The Religion of Peace

I know this has been done to death (so to speak), but this is the sort of thing that troubles me about the future of Islam. What is the potential for Moslems to overcome this violence? A co-worker of my wife was travelling in the Far East when her plane stopped over in Kuala Lumpur on 9/11/01. Without any warning of what was happening the collapse one of the twin towers was shown on the airport monitors. She was shocked by the cheering; Religion of Peace, hmmm.

There are interesting parallels between the koranically inspired language and attitudes exhibited by so many Moslems around the world and the violence in the early history of the Jewish people (say from the invasion of the Promised Land to the Two Kingdoms (Israel and Judah). Several episodes of crushing defeat and displacement over several hundred, not to say thousand, years) seemed to help the Jews look at the Biblical language differently. Whether the re-creation of Israel has caused some Jews to forget those lessons is debatable.

Islam is, in some senses, a far more formidable force than the ancient Jews. Are repeated, crushing military defeats, which in their understanding must
mean that Allah is punishing them, what must happen to get some Moslems to rethink their views of the Koran. This is a very troubling thought. A Clash of Civilizations would leave no peace for anyone.

What happened for Christians is Jesus definitive re-casting of the spirit of the Old Testament language, transforming the new Israel to the true religion of peace. Alas, we have failed to accept that message in our lives and communities again and again. The old pope was trying to tell us that conversion and not war is the ultimate solution to these issues.

Thanks to Steve Dillard of Southern Appeal for the link.