Letters - 04 December 2015
From thinking clearly about war to the worst of human failure
Thinking clearly about war
Following the atrocities in Paris, the prime minister wants to renew attempts to get parliament to agree that British bombers should be sent into action in Syria. The horror and fear caused by such events strengthens the demand for action. After similar events, even some Friends waver in their commitment to peaceful means. Most of us still want to plead against the use of large-scale violence, but may wonder how to make our case when the enemy has no inhibitions about using it.
What I have seen of war and its results at close hand has strengthened my pacifism. In discussion with advocates of an armed response, I need to use logic as well as conviction. I ask questions, the same questions by which I shall judge any decision to bomb Isis.
Will it shift the situation in Syria from war to peacemaking?
Will innocent Syrians be safe from our attacks?
Will it deter Isis from further international attacks? Specifically, will it make us safer in Britain?
Will it contain or reduce Isis war operations? (We need to remember the growth of Isis subsidiaries in other countries than Syria and Iraq.)
Will it reduce the refugee pressures?
Will it improve Britain’s standing among Muslims, both here and across the world? Or will it be seen as yet another Western attempt to control what happens in Muslim countries?
If the answers to most of these questions are negative, then bombing is clearly the wrong course. We should oppose it for practical reasons as well as on principle.
John Lampen
Avoid playing into the hands of Isis
We need to address the mentality of the Isis terrorists, and their educational deficit. ‘Jihadi John’ is a case in point. Videos of him as a schoolboy have shown him as a totally inadequate character. And yet they managed to turn him into a fiend and executioner of aid workers and innocent people. The Paris terrorists seem to have been part of this cadre.
In our youth many of us become smitten by religious and other enthusiasms. We can, for a time, be ‘literally’ manic. Recovery can be painful, but leads to maturity and often to sensitive lives helping others. Only extremely rarely does it lead to murder and mayhem.
Have these men and women ever been taught that Jihad is the constant struggle for justice? It has nothing to do with the indiscriminate murder of innocent people, as in Paris and, previously, in London.
Would they know that in the reign of Mary Tudor 300 Protestants were burnt at the stake for their beliefs in three years, and in the following reign of Elizabeth I a large number of Jesuits were executed for treason over a much longer period? This was the scene in Christianity at the time, and now we live in far more tolerant times, with good will to people of all faiths.
George Knox
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