Upwards of 60 Christians were killed by Islamist terrorists in Central African Republic after Christian terrorists attacked Muslims.
ALINDAO, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC – Terrorism that takes the form of ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everyone half blind.
You are all aware of the phrase ‘tit for tat’ – fun fact, as my son says: the phrase was first recorded in the middle of the 16th century and may have been a variation of ‘tip for tap’. It refers to an equal action in response to another action.
Another way of framing this way of acting is to borrow the Old Testament phrase ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ (from the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy although the first version dates back to the times of the Mesopotamian lawgiver Hammurabi). The import seems pretty clear: if you hurt me I’ll hurt you in an equal manner.
Then came along this Jewish guy called Jesus who turned all this upside down. Instead of exacting revenge, he said, we should ‘turn the other cheek’ (and give someone our cloak and walk another mile among other things). In other words, don’t meet violence with violence.
Tell that to the terrorists.
I have yet to meet a terrorist who thinks forgiveness and group hugs are the way to go. No, these guys are all about violence, all the time. And they love to engage in tit for tat retribution. Such as today’s featured attack.
On this day in 2018 Seleka Islamist terrorists in Central African Republic (CAR) killed as many as 60 Christian worshipers in a church in the town of Alindao. The building was housing up to 20,000 internally-displaced refugees who had escaped violence in the war-torn country, and the attack led thousands more to flee to other internally-displaced person (IDP) facilities.
Here is some context you need.
Prior to the attack, anti-Muslim Christian extremists known as the ‘anti-Balaka’ had themselves set upon Muslims. So, the Seleka saw the need to get even.
We have counted 42 bodies so far, but we are still searching for others. The camp has been burned to the ground and people fled into the bush and to other IDP (internally displaced person) camps in the city.
Alindao legislator
Violence in the CAR continues unabated. Proponents of religion A kill proponents of religion B, who then return the favour. And so on and so on.
Jesus wept.
