“God of life, lead us to justice and peace”

“God of life, lead us to justice and peace”

Terrorism and Justice

Usually terrorism is defined in universalistic terms. And very many times such definitions obfuscate differences. As Ninan Koshy puts it “Ideologies associated with nationalism, revolution, religion and defense of the status quo have all inspired terrorism.” By seeing it as a monolith of intimidating activities initiated by particular groups of people, we fail to acknowledge the complexity, variety and extent of the discourses related to terrorism. Terrorism initiates discourses, which create “self/other” binaries influencing our understanding of the other; usually as the categorized ‘demonic other’ terrorists are imagined as people vying for death and destruction only. From this understanding of the ‘other’ emerges the normative response to terrorism. Most often the violence of terrorism is countered solely in military terms. Greater violence is unleashed in the “war against terror” both within and outside the country and ends up in the killings of more people than what terrorism has done. Christian response to terrorism involves engagements with the biblical insights of peace that surpasses common understanding of it as annihilating the different “other.” The biblical vision of shalom and justice may help us to see ourselves in continuity with the “other” and to feel the compelling need to be in peace with the “other.”

The violent Terror

Genesis 34: 25-31

V. 25 “…on the third day when they were still in pain, two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city unaware, and killed all the males.”

This passage talks about a terrorist attack heinously planned and violently executed in order to wipe out a people. The background is a love affair that springs up between Jacob’s daughter Dinah and a Hivite man, whose name is Shechem. Though it was a cross-cultural and cross-religious marriage, the man and his family appears to be responsible and committed to a long lasting relationship. But the prejudice about the Hivites by the Israelites plays an important role in seeing the former as the “other”, whom the Israelites need not to engage with. The discourses that sustain the Israelites exclusive communal identity also influence the response of Simeon and Levi to the offer of a responsible relationship between the two people. Under the disguise of friendship and interest in the relationship the sons of Simeon and Levi enter the city of the Hivites and kill all the male members of the community. It clearly depicts the terrorist ideology of wiping out the different other in order to advance the communal agenda of the terrorists. Terror is always violent, inhuman, gruesome and unjust. It perpetrates its violence on the ‘other’ by constructing and sustaining an ideology of hate of the ‘other.’ It involves the ideological remaking of the other as a demon to be opposed and defeated. The Hivite identity is generalized as the ‘evil other’ without any scope of any goodness expected from their part. The violent killings in such incidents are justified as the ‘cleansing acts.’

In the Indian contexts the Muslim identity is something always remade to suit the terror ideologies to systemically unleash the programme of terror on the people. They are demonized and the violence against their life and rights are justified. At the end of the story the Patriarch Jacob is also seen as living in fear; though he is surrounded by the twelve strong sons and other men. Violence and terror always beget violence, terror and insecurity.

Thought of the day

Are we able to respond positively to the offers of friendship to those people who are different from us? Do our prejudices play a role in defining our attitude towards people of different cultures and faiths?  

Prayer

God of Peace and Justice, we beseech your guidance in our interactions with people of other communities. Let your peace prevail in our coexistence.

Amen.