Saboteurs, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

The line with the lure, religion is sure
To draw them in, certain to win
The fighting begins, seeing no end

This circle of three, happy to be
Martyrs for thee, blood is the sea
Wanting to die, for an ultimate lie

The innocent cry, survivors try
To make sense of the violence
Failing to see such consequence

When you say, “there is no way
My religion is the cause”
You should seriously take pause

This isn’t about your personal view
It’s about how the saboteurs read it too
Justified barbarity they will do

They have a source the same as you
To say they shouldn’t use it to abuse
Misses the point it is irrelevant to

The fact the words are in print
The saboteurs will never relent
They shout God’s name they are bent

On your destruction, it is the function
Don’t hide behind “misinterpretation”
This is a misconception

How you wish others would behave
Does not change the thoughts in their head
If you want the saboteur to be dead

If you want peace and pluralism
If you want to stop the violent schism
If you want to kill “otherism”

The paramount goal is to protect criticism.
(end)

I love my fellow liberals, but sometimes they over protect and that over protection allows the hate filled and violent, and power hungry people in all religions to sabotage any attempts at peace and pluralism.

There are Muslims in Palestine who have a scorched earth policy and have no intent on protecting religious or political pluralism. In Israel, you have right wing Orthodox Jews , all be it a minority, who do believe in a literal God and are using that belief to justify land grabs. On top of a corrupt leader in Bibi who is using religion to consolidate power.

Liberal Muslims and liberal Jews or secularists have the good intent on wanting everyone to live in peace and want to protect diversity. I love my fellow liberals for that. But when you say it isn’t about religion, that is a big mistake. You may want that to be the case for yourself, but that isn’t the case for the Saboteurs on both sides the are making it about religion. The only way to not make it about religion is to stand up to those who are and not let them do it. But they are doing it. Religion is used as a weapon and to ignore that is why peace cannot be had.

It is the same thing even outside war, even in America, religion is the root cause that female body autonomy has been taken away from women. We now live in an America where even in cases of rape and incest a female can be forced to birth. This isn’t because of secularism, it is a direct result of people picking up the bible and thinking they have the right to impose their religious law on everyone. We literally had a politician named Mike Huckabee write a book called “God, Guns and Bibles”. I don’t think he was basing that on Egyptian mythology.

There are Jews who think Yahweh gave them the land and that they are entitled to steal land/property that is not theirs. They have a religious justification for it. There are Muslims that shout “Allah Akbar” every time a Jew or Infidel is murdered. Both of those justifications have a religious source.

Liberals, if you want peace, and you value pluralism, don’t silence criticism or blasphemy. That will not silence the saboteurs, that will give them the shield to destroy the very pluralism you say you want to protect.