Tolerance

Those that exploded the bombs on the London Underground system a year ago claim to be acting under a religious imperative. I don't believe that. There is no justification for premeditated mass murder. There is also a lot of talk about action against infidels, those that do not belong to the Muslim faith. Again, an empty statement. Provision is made in the Koran for those outside Islam, and they are even mentioned, such as Christians and Jews. After all, the Christian faith shares Abraham with Islam as a common forefather. The Muslim faith holds other faiths in deep respect, and the Koran specifically exempts them from its provisions. Their justifications, again, are empty and meaningless, born of a blind and unseeing hatred, instilled in them by others.

In the aftermath of this atrocity as well as the bombing of the two towers of the World Trade Center, New York, on 11 September 2001, a backlash was seen against those faithful to Islam in general society. I am not talking about government-led actions. On the internet, such as in on-line communities like AOL, so-called jokey emails circulated, ridiculing aspects of the Muslim faith. That too is wrong. The actions of a number of people, pretending to act in accordance with and on behalf of a faith in a manner as seen on 9/11 and 7/7 should not be reflected on a community, sized in excess of 1,000 million. As I outlined above, theirs are not religious acts. They are acts of barbarity, devoid of any religious justification.

A religion, in my personal perspective, is a way of coping with the major questions and challenges of life. It provides a means of answering the questions posed to mankind for thousands of years. Writings, such as contained in the Bible and the Koran, were meant to provide a foundation to daily life, supply a moral framework to society and lay the groundworks for a legal code. Each religion is different, as it has adapted to the differing environment in which their followers have lived and developed.

It is time, I think, for all concerned, irrespective of their religious allegiance, to step back from the rhetoric and the populistic utterances. Step back, to see what is wrong in society, not just in the one country, but on the largest possible scale. We live in one world now. After I press SAVE, this entry can be read by anybody with a computer and an Internet connection within seconds - from anywhere on the planet. Early in the 20th century, news took hours or days to go around the world. Now, it's a matter of seconds. The events in London do not just impact on just that city, or the United Kingdom, or Europe. They had an impact worldwide.

The so-called extremists need to be isolated and cut off from the support bases which supply them with cannon-fodder. They need to be deprived of justification for their actions. The decent folk of the world need to stand together, talk together and sort this festering problem out.