Religious Violence

It sadly comes as no surprise, although the shock and revulsion is undiminished, that there has been a spate of bombings of Christian worshippers in Sri lanka. This comes after attacks on Mosques in New Zealand and elsewhere. The terrible thing about any religious violence is that the perpetrators believe the god they worship is on their side, justifying what they do. At the same time the victims are invariably wholly innocent and  guilty only of worshipping a different god, or another interpretation of the same one. Moderates on all sides of every faith and none unite to condemn the suffering and pain, distancing themselves from the guilty extremists.

The worst thing about religious conflicts is that they go on for a very long time, sometimes for centuries and like forest fires, can appear over before flaring up again. Above all, perhaps, the worst of everything is extremism itself, in any form, about any thing. Life and civilisation depend upon moderation. Nobody should ever forget that.