JERUSALEM—As an uneasy truce between Israel and Hezbollah continues, millions of average men and women in the Holy Land are turning to the one simple comfort that has always seen them through the darkest days of their troubled history: the steadfast guidance of their religious faith.
"I take solace in knowing that my faith is a sanctuary, an escape from the bloodshed and turmoil," said Haifa resident Yigal Taheri, who last week lost his wife and newborn daughter when a Fajr-3 long-range rocket launched by Lebanese militants struck the synagogue where his family was attending services. "YHWH, Elohim, whatever you wish to not call Him—His love comforts all those who are willing to open their hearts to Him. Praise be to G–d."
"Religion is the one thing that has never let us down," Taheri added over the low rumble of AK-47 fire emanating from the nearby home of a radical Israeli rabbi.
Taheri is not alone. In a time of seemingly unending conflict between Israelis and Arabs, a growing number of Middle Easterners are fervently embracing the unshakeable wisdom of Judaism and Islam.
Palestinian Omar Abdel-Malik, a resident of the Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, credits his Islamic beliefs for preserving his sanity.
"The Israelis have fired missile upon missile on my neighborhood, but it has only made my trust in Allah that much stronger," Abdel-Malik said. "I cringe to think where the people of the Middle East would be right now if it weren't for our steadfast belief in one true, merciful, and loving Supreme Being."
Palestinian widow and mother of three Dareen Idriss agreed, citing the healing power of prayer as a way to cope with the relentless slaughter she and her family witness every day. "When the children cannot stop crying because of the bombs, we all gather our families in the rubble of the mosque to pray for justice," Idriss said. "During this calm meditation, we also pray for the annihilation of the Hebrew race."
West Bank settler Ari Chayat, whose neighborhood has also been ravaged by violence, echoed this profound reliance on faith. "The world is so brutal and unfair," Chayat said. "Many days, my uncompromising belief in a vengeful creator is all that gets me out of bed in the morning."
"If it wasn't for my faith that the God of Abraham has given these lands to Jews and Jews alone by divine decree, I probably wouldn't even be here today," Chayat added.
Lebanese militant Jawad Hamid, who recently lost his best friend to an Israeli helicopter attack while the two men were on their way to pick up a Katyusha rocket, said his faith in Allah was the only way he could cope with the tragedy.
"Every time I want to give up hope, I just open the Quran to my favorite passage, Surah 2:194: 'Whoever acts aggressively against you, inflict injury on him,'" Hamid said. "Whenever I read those words, I am immediately filled with inspiration and a renewed sense of purpose."
Even political leaders have tapped into the public's reliance on religion and used it as a way to encourage them to never give up.
"In this time of strife, the only way to endure the unending suffering is through an unwavering, uncompromising faith in one's religious beliefs," Israeli hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah went so far as to quote from the Quran in a speech delivered to followers the same afternoon.
"It's always frightening to be reminded of your own mortality, as we all were this past Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday," Hezbollah commander Mahdi al-Zaidi said. "But rather than react irrationally, I looked deep within my faith, consulted the Quran, and by the mercy of Allah, I gained the resolve to oversee a massive airstrike against the enemy."
"We will get through this, so long as we have God on our side," he added.
Showing posts with label middle east. Show all posts
Showing posts with label middle east. Show all posts
Monday, June 25, 2007
'Iraqi Gandhi' Preaches Slightly Less Violence
BAGHDAD—In schools and coffeehouses, parlors and public squares, Iraqis are discussing and debating the revolutionary teachings of activist Iyad al-Naqib, who is being hailed by some as the "Iraqi Mahatma Gandhi" for his commitment to practicing "a bit less severe" forms of violence against infidels and crusaders.
Known for sayings such as "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind, so extract a pinky for an eye," al-Naqib, 46, is both praised and vilified throughout the Muslim world for his radical, slightly less violent teachings.
Al-Naqib's followers are instructed to bomb discos on weeknights, when they are less crowded, and to equip suicide bombers with hand grenades rather than multiple sticks of TNT.
Such views earned al-Naqib this year's Mideast Peace Prize, an award administered by the Yemeni government and presented to individuals credited with encouraging what its literature characterizes as "anything remotely close to a rough approximation of peace in the region."
