Believe to fight, fight to believe

In the April 10 issue of The Sunday Age of Australia, Terry Lane writes that nearly 70 million Bible-believing, born-again Christian fundamentalists control "the levers of power in imperial America". This is where the fiction is stranger than truth, because these Christians believe in every letter of what is written in the Genesis. God has promised Abraham all the land "from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates." What it translates into is a Promised Land that includes a part of Egypt, a large slice of Iraq and Syria and all the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.

Now what does it matter to these Christians who pull the strings of US politics? This is where truth and fiction beguile each other. In an interesting way, these Christians have a stake in the existence of Israel. All the Jews must return to Israel and the territory of that country should coincide with what God promised to Abraham. Until the Promised Land is retaken by Israel, all the Arabs are expelled, Jews are welcomed back from their diaspora, and Solomon's temple is rebuilt, Jesus Christ cannot come back to earth.

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According to The Christian Science Monitor, these so-called Jew-sympathiser Christians are very influential. They have access to the White House and strong support within Congress, including the backing of the two most recent majority leaders in the House of Representatives. But more interesting revelations came from Village Voice reporter Rick Perlstein, who came into possession of "an email we weren't meant to see". The email described a meeting between the extremist Apostolic Congress and the National Security Council director for Near East and North African affairs, Eliott Abrams. Calling itself the Christian voice of the nation's capital, the Apostolic Congress opposes the withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Gaza because it opposes the surrender of the territory God promised to the Jews.

Abrams was able to assuage their concerns by stating that "the Gaza Strip had no significant Biblical influence such as Joseph's tomb or Rachel's tomb and, therefore, is a piece of land that can be sacrificed for the cause of peace." Perlstein claims that three weeks after the meeting President George Bush reversed the long-standing US policy, endorsing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank in exchange for Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Apostolic Congress leader Pastor Robert Upton is said to have boasted: "We are in constant contact with the White House. I am briefed at least once a week via telephone briefings ... I was there about two weeks ago ... At that time we met with the president.”

Wait to hear more. After President Bush announced his Road Map plan for peace in the Middle East, the Apostolic Congress and the Jewish group called Americans for a Safe Israel placed billboards in 23 cities with a quotation from Genesis ("Unto thy of spring will I give this land") and this message "Pray that President Bush Honors God's Covenant with Israel". They asked people to call the White House and also provided the White House phone number and the Apostolic Congress's Web address on those billboards.

In the interview with the Village Voice, Pastor Upton claimed personal responsibility for directing 50,000 postcards to the White House opposing the Road Map, which aims to create a Palestinian state. "I'm in total disagreement with any form of Palestinian state," Upton said. According to him, the White House received 50,000 postcards within two weeks, saying the exact same thing from all over the United States, which really caused President Bush to back pedal on the Road Map.

This is just glimpses of the religious infiltration of the US politics. There are more than 45 senators and 186 representatives in Congress, who get the seal of approval from the Christian right-wing advocacy groups that compile a legislative scorecard on politicians. The same legislators get the lowest scores on the cards compiled by the League of Conservation Voters.

More is underway. While the noise over Terri Schiavo's death is yet to die down, new proposal is being considered in 19 states in the US. They want to introduce bills to challenge evolution theory in the schools, thus injecting religion into secular curricula. Fidel Castro has called George Bush a hypocrite for attending the funeral of Pope John Paul II, because he went to pay tribute to a man whose plea he had ignored by going to war in Iraq. In the hands of the right-wing Christians, the US President has become holier than the Pope.

The latest story is even more bizarre. Senator Bill Frist is going to participate in a telecast to condemn the Democrats for undermining the "faith of people" because they have filibustered to block 10 of George Bush's 229 judicial appointments. The same senator tried to justify through various medical techniques that Terri Schiavo was still alive and should not be allowed to die. Bear in mind, this gentleman is not a graduate of any school of theology, but a qualified heart surgeon.

What do you say? Isn't truth stranger than fiction? Those of us who believe in religion, because we believe in God, life after death, and the Day of Judgement, we find truth and fiction wrapped together in the fear of the unknown. A fundamentalist takes that fear to its logical conclusion as he drives his truth from the pedestal of fiction. Osama bin Laden and his fighters of faith are ready to die, because they believe they will go to heaven. It is a belief that is clumsily parked somewhere between truth and fiction.

What George Bush and his crusading Christians are doing is even worse. They are superimposing fiction on truth, combining art of politics with the science of faith. The actually believe that they must prepare the ground for the second coming of Jesus Christ. They actually believe that they must create the Promised Land for the Jews, as if to add the last ingredient to a magic potion that is waiting to go whoosh!

The world is in danger because it is polarising in faith. The Islamic militants with their rocket launchers and suicide bombers are terrorising the world. The Christians and Jews are unleashing horror in their quiet negotiations in business suits and conference rooms across the world. Soon Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and believers of every other denomination will take sides. For centuries mankind has fought to believe, and now it must believe to fight.

The rest of us, who want to believe and let others believe, shall be caught in the crossfire. Innocent people are dying in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world. The words of freedom ring hollow when we are losing faith in human beings and losing human beings in their struggle for faith.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.