Closed Eyes in Baghdad

“Oh Prophet, did you read the headlines of why dedicated murderers were able to successfully truck bomb the UN headquarters in Baghdad?”

“Why do you ask me such a question since you know that reading is not my strength? So please tell me, what did this headline say?”

It said:

       “Attackers found crack in Baghdad security”

        “What a ridiculous, misleading headline!”

“What do you mean, Prophet? This headline clarifies that the attackers took unfair advantage of a small mistake by the sincere group of security men who were contracted by the U.N. to closely guard the U.N. envoy, Sergio de Mello and all his staff at the U.N.N.headquarters in occupied and chaotic Baghdad.”

     “But please note that the headlines use as a key word, the word ‘crack’. This word implies that what went wrong with the security was so insignificant that it was almost undetectable.”

     “But Prophet, that’s right.

     That’s precisely what happened.

     “You see, the U.N. had many sincere, experienced security men guarding the main entrance on the main road in front of the building. How were these sincere, honest, experienced security people to know that these professional killers would be deceptive and opportunistic and would locate the one small, not often used road which was always left unguarded?”

“I really don’t know if you understand how ridiculous the words you just said actually are. I don’t wish to hurt your feelings but you sound like the Bush Administration when they considered how easy it would be to occupy Iraq and build a democracy there once the initial war was over...

“But putting their naiveté and incompetence aside, was not one of the senior U.N. officials quoted as saying that he personally passed by this unguarded road many times and that his mind always told him that this road was dangerous?

“Didn’t he also know that this dangerous unguarded road went directly beside that part of the building where Sergio de Mello was located, the very man being groomed to be the head of the U.N. when Kofi Annan steps down?

     “Didn’t this Senior U.N. official know that since the Jordanian Embassy had only days before been bombed, so that the U.N. headquarters was in extreme danger and was a very likely target?

• “In no way do I wish to add to the grief and guilt of the sincere, experienced security personnel. But, great accountability should be an understood part of accepting pay for life and death responsibility.
• “Did these experienced security people mistakenly have the idea that they were hired to prevent little kindergarten girls from being squirted with water pistols by eager little boys who were chasing them?

     “Did these men not have many indications which would cause them to realize that they were up against well trained, dedicated killers who would search for the one weak link in a security system put together by experienced, competent, U.N. security people? But instead, these security personnel conveniently provided professional killers a direct, open road to their chosen target, the head U.N. envoy. So it was not a crack that they found as the headline writer described it. Rather, the killers might as well have been provided a super highway to their target by both the U.N. security people and also by the U.S. occupation force which had ultimate responsibility for the security of Iraq.

“So after the awful tragedy occurred, the senior U.N. official who had honestly and humbly acknowledged that he had thought of the dangerous road many times but took absolutely no measures of precaution could only grieve. The stricken contrite man could only hold his head in his hands and repeat over and over:

     ‘But why, why did we not seal off this damn side road?’

     “This is the tragic question!

“Though there may be those who will resent my using this one horrible tragedy in order to try to prevent further tragedies, I will risk offending those who choose to be offended

“But a famous Prophet and the Messiah both warned again and again that to not prepare for the future Day of Judgment like these people did not prepare for the U.N. building to be bombed, would probably be the greatest tragedy in which a person could allow himself to be involved.

“To summarize the tragedy of the destroyed U.N. headquarters, both those who were involved in security and those who were not involved in security, consciously and sub consciously refused to give sufficient priority to the depth of the seriousness of the dangerous realities in which they lived and breathed and had their being.

“As a tragic result of their refusing to deal realistically with those tragic realities, one of two things happened to each Baghdad U. N. person. They had friends and colleagues who were either murdered or wounded, or they themselves were either murdered or wounded.

“In hindsight, virtually each person connected with the Iraq U.N. delegation could have noticed the open road and should have shouted to security officials about the horrible danger caused by this unguarded road. If that reasonable precaution would have been pursued by only one person, that open road would have been sealed off and 23 precious people would still be serving the people of Iraq.

