Christian Apology for the Iraq War

19th September 2005

Anglican Bishops have called for Christian leaders to apologise to Muslim leaders for the Iraq War.

This call was made in the context of a report on "countering terrorism", and seems to be loosely based on the principles that made the 'truth and reconcilisation' process so successful in post-apartheid South Africa. The bishops also claimed that the war was motivated as much by US self-interest as altruistic concern for the Iraqi people.

The debate over the rightness of the Iraq war will wage for years to come. However, we have to work out how to defeat terrorism. The evidence to date - such as the bombings in Madrid and London, and the violence taking place inside Iraq - is that the war has not made the world a safer place.

To defeat terrorism, I believe we have to build relationships with the communities the terrorists purport to represent. But the fact of the invasion, the way in which the war has been waged, and the isolation of the Sunni community in the current constitution, have all had the opposite effect.

The West has major credibility problems with ordinary Muslim citizens, because of such questions as:

• Why does the West claim to act in the interest of Iraqi citizens when it was willing to support and arm Saddam Hussein when it suited their purposes?
• Why did the West act against Saddam Hussein, but continues to take no action against the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe?
• Why does the US cite breach of United Nations resolutions as a major justification for the invasion of Iraq, yet over a period of 40 years has repeatedly blocked any UN action to enforce resolutions made against Israel?

No doubt most Western politicians, and probably leading 'Christian' factions in the US, will give an outright rejection of the Anglican Bishop's recommendations. But, IMHO, their approach provides the only real hope for defeating terrorism in the long term.

Background

BBC News

"Church of England bishops have suggested Christian leaders apologise to Muslim leaders for the war in Iraq...."

© S P Myers.