The pope's easter message urged both sides in the Libyan conflict to protect civilians. It's strange that he prioritised this over christians suffering throughout the moslem world. He might spare a thought for the christian girls decapitated for 'blasphemy' by dogma crazed murderers high on religious bigotry Pictures of gruesome murders - Warning: the pictures are gruesome. He might spare a thought for the coptic demonstrators recently gunned down by the military shouting 'allah akbar'. The copts were objecting to the ejection from their church and newly built community center. It seems that such centers are 'provocative'.
The only place the established church ever shows its ire is where it's least needed, in condemning Israel when it defends itself from attack.
Just the other day an Israeli was gunned down by a Palestinian Authority policeman after according to spokesman Saib Erekat he was 'provocatively' attempting to pray at Joseph's tomb near Nablus. Why does Israel take this lying down? Just as muslims in Israel are allowed to pray without hindrance in their holy places, jews must assert their rights to do so without fear of being killed. The west must face down bigotry and intolerance by muslim fanatics or face ever increasing attacks.
In the West and Israel there is quite rightly zero tolerance for religious bigotry directed at muslims. The west that is so powerfully intervening in Libya to protect 'civilians' must demand that arab and muslim nations afford protections to christians, jews and other religions coming under their rule (as in Gaza with Hamas gunmen who fight out of uniform, the fighters in Libya also describe themselves as civilians. A ragtag bunch they may be, when holding a gun it is a travesty to allow them to describe themselves as 'civilians').
And let's not forget Iraq where thousands of American soldiers still serve and have died yet the christian community is being ethnically cleansed from there. Iraq is steadily becoming a satellite state of Iran whilst the US pretends to be helping set up a democracy there. And Afghanistan? The US has lost the war in Iraq and Afghanistan because it picked the wrong enemy. Sadam Hussein wasn't much of a threat to regional peace after the first Gulf War, but Iran is and is getting stronger using its Hezbollah proxy first to suppress the Lebanese democracy, and now to support the brutal Syrian state.
The US needs to stop trying to reform arab and muslim countries and to unabashedly protect western interests. State building has failed in Afghanistan, Iraq and will fail in Libya. The west must intervene to protect its own interests, and save its bombs for when it is atacked. It is madness to intervene in a civil war in Libya when Gadaffi was a cowed man, who had given up his nuclear ambitions and stopped his terror against the west, paid compensation, and was a bulwark against al-qaida. Democracy is a wonderful concept, but the islamists of Benghazi will most likely not be so democratic once they take power. NATO and the US should leave Libya alone. As usual, western intervention is going to make matters worse in this civil war.
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