The way the world works?

Abu Bakar Bashir has shown himself time and time again to be a despicable human being with his message of hatred. Not being an Islamic scholar or having read the Koran I can't say exactly what it says about how Allah deals with sin in the here and now. There is certainly precedence in the Old Testament that events in history speak of God's judgment. The biblical accounts always claim that the statement comes first, the event afterwards.

In what sense then can the recent Java landslides and floods be due to "immoral acts"? Floods are a regular part of monsoonal rainfall. Since many meteorological phenomena are self-organizing or scale invariant, which is exactly to say that there is no preferred scale. A lot of rain is no more or less significant from a physical point of view than a little rain, it just doesn't occur as frequently.

This means that floods are part of life; how can one tell when a particular flood is specifically an act of judgment - as opposed to any general idea of punishment. Perhaps this is the best of all possible worlds with regards weather? Landslides are also a natural result of flooding, but exacerbated by deforestation. You might call deforestation immoral or simply stupid - but people like Bashir probably don't have a doctrine of creation that allows one to speak of the issue at all.

No doubt he means behaviour that doesn't follow his narrow interpretation of Islam. Beware a simple mechanistic understanding of the way the universe operates in a moral sense. I don't know if the book of Job is read by Muslims, but Bashir could certainly learn from it. Whatever your belief, perhaps some well wishing to those currently suffering from these events is far more spiritual and religious than this kind of finger pointing.

How should "infidels" live?

Abu Bakar Bashir is the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a radical Islamic organisation in Indonesia responsible for bombings that have killed locals and westerners. He is recently quoted as calling for the eradication of Indonesia's counter-terrorism police unit, which is closely supported by the Australian Federal Police.

He has labelled members of Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit as "apostates" and "tools of America" and called for them to be "eradicated". This means killing of course!

He also praised JI members who carried out bombings in Indonesia as "counter-terrorists" waging a permitted holy war against America and its allies, which were opposed to the enforcement of Islamic law. Note that Islamic law is something to be enforced. Infidels, are permitted to live, but only under Islamic law.

Well, as a Christian I qualify as an infidel. Infidels, apostates; how fundamentalism is always looking to divide rather than unify.

It presents an interesting challenge to Christians. David Marr's recent Quarterly Essay, His Master's Voice, lambasts the Christian Right for its influence on government and the governments pandering to them (when it suits them) on issues of morality such as euthanasia, stem cell research, etc. Marr suggests that such values are out of touch with mainstream Australia. What does that mean for Christians.

I wonder if we can enforce "Christian" values on anyone, without a free acceptance of the Christian story? In what ways are we salt and light then? Perhaps by living in a counter cultural manner that is mostly attractive? To be inclusive without being soft on what the church (and indeed Jesus) calls sin? Exclusion of sin and embrace of the sinner. A community of love and not of hate, of non-violence and not violence.

Abu Bakar is a shadowy reminder of what all religion can become. We need to remember what Jesus was like (WWJD??!! ;) ) when we speak up about morals and ethics, and remember that logs make splinters harder to remove.