‘Holy War’ Is the Ultimate Oxymoron
Commentary by Pete Haug | FāVS News
The war raging in the Holy Land isn’t holy. Like all wars, it horrifies us. Wars throughout the Middle East, occasionally clad in a peek-a-boo veil of “holy war,” have for millennia been secular.
In 1931, the Irgun arose in Palestine with the intent of establishing an Israeli state, which it did in 1948, in a formerly Arab region with a long history of religiopolitical unrest. Yet four world religions consider Israel a Holy Land.
The first three
The Old Testament describes multiple plights of wandering Hebrew tribes until they reached the Promised Land, now Israel. Jews established a civilization there until occupation by the Romans, who ruled when Christianity arose.
Jesus, a Jew steeped in Old Testament Scripture, was rejected by both Jews and Roman pagans, who crucified him. Though Jesus taught for only three years, his teachings spread during two millennia, with Christianity now the most widespread religion. Yet differing understandings of Christ’s message, generated by multiple interpretations, produce hostilities among people who claim Christianity.
Enter Islam, in Arabic “Submission to the will of God.” Unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam’s scriptures, compiled in the Quran, were dictated by Muhammad to scribes during 23 years. It’s the foundation of Islam. The less authoritative Hadith records “words, actions, and the silent approval of … Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators … reports about what Muhammad said and did” — much like the New Testament.
The Quran recognizes “the community of faith among those who possess monotheistic scriptures.” It embraces people of the Book: Jews, Christians and some others.
Within this sequence, each religion recognizes earlier faiths but fails to recognize the next. Jews don’t recognize Christ. Christians don’t recognize Muhammad. Muslims consider Muhammad the “Seal of the Prophets,” the last in the line of such messengers.
Is Israel’s current conflict one more instance of unnumbered conflicts among the “people of the book,” monotheists all, recognizing one “God,” the single creator of the universe? This isn’t a religious war. It’s political, clothed in a garment of hypocrisy from which members of each religion pray to the same God for victory.
Each struggled at its outset, enjoyed midday splendor, and faded, throughout centuries, into a husk of itself. Both sides in this war have legitimate grievances, festering from beyond last century, with no sign of healing.
Today we’re witnessing Torah law resurrected: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21:23-27). World media report indiscriminate wholesale slaughter of innocent thousands on both sides. Recall the 1960s anti-war refrain: “When will they ever learn…?”
A fourth possibility
What’s a poor monotheist to do? These warring faiths arose from the same source, a single loving God, who sends “Manifestations” — Moses, Christ, Muhammad among them — to renew religious truths and update social guidance commensurate with humankind’s ability to understand and implement that guidance.
The latest, the Baha’i Faith, arose in Iran in 1844, but was soon ejected from its homeland. Hostile Muslim clerics and governments banished and imprisoned its founder, Baha’u’llah, three times, each exile farther from Iran. His fourth banishment, with family and followers, was to the Holy Land in 1868. He died there in 1892, still nominal prisoner of the Ottoman Empire.
We are all one.
Jewish monotheism was embraced by Christians and Muslims, each faith adding understanding and insight to earlier scripture. Baha’is believe God’s latest renewal is the message of Baha’u’llah. Its basic tenets teach one God, one religion, one humankind, regardless of superficial differences.
Baha’u’llah explains that previous monotheisms brought teachings compatible with human understanding. As humanity implements those teachings, God sends the next Manifestation to further advance civilization.
I embraced Baha’u’llah’s teachings during the 1960s and never looked back. I believe he is God’s latest Manifestation. Over six decades I’ve witnessed Baha’is, some in the remotest places on earth, building a new society based on principles brought by Baha’u’llah.
Some earlier columns examine specific teachings of Baha’u’llah, such as why Baha’u’llah matters, followed by a summary of principal teachings. Another discusses the oneness of God, and another, Baha’i teachings about science and religion, with the human genome as an example. Throughout all this, education is key to an enlightened, peaceful society.
“The Promise of World Peace”
Four decades ago, the Universal House of Justice, chief Baha’i administrative body, wrote this promise “To the Peoples of the World”:
“The Great Peace towards which people of goodwill throughout the centuries have inclined their hearts, of which seers and poets for countless generations have expressed their vision, and for which from age to age the sacred scriptures of mankind have constantly held the promise, is now at long last within the reach of the nations.“
It concludes with Baha’u’llah’s 1890 promise to a British scholar: “These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.”
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.
A belated thanks for this instructive commentary, Pete. Perhaps one source of the age-old conflict is the very concept of a tiny Holy Land over which, then, competing religions and ethnicities wage war, If instead we saw the whole world as holy, maybe we could all grant each other a sustaining peace. This is certainly wishful thinking.