Lest we forget.
The first World War produced remarkable poetry. In earlier times, war poetry tended to valourise war. Not so between 1914-1918.
The lacerating poetry of the First World War showed just how powerfully the truth can be told. Wilfred Owen in particular, and his mentor Siegfried Sassoon, showed how poetry can strip away the protective layers of delusion which protect us from the truth of what we do.
Good poetry sees the world in ways which are invisible to most of us – until we read the poems. By doing that, it can smuggle uncomfortable ideas into complacent minds.
Wilfred Owen died just a week before the Armistice. Only four of his poems had been published. In 1937, Siegfried Sassoon persuaded a publisher to publish a book of Owen’s poetry. Two years later the second World War started. It was a predictable consequence of the Treaty of Versailles: the Treaty had impoverished Germany; the misery experienced in Germany made it possible for Hitler to take power in 1933; Hitler made himself popular by blaming all of Germany’s problems on the Jews and he poisoned the public attitude to Jews by vilifying them grotesquely.
Something similar is happening across the Western world today: Muslims are the target these days. Muslims are being vilified by people who should know better. One person emails me regularly with anti-Islamic rants. In one email he contrasts the Christian teaching “Love thy neighbour” with his assertion that the Koran preaches violence and hatred. Apparently he thinks that Muslims are not our “neighbour”, despite Christian teaching.
He has even urged that Australia should create concentration camps and put all Muslims in them; and he has suggested strafing refugees in their boats. It is the thinking of a person who has forgotten. He has forgotten not only the core teaching of the Christian religion which he appears to espouse. He has forgotten where hatred and vilification lead to.
Lest we forget, as that person has forgotten.
Here are a couple of Wilfred Owen’s poems.
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Mr Burnside,
Your emailer’s “assertion that the Koran preaches violence[1] and hatred[2]” is entirely supported by the facts.
The real problem appears to be your refusal to acknowledge those facts because they are irreconcilable with your espoused worldview.
[1] – ISLAMIC CALLS TO VIOLENCE AGAINST NON-MUSLIMS
“The punishment of those who strive to make corruption (unbelief) in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides”
Quran 5:33
“slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. ”
Quran 9:5
“strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them.”
Quran 9:73
“cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers.”
Quran 3:151
“Therefore listen not to the Unbelievers, but strive against them with the utmost strenuousness…”
Quran 25:52
“O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness.”
Quran 9:123
“As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world.”
Quran 3:56
“Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard (ruthless) against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves”
Quran 48:29
“As for those who disbelieve, we will fight them forever in the Cause of Allah. Killing them is a small matter to us.”
Tabari IX:69
“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
Quran 8:12
“And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]…
Quran 2:191-193
“when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks”
Quran 47:4
“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
Quran 9:29
“He it is Who hath sent His messenger with the guidance and the religion of Truth, that He may make it conqueror of all religion however much idolaters may be averse.”
Quran 61:9
“He it is Who sent His Messenger with the guidance and the true religion that He may make it prevail over all the religions; and Allah is enough for a witness.”
Quran 48:28
“He it is Who hath sent His messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion, however much the idolaters may be averse.”
Quran 9:33
“And fight with them until there is no more fitna (disorder, unbelief) and religion should be only for Allah.”
Quran 8:39
Allah’s Apostle said, “I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.’
Sahih Bukhari 1:8:387
‘The Messenger of Allah said: “I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah” ‘
Sahih Muslim 1:30, 1:33
[2] – ISLAMIC CALLS TO HATRED AGAINST NON-MUSLIMS
“Jews and Christians are the worst of creatures.”
Quran 98:6
“The Jews …and the Christians… may Allah destroy them!”
Quran 9:30
“Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; whoever does is one of them”
Quran 5:51
“Mohammed said: I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.”
Sahih Muslim 4366
‘When the last moment of the life of Allah’s Apostle came and when he felt hot and short of breath Mohammed said, “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians” ‘
Sahih Bukhari 1:8:427
‘believers are allowed to show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda’ said, “We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.”‘
Tafsir of Ibn Kathir [Quran 3:28]
“Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them, taking (as it were) security.”
Quran 3:28
“O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks; they will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths; what their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom.”
Quran 3:118
“They wish that you should disbelieve, as they have disbelieved, and thus you become all alike. So, do not take friends from among them unless they migrate in the way of Allah. Then, if they turn away, seize them, and kill them wherever you find them, and do not take from among them a friend or helper.”
Quran 4:89
“Those who chose disbelievers for their friends instead of believers! Do they look for power at their hands? Lo! all power appertaineth to Allah.”
Quran 4:139
“O ye who believe! Choose not disbelievers for (your) friends in place of believers.
Would ye give Allah a clear warrant against you?”
Quran 4:144
“Your friend can be only Allah; and His messenger and those who believe”
Quran 5:55
“You see many of them take the unbelievers for friends. Indeed, evil is what they have sent ahead for themselves, for Allah is angry with them, and they are to remain in torment for ever.”
Quran 5:80
“If they believed in Allah, in the prophet, and in what had been sent down to him, they would have not taken the unbelievers for friends, but many of them are sinners.”
Quran 5:81
“Verily! The worst of (moving) living creatures with Allah are the deaf and the dumb, who understand not (i.e. the disbelievers)”
Quran 8:22
“And those who disbelieve are friends to each other.”
Quran 8:73
“O you who believe, do not take your fathers and your brothers as your friends, if they prefer infidelity to Faith. Those of you who have friendship with them are the wrongdoers.”
Quran 9:23
“O you who believe! Take not My enemies and your enemies (i.e. disbelievers) as friends, showing affection towards them”
Quran 13:1
“You will not find those who believe in Allah and in the Hereafter having friendship with those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even though they may be their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their clan” – Quran 58:22
“O ye who believe! Choose not My enemy and your enemy for friends. Do ye give them friendship when they disbelieve in that truth which hath come unto you, driving out the messenger and you because ye believe in Allah, your Lord? If ye have come forth to strive in My way and seeking My good pleasure, (show them not friendship). Do ye show friendship unto them in secret, when I am best aware of what ye hide and what ye proclaim? And whosoever doeth it among you, he verily hath strayed from the right way.” – Quran 60:1
‘There is for you an excellent example (to follow) in Ibrahim and those with him when they said to their people: “We are clear of you and of whatever ye worship besides Allah: We have rejected you, and there has arisen, between us and you, enmity and hatred― forever― unless ye believe in Allah and Him alone” ‘
Quran 60:4
“For the worst of beasts in the sight of Allah are those who reject Him: they will not believe.”
Quran 8:55
“Allah does not love the unbelievers”
Quran 3:32
t3.8 “shun those Allah has condemned”
‘Umdat as-Salik wa ‘Uddat an-Nasik