Abstract:
Is Sri Lanka (and similar small states) going to be the frontline between Islamic Caliphate versus Human Rights/Evangelical Christian Empire. Like Vietnam was a proxy War/battlefield between the goal of a Communist vs Capitalist World Empire.
Post WW2, Evangelical Christianity (thru the US) and “Human Rights” (thru US and Europe) have been terrorizing the Mid East for over half a decade.
What is the difference between
- a) Bombing multiple countries to install “Human Rights” compliant with the Empire of the West.
- b) or Bombs with the goal of establishing Sharia Law compliant Caliphate Empire.
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| U.S. bombs southern Baghdad, killing another six civilian |
Pre WW2 Europe (2) was the foremost in promoting “Christian Values” while obviously exploiting and looting the resources of brown and yellow heathen savages.
Post WW2, Europe and the US has redefined itself as advocates of Human Rights illegally supporting war either (see the box below for examples)
-
-
- by acting unilaterally
- using false evidence for UN resolution
- acting beyond UN resolutions
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In order to invade Iraq, Colin Powell stood on the UN floor and assured that Iraq had WMD. Colin Powell later regretted his speech.
A spokesperson for the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) falsely defended the bombing of Libya as within UN resolution. The UN resolution was only to establish a no fly zone. The Norwegian aircraft dropped 588 bombs
To Europe, US markets the wars as protecting Human Rights or the (in)famous Right to Protect (R2P) of Samantha Power and Hillary Clinton. At home in the US sells Human Rights as Gods Wish/A Just War to the very important Evangelical home base to garner support for Iraq War and bombing of Libya.
No MSM writeup says, Christian Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama instigated a Just War. However, George W. Bush is a member of the United Methodist Church. Barack Obama is and has been a member of Evangelical Churches. Evangelical leaders post 9/11 signed an open letter to Bush approving war on Iraq satisfied the criteria of Christian “Just-war” theory. ( see here and here)
“Iraq represents that existential threat we have from global Islamic Jihadists. “We must defeat it in Iraq, Afghanistan and then act preemptively to destroy it wherever it emerges.”.
“Throughout Scripture, there is evidence that God favors war for divine reasons and sometimes uses it to accomplish his will. He has also given governments and their citizens very specific responsibilities in regards to this matter,” Charles Stanley, Televangelist, pastor First Baptist Church of Atlanta and In Touch Ministries said in a sermon broadcast internationally on his television program.,
As one can see, there is not much difference between Christian and Islamic priests advising people and countries to wage war.
Two examples of US and European Post World War 2 atrocities
1953 Iran: CIA coup overthrows the democratically elected MP Mosaddegh .
- Support for Iraq
- USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 on 3 July 1988, killing all 290
- Chemical weapons supplied to Iraq by US, UK, Netherlands and German companies
It is pretty clear, the US and Europe with the blessings of the Evangelicals/Human Rights Religion has been the first instigators in the Mid-East. The Muslim response has been slow and generally localized to places of regime change and invasions. With the creation of Al-Qaeda and ISIS the war has been fought on a larger geographical terrain.
Now the war between Evangelicals/Human Rights Religion and Islamic Jihad has been taken worldwide. Suicide bomber cells now include family groups including children. Suicide bombers attack churches, tourist hotels and beaches where westerners congregate. T
Unhappily, Islamic extremism is also an opportunity for Western powers to establish a foothold. In Sri Lanka. The US wants to sign a secretive Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with clauses to exclude the American soldiers from the local jurisdiction. Liberal Human Rights types and Westernized Sri Lankans (many are Christians, like current PM Ranil Wickremasinghe) would welcome the West with open arms. This would result in Sri Lanka being a proxy battle field for Western powers and the Islamic Caliphate. Sri Lanka should find its own solution to keep Christian/Islamic wars out of its shores.
(1)Disclosure. Author is a Tamil by Heritage, Atheist, though born to an Evangelical Christian family, post graduate education and work in the US.
(2) The Catholic Church has much blood in the past. Post WW2 as far as I know, no war has been justified by the Vatican.
Other readings
Short history of Wahabism to ISIS
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/islam-extremism-hypocrisy/
History of Wahabi violence in Sri Lanka.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/190505/sunday-times-2/the-need-to-identify-the-enemy-within-347960.html
From Sri Lanka to Indonesia, more mothers are becoming suicide bombers
– and killing their children too
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3008808/sri-lanka-indonesia-more-mothers-are-becoming-suicide-bombers-and?
On the whole agreeable pov.
