They came only about a week apart, thus not even giving the world time to process the first before dealing with the second. And we refer here to the two deadly terrorist attacks which took place on March 22 in a Brussels airport and then at an amusement park in Pakistan on Easter Sunday morning. Two separate Islamic fundamentalist groups, including ISIS, proudly took credit for the gruesome events.
In Brussels, some 35 died and another 300 were injured when multiple suicide bombers did their dirty work. It is thought that the attack was some sort of payback for the counter-terrorism efforts that have been going on there. Former Deputy Director of the CIA, Michael Morell, said the attacks were likely planned and could have been "accelerated" by the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, a prime suspect in the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris terror attacks.
Then in Pakistan, the second major attack took place when a breakaway Taliban faction, which publicly supports the Islamic State group, set off a powerful blast at a park where Christians had come together to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Christ. When the bloody dust settled, over 70 were dead and 300 more wounded. Many of the dead were women and children. The group took immediate responsibility and even claimed that the carnage was specifically directed at Christians!
In another gruesome incident, the Archbishop of Vienna reported that ISIS crucified a Catholic priest on Good Friday. Rev. Thomas Uzhunnalil had been kidnapped from a nursing home in Yemen on March 4. During the raid on the facility, run by Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity, another 16 nurses and nuns were also murdered.
Considering the frequency and ferocity of terrorist activities at this precise time, it is rather stunning to see the reaction, or lack of it, from some of America’s current leaders. For example, just one day before the recent Paris attacks, President Barack Obama declared in an interview that ISIS had been "contained" asserting that the terror cell had been "stalled" in Iraq and Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Brussels after the attack there, “The Islamic State is desperately lashing out in Europe because its base in the Middle East is 'rapidly eroding'." He also said that "basic decency and humanity" were the most effective responses to terrorism. And just how is that working out for you, Mr. Secretary?
And I wonder how that philosophy has been working out for those have been tortured, beheaded, buried alive, raped and drowned by the dozens in steel cages by ISIS and others like them? I wonder how well their desperate cries were heeded when they pleaded for decency and humanity just before they met the gruesome end? Even Hillary Clinton has stated that she will not use the term "Radical Islam" because it does not do justice to good Muslims. There may be some validity to that, but that does not negate the reality of millions who make up a deadly and aggressive form of radical Islam. They exist in alarming numbers all over the world regardless of what they are not referred to as or associated with.
Yes, there have been the typical strong words for the cameras about ending the scourge of ISIS and others like them. But words are sometimes just that. And to think that those willing to blow themselves up for their twisted cause will suddenly just allow their beliefs to "rapidly erode" and allow decency and humanity to cure them of their centuries old rage is pure lunacy. A quick look at the rise of Adolph Hitler will serve as a fine example of what does not work with pure evil and insane fanatics.
What is also interesting was the lack of one particular word from the White House after the Pakistan attack. It was, however, used immediately by the perpetrators themselves. It was the word Christian. Sometimes the absence of a key descriptive word says volumes about what is believed or valued. This type of thing was also evident in the recent California terrorist attack. The murders were labeled by the administration as just "workplace violence". Despite the facts that arose, some could not bring themselves to put the proper labels on those who carried their diabolical acts against the innocent. Here are a few descriptive words to chose from that might have been considered for starters. How about Radical, Muslim, Islamic, Jihadist, Fundamentalist and Terrorists? And maybe throw in anti-American and anti-Christian as well?
There are also some who go as far as to blame Christianity and Christians for many of the world’s current woes. They have no issue at all associating some occasional random act of violence by a sick, troubled and misguided mind who is somehow linked to the faith in any possible way. And yet, it is highly inappropriate to to point even a finger at a violent global movement whose stated goals are world domination and the downfall of America using even the most unimaginable methods to do so. To even call them by their rightful name or make reference to the source of their motives is to be off the fully off the table. Interesting logic?
In all of this, the source of the complex problem is fairly simple. It is human sin. James 1:14 states, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” In the case of Radical Islam, the result is spiritual death along with the unfortunate demise of the innocents they single out for physical death.
I do not claim to know all of what other world religions teach, but I can see quite clearly the results of how some interpret their belief systems. But one thing is for certain. Christianity in no way promotes or accepts the kinds of the heinous things being perpetrated around the world today. The Bible is clear about sin. And it is clear about how to treat others. The Apostle Paul put it like this in Ephesians 4:31-32. “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” And in Romans 13:9-10 he wrote, “And if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Then too, we find a telling revelation that generally addresses this entire subject in 1 John 3. The words are not sugar-coated nor should they be. God always tells it like it really is and never adjusts His truth for political or religious correctness. Verse 10 begins, “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous.”
Unless the terms "righteousness", "evil" and "wickedness" have been fully redefined and reversed in this new century, it would seem obvious as to what today's terrorism is about, the true nature of those who carry it out, and exactly what their real source truly is!
Bill Breckenridge
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