of holy wars

Imagine the two human species that preceded the homo sapiens: homo habilis and homo erectus who lived 1.5 million or so years ago. Without any plausible scientific bases, but with the capacity for rational thinking, they were confronted with the elements of nature: fire, wind, air, and water. During the day, they looked – up at the sky, and saw the searing sun, and in the stillness of the night, the moon illumined the earth. Put yourself in their shoes, and you realize the awe and wonder our ancestors must have felt. As one writer puts it, they experienced what we call tremendum et facinans. Extreme fear and fascination.

Owing to man’s rational capacity, there must be order to an otherwise chaotic environment. Bereft without any scientific explanations, the first men that walked on earth had woven tales about the sun, moon, fire, water, air, and earth. Owing to the reasoning power, man has to explain the reason why these elements exist, and if they cannot fathom , they have to embrace these elements as supra-natural; and thus, superstitions about these elements evolved into paganism – sun, moon, earth, fire, wind, worship. Yes, religious rituals evolved around a stone, a river, a mountain, and even animals.

The earliest religious stirring is paganism – a raw, almost reflex reaction to the mysterious earth the early men faced. The mind cannot have without explanation. Chaos is intolerable. There must be order and harmony of human existence, from the material to the spiritual. Beliefs were held, and myths were told, delineating the powers of the gods and how the mortal should relate to them.

Religions however went beyond nature-worship. In the western world, the three main branches – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – have posited a Supreme Being who is the alpha and the omega of the human race. In the east, Hinduism and Buddhism from which many groupings evolved, posited that human being has his supra-natural aspect that is imprisoned in the flesh. To reveal man’s divine nature, he has to unhinge from the karmic principle, to escape from the wheel of re-incarnation to attain nirvana, a state of total bliss.

Of the religions, it is the western groups that have defined the bloody history of the human race. While the pre-historic men embraced religious worship to give order to an otherwise mysterious nature, the modern western religions have created chaos and disorder, by the never-ending forays into another religion. Religions as we now experience, have evolved from a tool of explaining the mystery to a tool of subjugation and annihilation.

Tell me of major wars, and you will see that the cause celebre of the same is rooted in religion. Judaism is the ancient of the three western religions. Yet we recorded its clash with the early pagan Egypt. Christianity saw the expansion of territories by the sign of the cross and the sword. Islam later on, avenged and even exceeded the adventures of the Crusaders. The war on terror right now , it is too, rooted on religion.

Why should man kill in the name of Jesus, or Allah, or Yahweh? Is it because we can now explain nature and de-mystified the pagan idols that we now project the superiority of our respective God by killing one another? Yet the irony is that the God of the west is professed as compassionate, the source of the ultimate love for humanity; and redemption can only be had by following the God.

There goes the clincher – there is only one road to human salvation. The compassionate God has admonished His flock to evangelize, to convert the gentiles and pagans and the infidels. The road to salvation must be shared. But must we kill a person who does not want to take the road we have taken?

But why the brouhaha? A man has yet to rise from the dead and tell the living that he has seen the road to salvation. The road we the living are talking about are mere glimpses of our faith. In a sense, the modern religious are still pagans. Enveloped in the modern mind is still the mystery of whether man has an afterlife. And in order to explain this, we embrace the concept of human salvation through a religion. But how sure are you that your road is the real one? Or are you even sure you have an afterlife?

Granting that your religion is the road to salvation, then your path necessarily excludes other religions. The rest of humanity then would be damned in hell. If your God is truly compassionate, then what kind of love that abandons the rest of humanity to damnation? Even if you combine the Christians , Jews, and Muslims, the number is still insignificant compared to the billions of Hindus, Buddhists, pagans, and non-believers. Does it mean they will not find salvation? To reason that you have a compassionate God that leads you to the only road to salvation necessarily contradicts the true nature of your God. The whole argument collapses and so do the reason why you have to subjugate and kill to convert people into your fold.

Now tell me, why do you have to kill in the name of your God that you profess to be compassionate?

Our pre-historic ancestors worshipped in order to give them relief to the mysteries they have encountered with nature. They projected supra-beings to help them understand, in the absence of scientific explanations of things they saw and experienced. The spirit world was a tool for their meaningful existence of earth. But the modern man has made the spirit-world the end all and be all of human existence. Religion has ceased to be a tool; human existence instead has become a tool of religious practices that see the wastage of human lives. We have forfeited our present existence in favor of the afterlife which we have but only glimpses of our faith.

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read the current news (courtesy of my friend Millie)

Threats Force Egyptian Convert to Hide
Saturday, August 11, 2007 2:58 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By MAGGIE MICHAEL Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — An Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity and then took the unprecedented step of seeking official recognition for the change said he has gone into hiding following death threats.

Mohammed Hegazy, who sparked controversy when pictures of him posing with a poster of the Virgin Mary were published in newspapers, was shunned by his family and threatened by an Islamist cleric vowing to seek his execution as an apostate.

