Religious violence
By Bert Hetebry
Having worked for many years with a diverse number of people from different ethnic groups and religions, and some with no religion, I was impressed that despite the differences, everybody seemed to get along. Being interested, I asked people about their faith, and found that people held their faith and cultural traditions firmly and recognised that others were free to worship their gods so long as that freedom was universal. Explaining this to an evangelical person one time I was assured that his faith, his religion was the only true religion.
The sense of rightness, (can I call it self-righteousness?), left no room for dissent.
And herein lies the foundation for discrimination which leads to intolerance and violence.
My god is better than your god!
Earlier this week, a fire-brand preacher was attacked by a knife-wielding teenager.
The preacher is well loved in his local church and has attracted a substantial YouTube following with very outspoken views on homosexuality, conspiracy theories and Islam. The young attacker is Muslim and upset that the preacher maligned his prophet.
In Jesus name, the young attacker and whoever sent him has been forgiven by the injured preacher.
To accept forgiveness, a person must accept they have done wrong, but how can the young man accept he has done wrong when his religion encourages violence in defence of his faith, and how sincere is the act of forgiveness when the preacher will no doubt continue his vitriol against Islam, the LGBTIQA+ community and the various other click bait topics he raises in his broadcast sermons.
The young man is in custody, yet to be charged but was on a good behaviour bond over a previous knife wielding incident, and will no doubt face the children’s court to answer to criminal charges. But will he accept the forgiveness offered by the injured preacher when in his mind, his actions were in defence of his religion?
Is the act of forgiveness predicated on the acceptance of Jesus as saviour, that the young man must accept the act of forgiveness as that of the ‘crucified Lord’, but would be void if there is no conversion to the Christian faith?
Is the act of forgiveness aimed at reconciliation, that the young man and the preacher can coexist, side by side as it were, in an atmosphere devoid of rancour, devoid of the judgementalism each religion places on other religions?
The history between the two religions, the Assyrian Orthodox Church and Islam goes back a long, long way, the church is one of the earliest Christian denominations, formed in what is now Iraq, Turkey and Syria, and pre-existed Islam by several hundred years. The two religions have lived side by side but in a rather tenuous environment with waves of persecution conducted. In the last century the Assyrians suffered the 1915 Genocide by the Ottoman Turks, leading them to flee to Northern Iraq and North East Syria, and this century with the rise of ISIS, a further brutal persecution.
When religious leaders preach sermons seemingly designed to foster hatred or at least division, to claim a superiority over others who are not like ‘us’, violence will follow. When those sermons are broadcast to whoever has access to a smart phone or computer the voice resonates through the dark web and incites reactions.
What is particularly sad in this case, is that we have an immigrant community which has brought with it the divisions which led to their desire to leave their homeland because of war and religious discrimination and have bought with them the very attitudes they are trying to escape from.
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Return to home page“What is particularly sad in this case, is that we have an immigrant community which has brought with it the divisions which led to their desire to leave their homeland because of war and religious discrimination and have bought with them the very attitudes they are trying to escape from.”
This is exactly my biggest issue with the current immigration landscape. These people bring all their baggage with them, you see it every time something major occurs overseas……..then their are riots, protests, demonstrations, etc, etc.
This is Australia and we don’t do this here, we don’t like this behaviour, if you are that passionate about what is going on in your home country…………then just go back.
In my mind makes a good reason for barring people from specific countries. Either that or something like significantly more detailed vetting of these people.
I have come to the opinion that anyone who indocrinates their children in THEIR so called ‘faith” is guilty of abuse. We see evidence of children being indoctrinated in partticular religious ideology all the time even within the garden variety religions. I was sent to sunday school as a child and to this day remember some of the teachings. I am now older and would hope wiser and see all this for what it is and that is the predisposition of the “Clerics” (those who wear robes and funny hats) to set themselves above the common people so they can hold forth about what others should think and do and to feed them the words of an ancient fairy story as literal truth when in fact it is a means to capture the minds of people and to lead them in a particular direction…not always good.
If Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel has offered ‘forgiveness’, that in effect frees him from lingering in a tortureous state of aggrievement. If the youth who attacked him refuses to accept the forgiveness offered, then that is his expression of his ongoing discontent with the situation. Which person is more mature – a freeman or a discontent one? I doubt if the Bishop was attacked because he called out the covid ‘plandemic’ for what it was, which means the assault was probably related to religious rivalry. In an age of cancel culture, knifing someone repeatedly while that person is giving a talk in a church takes self-righteousness to the next level. If the police dont get on top on this, what does anyone think is going to happen to social stability?
My late mother counted many post WWII migrants among her friends. Her wisdom held that ”migrants should leave their troubles in the old country and accept the many opportunities to work and build a better life in Australia”.
Australia has enough racism and division that the FRWNJs are exploiting to the detriment of every Australian voter. Our role as responsible voters must be to weed out the xenophobes and ”send them back to their own country” where their ideas and actions will be better appreciated.
When in doubt keep the COALition OUT.
Firstly it was unclear who the crowd was and who did they represent? There are an awful lot of similar incidents being highlighted by RW MSM and influencers for profile and dog whistling.
Nonetheless, on this article, it may take a generation or more for some refugees and permanent migrants to leave the (often way over stated) ‘baggage’ behind eg. some Greek communities; much depends on the home or extended family environment, getting through local education and participating in broader community eg. working.
In fact whether related to Syria, Palestine, Middle East and Turk Ottomans, many of the people of the same neither know nor understand that history.
