The despot leader of Syria know as Bashar al-Assad has attacked his own innocent civilian people with saran nerve gas killing over 80 people including about 20 children.
Much to Russia’s dismay, Trump responded by unleashing a missal attack on the airfield where the plane originated that dropped the gas on those people. Now it remains to be seen what happens next.
This is just one example of the brutality that is being unleashed by Muslim extremists and Muslim countries with dictatorial leaders like the leaders that were in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I think the countries in the Middle East and northern Africa are a powder keg that is waiting to blow up some day.
Islam seems to be the predominant religion in these areas. For some reason this religion seems to give birth to extremists organizations like ISIS. There are at least four of these organizations active at this time.
The people in these organizations have no tolerance for a religious orthodoxy that is even a little bit different than theirs. I think the fundamental problem with that religion is that it is still based on a culture that is about 4000 years old.
The religion originally evolved from the same source as Judaism. Abraham was the father of both religions through two sons. The first was an illegitimate son who was named Ismail. He was the beginning of the Islamic religion. The second son was named Isaac and from him evolved Judaism the current religion of the Jews today.
Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit 2000 years ago and was born of the Virgin Mary. From Him Christianity evolved which is practiced around much of the world today.
Christ intended the church that he started through Peter, to be a church of love.
Christians have been persecuted ever since the beginning of the church, yet it still promotes love and compassion, not hate and intolerance.
The Islamic religion on the other hand, while it speaks of love, does not project it very well. The hard core of the religion, in the countries where it is predominate, projects intolerance of other religions. In many places their extremists persecute and kill people of Christian faiths. They tend to describe anyone who is not a Muslim as infidel.
A real problem, as I see it, is that they are also intolerant of one another. The leadership of the different sects of the religion seem to hate and persecute each other as much as they do people of other religions.
I think the basis of the mess that is rampant in Syria, Libya and the other regions of the Middle East today is in their inability to respect other sects of the same faith.
Having stated that, the history of Christianity is not squeaky clean either. At the time of King Henry the VIII and Martin Luther, Christianity split into different factions. From that time until just recently there was persecution by Catholics of Protestants and vice versa, but not to my knowledge of other religions except perhaps the Crusades against the Muslims around the year 1200.
This year from April 9 – 16 was Easter Week. This week is to celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was crucified to open the gates of heaven. Man was created by God to glorify God.
It really makes you wonder how man has been able to make such a mess of the organizations that were created for the glorification of God.
I think we should use this Easter to be an example of love for one another that was intended by God.