“I know there are fatwas (religious edicts) to shed my blood, but I will not give up and I will not leave the country,” the 25-year-old Hegazy told The Associated Press from his hideout Thursday.

Hegazy made a public splash when he took the unusual step of going to court to change his religion on his national ID card. His first lawyer filed the case, but then quit after the uproar; his second is still considering whether it’s worth pursuing.

Hegazy said he received telephoned death threats before he went into hiding in an apartment with his wife, a Muslim who took the name Katarina when she converted to Christianity several years ago. She is four months pregnant.

He said he wants to change the religion on his ID for two reasons: to set a precedent for other converts and to ensure his child can openly be raised Christian. He wants his child to get a Christian name, birth certificate and eventually marry in a church. That would be impossible if Hegazy’s official religion is Muslim, because a child is registered in the religion of the father.

There is no Egyptian law against converting from Islam to Christianity, but in this case tradition takes precedent. Under a widespread interpretation of Islamic law, converting from Islam is apostasy and punishable by death — though killings are rare and the state has never ordered or carried out an execution on those grounds.

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• Samurai
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An interesting yet profound article to make one think; Very well written and so true…have a great day..

the muslim issue

Few days ago, a fraternal brother died. Few days before graduation from the College Of Law, Tamtam Edpan’s life was literally snuffed out. He was driving his Mitsubishi Adventure in the city proper when armed men carnapped the car and brought him along from Cagayan de Oro to the remote area of Lanao del Sur. There, in a remote area, two bullets were pumped into his head, causing his instantaneous death. A cabal of Muslim ended his life. So went his dreams and hopes of a family

Flashback few months ago. A young man was beaten to death for having a relationship with a muslim woman. Since when loving a woman a crime so grave enough to be meted- out with death? And don’t ask me anymore who the culprit was.

I am living in Mindanao where the love-hate relationship between the Muslims and Christians has spilled blood in the island the Filipinos call the Land of Promise. Although Muslims are a minority here, our neighboring island of Luzon has always misconceived that Muslims are predominant. Truth of the matter, only 30% of the residents in Mindanao are Muslims.

I don’t want to sound racist, but keeping ones thought inside would kill a man. This is one sensitive topic that even the local media have opted to close their eyes. When media men discuss the spate of crimes perpetrated by the Muslims, they do so in whispers, and if they do it aloud, they sound more of apologists for the Muslims than purveyors of truth.

There cannot be peace without a dialogue. And a true dialogue comes out of the spring of truth. Pope Benedict the XVI was heavily criticized when he said that there is one basic schism between Christianity and Islam: the latter can justify violence in the name of religion, and in the former, the only justification for violence is self-defense. The violent tendencies of Islam is rooted in its philosophy. What the pontiff said may be a painful truth to swallow, but truth, no matter how it hurts, must come into the light of day.

Let me share my thoughts.

During Marcos dictator circa the 70’s, the Muslim secessionist movement was getting stronger. The Muslims wanted that Mindanao should secede from the Philippines. Led by a brilliant Nur Misuari, the chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the call to secede by arm struggle was getting louder and deafening. The Muslim rebel ranks were swelling. Marcos unleashed his war dogs, with impunity.

The horrors of the military campaign during the 70’s came to me in so graphic form. In the early 80’s, our family resided near a big military headquarter, an Infantry Division of the army. We had a store, so soldiers would come to while their time or recall their recent battles. Accordingly, planes would fly above Muslims villages, spray gasoline, and the foot soldiers would incinerate the entire village. Fires by the way, like bombs , do not choose their victims. Burnt with the nipa huts were infants and the aged, the strong and weak, women and men. Bodies were charred beyond recognition. And after the fire, the infantry would charge, to kill those who were spared by the fire, and more, to claim the spoils of war. The villages were looted; and women who were still alive, raped. And better believe in the goriest of the details: the soldiers would eat parts of the charred bodies. The ears were their favorite.

These tales were repeated to me by countless soldiers that I could not do otherwise but believe in their veracity.

The bloodbath continued. Muslims too raided Christian villages, and their atrocities were just as gruesome. After the military assault, the Muslims took their vengeance, and the Christian communities had to defend themselves by forming militiamen known as the Ilaga gang led my the famous Commander Toothpick. Both sides, literally ate the innards of the other.

In this cycle of violence, there is always a question as to who started the violence. But just like any circle, the beginning and ending cannot be easily determined. The Muslims would argue that when the Spanish conquistadores colonized the Philippines in the 16th century, they defended their faith from the onslaught of the Christian cross. When the Americans came in the 1890’s up to 1940’s, they resisted the smothering of their culture, especially their language and beliefs, with the bodies and blood of their brethren. To them, the cycle of violence, the Christian cross started it all. But for the Christians too, as my grandmother ,who is already 96 years old, would recall, they dreaded the repeated sounds of the belfry because death and rape and torture and looting from the moros ( the pejorative word for Muslim then) were coming.

