WAR POETRY--award winner

GOD�S WORD

GOD’S WORD-
[Roots of terrorism lie in forcing religio-civilizational concepts on others]

God did make all sorts of plants,
And fish and fowl and beast.
To make all men alike, His
Intention could be least.

Each face looks so different,
Blue, green eyes, black, white hair;
Bodies short, tall, thin, heavy,
Skin black, brown, pale and fair.

God’s creation they are all,
About this there’s no doubt.
Yet it is about Him that,
They keep fighting about.

“That you are His only true
Children”, they have been taught,
Saying, man is His image.
But they resemble not.

Which version of God is true?
And, which is, in fact, fake?
Which the last and real Book?
What were the words He spake?

Jews say, the Old Testament
New one, say the Christians.
For Muslims only Holy
Quoran has His lessons.

God does not approve only
Of one Book or one sect;
Yet, Religions by the Book
Often forget this fact:

“Omnipotent -and -scient,
He is omnipresent.
Would He selectively some,
Not all, children defend?”

One country in freezing snow,
Other in desert heat,
Fighting for what was the word
That God in fact did speak!


• Written in abcb, 7-6-7-6 format

• Posted as item 750376, deleted on 19 march 2005 and replaced by entry no. 335618 in book War Poetry, "WAR POETRY--award winner" . At time of deletion, it had been rated 4 by 5 viewers. Posted as independent item again on 29 December 2007. Posted again as independent item on 29 December 2007, "GOD’S WORD" .


MC Gupta
13 September 2003


NOTE: This poem tries to bring out the relation between religion and the current war against terrorism.
SAMUEL P. HUNTINGTON, the Eaton Professor of the Science of Government and Director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, published in 1993 in the summer issue of “Foreign Affairs” an article titled CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS, which was the product of the Olin Institute's project on "The Changing Security Environment and American National Interests." He was foreign policy aide to President Clinton. Huntigton later wrote a book bearing the same title.

In essence, the clash of civilizations boils down to clash of religions. Huntigton makes some serious and forceful arguments in his book, such as:

1. Modernization does not mean Westernization.
2. Western-style capitalistic democracy is not necessarily the best and many other "civilizations" continue to thrive under radically different social models. These civilizations frequently feel deeply offended and physically threatened by the notion that they will one day all be Western-style democracies.

CONCLUSION [Mine]--One needs to seriously consider as to what extent the desire of the Western powers to thrust their concepts of modernization and capitalist democracy down the throats of people on the opposite side of the globe is responsible for the spread of terrorism and the anti-West attitude of the terrorists—all this happening in the matrix of different religious beliefs and practices.