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Written by Ralph Levy
Afghanistan, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Egypt and Iran are just some of the hot spots in the continuing conflict between Islam and the West. How does the latest news fit with end-time Bible prophecy?
Is there no end to conflict between Islam and the West? The headlines are dominated by ongoing conflicts in Middle Eastern countries between the forces of Islam and those of the Western nations. There looks to be no end in sight.
Rogue sergeant kills 16 innocents in Afghanistan
Tensions remain high in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led coalition drove the fundamentalist Taliban government from power after the 9/11 attacks of 2001. Early Sunday, March 11, a sergeant in the U.S. Army reportedly slipped out of his heavily guarded base near Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, and attacked sleeping Afghan civilians in their nearby homes. Reports indicate he killed 16 innocents, including nine children.
The gruesome attack follows on the heels of the killings of six American servicemen by their Afghan military comrades, which followed the now-famous incident of Koran-burning in late February at the Parwan military detention center outside the Bagram airfield. Earlier, reports of U.S. servicemen urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters surfaced in video footage published on the Internet.
The fundamentalist Taliban, meanwhile, are maximizing their propaganda advantage from these incidents. Their website vowed to “take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr.”
Claims that the sergeant who shot civilians on Sunday was mentally deranged were dismissed: “If the perpetrators of this massacre were in fact mentally ill, then this testifies to yet another moral transgression by the American military because they are arming lunatics in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against defenseless Afghans” (“After U.S. Soldier Allegedly Kills 16 Civilians, Afghans Voice Rage and Taliban Vows Revenge,” Washingtonpost.com, March 12, 2012).
Rockets from Gaza provoke Israeli airstrikes
Elsewhere in the Middle East, tensions in southern Israel ratcheted up as militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets across the border. On Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) announced that 37 Gaza rockets had landed in Israel that day, preceded by 23 on Sunday and 47 on Saturday.
Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile defense system intercepted most of the incoming rockets, but didn’t stop them all. On Sunday and Monday, the Israeli Air Force attacked the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of several Palestinians (“Gaza Rockets Strike 40 Km South of Tel Aviv, on Fourth Day of Heavy Barrage,” Haaretz.com, March 12, 2012).
Westerners on trial in Egypt
Meanwhile, further west, Egypt’s turmoil continued. The impending trial of American and European employees of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Egypt was postponed, rescheduled and postponed again in the midst of conflicting pressures. The trial of the 43 NGO workers, including 16 Egyptians, 16 Americans and 11 of other nationalities, has been an on-again, off-again affair.
The NGO personnel are accused of receiving illegal funds and of pursuing their prodemocracy activities without a license. In their defense, they protest that the Egyptian government stonewalled their legitimate attempts to register as civic organizations after the appropriate paperwork was filed. Since the filing of the charges, 15 of the foreigners have fled Egypt, but under Egyptian law they may still be tried in absentia.
The trial began on Feb. 26, with none of the American and European defendants present. Seven Americans who had been placed under a travel ban by the Egyptian authorities refused to appear in court. The trial was adjourned that same day by a Cairo Criminal Court judge. Two days later, three of the Egyptian judges excused themselves, citing “reasons of discomfort” for their decision, and had to be replaced.
The trial is due to resume on April 26 without the presence of the seven American defendants, who left Egypt after the lifting of the travel ban and payment of a $5 million bail by the U.S.
The incident has brought U.S.-Egyptian relations to a low point, with some in the United States suggesting that the $1.3 billion annual military aid to Egypt may be jeopardized, and Egypt’s judges feeling pressured between a rising swell of anti-Americanism in their country and charges of unfairness in the application of their nation’s laws.
Meanwhile in Iran
Meanwhile, the Iran nuclear crisis seems to have faded from the front pages—at least for now. Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington in early March, the gap between U.S. and Israeli declarations on Iran seemed to narrow.
President Obama provided assurances of America’s commitment to Israel’s security (“the United States will always have Israel’s back”) and the unacceptability of Iran having nuclear weapons (“I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff. … But I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say”).
Yet, with tightening economic sanctions against Iran appearing to bite, there remain differences between the views of America and the Jewish state. Israel expresses its fear that Iran is calling for negotiations as a cover for continuing to accelerate its nuclear program, while many voices in the U.S. and Europe urge more time for sanctions to bite. And Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, was quoted as welcoming the U.S. president’s “window of opportunity” to use diplomacy, rather than war, to settle the matter.
A “window of opportunity”—or a delaying tactic designed to divide Iran’s critics? With the Iranian government having so far refused access to the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect their Parchin military site (where it is believed nuclear weapons-related testing has taken place), there seems to be little reassurance about Iran’s motives.
Khamenei did little to dispel that in his March 8 speech. Inaccurately paraphrasing the words of the U.S. president, “We will defeat the Iranian people with sanctions,” Iran’s supreme leader went on, “This is an illusion. The exit from illusion in the first part is good. The remaining within illusion, in the second part, will damage them. When one’s plans are based on illusion and not on realities, it is obvious that one will fail in plans based on such illusions. This is the reality.”
Will the tension with Iran be settled by sanctions and diplomacy, or will it lead to war? Time will tell.
Watch the Middle East
One thing is certain: These chronic tensions between Western powers and Islamic nations are not going to end soon. Bible prophecy indicates a coming union of nations in the Middle East that will find itself in conflict with nations descended from the patriarch Jacob.
“For they have consulted together with one consent; they form a confederacy against You: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; they have helped the children of Lot” (Psalm 83:5-8).
The ancient nations mentioned in this prophetic passage have numerous descendants today in the Middle East.
This dangerous part of the world will be a hub of prophetic events from now till the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. Watch!
Ralph Levy is a minister of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, who grew up in England and now lives in the United States. Dr. Levy enjoys reading, travel and foreign languages. He has a Ph.D. in biblical studies and has worked in foreign language and religious education for much of his life.
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