Until now, my stereotypical 'terrorist' has been someone on the outer fringes of our 'western society', working class, unemployed and probably poorly educated. However with recent events in London and Glasgow it seems that I need to redefine my paradigm to include,
professional, well educated - and probably everything in between as well.
So, has this Eastern (Muslim) abhorrence of everything Western (Christian) all just happened overnight? A result perhaps of 911 or the Iraq war, or is it's source further back in history? I don't pretend to know the answers, but it seems to me that Christian / Muslim tensions have been brewing for the last thousand years or so. Since well before Richard the Lionheart trundled off to the Crusades to re capture Jerusalem from the Infidels - as romanticized by Cicil B DeMilne and others.
Sir Steven Runciman, the leading western historian of the crusades for much of the 20th century, ended his history with a resounding condemnation:
"High ideals were besmirched by cruelty and greed.. the Holy War was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God".
Was Runciman right? Is terrorism as we know it today simply the fruits of seeds sown during numerous Crusades?
As I say, I don't know the answers but I do know Murphy's law says that what goes round, comes round and as a Christian I know that that there can be no progress in relationships of any sort with out contrition, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation, on both sides।
So, does that leave the reconciliation ball in our court?
A letter to my unanswered question
7 years ago
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1 comment:
It's always simple to link back to past occurances in the hope of gaining a greater understanding of current cirumstances and although I think your link to the crusades may carry some weight, I do not believe that the current problem is an 'eastern/muslim' 'western/christian' problem, and to consider it as such is very short-sighted.
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