Mr Russell |
There are 3 things that last – faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 13:13
The appalling murder of so many young people in Paris on Friday 13th November shocked all of us.
After my initial emotional reaction, my reflections on this followed two separate strands – those based on my Christian values and those on what our political/human reactions should be.
As far as my Christian response to the massacre is concerned, killing is wrong and unacceptable –love is the greatest of things that last. Perhaps the brutality and unexpected nature of the killing of so many people heightens my upset. However, Christ was killed by a number of people with political motives (which may have been disguised as religion, but was certainly not). And so God knows what it is like to suffer unjustly. But He forgives “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing” ( Luke 23:34). Christ taught us that we should judge morally, and not allow our human reactions to influence this judgement.
The complication is that the terrorists have aligned themselves to religion and so it is interesting to hear the reactions of those who lead Islam. It exactly mirrors the reaction of Christians. They have condemned them. Shuja Shafi, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said: “There is nothing Islamic about such people and their actions are evil and outside the boundaries set by our faith.” In Glasgow, the Muslim lawyer Aamer Anwar, who is assisting Glasgow Central mosque said: “the Muslim Community is one of law-abiding, peace-loving people”
People of the Christian and Muslim faiths disown these killers and pray for their victims. Our Christian consolation is that God has experienced suffering and is beside those who suffer:
“In the shadow of your wings I take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by” Psalm 56
My second strand of thought centred on the Glaswegian – “Gonnae dae somethin”. I ask what and how? As I think about reacting to political/”religious” violence, the one thing that I know doesn’t solve terrorism is fighting violence with more violence. Over the years, I’ve watched this approach fail to produce desired solutions. It may make you feel good but…… I have watched the tactic fail in Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Palestine/Israel and Iraq to name but a few.
Where groups have complex political problems to address, the only way which has offered any reasonable chance of success is to resist and peacefully confront (whilst containing) the causes of violence – through discussion. The classic examples of this in recent history are the defeat of Apartheid in South Africa and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland. These conflicts show, no matter how much violence and counter-violence was visited on people, the way forward to a lasting peace solution (and it’s a lengthy process not without failures on the way) is to talk to the violent. This is not an easy task, but the only just one which does not build and multiply division, hatred and revenge: none of which is right or acceptable.
In conclusion, the Paris murders show us the depths of human behaviour. They may be carried out in the name of religion but are contrary to all religious values. The Christian and political approach to this problem is to act with justice and not to adopt political or military “quick fix” approaches which are either immoral themselves and/or will give the terrorists what they want: a society based on fear and oppression.
My faith and hope is that Love is stronger than hate.
