With our daily diet of negative media I am not sure whether any of you have noticed that outside the global financial meltdown, (with associated recessions/depressions and unemployment), the distressing tales of infant deaths in the United Kingdom due it seems to appalling negligence by the Social Services and the continuing loss of life in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, there is actually some potentially positive news out there.
The New York Times, for example, has been running a series of full page advertisements in the last week during the occasion of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah's visit to the United Nations General Assembly. The one I noticed was inserted by a group promoting an event known as a "Weekend of Twinning". Twinning by 50 Mosques and 50 Synagogues across the USA and Canada to be held later this month. The message being jointly presented by the "Weekend" is one of an effort to confront Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.
It's a start but it needs to go much further, and I hope it will. The signs, at least to me, look positive.
It is a truism that both of the "conditions" or phobias, that is Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, exist in large measure in our world, the latter for many more years than the former. Thus a greater degree of understanding through education can surely only be good. But dealing with the phobias alone does not deal with the broader issues - and the next steps, which would lead to co-existence. A co-existence by mankind in general - where a Muslim arriving in any country is not immediately branded a potential terrorist, where a Jew is not seen as a member of a tightly knit almost secret society with excessive influence in the corridors of power, and an historical financier of wars for financial gain.
That said let me be the first to acknowledge that I am venturing on to shaky ground here. I am an amateur observer of what are some deeply rooted issues. But I suspect even so, having lived a good number of years in the Middle East, and continuing as a regular visitor I have a better understanding of those issues than many who present their opinions as "experts". Nevertheless, I am receiving some clear pictures in my mind, and verbal messages in my ears that the senior leaders in the Middle East are beginning to stick their necks out and send ever clearer signals that the world must have peace in the region. Peace that must start first with an acknowledgement that terrorism, threats from nearby countries, and the general state of "alert" that prevents human beings from going about their daily lives without the threat of being blown up, is unacceptable.
I am not so naive as to believe that this is easily achievable, although I do think that former President Clinton came close to reaching an agreement just before he stepped down from the Presidency. But any agreement is only possible if Middle Eastern leaders, from both sides, genuinely want there to be peace. Will an agreement stop the hostilities immediately? It is unlikely, but those same leaders can put pressure on the perpetrators if they have a will to do. And they are showing signs of doing so.
It may be somewhat ironic, but what sort of a positive message would it send around the world if we really achieve something positive around the same time as the Christian faith celebrates its religious holiday? And before the end of the Chinese New Year of the Rat - a year that the soothsayers predicted would be every bit as appalling as it has turned out to be - a peace that would have a very significant impact upon a world that is fearful, beaten and miserable.
It doesn't really matter what you believe in, does it? It would be seriously good news whenever it happens - and if the event in North America is a start, there could be a boost very soon.
However we choose to place our wishes and thoughts, this the time we should all put our minds to doing our piece for peace.
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