The West Is No Longer Fit to Enjoy Peace

The West is in serious trouble with many roadblocks to harmony and peace. Peace cannot happen and be enjoyed unless there is a sound ideological reason behind the desires of people who crave peace. Peace means that you and your community are free from adversaries whose aims are systemic destruction. Not only do we not see such freedom at present, but the West has further adapted itself to a chaotic culture, that of multiculturalism, which has become toxic to both freedom and peace. 

The voice of political correctness, the champion of multiculturalism, is louder and louder and present at every level of society, yet it is a poison to freedom and peace. Whether in schools, universities, government agencies and even in private organizations, people are afraid of naming this enemy for fear of losing their jobs or of other consequences. 

While all western societies are in daily fear of Islamic terrorism, when one makes a fair criticism of multiculturalism it is labelled terrorism in Western societies. The West is no longer effective in pushing back this dire enemy of its people. On the contrary, it has become expert in silencing the voices of those who stand for what is right and for the peace and comfort of their nation. This is because multiculturalism has created fertile ground for many Western leaders to devalue democratic principles at the cost of their nations’ security and peace. They have turned their back on the Judeo-Christian values – values that champion the right of people to question the claims of their political and spiritual leaders. Not only this, God has said that the people even have the right to take their case to the most powerful and mighty God and to defend their stance against leaders, because they were created with freedom of choice.

Moses, as a spiritual and political leader, said:

When a prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah, if the thing does not follow nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:22, MKJV)

The God of the Bible Himself says in the book of the prophet Isaiah:

Come now, and let us reason together, says Jehovah. (Isaiah 1:18a, MKJV)

Multiculturalism was initially introduced to the West as idealogically compatible with democracy but, in practice, it has been undermining democracy. It is very obvious that, in the West, accommodating multiculturalism, even its most hostile expressions, has meant that society has increasingly rejected the ‘Prince’ of freedom with His sanctioned autonomy for all persons. Such autonomy is now illegal in many offices in the multicultural West. People are frightened to speak freely. Only certain people who publicly endorse the validity of multiculturalism are free to speak out against the majority view. “My way or the highway” as the saying goes. Many so-called supporters of democracy now keep quiet out of fear since the creeping giant of multiculturalism is in control of so many aspects of people’s lives and has opened the door for a legal way to punish and silence people for their opinions.

Is it possible to have peace without autonomy and freedom? Absolutely not. Fighting freedom is fighting peace too. Lack of freedom is bondage, whereas peace is freedom from the torment of bondage. The words “freedom, security and peace” are still used by many politicians.  Yet, it is not because they are aiming to establish these qualities in society. Rather, they appeal to these notions as a temporary camouflage until people are made completely voiceless and made victims to these politicians’ guile and self-centeredness. 

The reason that the giant West has fallen short in its confrontation with terrorism is because its freedom is under siege from within. Its leaders have turned their back on their nations’ cultures, but given sovereign power to the culture of bondage in the form of multiculturalism and even to its terrorizing ideologies that see freedom as poison. 

No matter how thirsty a nation may become for peace, it will be impossible for it to achieve peace if its leaders are confused in the midst of many cultures and therefore unable to lead them through the maze of conflicting beliefs and values. The Bible teaches us a great lesson from a generation of Jews who were confused in the wilderness after departing from Egypt. They took a long and costly journey for freedom, peace and rest but were, for much of their journey, turning their back on the Prince of peace. That’s why God said to them:

…. they have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.' (Hebrew 3:10-11, KJV)

While the Children of Israel loved their freedom from slavery, and the opportunity to become a sovereign nation and to find rest in peace from the hands of their slave-master, Egypt, they needed to learn obedience to the God of their Salvation.  Instead, they missed it because their hearts and minds were not freed from their slave-master’s culture. They were heading towards the promised land of freedom, Israel, but their hearts and minds were running in the opposite direction back to Egypt, craving for the security of its bread which had previously yoked them. (Exodus 16:3)

This is the same story with our double-minded politicians in the West and of those who support them. They won’t enter peace and rest because they are yoked to multiculturalism and have themselves become roadblocks to peace and rest. After decades of daily terrorist attacks across the world, they are not only hesitant to reveal and name the enemy of their nations. Rather, they punish those who do speak out. They have formed alliances with the children of their nations’ enemies in the name of maintaining courteous international relations, even when such compromises are dangerous to their own nations’ safety. They have tried to establish peace with the help of countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran who, in practice, consistently demonstrate that they have contempt for peace,  even supplying more than 80% of the funds that the terrorists use to destroy western values and interests around the world.  Most leaders of Islamic countries are themselves abusing human rights, crushing freedom of speech and expression within their own countries. Just for criticizing his own religion, Islam, a young Saudi Arabian man was recently sentenced to 2,000 lashes and 10 years in prison. The cultures of these countries are warmly accepted in the West under the banner of multiculturalism. Leftists, radical feminists, and many others pushing for radical social reforms frequently speak out against Christianity whose founder is the Prince of kindness, peace and love. Yet they so often keep quiet or play at being conciliatory when it comes to Islam which has closed the door to peace in every aspect of life in Islamic lands and communities. In fact, Islamic leaders are singularly hostile to the ideas of those who want radical social reform – e.g. radical feminism, open homosexuality, etc . They warmly welcome Islam, the master of slavery across Islamic societies, but reject Jesus, the Master of peace.