“Conceivably, every intelligent, competent member of the Iraqi delegation had the power to avert this tragedy that the evidence was shouting to them that such a tragedy would occur.

“But they did not listen to these shouts. Due to either being intoxicated with complacency or by being paralyzed by naiveté, each of them chose to be deaf, dumb, or complacent. Is there a chance that each of us will choose to learn form the tragic mistake of those unfortunate U.N. employees? Are we able to learn that when a choice to take action is necessary, that we must make the choice to take action?”

     “Oh gambling irresponsible kings;

     “Oh members of Royal families who steal your people’s money, can you not hear the loud warnings of the risen Messiah’s coming Day of Judgment when you will be judged on the basis of whether you have been truly just on how you have handled your responsibilities for others.

“Oh you who are the middle men for huge weapons purchases whose giant commissions are actually bribes; oh terrorists of the world and suicide bombers who have been deceived when you have been told that you go directly into Allah’s presence when you die while murdering innocents; cannot you hear the shouts of warning from both the wise Prophet, and also your Risen, Just Messiah, that you will be soon judged by your Messiah? Don’t let any one tell you that there are Hadeeths which justify such murder or such greed. Any one can come up with anything and say the Prophet said it, but he did not.

“Oh American leaders and American generals who kill innocent people and who even sacrifice your own military people’s lives by shouting to a disillusioned occupied people, ‘Bring 'em on!?’ Does not your Risen Messiah’s soon judgment make your knees tremble?

“Oh cable news commentators and self appointed experts who taunt American politicians to attack and destabilize Arab nations. Can you not feel the heat coming from the blazing eyes of your Judge, the Risen Messiah as your arrogance is being burned away leaving you naked and helpless?

“Oh you Israeli leaders with your U.N. Ambassador who arrogantly proclaims on CNN that the Palestinians are animals deserving to be hunted and killed even while his people have kept them under a humiliating occupation for decades. The worst of you cheat, lie, murder, distort and twist truth while you point at your victims and viciously proclaim that they are animals. Your Messiah compassionately wept over the rebellion of your ancestors and they repaid him by manipulating their Roman occupiers into executing him. And now you have publicly manipulated the Roman Catholic Church to officially clear your ancestors of any complicity in the Risen Messiah’s unjust execution.

“Your Messiah exposed your ancestor’s racism during a public talk in his home town synagogue of Nazareth and they tried to murder him by pushing him off a cliff. But now you worry because more and more of your people are recognizing his great love for you. Those of you who now hate Palestinians as you once hated Allah’s Messiah must weep and tremble for your day of judgment is rushing toward you like a mighty storm. ` “And listen all people of this earth who exploit and trample on others like they are dust on the ground, and who are not preparing for our Risen Messiah’s great day of Judgment for all people and nations. He pleads with you to plead with him to give you new tender hearts and renewed, enlightened minds.

“The August, 2003 multiple tragedies in Baghdad should compel all of our hearts to prepare for Judgment from our compassionate Messiah who holds each of us accountable.

“We may deny that there is over-whelming evidence that our Risen Messiah will be our Just Judge, but that denial on our part does not change anything. He will be our Judge.

“We may think that it is not significant what the ancient Prophet Enoch said, who was the seventh from Adam, one of two great Prophets to be taken directly to heaven without experiencing death:

‘The Lord shall come with all his holy ones’

“Whether you accept it or not, it is a prophecy of tremendous significance regarding our future personal judgment by our Risen, Just Messiah.

“We may not think that what the disciple Peter explained about the Messiah to a military officer of the Mighty Roman Empire, has any relationship to us.

‘He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he has been ordained of god to be the judge of the living and the dead!’

“Whether we think so or not, his words have tremendous significance to us because we will be one of the living or one of the dead when he judges us regarding our eternal destination.

