4 October 2008, 10:47 pm
There have been fathers holding their dead children in their arms after trying to protect them from the stray bullets fired. There have been mothers weeping on television because they lost their child in combat. There have been kids burying their schoolmates because they were caught in the crossfire. I remember a mother talking about how it took her five years to become pregnant and within five months a bullet took her baby away. The year 2006 was an unpleasant year for my country, Lebanon. After the war with Israel, Lebanon went into economic, political, and social turmoil. Fights and massacres started happening between the Sunnis and the Shiites. In fact, they still happen to this day. Every once in a while we wake up and find out that two to five people died in a fight because of their differences. I worried about my relatives in Lebanon and hoped nothing terrible would happen to them. I worried that one day I would wake up and see their names on the television screen. I worried that one-day my family would receive a phone call form the Middle East telling us the horrible news. Thankfully nothing did happen to my relatives. However, innocent lives of all ages are still being taken away because of religious differences within the religion of Islam, and not just in Lebanon but all over the Middle East. The two different Muslim branches, Sunni and Shiites, have always been at war with each other for centuries. The main reason for this war is because of religious differences within the religion of Islam. Terrorist groups have been formed to fight each other, and these groups have chosen places like Iraq. Some of the members of the terrorist groups hide in the vast deserts of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan, which makes it harder for the governments of the country to find them. Through this war of branches innocent lives of men, women, and children of all ages have been lost because these fights do not happen on a battlefield. They happen in towns and cities of Middle Eastern countries like Baghdad, Iraq and Beirut, Lebanon. There have been stories of men and women in love but have been kept apart because they come from opposite branches of Islam. This only causes more fury for each branch because now each one thinks they have been rejected by the society of the other branch. This religious war has also become a war for power. Sunnis and the Shiites have a fear of one branch gaining to much power in the world of politics, and because of this fear some of the most important government officials have been killed. Are they killed by another politician’s orders or do terrorist groups assassinate them? No one knows, but they are killed because they hold too much power and too much influence over the people of the country. Whether the two branches know it or not they are destroying the society of the Middle East. Innocent lives have been taken away and continue to be taken away. No one knows how the conflict will be resolved, but someday I hope that my people will come to realize that Christianity is divided into various branches, and the Christians are living in peace with each other. So why can’t we? Thank you in advance!!... read more
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