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troubledgoodangel
Posts: 29
Joined: Dec 2006
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December 29, 2006 3:28 PM
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There are grave discrepancies between how Christians see martyrdom, and how do Moslems. A Catholic offers his life for the Kingdom of Peace of the Prince of Peace which is Christ. He never takes other innocent (or guilty) lives with him! A Moslem offers his life for himself and for his perceived "jihad of Allah." He thinks that this guarantees him Paradise. He has no compunction to kill scores of innocent bystanders as part of his "offering" to Allah. How can we find common ground? I used to discuss this in my correspondence with the Iranian representative to the UN, Dr. Jawad Zarif, years ago. He conceded that the above is a correct assessment of our differences. But he pointed out that at the root is our different view of justice. Christians martyrs equate justice with rightness, but not in this life (or else they would have to kill every unjust person). Instead they offer themselves to God as victims of justice - they offer their own lives. Moslems martyrs, however, insist that their way of martyrdom does justice and that therefore it is the right way. The moral seems to be, Dr. Zawad and I agreed, that we must both work for justice, in Palestine and elsewhere, and the tensions may get reduced miraculously. As a Christian, I added to this that we must foster common visions of holiness, and pray much, much more. B.J.S.
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