Deji Abodunde

@dejiabodunde

Writer and Researcher on Christianity in Nigeria

Joined August 2014

171 Following

118 Followers

102 Posts

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Dan Burmawi

@DanBurmawy

5 days ago

Since the religion of peace struck on four continents this week, I must repost this piece: Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking Nazi and one of the architects of the Holocaust, fled to South America after World War II. In 1962, he was captured and brought to Israel for trial. During the proceedings, the prosecution brought in survivors from Nazi death camps to testify against him. One of them, Yehiel Dinur, entered the courtroom and came face to face with Eichmann, who was seated in a glass box. The moment Dinur saw him, he collapsed to the ground, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. Years later, in an interview with 60 Minutes, journalist Mike Wallace asked Dinur if his reaction had been caused by traumatic memories from the concentration camps. "No," Dinur replied. "It was not the memories that made me collapse. It was the realization that Eichmann was not a demon. He was an ordinary man. Hannah Arendt, a journalist for The New Yorker, attended Eichmann’s trial and later wrote about it. She noted that Eichmann was not a psychopath, not a man burning with sadistic hatred. He was ordinary. That is what made him so terrifying. He was a man who followed orders, who did his job, who justified the horrors he participated in without ever questioning them. All humans have the capacity for evil. We all have within us the ability to justify unspeakable horrors if the conditions are right. The question is not whether we are capable of evil, but what prevents us from committing it? Most religions restrain human evil. They set moral boundaries, condemning acts of violence, injustice, and cruelty. Christianity commands its followers to love their enemies, forgive those who harm them, and refuse vengeance. Judaism, despite its history of persecution, never formed a doctrine commanding global conquest or the extermination of non-Jews. Islam, however, does the opposite. When an ISIS fighter beheads a captive, he is not acting outside the teachings of his faith. He is following the example of Muhammad, who personally oversaw the beheading of hundreds of Jewish men in Medina. When Hamas terrorists slaughter Israeli families, they are not betraying Islam, they are fulfilling the doctrine of jihad, which commands war against non-Muslims until Islam dominates the world. Unlike Christianity, which calls for self-sacrifice, Islam calls for sacrificing others. Unlike Judaism, which focuses on preserving its own people, Islam commands the subjugation or destruction of all who reject it. We all have the potential for evil. But the difference between a person who commits atrocities and one who does not is the belief system that shapes them. A Christian who commits murder is violating his faith. A Muslim who kills an apostate is fulfilling his. A Buddhist who wages war is going against the teachings of his religion. A jihadist who slaughters unbelievers is doing exactly what his religion commands. The Nazis did not commit genocide because they were born different from us. They did it because they were indoctrinated into an ideology that justified mass murder. The same is true for every Hamas terrorist, every suicide bomber, every ISIS militant. Their faith tells them that their victims are not innocent, not human, not worthy of mercy. And so, they kill without hesitation. The reality is, Islam is the only major religion that actively commands the atrocities we fear. It is the only faith where genocide, subjugation, and violence are not historical accidents, but divine commandments. It is a mistake to think Islam is just another religion, rather than the most dangerous ideology the world has ever known.

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