Religious War

On Saturday, a frenzied mob of three thousand Muslims stormed the tiny Pakistani Christian village of Gojra. Enflamed by charges that a Christian had burned pages of the Qur’an, the mob burned down fifty homes, burned eight Christians alive, and wounded twenty others. Thousands of Christians fled the area.

In the Torah there are two types of war, one is war of permission waged against enemies, the other war is one of God; wars between enemies can be tempered and negotiated, but wars for God never end–they are the worst type of war.

The Jewish People are the genesis of warring for God since God commanded the Jewish People to go into the Holy Land and displace the seven kings of Canaan. Later wars were called wars of permission because God gave permission to war if need be and are not considered to be murder.

Just as was over security or resources is a permitted killing, war for hidden malicious reasons can be sold under the guise of war for God. The recent war in Iraq is an example of a holy war being wages under the auspices of war of necessity.

In the Talmud-Book of Law is stated that Moshiach will not come until murder is erradicated. In our time when prophecy no longer exists for thousands of years, no one or group is allowed to proclaim war for God and kill another human being.