Eid Mubarak

I wish all my Muslim friends and readers God's blessings on Eid al-Adha (The Festival of Sacrifice)!

It's an important festival which I think Christians should also celebrate. It remembers the day that Abraham did not sacrifice his son (Issac or Ishmael, depending on you preference). The focus is often on the obedience and faith of Abraham in his willingness to give to God that which he cared about the most. This is certainly an important part of the story, but I think another perspective on it is even more significant. People often wonder why God should ask Abraham to prepare to do such a horrible thing (building the altar, tying his son to it, raising his dagger to kill...) even if he granted a last minute reprieve? I think this question reveals the great truth behind of Eid al-Adha. Abraham lived in a time when human sacrifice, including child sacrifice, was central to most of the religions of the day. God was giving Abraham a very clear lesson: He was not that kind of deity. He is the God who creates, and life is precious to him.

How ironic then, that in a day that we remember a life being spared, in Iraq a life was taken. I was no fan of Saddam. I know many people who suffered directly and indirectly because of his harsh rule and, but for his regime (and the reaction of other countries to it), Iraq might today be a wealthy and peaceful country, the cradle of civilization. However executing him does not undo the damage. In fact in the long term it may inhibit the healing process for Iraqis, who will now not have the chance to have the wrongs done to them because of Saddam heard in court. Saddam is of course not the first person to be executed. There are of course many serious crimes such as murder and kidnapping being committed daily in Iraq, and the Iraqi courts are handing out the death penalty frequently and often on a tiny fraction of the evidence and judicial process that existed for Saddam. I have lost many friends in Iraq in recent years, and I can relate to the desire for punishment and revenge. But sadly I doubt this will set the foundation for the peaceful Iraq, respectful of human rights, that the long-suffering Iraqis deserve.

I would have preferred the punishment for Saddam that Norman Kember has suggested: for him to be dressed in an orange jumpsuit and put to work on a building site, ending his life repairing in a small way a tiny part of the destruction he brought upon his country. And we could think of a few other leaders closer to home who might justly be expected to join him in laying those bricks.

a little good news on Christmas Day

For a couple of months I've been trying to find someone to pay for the treatment of Badr, a 2 year old Iraqi boy who is the nephew of a friend whose father was killed by US soldiers last year and who has a life-threatening heart condition . Now I've just heard confirmation that, thanks to help from CIVIC, an American medical foundation has agreed to pay for him to be fully treated in a hospital in Ohio! Of course this is a small thing set against the hundreds being killed everyday, but at least this boy has a chance at life.

Bethlehem

CPT hostages call for forgiveness

I've just been to the press conference in London (at St.Ethelburgas, a church which was destroyed by an IRA bomb and is now a peace centre) where the former CPT hostages, Jim Loney, Norman Kember and Harmeet Singh Sooden called for restorative justice not the death penalty for their former captors:

"We unconditionally forgive our captors for abducting and holding us. We have no desire to punish them. Punishment can never restore what was taken from us. What our captors did was wrong. They caused us, our families and our friends great suffering. Yet we bear no malice towards them and have no wish for retribution. Should those who have been charged with holding us hostage be brought to trial and convicted, we ask that they be granted all possible leniency. We categorically lay aside any rights we may have over them... Kidnapping is a capital offence in Iraq and we understand that some of our captors could be sentenced to death. The death penalty is an irrevocable judgment. It erases all possibility that those who have harmed others, even seriously, can yet turn to good. We categorically oppose the death penalty." (Statement in full)

It is a very clear message and my friend Tom Fox, who was kidnapped with them but killed a few weeks before they were rescued, would have agreed wholeheartedly with it. In response to a question, Norman said "Tom was the most compassionate of the four of us. Whenever we heard a bomb go off somewhere in the city, Tom would immediately pray for both the victims and the perpetrators."

Separately... the BBC today reports on the pioneering grassroots video-blogging from Iraq that my friends Omar and Brian have been doing in Baghdad. Alive in Baghdad was being run from my flat in Amman earlier this year.