A frightening insight!

On Sunday, I saw a documentary on the BBC named "My Brother, the Islamist".  It was about a young Englishman trying to understand why his brother had become an Islamist.  His brother had turned to a form of Islam that allowed a number of such young men to come together and pursue an extreme way of life and philosophy that included belief in using violence to ultimately achieve their religious ideals and pursuits.

The two brothers had grown up together in mainstream Britain.  They shared the same family.  They enjoyed the same education.  So, why such a radical shift by his brother?  His brother had chosen a way of life that was so foreign to his family.  It was more than just a radical choice with the now violent tendencies held by his brother.  They just could not understand what was happening.  Why?   This was the big question.  

As I saw the young Englishman talking with his brother and other young Islamists in Britain, I could see that these men were questioning a godless society and its values and recognizing a need to change.  This I can understand.  But then they turned to extremism as their only option.  This I could not understand. 

40 years ago, such people in western society turned to the priesthood or the monastery like me and others who shared the same questioning about a society and world that were so unjust and losing their way.  Or else you turned to a worthwhile profession or some sort of service to humanity to make a difference for people and make it a better world.  Now I am seeing that our secular societies don't offer this same opportunity and we are paying a terrible price - extremism.

These guys talk of martyrdom.  That is a theological theme of religious life.  For them, martyrdom is not a theological virtue but a do-it-yourself blow up the world thing.

It then struck me for the first time that this whole Islamist movement is arising in a world where there is a lack of a sense of religiosity, of a sense of the divine in everyday life. These are philosophical terms. It is what everyday talk would refer to as a lack of spirituality.  What we are seeing is young men choosing extremism and violence to change the world.  This is frightening and it is challenging us to respond not just with force and politics and fear but with a positive religious response. 

Christianity is being challenged to put the divine back into our secular societies.  This is to be done in good and healthy ways.  The aim is to give people life giving options for searching and asking questions in life, for pursuing the human religious quest, for being spiritual people.  Society may be secular but the human person remains innately religious and that spirit still needs to be able to find expression.  That cannot be taken away by secular society.  Here is the responsibility of Church to respond to this human need and not have it ruled or squandered by extremism and violence.