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November 29, 2003

Terrorists in our midst

The peace of Gloucestershire, usually noted for its bucolic accents and scenic beauty, was rudely shaken this week with the arrest of a young man in the city of Gloucester on terrorism charges. A search of his home has apparently turned up explosives and the area around it was evacuated for more than twenty four hours. A second man was arrested a few streets away in a flat that has also been thoroughly searched with a neighbours evacuated to a "safe" distance.

Both these young men are allegedly members of Al Qaeda or one of its surrogates, and both are apparently UK born, raised and educated, so why are they allegedly members of an organisation sworn to overthrow the state they live in? Why indeed, are so many young Muslims apparently so keen to destroy the Western ideals of democracy and individual freedom?

It will be some time, no doubt, before any case is brought to a public court, and such is the nature of these cases, that it is unlikely that the answers to any of these questions will really become clear.

There is, however, a worrying parallel with the past. In 650-ish AD, when Mohammed first set out to spread his vision of religious structure and belief, he was in direct conflict with a state sponsored church whose clergy were also the magistrates and governors. It is true that many of these were hardly spiritual leaders at all, and merely paid lip service to the message of the gospel while ensuring that the good things that their positions offered, came readily their way. This is probably why Islam was founded without any ordained clergy or leadership.

Small cells were soon established in many centres of the then Byzantine Empire which spread from Greece across Asia Minor and into Iran and Southwards to Egypt and the Rest of North Africa and the Arabian peninsula. For the most part these small communities were left in peace, many Christian Churches actually provided a plain chapel in an aisle or an apse to allow them a space to worship. All this changed at some point a few years after Mohammed's death. A new activism sprang up, grievances, real and imagined, were fanned into flame and insurrections followed. The State retaliated, and at first succeeded in checking these, then, out of the deserts swept raiders who converted whole towns by the sword. Arabia, then North Africa and finally most of Asia Minor fell to the armies of Islam. It was this that triggered the Crusades, and it doesn't take a genius to work out where that ended.

The parallel is beginning to stand out. In every country there is a growing Muslim population, the majority of whom are perfectly happy to live within the host society and enjoy the freedoms that that may bring. For a small and fanatical minority there is no satisfaction unless they wield the power. These people will stop at nothing to provoke a situation wherein they can proclaim a jihad and sweep to power at the head of an army of "true believers". They are, in effect, at work within every society.

The problem for us all is that you cannot reason with a fanatic of any persuasion. Rational argument is not part of their stock in trade. The bigger problem is that they can provoke a wider backlash against others who do not share their view. You need look no further than Northern Ireland to see the consequences of that! There is only one way to beat these fanatics, and that is to show them up for what they truly are; men and women of evil, whose objective is not the greater good of all, but the self glorification of themselves and their own small group.

I find it remarkable that those who elect to act as suicide bombers believe themselves destined for paradise, when the Koran clearly prohibits the harming of the innocent, expressly condemning such acts. Indeed, the Koran exhorts the true believer to respect and honour the other "true Believers" - the "peoples of the Book", the Koran's term for the Bible.

It is nothing less than a tragedy when a young man or woman feels compelled to strap on a bomb, make a bomb or plant a bomb in the name of a "cause". No cause is ever justified by the killing of the innocent. Let us all hope and pray that these individuals can be turned from their path of hatred of life and themselves and brought to realise that society is full of people of goodwill who are fair and just and who are all working in their own way towards the creation of a truly just society.

Even if you are not a praying person, I ask your prayers for the families that have to live with the knowledge that a son or daughter is such a fanatic, or those who have lost friends, sons, daughters, fathers or mothers to the bombers.

We live in uncertain times and an age of major upheaval and change, it can tip either way. Let us all strive for peace, justice and understanding.

Posted by The Gray Monk at November 29, 2003 11:03 PM