Everyone, in their own way is here to exploit the natural bounty of the country. Before any Europeans were here, the indigenous, ie those who arrived following man’s spread from Africa per se, operated successfully their own rules pertaining to their lands and trade, including trade with those of SE Asia / Asia-pacific.
Since the colonization via the British imperium, there have been many ‘official’ lies about notions of freedom and opportunity promulgated in attempts to entice toilers and taxpayers to ‘tame’ the land and with obeisance provide funds for maintenance of the ivory tower, the national hegemony, and the vain hope of perpetually propping the imperium – whose corporal and psychological brutality was never far below the surface.
So it has been since circa 15thC, Pope Alexander VI and his bulls defining the Doctrine of Discovery unleashed the hounds of Western Europe upon the world.
All people flee their ‘native’ territory because they can’t make their way or find they don’t fit into the prevailing narrative, and come what may seek freedom and opportunity elsewhere, and given time believe that they would acculturate to the promises of the new land. This once would have been true because the price of failure to conform and acculturate were indeed to be held in dread.
Since the advent of two world wars, and the divvying up of control of the continental territories of Europe, the Middle East / South and East Asia and Africa, the meaning and purpose of the old cultures had been well and truly usurped, and with them the hold of the old demagogues and religious variants.
To suggest that in Oz, only the newcomers are affected is nonsense. We are all affected.
Since WWII, the world constructed its own notion of paradise, albeit many wars both hot and cold of the new American imperium persisted, the new paradise was premised on faux freedoms; of self-determination, speech and religious expression – all very promising and egalitarian. Until of course the new overarching god of the capital imperative sought to engorge itself by divide and conquer – diminish community, social cohesion and democracy by the promotion of individualism and individual rights over the truth and natural glues of interdependence.
After 40 years of it, the chooks are coming home to roost, and the world is subject to increasing chaos and stagnation and adversity bringing fear for all and a search for blame, and an abject terror for newcomers, all whilst the talons of the overarching god of the capital imperative and it’s m.o. of divide and conquer maintain their grip.
With ‘natural’ justice and egalitarian fairness apparently fallen prey to inequities, that the agitated tyros of terrified newcomers seek to exercise their ‘freedoms’ and defend their ‘individual rights’ by their own means, ought be no surprise. They only have the narrative of their forebear’s nightmares to fall back on.
Sending them back to their (old) ‘homeland’ will achieve nothing. Whereas, keeping them here to be reformed, as we reform ourselves, may serve as a lesson about our diversity and interdependence whilst seeking a path to equity and peace.
As a child of immigrants i am truly saddened by the level of discoarse. All those with the ” dont like it leave” attitude just have no understanding.
I am not going to give a 50 page lecture, fuck you too.
As far as religious nuts go, its a thing only because governments give religions a free tax ride. Get rid of the free ride and you make them all more accountable about who they insult with their superstition.
For example you want them to assimulate so then you give them a free ride to build their isolated gated schools and communities. They look weird from the outside and doesnt that primary school kid in is just love to attack the different?
It starts from the ground up, you bring in migrants from different cultures and then just dump them in the community. Wtf do we expect?
100% no problems? yes we are an insane country at times.
What is all comes down to in the simplest of terms is that differences in religious beliefs will keep on maiming and killing our species for as long as there are people that will believe in myths and fantasies. We’ve been doing it to each other for more than two thousand years already so what makes people think we are capable of stopping it now that we are in the “informed” and “enlightened” 21st century. What is it about our supposedly”intelligent” species, a species that is now able to tell us how many years old not only our solar system is but also the start of the whole universe. But our brains seems to turn to mush and invention when the subject of religion is raised. Fighting over religious differences will be the death of us all one day…
We are familiar with the disturbing way in which people with pathological personalities find employment that facilitates their antisocial and often criminal intentions. For example, paedophiles find their way into teaching and religious ministry where they can abuse and betray the trust of unsuspecting victims. Religious ministry attracts egotistical fanatics who distort and selectively quote the sources of their “faith” to whip up hate of others among willing congregants similarly motivated by egotism. I’m not about to say that there is no such thing as religious violence. But I do want to say that violence that occurs in the name of religion is not motivated by the religion being invoked. And yes, I am equating the likes of Mar Mari Emmanuel and Ian Paisley (of unfond memory) with paedophiles. Although, having said that, paedophiles have an excuse for their behaviour: they’re sick. Religious perversion is wilful evil.
What I have found bewidering is the lack of context from MSM.
If he is some sort of fundamentalist, why is this not gainng more attention?
paul, MSM will not give the bishop any oxygen because he has been calling out aspects of the BS woke agenda which the MSM seems to be in lockstep with. I just watched a few YouTube clips of the bishop and one clip from about 4 months ago where he was on the Patrick Bet-David Show (also borne in Iraq). He’s not my cup of tea but his enthusiastism for Christianity is probably his attraction to some. From the limited amount of videos I watched I saw no reason to try and execute the man. I think the MSM is in hiding because they don’t like directing people to others who have a different message to the agenda.
He is not “calling out aspects of the BS woke agenda” – he is an outright (and forthright) bigot. Anti LGBTQIA+, for starters. Add the inevitable misogyny and a healthy dose of racism along wiith vocal support for eugenics.
But, as far as I can find, the only cited reason for the attack was the classic “wrong version of deity worshipped in the wrong way” of which extremists are so fond.
Just a cursory viewing of some the YouTube videos posted by this so-called “bishop” proves to me that he uses his (excommunicated) pulpit for hate speech. Did he deserve to be stabbed for his slurs? No. Does he deserve to be shut down? Definitely. The violent rioting of his parishioners is warning enough.