Marked for death, these Christians of Mosul, Iraq.

SABBATICAL NOTES. 23 JULY 2014. WEDNESDAY. N3. 
Marked for death, these Christians of Mosul, Iraq. 

THE NAME is intolerance. 

The name is theocracy of the most absurd kind. It is not about Islam in the real sense of the word, but it is about these intolerant leaders who happen to be Islamist. 

It is not a case of religion here, in the narrow sense of the word, but it is the penchant for a homogenization in much the same way that the Philippines and its leaders would want everyone to speak Tagalog in order to prop up their sense of nation, a sense that is totally wrong.

We are marked for death, each one of us, in a homogenized society, in Mosul and elsewhere, even if the world itself--and the whole of creation for that matter--is veritably plural, diverse, multiple, many.

In Mosul, the Christians are marked for death if they 1. Do not leave, or 2. Do not convert to Islam.

Report has it that those who are physically unable to leave are forced to become Islam. Those who can have the options of finding a life elsewhere.

We have all these around us now, and we need to be stronger to educate ourselves and others so that tolerance becomes a virtue, becomes the principle of living in a human community marked by multiplicity.

Other than this virtue, there in nothing that we can offer to ourselves and to others.

WPH/