Iraq war, not a crusade

Five days after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York, President Bush declared a U.S. "crusade" against the terrorists. He was using the word "crusade" to mean "a campaign that will be pursued with zeal and enthusiasm." Unfortunately, in the Arab world the word "crusade" still means "the wars undertaken by Christians in the late Middle Ages to secure the right of Christian pilgrims to visit the Holy Sepulcher and to recover the Holy Land from its Mohammedan conquerors." And so, speaking for the world’s Sunni Muslims that represent 80 percent of Muslims worldwide, Al Azhar, an Islamic scholar based in the University of Cairo, proclaimed that the current war in Iraq is President Bush’s "new crusade". This makes it the obligation of every Muslim, male or female, to arm themselves against the American invaders.

The point we are making is that there is already so much misunderstanding about the Iraq war, let us not add to the confusion. There were eight major crusades. None of them achieved any lasting success. To make them relevant in the current Iraq controversy will be the best way to unite the Muslim world against the United States. The crusades belong to the past.

Words are symbols. Their meaning involves all the ideas, images and emotions that they evoke. Words should bind people together. For as Lord Byron said, "A word’s enough to raise mankind to kill." And in the case of the Islamic world, the word that they have to use properly is jihad. To the best of our knowledge, killing in the Islamic communities is justified only in self-defense. At the moment, one of our problems is Muslim terrorists who use the concept of jihad to justify their kidnappings and other terrorist activities.

There was a time when the Philippines was a model for peaceful Christian and Muslim relations. There is no question that if both Christians and Muslims follow the true teachings of their respective religions, they will live in peace. We have freedom to worship in this country. The crusades are a thing of the past. We hope that jihad will only be against aggression.

We sincerely pray and hope for peace in the Islamic world, beginning in Iraq. We really cannot understand the situation there. We don’t like the bombings that are taking place or the invasion itself. We hope that, as suggested by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Philippines will head the humanitarian missions in Iraq. But more important there should be a stop to the war itself. We are glad that even in Washington, D.C. itself, there are Americans manifesting their disapproval of the war in Iraq.

Let’s have peace, not war. Let us build, not destroy; eliminate, not aggravate, human suffering.