"It's ironic, at times like this you pray, but a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday." This verse, from the song Hands Held High by Linkin Park, ran through my head repeatedly as we watched "Battle for the Holy Land." It made me so sad to see the two groups fighting over a place that many hold to be sacred. For me, the fighting seemed so useless.
I don't see how either side can win this battle at this point with the tactics they are using. This continuous cycle can never stop the violence, it will have to be broken before any form of real progress can actually be made. I know from personal experience, at least to a small extent, that the philosophy "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" just doesn't work out very well, so this whole 'you terrorize me so I'm going to terrorize you' isn't going to get anyone anywhere, except for maybe buried in the ground.
It is paradoxical, at least in my mind, that both sides believe they are doing the will of the same God. A God that, by the way, is loving and forgiving. I just don't understand the mentality behind the fighting. One side is going to target a known organizer of terrorist attacks, and in the process make some people angry enough to join the other side and plot another attack. The other side feels that they are martyrs who will be blessed by Allah when they kill themselves in the process of killing dozens of other people whose only wrong has been trying to find a place to live and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I am not the type of person who can't watch a bloody movie. The problem with this movie was that, for starters, it seems unnecessary and pointless, not to mention that the battle fields are city streets that hold deep religious meaning to millions of people around the world. On top of that, this is actually happening right now, as we sit in a quiet classroom contemplating where religion came from and why pilgrimage is so important to people.
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2 comments:
I would have to agree with you. Just as I said in my blog last week, it is all very hypocritical. As we discussed at the very beginning of the semester with the Dialogue Decalogue; there is no point in entering a discussion if both sides aren't willing to hear the other side and realize that their ideas might not be perfect. I cringe at the idea that such a holy and historically well known city can be home now to such turmoil. I want to say that there must be some solution, some solution without bloodshed, but is there?
Not to mention, that a lot of people here in the United States don't feel that this issue is important to them, when in reality...the United States is very much so involved. A lot of people wonder why the United States is "called out" by Palestinians. Just look at what is going on. Israel is back by the United States. The United States supplies them with their weapons, tanks, vehicles, and even manpower at times. Obviously there is an amount of animosity from Palestinians towards the United States. But at the same time what should the United States do? Just sit back?
The issue is all too complex. But as you said it is sad. No matter what the cycle that is going now must be altered in some way if any progress is to happen. As of now it is just a vicious cycle leaving more and more mothers without their children and children without their parents.
I like that you start with a quote from a popular song, it is a great attention graber. I tend to agree that the fighting seems useless and the cycle will need to be broken to be fixed. However the way you say, "'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' just doesn't work out very well,..." makes me wonder what you experienced that didn't work, because I have not found problems with that theory in the past. Although I do agree that terroizing becuase you have been terroized does only end up killing many people. The fighting seems very pointless, and the fact that both groups think that they are right and the other group is wrong, makes me wonder why they don't just talk. It is probably just a missunderstanding to begin with. I can tell by the way you have written your posting, you are definatly not a fighter by nature. It does not supprise me that you don't like watching goary movies. Personally I like movies, when I know they are fake. The fact that this is real, this is actually happening, makes it hard to watch. It would be nice if instead of just sitting in class watching, we could actually do something to help the fighting stop.
I agree with jnm001 that there should be some solution without bloodshed, but I also don't know if there is. I also think this issue is very complex, which in my opinion means we just have to take things one step at a time, its more 'where do we start?' than 'what do we do?'
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