t buy it.
I am not sure what you mean by the left political spectrum. Without links and quotes it seems more like a stereotype of a reaction, rather than a real one. I have seen many political commentators, like you, generalize across a group of people that spans 1.6 billion in number. Muslims argue as much with each other as with others, which is too be expected in a group of 1.6 billion people. Is there a concerted effort from a 1.6 billion people to commit terror or establish a Caliphate? If so, the world would be far more bloody that it is. That fact alone should give us pause. It would also be strange in world we actually live in, since ISIS has lost territory to a coalition that includes many Muslims, in fact most of the boots on the grounds that have lead the recent defeats of ISIS have been muslim boots. Such is the case with a group as large as 1.6 billion. Broad generalization over 1.6 billion people might be good in getting rates on Talk Radio, but in offers little or no effective responses to the attacks. Such bad generalization can get us into wars under false circumstances like we did in invading Iraq. Is there a group of Muslims wanting to reestablish a Caliphate. You bet. But are there an even larger group of Muslims fighting them… you bet. Does 1.6 billion people defy easy generalizations. You bet. 1.6 billion people is a lot of people to draw such final conclusions. 1.6 billion people… think about it.
This is Kelly Rae. Am finishing my article. Eric, I don’t think anyone outside of ISIS is saying what people do who murder and rape is right, or even excusing it. I do think they are trying to understand the causes of what makes it happen so it can be prevented for the future, and so far, the methods and means such as that used by torture architects are evil in and of themselves and I’m not buying those, either as the kinds of prevention I want or how to stop this mess. Even if the officers had guns and stopped them, it’s just putting duct tape on a much bigger problem and there’s only so much duct tape. It’s time to find conflict resolution and cultural change that works. I think if anything, it’s time for spiritual revolutions and inspiration that work, that are neither metaphysical new age ones nor rooted in any of these traditions which evoke the same responses and battles they have for thousands of years that silenced the voices of women and whoever else in ways which are unhealthy and continue to be so. It’s time for new voices, and new inspirations.
I agree, Eric we must avoid violent ideologies. I’m a believer in nonviolence, and know that violence begets violence. I’m a disciple of Jesus, who was a master at avoiding replying to the devil’s temptations by using the devils ways. And I need to be held responsible for my behaviors that elicit violence on the part of others.
We can start to stopping the indiscriminate bombing of civilians caused by our reliance upon drones by the use of torture , which has been shown to be ineffective or worse, and by the shooting of unarmed Blacks and minorities with no threat of being judged in our courts. I could add to this list. And the ideology that supports these is our exceptialism, national and racial.
And we must be more careful in our misuse of terms, like “jihadist,”, which is being flung around in a pejorative way. Either find out what it really means to an Arabic linguist or don’t use it as a pejorative slur. That’s racist.
“If that is true, one has to seriously wonder if the outcome of that tragic event could of been different, if the police were armed with guns instead of bikes and batons? This type of human wish-dreaming about society and human goodness ends up putting innocents at risk.”
I think a different kind of “wish-dreaming” occurs when we pretend more guns = more safety, as though it were a self-evident mathematical equation.
Also, the idea “that we all should own the blame” isn’t to say we’re just as culpable as the killers. But can we really pretend that ideologues behave in a vacuum? Is nothing even correlative traceable to any culture but the killers’ own? One thing we’re learning is that little, if anything, is truly independent. We live in an interconnected world, and our struggle is to understand the endless network of interconnections. Ignoring them doesn’t move the ball forward, as it were.