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LetterOct.28,2001
I want to share my thoughts on recent terrorist events.
For many of us came from mainland China, misinformation
by the Chinese government causes much misunderstanding of
recent events.
The root of recent conflict has origin in politics,
nationalities, and most of all in religion. However,
Islam itself does not teach killing innocent victims.
There is one good article analyzing recent terrorist
attack:
www.cnd.org/HXWZExpress/01/09/010924-1.gb.html
Because the Western culture, represented by democracy,
freedom, tolerance, material wealth, has strong
influence on Islamic countries (especially the wealth).
This causes a conflict within Islam society. Those
who want to follow Islam culture strictly felt
threatened. Thus, there is a reaction to Western culture.
US is the center of Western culture, thus, naturally
their target. No matter what US does, US will be their
target. Their purpose is to drag the whole world
backward to their idealism. No wonder Bush declared
that civilization and freedom are under threat.
Their hatred toward wealth can be seen by choosing
World Trade Center as a major target.
Some may question if US does not support Israel, US
might not be attacked. This might be true to certain
extent. The problem is that many from mainland China
do not know many historical facts. Before World War II,
both Jews and Arabs lived in current Israel and Palestine
place, although Jews were much fewer. The place was
under British rule. In 1948, because the world
community felt that Jews should have own country in
part in response to Nazi's persecution, Israel was
established under United Nations sponsorship. A Palestine
state was also established at the time. However, Palestines
never recognize Israel and no Arab countries recognized then
Israel. On the countrary, Arabs wanted to destroy
Israel completely. In fact, the three middle East wars all
started by Arabs to destroy Israel. Despite Israel
faced enemies 10-20 times larger, every time Israel
won. These are miracles, and the God's will.
I will address this in detail later. Israel's victories
had helps from US and other western countries. US has
several reasons to support Israel. But the primary
reason is similar to Kuwait, US would not allow Israel
to be destroyed by Arab countries.
To understand the hatred of Islam fundamentalists toward
Israel, recall why former Egypt president Sadat was
assasinated. After several wars lost to Israel, Sadat
realized that peace and coexistence with Israel is good
to Egypt. Thus, under his leadership Egypt is the
first Arab country to recognize Israel. He became one
of most hated by Islam fundamentalists. In fact, some
terrorists of 911 incident and Bin Laden's associates
were from the same Egypt terrorist orginization killed
Sadat.
US policy is largely within UN. In fact, recently
US presured Israel and Palestine to negotiate settlement.
One main problem is that Palestine, and many radical
Arab countries, does not want Israel to live. US
is more favorable toward Israel because (1) Israel
needs support because it is small and encircled by
enemies who want to destroy it. (2) Israel values
on democracy, freedom are closer to US.
Previous Chinese government policy favors Arabs because
geopolical considerations, in particular, anti-US
setiment. China wanted to represent 3rd world countries
and their are more Arab countries. There is no moral
justification to support Arab countries at all.
Judaism (Jews' religion), Islam, and Christianality all
came from the same origin, Judaism. There are several
common believes among them: (1) There is only one God;
(2) God is spirit and hates worshipping idols, including
any images made by man or naturally; (3) God is
almighty who created everything of the world. First
there is Judaism, whose teaching was largely based on
old testment of the Bible. Jews country, Israel, had
glorious past. Because Jews sinned (did not obey God),
God let Israel be destroyed many years before Jesus
were born. At that time, Jews were looking for a Savoir,
promised by prophets, for hundreds years. Then, Jesus
came. Christian are Jews, and others, who believe that
Jesus is the Savoir promised by God. Those who are
still waiting for a Savior are Jews. About 400-500
years after Jesus, an Arab named Muhammad who had
a vision he claimed from God and established Islam
religion. Islam followed Judaism and claims 5 great
prophets from God including Abraham, Moses, Jesus and
Muhammad and claims Muhammad is the last and the greatest
prophet. Islam's teaching has a fundamental flaw. No
one can claim Jesus is from God and yet not believe his
word. Firt, Jesus said that he is only Son of God. How can
some one late claims that he is greater than Jesus? In
John 11:25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and
the life; ... No one can claim this except God. Jesus
was crucified and resurrected. Muhammad died and was
burried. How can his follower claims that Jesus is from
God yet Muhammad was greater than Jesus? According to
Jesus teaching, no one can be greater than him. From logic
viewpoint, Islam is inconsistent. Either you accept that
Jesus is from God or you believe that he is not. You cannot
have both ways.
The true dividing line is not the above historical facts and
inconsistency. The testing point is whether the nature of
God is love. All the above believes acknowledge that God
is not confined by an image, is almighty, is just, and is
the creator of the world. Christian believe that above all
that God is love. Otherwise one cannot understand that God
would sacrifice his only Son to save sinners. (Sin is also
not well understood by mainland Chinese; sin is not crime.
God is righteous. Anyone who is not perfect in God's eye
is a sinner.) If you believe that God is love, it is not
hard to accept that God sends his only Son to sacrifice for
us. It is hard for Jews and Islam to accept this.
Another important fact from the Bible is that Jesus fortold
the reestablishment of Israel. This and the prediction of
coming of Jesus hudreds years before his birth are important
testimony of God's work. We know how difficult to predict
things. Yet Jesus 2000 years ago predicted that Israel will
reestablish. In fact, this is the sign before his return.
This indeed is a miracle.
Christian viewpoint toward Jews has some role in US policy
in the Arab-Israel conflict. Since Jews are God's chosen
people according to the Bible, Christian should be good
toward Jews. Although Jews sinned and were punished
by God (clearly shown in the Bible), anyone who persecuted
Jews were punished harshly by God. It is understandable
that US is supportive of Israel (1) from moral point; (2)
from believe point. US does want Palestine and Israel to
coexist peacefully.
US policy toward middle East is based on some basic US values.
The problem is Arab states, especially radical Arab states,
want to destroy Israel. Recently there have been some
progress, i.e. more Arab countries agree to compromise.
Should US retreat from world affairs? In fact, historically
before World War II, US was reluctant to participate the war.
There were criticism particularly in Europe that had US
joined the war earlier, the loss of World War II may be not
as great. British and French appeasement policy toward
Nazi's was widely criticized.
Despite all religious background differences, those
extremists attack is very evil. Almost all governments
and peoples strongly condemn the terrorist act.
One very troubling news is that mainland Chinese, through
internet posting, newsreport, and comments, blame US policy
for the reason of terrorist attack. Because Chinese government
misinformation and lack of basic moral standard, many
mainland Chinese believe that US had some blame. This
is similar to in WW II blaming French for Nazi's invasion.
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