Monday, March 28, 2016

On naming the evil we face

As a follow up to the post below, I also want to put on here what I wrote on Facebook the evening that Islamic terror made its presence felt in Brussels. Of course, since then, we've seen the suicide bombing at a soccer match in Iraq, and the gruesome, cruel, godless act of a suicide bomb at a park full of children on Easter Sunday in Lahore.

We cannot discount the religious nature of the threat facing us. Part of it, in the West (and as I've seen on the editorial and op-ed pages of the Indian Express all week, also in that stratum of Indian society most influenced by Western liberalism), is really a distaste for Christianity by the reigning secularist ideology (written after the Charlie Hebdo attacks -- was it just last January?)

It's late here -- I still have to pray my Rosary (which will be for a defeat of Islamic terrorism, and the conversion of the world to Christ) and my thoughts have been with my brother priests in Atlanta (see post below, on the Chrism Mass). I have a bunch of thoughts churning in my head as the horror of Brussels rippled through the world, that will have to wait till another day. However, this much I do want to say:

What we face in the world today is yes, a political ideology that is hate filled. But to assert, as so many do, that this has NOTHING to do with religion is at best naive. It is blind. It is stupid. It may even be culpably, sinful to keep saying that.

Whether this is the "real" Islam or not, this ideology is extremely powerful, vocal, potent, attractive and widely popular in the Islamic world.

No "Muslims" as a category aren't "The Enemy." They are human beings, loved infinitely by God. Christ died for them as much as He did for anyone else. I love Muslims, and I will continue to defend their civil liberties as citizens of our democracies.

However, Islam is not the same as Muslims. Yes, reality is complex. However making FACILE comparisons with other world religions, or asserting that all religious fanaticism is the same, or that, all religions are the same, or that because there are those who kill abortionists, therefore one cannot criticize Islamic terrorism as ISLAMIC, is both false and blind. Dangerously so.

Criticism of Islam is not the same as hatred or bigotry towards Muslims or anyone else. [You won't find me, or any serious Catholic asserting that criticism of Christianity is hatred of Catholics or Christians. It can be, but it isn't always.This distinction is vital. Or, it is not the same thing, to criticize, say the policies of the State of Israel, and be anti-Semitic.]

The sooner we realize this, the sooner we'll be able to actually see what faces our societies and our world. Responding to reality means acknowledging it first, in all its complexity, but without blinders.

Pray for Brussels. Pray for the millions of victims of Islamic terror around the world.

Our Lady of Peace, pray for us!

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