"In a time when East and West seem to be hurtling toward mutual ruin, it is refreshing to hear a somewhat reasonable voice of semi-moderation from within the chaos," said Basra-based scholar Ahmed Sha'lan, who was jailed for publishing pamphlets by al-Naqib. "His followers are fighting a revolution through non-all-out violence."
A former lawyer, al-Naqib developed his less-violence views after spending several years working for the Iraqi Embassy in Istanbul, where, during a fire-bombing, he was able to resolve an ongoing conflict with an American ambassador through a fistfight. The semiviolent means—which left his victim with severe brain hemorrhaging and forced him to return to the U.S. for medical care—awakened al-Naqib to the potential of somewhat-less-extreme violent resistance.
"Violence is not the solution," al-Naqib wrote in his breakthrough 1998 treatise Practicing Semiviolence. "It is only approximately 19/20ths of the solution. We should not work toward the total annihilation of all who oppose us—just some of them. And perhaps it is best we practice occasional mercy for the innocent, such as the young, who can easily recuperate."
In a 2003 interview with British newspaper The Guardian, al-Naqib said that the "decadent immorality of Western civilization must be almost, but not quite, wiped off the face of the earth."
"Al-Naqib truly is a great, influential teacher," Sha'lan said. "His doctrine of 'slightly less violence' and 'passive involvement in the violence of others' has resonated throughout the Muslim world and is well on its way to becoming a full-fledged mass movement."
Sha'lan added: "As babu says, 'I denounce those who kill vast numbers, for the death of a few—the death of even one, if that one is well-chosen—spreads my message far and wide."
As with many political dissidents who dare to speak out, al-Naqib has paid for his beliefs. He was imprisoned for two days for criticizing the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, saying that it would have sufficed to bring down just one of the towers.
"You should be the change that you want to see in the world," al-Naqib said. "I am prepared to die for my life of slightly less violence, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill thousands of people when it will suffice to simply blow their legs off."
Known for sayings such as "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind, so extract a pinky for an eye," al-Naqib, 46, is both praised and vilified throughout the Muslim world for his radical, slightly less violent teachings.
Al-Naqib's followers are instructed to bomb discos on weeknights, when they are less crowded, and to equip suicide bombers with hand grenades rather than multiple sticks of TNT.
Such views earned al-Naqib this year's Mideast Peace Prize, an award administered by the Yemeni government and presented to individuals credited with encouraging what its literature characterizes as "anything remotely close to a rough approximation of peace in the region."
"In a time when East and West seem to be hurtling toward mutual ruin, it is refreshing to hear a somewhat reasonable voice of semi-moderation from within the chaos," said Basra-based scholar Ahmed Sha'lan, who was jailed for publishing pamphlets by al-Naqib. "His followers are fighting a revolution through non-all-out violence."
A former lawyer, al-Naqib developed his less-violence views after spending several years working for the Iraqi Embassy in Istanbul, where, during a fire-bombing, he was able to resolve an ongoing conflict with an American ambassador through a fistfight. The semiviolent means—which left his victim with severe brain hemorrhaging and forced him to return to the U.S. for medical care—awakened al-Naqib to the potential of somewhat-less-extreme violent resistance.
"Violence is not the solution," al-Naqib wrote in his breakthrough 1998 treatise Practicing Semiviolence. "It is only approximately 19/20ths of the solution. We should not work toward the total annihilation of all who oppose us—just some of them. And perhaps it is best we practice occasional mercy for the innocent, such as the young, who can easily recuperate."
In a 2003 interview with British newspaper The Guardian, al-Naqib said that the "decadent immorality of Western civilization must be almost, but not quite, wiped off the face of the earth."
"Al-Naqib truly is a great, influential teacher," Sha'lan said. "His doctrine of 'slightly less violence' and 'passive involvement in the violence of others' has resonated throughout the Muslim world and is well on its way to becoming a full-fledged mass movement."
Sha'lan added: "As babu says, 'I denounce those who kill vast numbers, for the death of a few—the death of even one, if that one is well-chosen—spreads my message far and wide."
As with many political dissidents who dare to speak out, al-Naqib has paid for his beliefs. He was imprisoned for two days for criticizing the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, saying that it would have sufficed to bring down just one of the towers.
"You should be the change that you want to see in the world," al-Naqib said. "I am prepared to die for my life of slightly less violence, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill thousands of people when it will suffice to simply blow their legs off."
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