Here is this week’s newsletter: St Stephens News XXVII No 33
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Newsletter
Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) Hebrew and Salaam ( سلام ) Arabic are both translated into English as Peace, and for Jews and Muslims, they both have the concept of the happiness that comes after a difficult struggle which in Arabic is Jihad (جهاد) striving even with the use of violence.
The Christian understanding of Peace is based upon these ideas but transmuted by the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus who so struggles and triumphs to greet his disciples after the Resurrection with the greeting of Peace.
The sufferings of Israel as servant did set out the base upon which the action of God in Jesus is understood by Christians.
The Passion of Muhammad in his triumphant entry into Mecca as a result of becoming victorious through violence is thus very different from the Judaic Suffering Servant and the Christian Passion of Jesus. Thus some Muslims sometimes resort to violence to achieve Peace!
The history of the United States of America shows that the use of violence against the indigenous peoples, in controlling slaves imported from West Africa was fundamental, and denied those peoples’ access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Even today the holding of arms is a right in the USA, which exists nowhere else as far as I am aware. It follows from this that support from the USA for Irish Terrorism was a feature until the Good Friday Agreement, reinforced by the shock of 19/11. Support for Jihad against the forces of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was a feature of USA action. That led to massive upheavals of peoples and the later NATO involvement in that devastated state.
Most people in the world including USA Citizens and Muslims wish to live in peace if they can, but some circumstances cause acts of terror and the need today is to have policies that eliminate the causes that do this. Peace be with you….