Tao of the Idiots

Makes you wonder why some idiots are so idiotic as to scheme to turn others thousands of miles away into idiots just like themselves? And then call the others terrorists when they get whacked in return. I think some of these idiots really do not know why they get whacked in return.

Throughout history men in power had always find such idiots very useful. And conversely so too.

So it goes from the days of the Egytian pharaohs & their priests, to Caesar & Paul, to Bush & his evangelist Graham...

xxx


THE DEADLY BATTLE FOR IRAQI SOULS
Wednesday July 28, 2004

With Christian evangelism deepening the crisis, what is needed is Muslim humanitarian aid - Kalinga Seneviratne

The invasion of Iraq has been followed quietly by another invasion – that of Christian missionaries, mainly from the United States and South Korea, who often disguise themselves as civilian contractors, aid workers or businessmen. Their main objective is to spread the "good word" to Muslims in Iraq, where only 750,000 of the country's 25 million people are Christians. Some of these "contractors" have been taken hostage by Islamic militants.

One of them, South Korean Kim Sun Il, was beheaded. Mr Kim worked for a South Korean company which delivered military supplies. But he was also a fervent Christian who was learning Arabic in order to spread the gospel in Iraq - which made him a prime target for Islamic militants.

Fanatical Christian evangelists, who believe that the "divine spirit" has sent them to Baghdad to minister to the country's Muslim population, are deepening the conflict there.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi recently offered to send a medical team and to help mobilise the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states to help rebuild Iraq. It showed a recognition on Mr Abdullah's part that what is needed in Iraq is not more troops or Christian missionaries, but more Muslim humanitarian aid groups to work hand-in-hand with their Muslim brothers. Iraqis need to be reassured that the foreigners offering to help them are not part of a colonialist plot hatched in Washington by President George W Bush's neo-conservative Christian supporters. This suspicion has contributed to the violence against so-called foreign contractors.

In February, an American Baptist missionary was killed execution-style and two others were wounded. They were in Iraq to open the country's first Baptist church.

In April, seven South Korean missionaries from the Korean Council of Evangelical Churches were detained by Islamic militants while en route to Mosul to open a missionary school. They were later released following behind-the-scenes negotiations with the kidnappers.

Recently, an Islamic group in Iraq threatened to kidnap and behead any Korean Christian missionary who set foot in the country. Some missionaries have military backgrounds. Mr John Kelly, the Baptist missionary gunned down in February, was a former US Marine who had studied Arabic. America's Southern Baptist Church, one of the leading lights of the fundamentalist evangelical movement, offers training on how missionaries can disguise their evangelical work.

Two such trainees, Mr Craig Johnson and Mr Michael Jones, told the Wall Street Journal in May that they went to Iraq at their pastor's suggestion in June last year to explore business opportunities. Mr Johnson works for a natural gas utility and he typifies the new breed of American evangelist who believes in "spreading America's good fortune" to other lands through business and proselytising.

One of the leading exponents of this brand of Christian evangelism is Rev Franklin Graham, the former leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, who called Islam "an evil religion" after the 911 attacks. He heads the Samaritan's Purse, a Christian disaster relief ministry which had a budget of US$194 million ($334 million) last year. Rev Graham is a close friend of Mr Bush and prayed with him on the eve of the war. He also delivered the sermon at Mr Bush's inauguration and was invited to lead the Good Friday prayer at the Pentagon this year. Even before hostilities began, Samaritan's Purse stockpiled food, housing materials and other goods in Jordan for victims of the war and waited for the signal to enter Iraq.

Rev Graham's teams now provide for the needs of more than 100,000 Iraqi Muslims made destitute by the war. And Iraqi Christian groups hand out Arabic-language Bibles and related literature produced with American funds

With an estimated 12,000 missionaries worldwide, South Korea is home to some of the world's most aggressive Christian evangelists. South Korean missionary Kwon Hyuk Gan told the Kookmin Ilbo daily in Seoul that nine churches have been set up in Iraq by Korean missionaries since the US occupation began.

Prof Paul Boyer, professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin, warned that these fundamentalist crusaders pose a grave threat to world peace because of their belief in the second coming of Christ and the need to liberate Jerusalem (of Muslims) to facilitate it.

The "shadowy but vital way that belief in Biblical prophecy is helping to mould grassroots attitudes towards current US foreign policy" is a dangerous trend, he has said, and one that must be reversed.

The writer is a journalist, broadcaster and media analyst who currently teaches broadcast communications in Singapore. If you have a view on this, email us at http://us.f416.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=news@newstoday.com.sg&YY=40782&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b