(Long live peace, long live love)
What happened last Friday evening in Paris was horrific. It is no longer unthinkable or unimaginable for six separate acts of terrorism to occur in the same city within 20-30 minutes of each other.
The world feels the shock and horror, and the grief of at least 129 killed and hundreds more seriously injured. Facebook profile pictures today are mostly blue-white-and-red in honor of France.
Where are the Lebanese flag colors for the two attacks in Beirut, though? Or the Iraqi colors for the suicide-bombing of a funeral there? Or any kind of acknowledgement for the daily attacks within Syria?
Don?Äôt get me wrong, I?Äôm glad that folks here feel for the people of France, especially in Paris, the City of Lights. What I don?Äôt understand is why the terror and horrific acts elsewhere don?Äôt get a blink of the eye from most here.
Is it because we?Äôre de-sensitized to it? Paris proves that theory wrong. Is it because we only care when Americans are directly affected? That?Äôs getting closer. Television news generally doesn?Äôt waste a soundbyte for non-Americans or non-Ameircan interests. Or is it because those killed in Syria and Lebanon and all across Africa every single day are poorer and browner than we are? That may be why you don?Äôt see it on TV news either.
What also bothers me is the sudden rise in hatred as evidenced on Facebook. It takes little independent thought to pass along a hateful message. I?Äôve seen a lot, and they come just shy of ?ÄúNuke ?Äôem all.?Äù [No, wait, I?Äôve seen that now too.] That?Äôs not the answer, and hatred is not the answer.
Islam is not the enemy any more than Judaism or Christianity or atheism is. Contrary to what the self-proclaimed Islamic Nation would have you believe, this is not a religious war. They are not religious, they are murderers who have grossly distorted religion to serve their purposes. Probably not all that different than the Christian Crusades that went on for 600 years throughout Europe, except that this one is here and now and coming after us this time.
Every group of more than two people will have its extreme, even wacko elements. Would you judge all of Christianity by what the Westwood Baptist Church does (desacrating funerals to spew their intense hatred)? Of course not. Do we judge all Jews by what a handful in Israel are doing (resorting to terrorist tactics in the name of their state)? Nope.
ISIL, or ISIS, would like nothing better than for everyone in the West to hate and turn on each other. They count on people who have fled violence in the Middle East, who happen to be Muslim, to be disenfranchised by their new countries. They appeal to those who feel rejected; these are their new and fiercest recruits.
More Muslims have been tortured and killed by ISIL than have non-Muslims. Especially after the attacks in Paris, Muslims across the world have decried the actions of this fanatical group. (I would even add the adjective ?Äúinsane,?Äù as the actions of ISIL are certainly not those of sane or rational individuals.)
I used to love drawing maps, and coloring them in. As I grew up, I realized that the world is not so simple as ?Äúgreen?Äù countries and ?Äúpink?Äù countries. Borders are not neat lines on a piece of paper, and people don?Äôt fit conveniently into these pockets. Good people here, and bad people there? No way.
The Bible orders us to take care of widows and orphans, and the poor, hungry and needy. Just today I heard someone on the news yelling ?Äúnot even that 3-year-old orphan,?Äù referring to the 3-year-old boy who drowned trying to escape to freedom with his family. The boy, of course is not an orphan; but there?Äôs no word for a parent whose child has died.
Those who most loudly decry all refugees as the equivalent of terrorists, and call for nuking them all to Hell, are the very ones (political leaders, church leaders, those who profess themselves as devout Christian) who should admonish us all to choose Christ?Äôs way of peace and compassion. That may be the saddest realization in all of this. Full-on war may be needed against the ISIL terrorists, but compassion and care are needed for their fellow victims. ?ÄúThere, but for the grace of God, go I.?Äù
My mother-in-law is a refugee after her home on the Black Sea was taken during the civil war in Georgia 20-some years ago. Our best friend was a political refugee because he was an appointee of the government that was overturned; he would have been imprisoned or, more likely, simply disappeared like his colleagues had he not received political asylum here. My brother-in-law is an economic refugee, unable to work in his home country even though he?Äôs a physician.
Think about it, please: except for the accident that you were born here in the safety of the United States, you and your family could be among those refugees tromping through the cold mud of Europe simply in search of a home where people don?Äôt want to kill you every day.
The bottom line?
Don?Äôt use this as an excuse to spread hatred, or evil wins.
Don?Äôt let ?Äúherd mentality?Äù push you to do or say (or repeat) things you wouldn?Äôt on your own, or evil wins. Act and speak from your heart, with love.
Don?Äôt let this make you cower in fear, and stop living, or evil wins.
Don?Äôt stop spreading joy and love, especially as we head into our most joyous and Holy of seasons, or evil wins.
Don?Äôt let evil win.