I read a article by Jonathan Power on Palestine and the war of civilisations in todays punch newspaper and i would want to disagree with some points made in that article about the tolerance level of the two religions; Islam and Christianity. While it is acknowledge historically and i have read as well that Islam is a religion of the sword,i beg to disagree that its more tolerant than Christainity. Evidence abounds in the northern part of Nigeria of how intolerant the Moslems there are,the Jos crisis is an recent example of this. How many times in the history of religious crisis in the country have you heard of Christians instigating an attack on moslems?

From the global perspective and historical antecedent, i agree that some atrocities have been commited in the name of christianity especially during the holy crusades, especially during the attempts to recapture the holy land,but i will like to bring to your notice that there was a period in christain history that was known as the dark ages in which christians/believers were persecuted for their differing point of view by christians/believers of the same faith. The era of Roman Catholic Popes calling the shots in affairs of sovereign states and any attempt to resist the Pope’s authority was met with the threat of excommunication.

This is just to act as a background to this point that i will make now,the war in the middle east is not a case of a war against Moslems or Islam, but a war against a crude way of solving disputes. What do i mean,just as Roman Catholics took the issue of religion to the extreme  even to the detriment of their brethren, so also are these moslem extremist doing the same. Are we saying they have a justification in what they are doing? No!

In this age of civilisation and information technology, individuals and organisations in dire need of attention or lack of purposeful meaning to life are hiding under the cloak of religion to perpertuate evil. Why would you want to kill a fellow human being  because he or she does not agree with your point of view on worship when we are not living in the dark ages! Why would you strap on explosives and walk into a crowded place and blow yourself and everyone else up just to register a point!! Its an inhuman and base level of thinking! Animals won’t do it!

On the current face off in the Gaza Strip, in as much as am not in full support of the Israeli tactics but, lets weigh the history! I believe that  all this war is about, self preservation, ego, material gains, publicity etc. The United States bullish support of Israel is simply because of what they have to gain! The Arab world itself has something it has to gain in this whole fiasco! Now, i may be wrong and stand to be corrected, but i believe the Palestinians are using a wrong front to wage a war of attrition of some sorts! The Israeli are not claiming to go out in the name of God! So why the accusation that it’s a religious war?

The Israeli objective is to protect their citizens from Hamas rocket attacks which is quite sensible and reasonable and which any nation will want to do! We need to ask ourselves, why is Hamas firing rockets into Israel and Hezbollah as well all in the name of religion?!
If truly Islam is the true religion why can’t they wait for Allah to rise up to his own defence? Why must they fight on his behalf?!
This is the 21st century, people need to wake up to the realization that religion cannot be used as a platform to settle scores, but rather develop a pragmatic approach to solve problems without undue recourse to the name of God.
Atleast the God of the Bible as never for once encouraged his worshippers to fight on his behalf.