Terrorism, Religion, and War
By Sherman A. Hope, M.D.
Brownfield, TX
The tragedy of 9-11 focused the thinking of most Americans on terrorism. We have been led to believe that the tragedy was caused by an evil enemy, who suddenly appeared out of the Middle East, and who, for no reason apparent to us, undertook to do harm to the United States and her people. We have been taught that this enemy is of a different race and religion and is shrouded in evil. Unfortunately, our nation and her leaders have failed to look at the real cause of the hatred of these people called terrorists and their supporters. However, the cause, at least in part, can be traced to the policies of our nation in dealing with the unrest in the Middle East, specifically the plight of the Palestinians. For the past century there has been an uneven and unjust American policy in dealing with Palestine and Israel.
Christianity throughout the centuries has persecuted Jews. With the enlightenment and reformation of the 19th century, the Jews hoped to be accepted in the world, especially in Western society. But repeatedly governmental and church policy gave them only limited opportunity and protection; therefore, early in the 20th century a movement arose by some Jews to return to the "promised land" (Palestine), and form a nation called Israel. With the exception of a few Jews, Palestine had been inhabited by Arabic people for the past 1800 years. This Jewish movement to return to Palestine is known as the Zionist movement, and was relatively peaceful until the end of World War II.
However, after World War II, the Western world, and especially the United States, gave full support to the migration of Jews (most of which were from the results of the maltreatment of the Jews in Europe) to Palestine. This migration was accentuated by the political support of America`s "religious right-wing Christians" working hand in hand with American Jews. Most of the Christians in this movement believed that it was necessary (i.e., prophesied) for the Jews to return to Palestine in order for the Second Coming of Christ to occur. This means that these Christians believed it was God`s will to expel the local inhabitants (Arabic Palestinians) and establish a nation of Jews. This was culminated in 1947, when the United States pressured the United Nations to establish the nation of Israel. This resulted in expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in Israel and forced these displaced people into refugee camps in Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.
The Palestinians, as well as Syria, Egypt, and Jordan, resisted, but Israel was financed and armed by the West, especially the United States. Israel prevailed in two decisive wars. She conquered even more land than was allotted by the United Nations and expelled more Palestinians, who to this day are still a displaced people. Israel continues to confiscate land from Palestinians for Jewish settlements, displacing even more Palestinians.
Now, after over 50 years of being deprived of their homes, their political freedom, and their heritage, the third generation of these deposed people have resorted to the kind of desperate resistance that people with little hope use. Small groups or individuals resort to acts of resistance, i.e., terrorism. Their life situation has led many of these refugees to adopt an attitude of despair. After all, life seems to have no future because an enemy has taken their homes, killed, imprisoned, and tortured members of their family, and sought to destroy their culture and religion. With the attitude of desperation and despair, many of these displaced persons are susceptible to following any religious fanatic or a radical political leader that encourages them to be a martyr for their homeland and religion. If the person becomes a "holy warrior," not only has he or she become a patriot for the freedom of Palestinians, but also they have become a religious martyr and are thus guaranteed a place in paradise. And if one is going to fight, especially if he expects to die in the struggle, certainly he would want to strike out against the correct enemy. This has resulted in not only terrorism in Israel, but it also set the stage for lashing out at the main military and financial supporter of Israel-which for over 50 years has been the United States. Therefore, it follows that it is both a religious duty as well as a patriotic duty to do harm to America, either on the battlefields in the Middle East or in the American homeland.
Anti-American feelings have grown in the Arab and Moslem countries because of the United States` support for Israel. Currently, the support comes not only from the Jewish community, but even more so from political right-wing Christians, as well as from some of the more zealous evangelical Christian groups. In my opinion, they have a mistaken interpretation of the Bible. These sincere but misguided religious persons think that everything in society is getting worse and therefore the end of the world is near. They think that the world`s condition is now ready for Jesus Christ to return, but he cannot do so until Israel is established. In their minds, then, it is the "will of God" for the United States to help this prophecy come to pass. Of course Israel does not see herself as a tool to facilitate the return of Jesus, but naturally she goes along with this popular mindset to enlist the support, both financial and political, of the United States.
In the past several years, the effort to maintain separation of church and state has been eroded. Now we see the political activities of the religious right, as well as of the Jewish community, promoting their religious outlook by supporting and pressuring the federal government for more military support and financial aid for Israel. This includes going to war against Israel`s potential enemies – such as Iraq.
As the Iraq war has progressed, we see that the stated reason for the war never really existed (even though our political leaders seem to have thought so initially). Yet we continue to fight on. We paint those whom we are fighting, that is, those who opposed our invasion and now oppose the occupation of their country, as insurgents, terrorists, and members of the "Axis of Evil." We use multiple other demeaning labels as if these people were subhuman. Yet they are people who were both created by and loved by God. Most of them were not interested in international politics and only want to be left alone to raise their family and practice their religion. Perhaps imposing a western style democracy (at the point of a bayonet) sounds like a good cause, but as we maim and kill people each day, we also create more and more people that will always hate the USA, and many will seek revenge-yes, by terrorism both in their homeland and abroad.
Our nation`s idea of creating this democracy has resulted in further violence in Iraq, with Sunni`s fighting Shiites and Kurds. Violence continues daily with the murder and maiming of innocent civilians, combatants, leaders of all groups, and American soldiers. Billions of dollars are spent monthly to occupy this country. The elections thus far do not seem to have stopped the internal conflict, and as various nations around the world withdraw their troops and support from a policy of military occupation of Iraq, one must question why are we there. Do we really think we are stopping terrorism in the United States by continuing the war, or is the reason to support the policy of those with a religious agenda for the Middle East. In the meantime as we try to rebuild and "enforce peace" in Iraq, we threaten other Middle East countries that are potential enemies of Israel-Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, some of which have Palestinian refugees.
So what is the answer to international terrorism? At least in part, it is to treat all persons with respect and equality. The United States must see that fairness and justice come to the Palestinians, as well as to the people of Israel. In addition, we must not think that we can impose our life style, our religion, or our method of government by military force. For every "enemy" we kill, a hundred more are created among his family and friends; for every home we search, a thousand more become bases for our opponents.
Perhaps now is the time to say we have accomplished our mission and did what we planned-destroyed any potential for weapons of mass destruction and brought down Hussein. We should declare that our job is completed and leave their country. Training them to have a military force before we pull out has the great potential of making their internal conflicts even more bloody. Let them put their country back together in a manner compatible with their culture and religion. Our trying to make Iraq conform to our Western culture and religion only creates more enemies, and yes, more terrorists-not only in Iraq, but throughout the Moslem world. The longer we stay in Iraq and the longer we are unjust in our policies toward the Palestinians, the more danger our homeland is a target for terrorist attacks.
Let each person in our nation embrace the love of God as each individual perceives God in his heart, but let our nation not try to force by law or military conquest the beliefs of any religious group of our country onto another people. We should not use religion as a tool or excuse for national policy. Separation of church and state was fundamental in making us a great nation, so let`s keep religious dogma out of national policy. If a particular religious group wishes to restore or support Israel, let us give them the freedom to do so with their own money and influence, but not use the power and money of our great nation to promote any particular religious dogma.
