Why terrorism can't win

I, along with most of the rest of the world, was appalled by the Manchester terrorist attack. The terrorists can'e possibly win using these methods, and here I will try to explain why.

1. If their aim is to promote Islam, they are doing a very poor job. They are achieving the very opposite of that, and are turning people against one of the world's great religions. Many reasonable, peaceful Muslems are being targetted, as are mosques, and Islamophobia is getting much stronger. Extremism breeds extremism, so Muslims will be targetted more.
2. I am old enough to have had Parents, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents who lived through WW2. They talked of that time, almost with fondness and nostalgia. This was because of the solidarity that encompassed the nation. The bombing of the cities and factories, and especially the bombing of Coventry Cathedral, drew people together. This is what I see happening everywhere atrocities are committed now. The French people, the German people, the American people after 9/11 and the Boston bombings, and we the British are all drawn together by this, far from what I think is intended, to disrupt, fragment and induce fear.
3. Then there is determination. Churchill said in his famous speech, when he said, 'We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.' The terrorists are stirring this determination in us all.
4. Britain is used to terrorism. IS seems to forget, or has never known, this. We had a long fight with the IRA when London was struck by bombs as were other cities in the country. The IRA did not succeed in 'winning' by making us surrender, and I can't see IS doing so either. In the end, the IRA negotiated a peace. Will IS? What is it they want exactly, anyway?
5. I cannot understand how anyone can think that Allah will be pleased at this slaughter. Surely, He would be better pleased at people being converted to His worship, rather than destroyed. If the aim is to get a Muslim world, then this is not the way to go about it. It brings the religion into disrepute. People will be all the more disinclined to embrace its tenets.

I'm sure there are other reasons why IS cannot succeed using terrorism, but I want to get this post out there. I will ammend it if I think of anything else.

Let's all pray for peace and the cessation of sucn violent attacks

Comments on a disturbing post I read recently.

I've just read a disturbing post from soulfultroubadourdotcom. It deals with the case of two boys who were badly beaten for wanting to leave the church. So badly beaten, in fact, that one of them died. I think most people would consider this a dreadful crime. Unfortunately, the people whod did this must have felt they were fully justified.

This is what's scary. These people thought, and I suppose continue to think, they were fully justified in what they did. This did not happen in Syria, or Iraq, or Libya or any of those countries that we think of as being barbaric, but in the USA. These people were not extremist Muslims, but Fundamental Christians.

By what right they think they have to call themselves Christian I really do not know. Nothing they did is what I understand to be following the teachings of Christ. These extremist 'Christians' are just as bad as the extremist 'Muslims', and yet we in the west seem to ignore them.

OK, they don't go round bombing people (yet), thinking you can force people into believing as you do, but are they really much better? Beating young men because they don't like the message you are preaching is just as bad in my eyes.

Extremism is dangerous, whether it's religious or political, whether Muslim of Christian, Right or Left. People ignore these folk because they call themselves Christian, and that is the religion of the west. Of us, even if we are non-believers.

So we tar all Muslims with the same brush. They are all wicked people who chop of the heads of non-Muslims, but we ignore those Christians who think to force people to their religion by other acts of brutality.

Jesus said (Matthew 7:5) How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

I have written a poem about hypocrisy. I'll post it later next month, possibly.

 If you would like more details, go to https://soulfultroubadourdotcom.wordpress.com/2016/10/