We cannot forget the US and the west have also opposed a secular regime in Afghanistan and went out of the way to install a Jihadis as rulers. It has also supported Jihadi oriented Pakistan army for many decades. Much of the trouble in south Asia can be traced to the western support for Jihadis till recently. Only after 9/11 , they have been jolted a bit, but not completely. A modified version of jihadi support of the 1980s and 1990s is going on
Thanks VijayVan, yes there is a whole lot of stuff.
Tried to make it short and to the point.
barack obama was never an evangelical. he was a member of the united church of christ.
Razib,
Evangelicals generally believe in “born again”, another term for being baptized as an adult. Another is that “receiving the holy spirit” and talking in tongues, i.e. possession if viewed as an outsider. Some of the newer churches have dancing. Also, the church head is called Pastor as against, Priest, Bishop, Father etc.
In the Anglo Saxon West the traditional churches are the Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians and Methodists.
Baptists are considered Evangelicals who are little more formal.
I have listened to Pastor Jeremiah Wrights (on you tube) and he sounds like your run of the mill Evangelical Pastor. Lots of fire and brimstone.
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Anyway, Obama was true to form. He used the Church to further his political future and dropped Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church when it became a liability.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#Religious_views
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American evangelicals are a quarter of the nation’s population and its single largest religious group.[7][8] The main movements are Baptist churches, Pentecostalism, charismatic Evangelicalism, neo-charismatic Evangelicalism and nondenominational Christianity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism
Razib, can you define what evangelical means to you?
It would take a detailed article to break down the many varieties of Christians. To greatly over simplify:
—Syriac (closest to eastern philosophy)
——St. Mathew (in India)
—Greek Orthodox (second closest to eastern philosophy . . . maybe Milan could summarize . . . many have described this to me in great detail . . . I did not fully understand)
—Catholic
——Benedictine
———Christian Ashram movement (especially the Camaldolese) {They incorporate a lot of eastern philosophy . . . specifically the 10 dharmic darshanas and Taoism}
——liberal Catholic (would take too long to summarize)
——conservative catholic (would take too long to summarize)
—Protestant (would take too long to summarize)
Razib, presumably you consider “evangelical” to be a subset of “protestant”. Can you break down which protestants you consider to be “evangelical” and which ones you don’t consider to be evangelicals?
I have had many conversations on theology with various protestant denominations and there is great diversity of thought among them on the definition of “evangelical”?
“Is Sri Lanka (and similar small states) going to be the frontline between Islamic Caliphate versus Human Rights/Evangelical Christian Empire”
And what about the majority Buddhist? Which way do they lean?
Saurav,
Most Urban lean towards the US.
Rural cant say, enough of noise though against the SOFA.
Most believe the hype that SL will become the land of milk and honey like the US.
I dont think the antipathy to US sneaking is as big as in Venezuela.
Maybe interested in what I wrote in 2013 (Rajapakse rule)
Buddhism and Evangelical Christians
http://sbarrkum.blogspot.com/2013/03/buddhism-and-evangelical-christians.html
I am not sure why human rights are being lumped in with beliefs in flying spaghetti monsters of different kinds. The answer to Western hegemony is more human rights not another cult.
I don’t understand what “western hegemony” means Arjun.
The world has the following major philosophies:
—post modernism cultural marxism wokeness SJW
—eastern philosophy
——Korean folk
——modern Chinese semi agnostic (Confucian tilted)
——Taoism + Shintoism + 10 Dharmic darshanas + Sikhism
——slight re-emergence of pre Christian European culture (similar to eastern philosophy)
——new age, Emerson etc.
——some branches of Sufi Sufis and Sufi Irfan Shia
—European enlightenment classical liberalism (which I consider to mostly be a subset of the Chaarvaaka school of eastern philosophy)
—Native American philosophy (similar to eastern philosophy)
—Islamism (many liberal and minority muslims fit better into other philosophies)
—What sbarrkum is calling “evangelical Christians”
sbarrkum, can you describe the shared philosophy of “evangelical Christians” in more detail? You appear to consider all protestants other than nondenominational Christianity and Anglicans, Episcopalians, Methodists to be evangelicals? Is this accurate?
I might do a post on “born again”? This concept is practiced in many parts of the world, including the east. I understand “born again” to mean when someone changes the way their brain and nervous system works so that they are in 24 hour meditation or awareness or connection.
Why don’t you consider Anglicans, Episcopalians and Methodists to be evangelical?
Do you think Anglicans, Episcopalians and Methodists have a philosophy anymore? If so, what do you think it is?
Agree with you on Baptists generally being considered evangelicals.
Can you define what you mean by “nondenominational Christianity”?
