Listening to THE VOICE

Into whose ear does God speak?
Because it is Sunday, I thought I would get something off my chest, in spite of the risk of insulting members of almost every religion whose members read blogs.

It is said that God works in mysterious ways. The New York Times published an amazing story today that got me to thinking in a new way about the place of religion in the affairs of nations. It seems to me that a group of obscure tribal (not necessarily religious) leaders out in the Iraqi desert somehow get it. They are acting on what might be a rather clear message about what is the right thing to do in the face of the civil war in Iraq inflamed by al Qaeda. To quote the story,

More than two-dozen tribes from Iraq’s volatile Sunni Arab-dominated province west of Baghdad have agreed to join forces and fight Al Qaeda insurgents and other foreign-backed “terrorists,” an influential tribal leader said today.

Twenty-five of about 31 tribes in Anbar Province, a vast, mostly desert region that stretches westward from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, have agreed to fight together against insurgents and gangs that are “killing people for no reason,” said the tribal leader, Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh Al-Rishawi.

“We held a meeting earlier and agreed to fight those who call themselves mujahedeen,” Mr. Rishawi said in an interview today. “We believe that there is a conspiracy against our Iraqi people. Those terrorists claimed that they are fighters working on liberating Iraq, but they turned out to be killers. Now all the people are fed up and have turned against them.”
. . . Mr. Rishawi said the 25 tribes counted 30,000 young men armed with assault rifles who were willing to confront and kill the insurgents and criminal gangs that have torn at the fabric of tribal life in Anbar, dividing members by religious sect and driving a wave of violent crime.

“We are in battle with the terrorists who kill Sunnis and Shiites, and we do not respect anyone between us who talks in a sectarian sense,” said Mr. Rishawi, the leader of the Rishawi tribe, a subset of the Dulaimi tribe, the largest in Anbar Province. Half of the Rishawi are Shiite and half are Sunni Arabs, he said.

Mr. Rishawi said the insurgents counted about 1,300 fighters, many of them foreigners and backed by other nations’ foreign intelligence services, though he declined to say which ones.

Today, he said, the coalition of 25 tribes sent letters to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other top Iraqi government officials asking for their support. In addition to the government’s blessing, Mr. Rishawi said, the tribes also wanted weapons and equipment to confront the Qaeda-backed insurgents.

Is it possible that Mr. Rishawi heard a whisper in his ear? Is it more righteous to unite to fight the battling branches of Islam for a more nationalistic purpose? Those who more openly claim that God favors them over their religious rivals have dragged Iraq into a horrible civil war. Religious leaders risk a lot by claiming to be the only ones to have God's ear, to have the right to govern a nation in God's name. The most grotesque example of religious distortion is, of course, al Qaeda, whose adherents claim that Allah will bless those who murder in his name.

History records the deafened pain of the modern Irish religious strife, and of the Crusades centuries before that. Ireland paid a terrible price not long ago because both Protestants and Catholics were convinced to the death that God was on their side in the affairs of the British nation. Unfortunately the Christian-Muslim divide became wider in recent days. The leader of Catholicism, the Pope, Benedict XVI, is apologizing now for his recent speech that seemed to inflame the Muslim world. His first try began with "regrets that Muslims felt offended" by his recent remarks. Quoting from this CBS News story,

The Pope sparked the controversy when, in a speech to professors, he cited the words of a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's founder, as "evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
Security was high at the Pope's summer palace on Sunday. Police patted down many of the faithful, confiscating umbrellas with metal tips and bottles of liquids from pilgrims waiting to see Benedict.
Sharpshooters kept watch from a balcony and other officers, dressed like tourists, monitored the crowd with video cameras.

Cooler and wiser heads on both sides seem to be prevailing now. Later in the day, My Way News carried this story from the AP, headlined. "Pope's response accepted by some Muslims." Quoting the opening and closing sections of the story:

Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he is "deeply sorry" his remarks on Islam and violence offended Muslims, but the unusual expression of papal regret drew a mixed reaction from Islamic leaders as the Vatican worried about a backlash of violence.
Some Muslim leaders accepted the statement. Others said it wasn't enough, but urged Muslims to avoid violence after attacks on churches in Palestinian areas and the slaying of a nun in Somalia.
Benedict said he regretted causing offense with his speech last week in Germany, particularly his quoting of a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman" and referred to spreading Islam "by the sword."
. . . Both sides have much to gain by good relations. The Vatican and Muslims have shared stands in opposition of abortion. The Holy See, under Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, vigorously lobbied against the Iraq war, and Benedict made numerous appeals to Israel to use restraint in its recent military campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier urged world religious leaders to show "responsibility and restraint" to avoid what he called "extremes" in relations between faiths.

Meanwhile Darfur goes unnoticed by those who imply that God is on their side. For whatever reason genocide in the darkest part of Africa has not become a cause for concerted action. Powerful religious groups fight or argue their claims of God speaking in their ears. In nations elsewhere in the world, religious leaders ignore the obviously more significant needs of the forgotten in Darfur. The Guardian Unlimited carried a Call for action over Darfur carnage, a report about a small gathering of religious leaders outside Downing Street in London over the crisis in Darfur. To quote the story,

The international community has been asked to take urgent action to prevent the crisis in Darfur becoming a repeat of the mass slaughter in Rwanda.
Religious leaders gathered outside Downing Street to pray for a resolution to the suffering which has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced from their homes.

As if there were not enough really serious problems in the rest of the world - Yahoo!News carried a story that reports that religious conservatives claim that religious freedom is under attack here in the good old U.S. of A. The story continues,

Religious conservative leaders, sensing declining alarm over same-sex marriage, are warning that the debate over homosexuality has prompted attacks on religious freedom.
By expanding the discussion from marriage to religious expression, social conservatives say they will reconnect with religious voters and religious leaders who don't necessarily view same-sex unions as a threat.
"There are a number of pastors that said, 'Look, we don't get involved in politics, I'm not going to get involved in this issue, I just want to preach the gospel,'" said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. "When they realize their ability to preach the gospel may very well be at stake, they may reconsider their involvement."
Perkins and others are building a case file of anecdotes where they say religious people have spoken out against gay marriage only to be punished. Perkins specifically cited the decision by Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich in June to fire his appointee to the Washington area transit board after the board member referred to homosexuals as "persons of sexual deviancy."
. . . Eight states have ballot initiatives in November to prohibit gay marriage, including some states with closely contested congressional races. Perkins said religious conservative groups planned to use direct mail and the Internet to alert voters about the stands candidates have taken on the marriage issue.

In conclusion, the West has no right to claim that God is on their side, any more that Sunni or Shiite Muslim factions have the right to make that same claim. In the same vein, the U.S. religious right cannot claim that God sanctions their intolerance, any more than I can claim that God speaks in my ear.
Tags: religious strife Iraq Pope war Darfur religious conservatives
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about early voices in the new world.