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Feb. 9, 2007

The rise of religious divides

Extremism is a key cause of conflict in Middle East, says Martin.
REBECA KUROPATWA

Hatred stifles the opportunity for peace – and hatred often comes from the way people interpret religion, according to Patrick Martin.

The comment page editor – and former Middle East correspondent – for the Globe and Mail spoke on Middle East dialogue at the University of Winnipeg Jan. 31. Martin talked about Islam's growing militancy, Iran's nuclear development and the rise of Hezbollah – giving several examples of growing turmoil in the Muslim world.

"On CNN this morning," said Martin, "I saw that the British police in Birmingham have rounded up nine Muslim suspects who were planning on carrying out an abduction of a Muslim British soldier, who was home on leave from Iraq. Their plan was to kidnap, torture and behead this soldier as a lesson to any other British Muslims who might be thinking of serving in the British army."

He noted also that, "Palestinians are fighting Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, Lebanese are fighting Lebanese and Shias are fighting Shias. These events are not isolated. They are all connected."

Martin suggested that a number of factors were to blame for these situations, including the "misguided U.S. policy in the region, the radicalization of Iran, the presence of Israel, the legacy of the First World War, the terrorism of the international jihadists [and] the lack of democracy in the Arab world.

"Perhaps after 1,400 years of Muslim rule," he continued, "the presence of Israel, the American influence and the reaction by regimes in the region to those events, it was inevitable that this would all have to work itself out."

Martin noted that Christian fundamentalists support Israel. "But the larger truth," he said, "is that this support is self-serving. They have an ulterior motive. They believe that only when Jews are in this region can the Christian Second Coming occur. The Jews, at this point, would be irrelevant or wiped out if they do not convert to Christianity.

"It is religious determination," said Martin, "that propelled Zionists to establish the state of Israel [and that has seen] Muslim against Muslim, Muslim against Jew, Sunni against Shia and Palestinian against Palestinian."

Martin spoke of a cave called Morat Hamachpayla in the centre of Hebron, where Abraham buried Sarah. "Along comes King Herod, a Jewish king under Roman appointment. He builds fabulous structures all around Israel – the Western Wall, the Masada fortress and a fortress around the Hebron cave. Then come the Christians, who build a Byzantine church. In the 17th century, the Arabs invade, and build a mosque in the same place. The Crusaders come next, and build a Crusader church. In the 13th century, the Muslims come and build another mosque. In the 20th century, Israel comes into existence and they convert part of the structure into a synagogue. So you've got a synagogue inside a mosque, inside a church, inside a mosque, inside a church, inside a fortress, on top of a cave. And that is the story of the Middle East in a nutshell."

He did give the Israelis "enormous credit for having this site function as a mosque and a synagogue, side-by-side. In the early 1990s, it looked really promising to co-exist in that fundamental way. But in 1994, during the Jewish festival of Purim, a man named Baruch Goldstein went into the mosque with a machine gun and opened fire, killing and wounding many people, mid-prayer."

Such conflict, Martin suggested, "occurs in times of great despair, which stems from entrenched grievances – like corruption, injustice, slow reform, anti-American sentiment and feeling powerless. Besides corrupt governments, the only place many people have to turn is a mosque. After the Six Day War, mosque attendance in Egypt increased by 30 per cent, and has stayed there ever since. Religion provides comfort when people experience helplessness and humiliation."

Conflicts in the Middle East are born of a very long, emotional struggle, and Martin admitted he has "no hard and fast answers, except for trying to understand why people have been propelled into these situations."

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

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