Ten Years Later

Ten years ago, on 7^th July, my son-in-law safely took a number 30 bus between Hackney and Euston. Later that morning, a similar number 30 bus was blown up by a suicide bomber. Ten years on, so much is happening in the world, and the situation seems to be going from bad to worse. A gunman, claimed to be a “soldier of the Caliphate”, has killed 38 people on a rampage in Tunisia. When an American citizen visits his local school and starts shooting people, we shake our heads that the world seems to have so many disoriented and dysfunctional people. But in many ways, what happened in Tunisia was *worse*. The killer was not known to have mental problems, and his heartless and ruthless actions seem to have been part of a plot, and not simply the actions of a deranged person trying to go out in a blaze of infamy.

This man had support. He had been supplied with a powerful weapon and some hand grenades, and he had been trained in a terrorist camp. He tried to kill only tourists, and not Tunisians. Presumably his masters did not wish to alienate the Tunisian population. And presumably he was either targeting “westerners”, or “Christians”, at the same time as damaging, or even destroying, Tunisia’s tourist industry.

ISIS, based in Syria, published his picture on electronic media, thereby proving that they had at the very least some involvement in either his actions, his mindset, or both. The leaders of ISIS seem to have developed their own idea of how Muslims should behave towards other human beings, none of whom they seem to hold of any account whatsoever, and once again we see it all done in the name of religion. “Religion” and “spirituality” seem to have gone their own ways, somehow. By contrast, Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith (which is my religion)  said we should “Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship.”

Bahá’u’lláh also seems to have foreseen the present state of things. There are very few things he forbade, but *fanaticism* was one of them. He wrote: “Religious fanaticism and hatred are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench. The Hand of Divine power can, alone, deliver mankind from this desolating affliction.” One aspect of this statement could be that the “Hand of Divine power” will provide an antidote to this affliction. People of limited insight (and no fixed morals!) seem at present to be driven by a loyalty to what they are *told* religion is for – in this instance conflict and domination. They can, however, be changed by a religion which offers them something better – a religion with a positive and loving attitude to everyone, regardless of who they are.