Yet another tragedy in France
Our neighbours and allies in France appear to have suffered particularly badly from terrorism over the past few months and today's murder of a priest in his 80's in the church where he was celebrating Mass was particularly sick
Our thoughts and prayers are, again with the people of France as they come to terms with yet another terrorist atrocity.
There was a time which places of worship were recognised as providing sanctuary. Sadly today's killers did not think that way.
Jesus taught people to love one another and not to return evil for evil. The Prophet Mohammed taught his followers that anyone who killed someone who is at peace with Islam will never breathe the air of paradise, and that his God is "the compassionate, the merciful."
Anyone who kills in the name of either Christianity or Islam is ignoring the true message of either.
Note that, unfortunately, I am not saying that the vicious murders perpetrated by some terrorists are not carried out in the name of great religions. What I am saying is that the people who believe that such actions are endorsed by those religions are wrong.
Western civilisation has no quarrel with those who peacefully follow any religion, or those who choose not to.
It is the fact that Western civilisation is tolerant that the likes of DA'ESH most object to. They would like nothing more than to stir up a violent backlash to atrocities like those in Paris, Brussels, Nice or today in Normandy. And that is what we must not give them.
Don't let's kid ourselves that Britain is not just as much a target as France for the likes of DA'ESH, or that we could stop ourselves from being a target by any chance in our foreign policy. Of course we made ghastly mistakes in Iraq, but we cannot win where the Jihadists are concerned - Western powers will be imperialists if we intervene, as in Iraq, or abandoning innocent people to die when we don't, as was originally our position in Syria.
We need to be vigilant but we also need to make sure that we do not scapegoat people because of what community they come from. That will occasionally be a very hard balance to strike. But we have to make the attempt.
Our thoughts and prayers are, again with the people of France as they come to terms with yet another terrorist atrocity.
There was a time which places of worship were recognised as providing sanctuary. Sadly today's killers did not think that way.
Jesus taught people to love one another and not to return evil for evil. The Prophet Mohammed taught his followers that anyone who killed someone who is at peace with Islam will never breathe the air of paradise, and that his God is "the compassionate, the merciful."
Anyone who kills in the name of either Christianity or Islam is ignoring the true message of either.
Note that, unfortunately, I am not saying that the vicious murders perpetrated by some terrorists are not carried out in the name of great religions. What I am saying is that the people who believe that such actions are endorsed by those religions are wrong.
Western civilisation has no quarrel with those who peacefully follow any religion, or those who choose not to.
It is the fact that Western civilisation is tolerant that the likes of DA'ESH most object to. They would like nothing more than to stir up a violent backlash to atrocities like those in Paris, Brussels, Nice or today in Normandy. And that is what we must not give them.
Don't let's kid ourselves that Britain is not just as much a target as France for the likes of DA'ESH, or that we could stop ourselves from being a target by any chance in our foreign policy. Of course we made ghastly mistakes in Iraq, but we cannot win where the Jihadists are concerned - Western powers will be imperialists if we intervene, as in Iraq, or abandoning innocent people to die when we don't, as was originally our position in Syria.
We need to be vigilant but we also need to make sure that we do not scapegoat people because of what community they come from. That will occasionally be a very hard balance to strike. But we have to make the attempt.
Comments