It was God wot made me do it

by Sunny, on 7th October, 2005

The Guardian and Indy lead today with the news that President Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq. Well, tell us something new guys, really.

He made the statement to a group of Palestinian politicians four months after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I am driven with a mission from God’. God would tell me, ‘George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan’. And I did. And then God would tell me ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did.”

No one can accuse the Palestinians of making it up because the Israeli newspaper Haaretz broke the story then. Bush also told the Palestinians that he had a “moral and religious obligation” to get them a state. No timeline was specified though, so expect this part of the promise to drag onto 2050.

Bush’s office quite predictably denies the claims. “He’s never made such comments,” according to his spokesman Scott McClellan. Hang-on, not the same guy who kept denying Karl Rove had anything to do with the CIA agent outing?

Simon Barrow from Faith in Society isn’t too happy with the usage of God’s name in vain either.

I might add, by way of a footnote, that while GW is convinced that God told him to oust Saddam Hussein, God apparently made no mention to him or his president-father that there was anything wrong with arming the dictator to the teeth in the first place. Presumably this is because the Almighty, ever-concurrent with GOP policy swings, was at that stage more worried about Iran.

Funny that eh, God and the Bush family think alike? For the Christian think-tank Ekklesia, he continues to look at how Christian leaders have tried to stop Bush using God’s name in vain.

At the heart of Christianity is Jesus’ call on his followers to be peacemakers. Outside the counsel of fanatics, there are few who believe this readily translates into divine enthusiasm for policies based on bombing and killing. Even the pragmatic ‘just war’ tradition is about limiting not sanctioning conflict.

As an ending sidenote, blogger Scott Burgess isn’t too happy that his most hated publications have run with the story, and is happy to swallow the White House’s dismissal. It might have something to do with this upcoming BBC series that made it a newsworthy story. But who cares about such niggly details when there is an axe to grind?

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Turmoil in Pakistan

by Al-Hack, on 7th October, 2005

Our insensitive jerk from Pakistan is still paralysed over dealing with religious extremism in the country. When the fuck is he going to pull his head out of the sand? Eight died and over 20 injured when gunmen opened fire as worshippers from the Ahmadiyya sect in Punjab state.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said: “We condemn this attack. Any act of violence in which innocent people are killed should be condemned.”

Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, also condemned the killings, but said the government had failed to protect minorities.

In Pak, this doesn’t happen just to Ahmadiyyas, but also frequently to the Shias. Pakistan also had its first gay marriage, but its unlikely to open a flood of others.

On hearing of the wedding, a tribal council told the pair to leave the area or be killed for breaking religious and tribal “values and ethics”.

I’m more worried about the fact that the old man was buying the young kid. Hmmmm…

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