Troubling events in Russia
Cineaste, sent me this story of a Russian reporter who was seemingly assassinated.
I told Cineaste I would honor someone who sacrificed themselves as the Amish school girl did, even if they were athiest. This is a different situation, but clearly Anna Politkovskaya died trying to exercise free speech in a nation that is becoming less and less friendly to the concept. Her sacrifice is praise and noteworthy.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says that her murder is the 12th contract-style slaying of a reporter since Putin came to power.
After she had been poisoned on her way to the hostage tragedy at the Russian school, she said, “There are people in this country who would do anything to keep me quiet. Of course it’s frightening, but I’ve survived and I’ll keep writing. I don’t consider it anything heroic — I’m just trying to do my job, to let people know what’s happening in our country.”
In some ways, she saw it coming. After the last high-profile journalist was killed in Russia. She wrote:
Yes, stability has come to Russia. It is a monstrous stability under which nobody seeks justice in law courts which flaunt their subservience and partisanship. Nobody in his or her right mind seeks protection from the institutions entrusted with maintaining law and order, because they are totally corrupt. Lynch law is the order of the day, both in people’s minds and their actions. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
While most of the world watches North Korea, Iraq, Iran, the Dafur region of Sudan, and other current hot spots, Russia continues its troublesome slide back toward a totalitarian state.
It's tragic how they are backsliding to totalitarianism, but I think they were not prepared for the amount of turmoil and responsibility that comes with transition to freedom. I'd call it a lack of "organizational readiness," i.e. they had not developed the world view and government structures that could support freedom.
Without re-education and a covenant style Contsitution like we have, failure was a real possibility, perhaps an inevitability.
This is why we can't bring freedom to the Muslims – because for it to work, their world view, including their views of God and government, need to change.
Until they are sufficiently Christianized, they will live under totalitarian regimes.
Aaron, thank you for posting about Anna's sacrifice. I felt strongly that her death should not go unnoticed regardless of her nationality and religion. What is important here is what she died for, her beliefs. She was a voice for those who have no voice and for this she was killed.
Anna Politkovskaya was a the very definition of a secular martyr…
(2. a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause: a martyr to the cause of social justice.)
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Seeker…
I see you baited this post with polemical assertions for me to attack :) I'll take the hook hoping to pull the fisherman into the water…
This is why we can't bring freedom to the Muslims – because for it to work, their world view, including their views of God and government, need to change.
And you think it is realistic to convert the Muslim world to Christianity? There is a better chance of Ralph Nader becoming President than this. There is no such thing as a "Christian Muslim" but there are a good number of Secular Muslims. I think Secularism is a better and more realistic way to counter the violent tendencies of Islam.
Secularism already has a small cultural foothold in the Middle East but for Christians to get any footing, it would probably entail the reconquest of Jerusalem, another crusade, and WWIII.
Until they are sufficiently Christianized, they will live under totalitarian regimes.
Think Japan, who was not "Christianized" at all yet escaped the yoke of their totalitarian regime to became a secular democracy. The difference between Iraq and Japan is that Japan's people wanted and needed to change.
In Iraq, we are trying to force democracy and it won't work until the Iraqi people want it. Judging by the civil war there, they are not ready for democracy yet.
Ask an Iraqi what they think of Bush's statement "You are either with us or against us." They will reply, "Well, I know I am not with the Americans so…" The only solution I can see for this debacle is to increase our military presence there by at least a factor of 5. Quell all violence and impose order even if it means martial law. Only under peaceful conditions can democracy take root, and even then, it may take decades. The way things are going in Iraq now, I feel that the government is divided along religious Sunni/Shiite lines and already in danger of toppling. This would be disastrous.
The Iraqi police have frequently been accused, mainly by the Sunni Muslims, of either participating in, helping, or turning a blind eye to sectarian murders carried out by Shia death squads.