Friday Prayers

These two words unnerve me, because they are always linked with the ‘Arab Spring’ and with killing, as I have said before, it seems that Friday is a day of ‘pray and slay’. Egypt has toppled Syria from first place on the news, where Islamists take to the streets after Friday prayers to kill the opposition. There is a great divide between the Sunni and Shiite factions, and certainly no love is lost between them. They have no problem in shedding blood of the other side, and if any of their own are killed, they automatically become martyrs for their own cause. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are calling for a ‘Day of Anger’. I know what is unfolding, and it is more than anger!

There are many examples of Islamist terrorism in the world, and they are reported almost daily. I wondered what the difference was between an Islamist, and a Muslim and initially I had some difficulty in making a distinction. According to the sources I have seen, the names are interchangeable. Wikipedia says:

“Islam has been present in the United Kingdom since its formation in 1707, though it was not legally recognised until the Trinitarian Act in 1812. Today it is the second largest religion in the country with results from the United Kingdom Census 2011 suggesting that the total Muslim population had reached 2.7 million, 4.8% of the total population.“

This concerns me. I had always understood that the extremists were Islamists, but the peaceful majority were Muslim. However, they share the same places of worship, the same Koran, the same prophet, and the same faith or religion.

The death tolls in Syria and Egypt keep rising, with neither Muslim/Islamist side giving way. There are lots of images of armed angry young men, calling for the bloodshed to stop, but only on their own terms. Surrendering to the idea that Allah is not on their side is a step too far. My fear is this; if they will so easily kill and maim those of their own faith, what would their reaction be to the infidel who crosses them? Remember, they have no New Testament theme of God’s unconditional love, even though their holy book was conceived 500 years after Christ’s life, death and resurrection.