By Natasha L. Foreman
The reflection below was taken from today’s Breaking Bread with Natasha blog “Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer and Reflection for 5.2.11”. It seemed appropriate to share within the context of my other blogs with the omission of the scriptural text and prayer that preceded the reflection. Read it, reflect on it and then share your thoughts.
Reflection
People ignore the fact that Osama Bin Laden killed ALL people including Muslims in the name of Allah- God- our Father- yet people focus on religion and not on the inhumanity of what this man did to all people including his own. They believe this to be a religious war of Muslims against Christians and Jews, when this was simply a political war. Just like Gaddafi and Hussein, Osama Bin Laden was not a holy man fighting in God’s name; he was a hurt man fighting for and in his name because of his pride, ego, and resentment of those who he perceived were taking advantage of him and his people. He was tired of the powers-that-be gaining wealth off of his country’s natural resources; he was tired of imperialism taking place in his and neighboring countries by westerners and that other nations were pimping his people for their benefit- but he went about it the wrong way.
Bin Laden just like Hussein and Gaddafi had political issues with others, especially the western world and more specifically the United States just like Timothy Mcveigh, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier (Oklahoma City bombers) were enraged by the acts of the U.S. government- and they all lashed out using fear and hate to get a message across to the government.
Bin Laden used fear and internal pain to address his concerns. He used God as the motivation to instill fear, unite other hurt and disenfranchised people against the world and against other Muslims who did not follow their beliefs; and he twisted God’s words, the words of the Koran to serve his mission to inflict pain on everyone and anyone he felt deserved it. Osama Bin Laden was a political extremist who used the facade of religion to instill fear in the world. Anyone who has ever read all or part of the Koran knows that the lies he was spouting were not of the Koran- but of his hurt heart and twisted mind that had grown sicker as the “enemy” planted more seeds of fear inside of him.
So as you may celebrate the conquering of a fear monger, of a murderer of thousands- you should also stop to pray for all religious, political, and ethnic communities worldwide because if we do not learn to come together and find healthier ways to work out our differences we will be the reason the world comes to an end. If we find it in our hearts to celebrate the death of another human being, we have that same darkness in us that was in him, Hussein, and what we also believe to be in Gaddafi- it’s just waiting to grow and take over.
We should pray and be thankful for victory over evil- but not be narrowly focused on individuals because this is not about one or two or twenty or even two thousand men this is about the evil that has plagued all nations, all religions, all people since the beginning of time. Evil can’t be labeled and categorized to one group of people because it can seep into each and every one of us if our guards are down and our faith is not strong. So pray, be humble and show grace during these times.
I love you all,
Natasha
Copyright 2011. Natasha L. Foreman. All Rights Reserved. breakingbreadwithnatasha.blogspot.com
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