Like many people, I’ve been shocked and horrified reading about immigrant crimes in Europe. And further shocked to learn that apparently, Islam actually requires violence against infidels, which are people who are not Muslim, and also against family members in a variety of situations if that seems good, even murdering people, usually women, by beating or stoning them, and raping both adults and children are encouraged.
Are these horrible crimes really required by their religion? I don’t know. From the reports from Europe, it seems like maybe. From listening to Malala, maybe not.
In thinking about it, maybe these crimes are actually also in the Western religious traditions. These include many teachings and practices which together are usually called Christianity.
If you’re wondering if I was trying to shock you into paying attention, yes, I was. And I am, because this is important.
Europeans are complaining that Muslims have deliberately invaded their countries intending to convert their countries to Islam by force. And further that these Muslims are committing all sorts of horrific crimes everywhere. No one is safe.
I agree this is horrible, and it must somehow be stopped.
Something more I notice is that it sounds strikingly similar to what Western nations have done, and are doing, in countless other countries all over the globe, often in the name of Christianity or such.
The crimes happening in Europe are absolutely horrible. What I am trying to point out is that these sort of crimes are just as horrible when Westerners are the ones committing them. Now that we can see they are horrible, we must stop doing them ourselves. For example, there is no question that Iraqis preferred their home before we "helped" them out.
The Christian church has endorsed going to war many times, and in many places, which includes all of the crimes of war. It has sent missionaries to “save” people. This often involved spreading diseases, enslaving people (for their own good...) and stealing anything they wanted. There is the Inquisition. There are the facts that the Catholic Church supports various, corrupt political groups, and Catholic priests everywhere have been accused of sex crimes against children. I have lost count of how many countries the West has invaded and bombed, and even is bombing right now.
So, it’s the pot calling the kettle black doesn’t really make any of the crimes less horrible.
I think we should consider following ideas like the actual teachings of Christ, so the opposite of many of the practices of the Christian church and the West.
The teachings I am thinking of include things like if your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat. This is obviously the opposite of killing or enslaving other people. And would also obviously be the appropriate action.
Millions of Muslims have marched in protest of hate and terror. They are people, like us, who want to live their lives.
Clearly, crimes of assault, rape, murder, enslavement, theft, and destroying people's homes are evil, independent of who commits them.
Looking at history, it is also clear that crimes have never been very effectively stopped with more crimes. Evil is not effective at stopping evil. But love is.
I saw a show today about how in 2015, a tribe in Canada finally took a new action about crimes against women of their tribe with love. It looks like it is working. The members of their community take turns patrolling their town in small groups, making sure kids can walk home safely, making sure citizens can go about their lives safely. And this has been successful. They patrol their town with love for their neighbors. The police had not been able to do this. Maybe they didn’t love the town, so they unfortunately contributed to the crimes rather than protecting people from them. Regardless, this community action seems effective. They said there have been no assaults or murders in their community since they have been doing this. Love can work.