Another Terrorist Attempt

A Nigerian Muslim tried to blow up a U.S. airplane on Christmas Day, which became the last big story of 2009. Besides revealing holes and serious flaws in airport security around the world, what else does this incident tell us?

I believe it tells us that this Muslim World vs. The West struggle is not merely cultural but is religious at its core. Note that this was planned for Christmas Day, which commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Despite its increasing secularization, Christmas is, in its foundation, a Christian holy day. It was not a coincidence that this attempt was made on the holy day of Christmas. Was the message to us “Allah is stronger than your Jesus.” (I know Islam reveres Jesus (“Isa”) as a great prophet, but not as the Son of God. Islam finds our understanding of Isa blasphemous.)

You may disagree with me, saying this struggle is more cultural than religious. However, what you fail to realize is that Muslim culture and religion are inseparable. While we in The West tend to separate the secular from the religious, such a division is unthinkable in the Muslim World (aside, perhaps, from Turkey, which is beginning to move away from its foundational principle of separation of mosque and state). Muslims justify their actions on religious grounds, calling Christians “infidels” and “Crusaders.” They use the Qur’an’s anti-Jewish and anti-Christian passages as the basis for their actions. “Jihad” is a religious term, steeped in the Qur’an. Let’s stop being so naïve.

The reason I mention the religious aspect of this struggle is that if we abandon the God who has blessed The West in so many ways, then God will abandon us. While we are not ancient Israel, we see in the Old Testament that when the Israelites abandoned faith in Jehovah and followed false gods, God removed his protection from them and they were harassed and defeated by their pagan neighbors (Philistines, Midianites, and all those other “–ites”, plus the Assyrians and the Babylonians). I can only conclude that The West may very well be defeated by the Muslims if we continue down the paths we have been following. Why should God protect us if we don’t care about him?

Christians, renew your faith in Christ, who redeemed you to be his own. Jews, return to the G-d of your fathers, who delivered your ancestors out of Egypt. If God is for us, what can man do to us?