grabagran …… the question ‘what is going on’, often in the name of religion, needs to be asked, but IMO the reasons are too many and complex for there to be a solution, but clearly this is not necessary any single nation or regional national problem, it is international – but as I’ll mention later, I think in the UK while doing its best to protect our own citizens from internal and external threats, we COULD in trying to be more ‘inclusive’, make matters worse for ourselves.
The UK is democratic, generally law abiding, the people are unarmed, and the State is designated Christian - and while few of us go to church, the combination of a religiously tolerant nation and society, where people are free to worship where they want in safety, means we kinda all get along.
Historically over the past century within the West, major conflicts were often triggered by nationalism, mainly due to major recessions, or hardships by ‘the people’, that brought to power radical NATIONAL leaders and conflicts.
Many countries in the West are going through their worse recession in 100-years which will result in hardships and other social issues and MAY have a significant influence on some of those in our society being radicalized, what we SEE on our screens is happening within the Middle East, the Sudan I think you may have been referring to – which generalizing here, to a great extent is being caused by religious fundamentalism.
This fundamentalism is often unleashed by the removal of strong dictators who through terror kept the religious differences within their national box, but also an explosion of the protests of those previously kept in their box, religiously, socially and economically.
Taking Islam as a topical example, similar to Christianity it is State-less, as a whole, or between it’s main Sunni or Shia branches, so at a time countries that have Sunni/Shia conflicts resurfacing into conflict throughout the Middle East, for years now Islam as a whole, threatened by the West in wars and interventions – radicalized Muslims across all nations, against both the West, and dodgy regional dictators keeping fellow Muslims under oppression e.g. Syria’s Assad.
The collapse of strong regimes in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, the historic meddling of Syria and Shia Iran, the Shia/Sunni political battle being fought in Bahrain (with it’s bridge to the people & oil in Sunni Saudi Arabia) are complex, but radicalized citizens like ISIS will DO ANYTHING for their cause and do deeds we can’t comprehend.
But there is NO IMMEDIATE PROSPECT of peace within the region, individual countries maybe, but this Sunni versus Shiite, or other historic issues e.g. Palestine/Israel, will not be resolved, possibly until the map of the Middle East is redrawn.
So what the UK governments must ensure is that religious disputes around the world, already radicalizing a very small percentage of our citizens, are not brought directly home to us, as politicians look to further embrace the diversity of the UK. It is clear from threads here, ‘reason’, can be totally absent from a heated debate, as I found that out when a while ago, I dared to disagree against an academic letter to Cameron, that he should not call the UK ‘Christian’.
Take the angry politics out of my OP, but note the religious attacks, some going back hundreds of years, and posts trying to discredit a simple point along the lines ‘it ain’t broke, nothing to fix’.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/2059638-Britain-NOT-a-Christian-county-since-when
Can you imagine what would happen if the Church of England Bishops in parliament were diluted with Catholics, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhists and inter Muslim rivalry, all campaigning lobbying for perceived influence – rather than them all live peacefully here under the umbrella of Christianity? IMO.