We have an idiom that says, “You get in your spoon whatever you put in your soup.” This is the case with the West with its adoption of multiculturalism. As long as it continues to align itself with multiculturalism its spoon or cup will be full of restlessness. 

The West needs Jesus to free it from its enemies’ coercions. Multiculturalism, of itself, does not have any outstanding framework for peace in order to create a pathway to peace and rest. Instead, it has confused people with its multiple culturally-based models, including those that are opposed to peace. A true pathway to peace never accommodates a terrorist person or ideology. Almost every chapter of the Quran is colored by the blood of non-Muslims, infidels, simply because they do not join Islam. It says that jihad (war) against non-Muslims is ordained by Allah for every Muslim (Q. 2:216); that those who join jihad are better than those who stay back and do not pursue jihad (Q.4.95). Despite its hostile doctrine and the hostility of its committed adherents, Islamic culture is now firmly embedded within western multiculturalism and the West is still calling Islam a peace-loving religion. 

Almost all the leaders in Islamic countries, including the moderate ones, see western values and democracy as a threat to their despotic regimes. They hate multiculturalism in their own lands. Many of them spend huge amounts of money every year in one way or the other, to Islamize the West. Saudi Arabia is the forerunner in uprooting western civilization by funding and supporting Muslim ministries in the West and non-Islamic countries. Saudi Arabia does not allow a single Bible to be taken across its borders, but its embassies in Western countries are the centers of distribution for all kinds of Islamic books. 

There is not a shred of evidence in the history of Islam or in our contemporary time whereby we can call Islam a religion of peace. Islam promotes war and hostility. Islamic leaders across the nations of Islam are not all ignorant in their interpretation of the Quran when they criminalize freedom. They know what is sacred in Islam and have accordingly allowed its values to rule against freedom in their regimes. It is indeed Western leaders who willfully want to misinterpret Islam. However, accepting Islam or any other unfriendly and hostile ideology as peace-promoting obliges western governments to include the principles of those beliefs within their own approach to peace and social cohesion. This therefore signifies the kind of peace the West aims for: a kind of peace that appeases Islamists and the leaders of Islamic nations, despite the evidence that flows out of their own cruel regimes. Clearly, it is impossible for the West to have peace while embracing the contradictions of multiculturalism. The West is in desperate need of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in order to rest in true peace and become a light of peace to others across the globe.

Everything They Label Us With, They Are Doing

Contemporary secular humanists and leftists are stronger than ever before, pressing on with their historically failed secular-socialist agendas, favoring relativism, multiculturalism and arbitrary life over the culture of Christ, who teaches the search for the absolute truth that creates an everlasting unity among people. They claim themselves to be patriotic and real lovers of their countries, yet no patriotism fits in with their relativist and arbitrary philosophy that knows no boundary between what is inherently good and bad. They lack solid ethics to defend freedom against repression, openness against particularism, tolerance against intolerance and equality against racism, but when it comes to their attitudes towards Christians and freedom fighters, who observe the ethics of Christ, they label them as simple-minded, intolerant, racist, fascist or as equal to Nazism. Yet the very things they label us with, they are guilty of doing. Using every available avenue in the media, or their work places, they point their fingers at their targeted people, demonizing them; a principle that has been in the service of terrorist ideologies and tyrannical regimes throughout the history of humanity and since the beginning of the last century with the rise of communism.

Russian Communists invaded their surrounding countries, changing their languages and the names of their residents in favor of Russian names, yet they labeled Christians the enemies of working class. In a similar way, Muhammad and his followers invaded surrounding communities and countries, and changed their national identities so that everybody had to speak and live in a Saudi Arabian way, yet called their opponents cruel and the enemies of humanity. The Quran legalized slavery — Muhammad himself had a black slave and Muhammad’s sincere followers have been having heartbreaking role models in enslaving Africans (and also over a million white Europeans) throughout the history of Islam. Yet when it comes to Christianity, Islamists call it “the religion of the slave trading white people”. First Christianity is not from the West, but from the Middle-East, and second, when slave trading whites exploited people they were going against the teaching of the Bible.

It is ironic that the freedom of those who oppose the secular-socialists’ and Islamists’ ideologies is increasingly limited, while the latter continue to raise their voices as the marginalized victims. Our universities have now become the hot-bed of socialism and other isms. Almost every sign of Christianity has disappeared in them, and still the dominant secular-socialists and their allies (i.e. Islamists) are victims!? This victim mentality is a show in making more followers, pushing upholders of truth and free speech back, pressuring them to give up.

What do we need to do in the face of this subtle deceit that has been costing our nations spiritually and socially? As Christians, what should our response be when these ideological guerillas have disgracefully targeted every aspect of our lives and want to silence us? How do we need to act in such a time when their deceits have penetrated the minds of even our top politicians and leaders who have passed laws to limit our freedom and demean our heavenly identity?

Christ is the response in every way in approaching this significant problem. Philosophically and doctrinally, He is the eternal God and the source of all truth so that through His counsel we can distinguish the difference between what is false and true. Morally and socially, He is the light of the world, exposes deceits, false beliefs and lawlessness, freeing people so that they can use His light for the freedom of others. Therefore, we should not keep silent since He has a response for every problem.

"If you keep quiet at a time like this … you and your relatives will die. What's more, who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14).