War. Poverty. Religion. These are the three great phenomenal threatening the universe today. By Christian faith, these are the signs that this precious and wonderful world is coming to an end.
War. Poverty. Religion. These are the three great phenomenal threatening the universe today. By Christian faith, these are the signs that this precious and wonderful world is coming to an end.
Allah or God as you wish to describe Him in His infinite wisdom did not create it so but envisaged that as a result of man’s greed and extremism , these factors will plague the world at the end time. These are not natural disasters but man made.
The war in Iraq , Middle East, Africa and other parts of the world can verily be attributed to man’s greed, arrogance and extremism. What is still fuelling the war in the Middle East if not man’s greed, arrogance and lack of the virtues of truth and forgiveness? Is it not one man’s arrogance that plunged Iraq into the infamy of war? The after effect of that war is the holocaust that befell the Our Lady of Salvation Church, Sayidat al- Nejat Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad on Sunday 31st of October, 2010. The Iraqi war is still claiming its victims. If the world is yet to find the cure for the diseases that are still ravaging the world community, it is not because of lack of trying, but man’s greed and extremism. In Africa , our government and those within the corridors of power would rather siphon those funds meant for scientific research on the cure of these diseases. This accords for the reason why malaria is still a killer disease in Africa . In America or Europe , religion will be in the front burner on the rightfulness or otherwise of the methods of the research and cure. Didn’t George W. Bush stop the research on the use of same cell based solely on his Christian faith?
Why did the world go on recession leading to job cuts and the attendant poverty that followed it? Can we severe man’s greed and extremism from it? Despite the wealth around the world, the per capital income per head is skidding by the day. Africa is worst hit despite her endowment in natural resources. In Nigeria , personal estates spurt everywhere, yet her citizens lack the basic needs of life. Who shall we blame for this circle of violence around the world? Greed and extremism you must agree.
Religion. This is the most powerful weapon of destruction pervading the world today. Christianity and Islam, the two most powerful religions in the world like two positive or negative chemical substances repel. Was it created to be so? Both sides would answer no if they have the virtue of truth in them. Religion has it is practised today by different faiths is a consequence of evolution and adoption. Those who kill in the name of Allah are mis- reading the Holy Book Koran. These days, people hide under the canopy of religion to commit atrocities. These religions extremists lack the basic historical knowledge of the faith they profess to uphold. The horror of Baghdad is a clear sign that the lip service government and world leaders are paying to the urgent need to curtain extremism won’t work. An urgent problem deserves an urgent solution. Only last Christmas, a Nigerian failed to bomb a US flight to Detroit . This would have been a success to these extremists and a loss to the global village. The young Nigerian said that there are so many others like him. This is time that those who profess to uphold Islam and Christianity as their faith understand that theirs are not the only religion in the world. This havoc must stop. It was Cardinal Francis Arinze who once enjoined Christians to emulate some of the things in pagan religion. Yes, paganism is a religion and so many others. Deliberate killing is against man and God and He can never endorse it.
Over the years, the United Nations has become a mere on-looker while outrages like the Baghdad killing are going on daily around the world. Some have described the UN as a toothless bulldog. Is it? The inability of the UN to stop the America invasion of Iraq will continue to be a low point for that world boy. The UN must act fast before hapless faiths begin to enmasse weapons to defend themselves against any more attack. There are warning signals individuals and government unwittingly ignore to our own peril.
Some years back, an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at then President Bush. Last week, a man rained blows at Nigeria ’s former president Obasanjo at the airport in Lagos . Anger of citizens and religions faiths may boil to the point of disaster. This is why government and the UN must act fast. These killing must stop. No one faith is superior to the other. It was Thomas Paine who said that injustice to one touches all. The bloody religion massacre in Iraq was injustice to me and all.
Chimezie Elemuo is a lawyer and writer. He lives in Nigeria .
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