YouTube:
The Paris attacks.
[Our data today comes from Chris Eyre, who will co-host today with guest host Michael Kennedy, Jr., author of Parent Driven Discipleship.]
My own instant response is at:-
http://eyrelines.energion.net/ ?p=884 (and will appear on the Energion Discussion Network on Thursday). (Note that there is also an extended response from Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. on the EDN post. Elgin will not be participating in GCP this week.)
Here’s a Guardian piece on the origins of ISIS:-
http://www.theguardian.com/ books/2015/jul/24/how-to- think-about-islamic-state
A source supporting the argument that occupations produce suicide attacks is at:-
https://foreignpolicy.com/ 2010/10/18/its-the-occupation- stupid/ ; For bombings, see https://books.google.co.uk/ books?id=JLW1CgAAQBAJ&pg= PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=bombing+ produces+terrorists&source=bl& ots=BW9OXl1nMx&sig= jLYrz6zafKwjUnoskfEBZysrXT8& hl=en&sa=X&ved= 0CEQQ6AEwBjgKahUKEwjWs4KqipfJA hVI7BQKHcgRDwM#v=onepage&q= bombing%20produces% 20terrorists&f=false
Article on possible non-violent techniques:-
http://wagingnonviolence.org/ feature/8-ways-defend-terror- nonviolently/?utm_content= bufferdc823&utm_medium=social& utm_source=twitter.com&utm_ campaign=buffer
Questions arising include:-
Is it reasonable for us to fixate so much on attacks in Paris when an attack the day before in Beirut killing over 40 went more or less unreported until Paris occurred? There have been attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria this week, including Tuesday killing over 50 people, but we see nothing about that in the media, just a lot of coverage of a dead police dog that day…
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Given that the terrorist’s stated objectives are to make us overreact, both in reprisals abroad (which they state give them more recruits) and in persecution of Muslims at home (which they state help formulate a binary view of “us and them” in currently moderate Muslims and give them more recruits), should we play into their hands by doing what they want? Are they right about the mechanism? Should we damage our own freedoms more out of a desire for security tight enough to stop this happening where we live?
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(From Michael) One related item to the Paris attacks is the refugee crisis in Syria and how several countries and several states in the US are now refusing to receive refugees. Is this a proper response? Does the command to care for the widows, orphans, poor, strangers etc. apply to countries or only to individual believers? If it applies only to believers what should be the response of Christians to these events? What practical steps should churches take?
http://www.theguardian.com/
https://foreignpolicy.com/
http://wagingnonviolence.org/
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(I’m considering this as the final and longer discussion)…
I don’t know if any of you have read Karen Armstrong’s “The Battle for God”, but I consider that to give a fine analysis of some of the root causes of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism (and Christian and Jewish fundamentalisms as well). In general terms, this kind of fundamentalism can be contained by leaving them to their own devices in their countries of origin, but Elgin has a point when it comes to Islamic State, which considers itself a Caliphate, and yes, it’s objective is world Islam of it’s own nasty variety, which is a neoconservative harking back to the early days of Islam. They won’t stop unless they’re stopped. Do we (as in the USA, Britain and other parties to the “War against Terror”) have a moral obligation to find a solution, given that we were very instrumental in producing the circumstances which led to this?
If we are, how do we justify this from the teachings of Jesus, and what constraints are there on us in pursuing this objective?