The post leaves out the role played by jewish neocons and the Israel lobby in American foreign policy.
http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/jewish-power-rolls-over-washington/
Roy, Jewish people tend to be India’s best friend, Indians best friends, and the best friends of Hindus/Buddhists/Jains/Sikhs/Taoists.
Jewish influence is very good for us and for the world more generally.
We need to communicate better with our Jewish friends to better collaborate with them.
Plus post modernists, marxists, SJW woke tend to dislike Jews. Which makes me like Jews all the more.
Jews rock! Jews forever!
https://www.brownpundits.com/2018/01/28/anti-jewish-bigotry/
I have always found the entire public discourse in US sickeningly steeped in hypocrisy. So much of propaganda is generated about this land of liberty and freedom it allows to its citizens that it can make one’s ears ache. I still fail to understand what is the big deal about freedom in US. Most countries in this world, barring some banana republics ruled by dictators, are free. You can criticize the government in strongest term in these countries and nobody will stop you.
All the US wars are wars of choice. US waged the entire Iraq war on a lie that Saddam had WMDs. Instead of WMDs, even a needle used in WMDs was not found.
Before the US invasions, a dictator used to rule Iraq. There was no democracy in Iraq. The dictator used to kill about a dozen persons every year, but only those who threatened his rule. After the US invasion, assorted militias kill about 100,000 people every year. And yes, lest we forget, Iraq has democracy now.
Libya was done in by US in the similar fashion. It was a wealthy country under Ghaddafi’s rule. Now Libya has broken into pieces, literally. I believe the central authority has vanished and country is being ruled separately in 3 parts.
You are massively downplaying the brutality of Saddam.
Sri Lankan link to plotters of Ahmedabad synagogue attack.
Aadhil Ameez, a 24-year-old, was the link between two groups that carried out the attacks on churches and hotels that killed more than 250 people and wounded hundreds more.
Aadhil, who describes himself on his LinkedIn profile as a senior engineer/programmer/web designer with a masters degree in computer science and a bachelors in political science from U.K. universities
Police Raided IT firm Virtusa, where Aadhil had interned in 2013, according to his profile. One current employee has been detained for questioning in connection with the attacks.
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There seems to be an issue with age (24); interned in 2013.
Virtusa is one of the largest IT firms in Sri Lanka with Corporate Headquarters in Massachusetts and multiple offices all over the world.
https://www.virtusa.com/our-offices/
http://www.adaderana.lk/news/55134/sl-software-engineer-under-indian-surveillance-key-in-easter-attack-report
Terrible article.The author blaming America for Iran Iraq war is beyond silly.
You were probably young leopard at that time or your memory is unreliable or you are so naive or…. Iraq’s attack on Kuwait was also inspired and encouraged by US.
American political journalist Phil Butler wrote a column stating that the destruction and disintegration of Yugoslavia was part of a wider NATO alliance.
The intention was to weaken the geopolitical opponents of the Western bloc in the Third World regions and to swallow up the healthy economies of the peoples of these territories.
He said that is the fact that after the Second World War, socialist Yugoslavia became a kind of European success story.
“Between 1960 and 1980, the country had one of the most important economic growth rates in the world, a decent standard of living, free health and education, guaranteed right to work, one-month paid vacation, literacy rate of over 90 percent, and life expectancy of 72. As far as I know, not one of the countries of the Balkans can dream of half of this prosperity today, it was a progress that caused the desire to destroy Yugoslavia among the Western powers. The multiethnic population of the country enjoyed favourable public transport, housing and utilities. The economy was largely state-owned, which is not exactly the best example of Western democratic love. At that time, Germany, France or the United Kingdom were far from the resources, and the London and Luxembourg bankers could not pull billions out of the socialist system, “says Butler.
He claims that Yugoslavia had to die, and Regan, the Bush elder and the younger and Clinton helped it happen.
after the Second World War, socialist Yugoslavia became a kind of European success story.
Yes, and a lot of rapport between PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike and President Tito. Non Aligned Nation’s
Didnt really follow what happened after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
I thought Milosevic got a bad rap.
But amid all the blather and the hype surrounding the ’trial of the century’ it soon became apparent the prosecution was in deep, deep trouble. The Sunday Times quoted a legal expert who claimed that “Eighty percent of the prosecution’s opening statements would have been dismissed by a British court as hearsay.” That, I believe, was a generous assessment.
The trouble for NATO was that by the time Milosevic’s trial was due to start, the Kosovo narrative had already unraveled. The lurid claims made by the US and its allies about genocide and hundreds of thousands being killed, catalogued by the great John Pilger here, had been shown to be false. In September 2001, a UN court officially held that there had been no genocide in Kosovo.
http://sbarrkum.blogspot.com/2016/09/milosevic-exonerated.html