Who started it first? We may never know, or even if it is known, no one would admit responsibility. The beauty with history is that we can recall and retell without fear. My retelling of the soldiers’ accounts would mean death during the Marcos era. The downside with history though is that it cannot be undone. Yes, we have to look back in history. But having done that, we cannot let ourselves be imprisoned in the cycle of violence that bloody history has created even up to the present.

The death of Tamtam and the Christian lover may be attributed to this cycle of violence. But this cycle must end somewhere. Look what happened when the Superferry ship was torched allegedly by the Muslim militants. Thereafter, in Ozamis City, the innocent Muslim vendors and residents of that city were rounded-up, some were shot, and others were told to go home to the moroland. In Davao City, under the iron-rule of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, a Muslim body would float if a Christian died due to their undoing.

I dread the day when Cagayan de Oro, the City of the Golden Friendship, would become the jungle of the meanest. Before the 90’s, during my student days at Xavier University, I recall that we would stay until the wee hours in the morning in the city streets without fear to our property, limb, and life. We were so sure of the peace. But when mayor Vicente Emano welcomed the Muslims with open arms, I dread to stay out in the evening. May be this is my racial bias, or may be, the violence has gripped me that I lost my objectivity. But the death of Tamtam has definitely ignited passions, and individual, isolated rage, if remained unchecked may incinerate the society as well, beyond pacifying. In 1998 for example, my law office partner, Atty. Salvador Pacana, was kinapped. His friends went on air, and warned: “If Atty. Pacana would not be released within 72 hours, heads of the Muslims would roll, starting from those occupying the highest government position in the City”. Atty. Pacana was released. But what if he were not released?

This is the time to nip the embers of hate. The racial divide should be bridged. How? I don’t know exactly. But let me give a hint. Among the tennis clubs in Cagayan de Oro City, it is our tennis club where there are more than 20 Muslim members. Out of prejudices, the Muslims would play among themselves, so as the Christians. But there are those who have been willing to extend their hands of friendship. There are few Muslims who would play with the Christians, and vice-versa. And count me in. I often talk with the broad-minded Muslim members about this racial divide, and we learn from each other much. These are the interactions we sorely need if we have to douse the embers of hate.

But individual efforts cannot the whole system change. One time, somebody approached me to authenticate three death certificates. I was suspicious. After inquiries, I found out that the persons whose names appeared in the death certificates were facing criminal charges. And death, in any penal law, extinguishes liability. What an excuse. The case would be dismissed. Yes, when I went over the death certificates, I realized that a hospital, a doctor, and the local civil registrar were in conspiracy in this grand but devious scheme. There is lawlessness here that must be punished. If a Muslim is wronged, and he files a case, then good for you: He is submitting to the penal system. But more often than not, if a Muslim is wronged, he would not file a case, but brace yourself, for as the Biblical saying goes, “A tooth for a tooth; an eye, for an eye.” The famous rido, or family vendetta, is a way of exacting revenge. And this is something culturally ingrained, although it is diametrically opposed to the majesty of law.

Social bacterias breed most in isolation and darkness. It is difficult to enforce law and order in places where even the vehicles cannot easily access. Unfortunately, the Autonomous Muslim Mindanao Mindanao is lagging way behind in terms of road networks. The outlaws can easily play hide-and-seek with law enforcers in the Muslim areas, that crimes there are unabated, with impunity. This is the time to infuse infrastructure projects in the Muslim areas so that the outlaws would be exposed easily to the shining light of law enforcement.

Educate! Education is so far the greatest liberator. This is true story. A kidnap-for-ransom gang composed of Muslims kidnapped a man with the initials R.H.D. The victim, together with his wife, were brought to the gang’s lair. The gang demanded from R.H.D. TEN MILLION PESOS ransom. But R.H.D. pleaded that he is only the assistant to the driver of the truck. The gang was furious, “But you have so many trucks which are marked RHD? The victim explained, “RHD are not initials for my name but Right Hand Drive vehicles.” Incredible story, but true. Where the people are illiterate, they cannot possibly compete for decent livelihood. They go underground.

The love-hate relationship between Muslims and Christians have biblical roots, and the root causes are so deep that historical perspective may not suffice. As the Pontiff admonished: True dialogue must go deeper into the Philosophical bases of the discord. We cannot just give a palliative. The historical manifestations of the discord are skin-deep. The violence we are witnessing can be trace to the clash of civilization, the schism of the world into Muslims and Christians and Jews. But this schism is rooted in our divergent philosophical views of life, of the now and hereinafter. But since we inhabit a common Earth, then we have no option but to bridge this clash of civilization; or else, our civilization may be annihilated, and Mother Earth scorched with the nuclear energy.