The Fight over Religion

Hello, I hope all is going well to those who are reading my blog.

Recently, I have been reading a book called American Dervish and it is about this boy who struggles with his study of his religion, which is Islam.  I have been thinking a lot about religion due to the very nature of this book.  I am a protestant and I tend to be open-minded about studying other religions to understand their beliefs.  

This book has caused me to question a lot of what is going on this world right now with religion and religion in the past.  Right now there is fighting going on between the Sunnis and the Shiites, which is the equivalent to the fighting that occurred between Catholics and Protestants.  It took a long time for Catholics and Protestants to accept that there is no use in fighting over religion because it is difficult to change the way one wants to practice religion for God.  

I sincerely hope that one day the Sunnis and Shiites can live together in peace with one another by accepting that they are going to follow different practices when worshiping Allah.  I think the beginning steps would be for those who are moderate when it comes to religion to stop letting extremists destroy people and their living areas.  They need to take the power from the extremists who are causing all of this destruction.  These extremists are terrible for the people living their locally and internationally because they are destroying peoples lives.  

There will always be conflict when it comes to religion.  There are Protestants and Catholics who fight each other sometimes over religion.  We are never going to get rid of the conflict over religion, but we can reduce the destruction and problems that these extremists are causing by helping moderate believers from both sides gain power.  

We as a world need to learn that the world cannot be all one religion or one set of beliefs when it comes to politics.  We have to learn how to coexist with one another regardless of the conflicting beliefs.  We need to derail extremists, which will lower the destruction that they are causing in this world.  

Airstrikes in Iraq

        Obama has authorized airstrikes against Islamic Militants to protect Americans and help the Kurds.  I am not surprised that the extreme Sunnis were back at it again fighting with Shiites and the Kurds.  The militant Sunnis have a problem with being put out of power even though they were the minority religious group and they have always had a problem with Christians and the Kurds.  Although Saddam Hussein did protect the Christians from harm (most of them), but he still had a lot of fun targeting Shiites and the Kurds.

    I understand that a majority of Americans wanted us to withdraw out of Iraq and it happened in 2011. However, there was a belief that Iraq could become the new Vietnam.  American troops left Vietnam in 1973 because it was not favorable for the people.  After we leave North Vietnam attacks South Vietnam,  South Vietnam is forced to surrender, uniting the country again except under Communism.

     Iraq is not a country divided like Vietnam.  No it is much worse where extremists will stop at nothing to push their beliefs onto others until they have control.  This would not have happened if Americans had stayed a little longer and had diplomats working with the different factions and groups in Iraq to have a working relationship.  However, we were not given enough time because Obama was facing re-election and he wanted to look good for the people so he had the troops leave.  I understand that the Iraqis wanted us to leave but the original agreement was actually for 2014 for full withdrawal, but he wanted to look good for the election.

Image by Rudaw  http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/25032014
 

     All in all, we should not have left so abruptly.  Furthermore, if Americans had been paying attention you would have seen that the Sunni Extremists were building in power. They had took over the government of some cities and forced the people in those cities to follow extremists laws when it comes to morality and strict Islamic code.  The extremists slowly started gaining, however after full troop withdrawal in 2011 they were able to gain massive power and weapons for exactly what they are doing right now.  

     Americans and Europe blamed former President Jalal Talabani and current Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki for the reason the extremists are attacking the people because they say he did not work hard enough to establish peace with the Sunnis. However, the extremists do not speak for a majority of the Sunnis.  Yes he is to blame for some of the problem, but so is the United States and the United Nations.

   

In conclusion, everyone is to blame President Obama, former President Talabani, Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki, and United Nations because they did not do more to eliminate the extremists.  The extremists do not speak for the majority of the Sunnis. The extremists want power to force people to submit to their belief system.  Now the solution is to eliminate the leaders of ISIS because there is no way that peace is going to work at this point.  Point in case: extremists from any group that are attacking innocent people should be killed and shown no mercy.