The Satanic face of Islamic terrorism

Anti-religious bigots like Richard Dawkins must have watched the news reports of the cowardly terrorist attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team with great relish. Here you see the results of religion, they cry. Q.E.D! And their mindless supporters around the world will spew the usual unrestrained incoherent invective on all manner of websites. And we of religious faith must sit back and listen again to the recitation of an anti-religious mythology that bears little resemblance to what we believe and how and why we believe it.

The ignorant barely literate ravings of the website commentators, beset by historical amnesia, calling people of faith stupid should otherwise bring a smile to our faces. (I refer the reader to a previous comment where I reproduced an exchange I had with one such raver on the website of a Canadian newspaper. He started out calling religious believers stupid and deluded and when I pointed out the failings in his argument - I'm being generous - he accused me of using gobblededook.) But the Soviet-style anti-religious maneouvrings of people like Dawkins do not make it a laughing matter.

Linking people of faith with a bunch of gunmen cowardly shooting down innocent unarmed people is not funny. Indeed, it's in the same category as sewing the Star of David onto the inhabitants of a ghetto.

The act of shooting to death innocent unarmed people is evil. The act of deliberately choosing innocent unarmed people for slaughter to advance a political goal is not merely evil; it transcends the usual notion of evil. Though all evil acts can be viewed as acting in accordance with the promptings of the devil, a political campaign of innocent slaughter is a manifestation of a being of pure evil, otherwise known to Christians as Satan. In the acts of Islamic terrorists we see the face of Satan directly manifested.

Of course, talk about the devil and Satan will be a proof of the delusion of Christians for Dawkins and Co. But who is subject to delusion? How convincing is it to describe the Sri Lankan cricket team attack and the monstrous orgy of killing in Mumbai in genetic terms - leaving aside the laughable notion of Dawkins' self-serving "meme"?

No person of genuine religious faith - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and so on - will view the act of the terrorists as anything other than what it appears to most people: pure evil. Religious faith does not prompt one to killing; political objectives using religion as a pretext is what prompts evil people to evil deeds.

There are no wars of religion. Religion only becomes an issue when it is taken up into state affairs or into the greed, selfishness and prejudice of the individual. To those whose jaws have dropped at such a mad assertion, I say it is a claim made by many in the past, including Edmund Burke. History shows that States don't need religion to start wars or to kill innocent citizens. The two outstanding modern examples are the atheistic regimes of Soviet and Chinese communism.

It is simply fact that the great majority of Muslims in Western democracies deplore and condemn the actions of Islamic militants. Killing innocent people has no place in their religious faith. And here I emphasise their religious faith as distinct from cultural and political beliefs or concepts. I have heard on local radio a number of times ordinary Muslims making the cautious distinction between their religious faith and cultural motivations. On each occasion, the distinction went way over the head the of the radio host known for his anti-religious bigotry.

The problem of Islam in the modern world is its framework of culture, politics, society and religion. Islamic terrorists are motivated by the political and cultural elements of Islam. It would be helpful if people in the West generally understood this - and if spokesmen for Islam acknowledged the origin of the problem.

There is an excellent report on the Sri Lankan cricket team attack in today's Australian which deals with the political motivations of the terrorists and their aim of creating a modern Caliphate.

Middle Eastern priest explains Islam Part 1

Middle Eastern priest explains Islam Part 2

As a postscript I note that the Nine Network's "A Current Affair" did a report that linked the terrorist attack with the gambling and bookmaker scandal in cricket on the subcontinent. The main thrust was that the game of cricket was in an advanced state of corruption. One can only view this sort report with jaw-dropping incomprehension and wonder what sort of people these days produce a program like "A Current Affair".

ACA's video report on the terrorist attack

Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com