FROM: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002tzl8
'Sunday' programme on Radio 4 on 12.4.26 - discussing the very vivid use of religious language in the rhetoric surrounding the war. Also, Christian nationalistic religious rhetoric from Donald Trump and those who support him. The president and Jesus over Easter.
Dr Toby Matthiesen, Snr Lecturer in Global Religious Studies at Bristol University said:
"We see an endorsement of a war of almost annihilation in a struggle between good and evil. The blessing of troops. American Minister of War, Pete Hegseth sees the American/Israeli War as a divine calling to fight against Iran."
Presenter, Edward Stourton said, "The regime in Iran is explicitly and rabidly a religious one but has not used the same level of religious rhetoric, have they?"
The Muslim expert, Kamin Mohammadi said, "Yes. Iran has used the least religiously charged language ... and is leaning on international law rather than invoking any kind of holy war."
Stourton: Benjamin Netanyahu talks of Iran as Amalek, the biblical enemy of the people of Israel. Is he using a shorthand or is he creating a narrative which associates this war with the history of the struggle of Israel in biblical terms?
Dr Klug, "PM Netanyahu is using the Bible to cynically promote a military campaign. His use of the Bible is essentially instrumental."
Matthieson: The Pope reacted to the religious legitimisation of this war by key American evangelical preachers by openly denouncing the war and those who invoke God to wage war. There is an absence of religious legitimisation on the Iranian side.
Presenter: Islam is unpopular in Iran because of its association with the government. Is that the case?
Muslim/Iranian speaker: "Of all Islamic states, Iran has the lowest mosque attendance because it has repressed its people, killed them and disrespected their rights and dignity to freedom. Iran is quite a devout Shia country and the people see these things being carried out by their government in the name of their quite peaceful religion. In the region, Iran is possibly the most secular in terms of its population."
"Religious language and Bible texts are being used to promote war and destruction. Speaking as someone who is Jewish, no-one that I know, fellow Jews, are anything other than as shocked as I am by how the settlers are behaving (in Judea and Samaria, aka the West Bank). A political religious fundamentalism has taken over, treating the Bible as a political manifesto instead of a source of inspiration. For Jews and others, it must be the latter and not the former." Dr Brian Klug, Honorary Fellow in Social Philosophy at Campion Hall in Oxford.
No comments:
Post a Comment