“We may not think that when a Jewish Rabbi who later became the leading Christian theorist, explained to Greek philosophers in Athens, Greece that the Messiah’s resurrection is Allah’s great sign and proof to all men everywhere that he will judge us all on the basis of whether we have been just or unjust, compassionate or not compassionate, that this explanation has any contemporary relevance to us. We will no longer think that his explanation is irrelevant if the risen Messiah chooses to say to us those dreaded three words,

    ‘Depart from me’

“We may not think that the very last of all the insightful and powerful parables that the Messiah told before he was illegally executed, has any particular significance to us. In his last parable he explained about the certain reality that he would be the one who would decide whether we would be eternally punished or would be eternally rewarded.

“He clearly taught that his decision about our eternal destiny is made on the basis of how we treat others and whether we withhold compassion and good from others when it is within our power to do them good. This teaching is exceptionally important to us because whether we were just or unjust to others is how our Risen Messiah will determine our future whether we believe he will determine it this way or not. And it is certainly significant to Kings, Presidents and privileged people who waste the money of others or have treated others unjustly by their decisions which impact other’s lives.

“We may think that it has no relevance to us that the half brother of the Messiah, the Prophet Jude, quotes the ancient Prophet Enoch about the Messiah coming to judge with his holy ones. But we will change our minds about the irrelevance when our Risen Messiah arrives to judge us.

“We may not think that the concise verse in the Holy Quran which is almost a quotation from both Enoch and Jude is a powerful statement about the Messiah coming to judge us but it is definitively a verse from the Quran which predicts his being our Judge.

     ‘Then your Lord shall come with angels in rows.’ (Yunis/ Jonah 10:94)

     “You may be convinced that the title ‘Lord’ which is used in this short verse is referring to Allah and not to His Risen Messiah. However if you are convinced of this, I am absolutely convinced that you are wrong. Ask Islamic theologians. Most will agree that since Allah already totally fills the universe, that the Quran does not speak of his coming and going as this verse speaks of the Lord/Messiah coming.

“No! The Quran in AlFajr warns us of our Messiah coming to judge us, just as the previous scriptures also warn us.

“Yes, the U.N. personnel for a combination of reasons ignored the awful realities which were screaming at them that extreme danger was pursuing them and already was breathing down their necks. But they reminded unaccountable to these terrible realities by surrendering to a variety of unreliable excuses.

“Some considered it is to be unwritten policy at U.N. headquarters everywhere not to call extra attention to themselves by having too much security. There were undoubtedly some who were convinced that it was absolutely useless to even try to prevent tragedy from occurring which was destined to occur. So even reasonable precautions were considered to be futile attempts to alter destiny when destiny cannot be altered.

“Others convinced themselves that the U.N. had earned so much respect even from terrorists that persons who were exceedingly angry at other national entities were not angry enough at the U.N. to murder its members.

“There were others who did not take a threat seriously because they trusted the trained and experienced security people to keep them safe.

“This sort of blind trust in the security officials is somewhat similar to how many sincere but naive Muslims have a blind trust in some incompetent religious authorities who are certain that they know things that they do know.

“Therefore, some unsuspecting Muslims have total confidence in the advice and teaching of these Muslim authorities instead of doing reasonable thinking for themselves.

They actually think that on the Day of Judgment they are totally relieved of individual responsibility because they can just blame any mistakes that they may have made in their lives and in their priorities, on bad advise from the religious authorities. No, we can not pass off our individual responsibility for religious decisions on those who insist that they are Allah’s authorities. In these areas we ultimately have accountability to Allah and not to self appointed experts.

“Similarly, there are times we cannot trust others to keep us safe but we must look out for ourselves.”

“But the bottom line for the U.N. staff was, all of the signs of impending destruction including one wide open road, were ignored by everyone.”

“What will be our excuse for ignoring all of the different signs and warnings that tell us that our Risen Messiah will most certainly be our judge and that we must be prepared for our most important of all appointments?”

“Or, will we be one of those who take very seriously our preparation for that day and as a result, for us that day will be a day of great rejoicing.”

“Or, when the judgment day comes and we have postponed preparation and there is no more time to prepare, will we ask ourselves a similar question as the grieving U.N. official repeatedly asked himself?”

“Remember, he almost took preventive action many times. But, because he did not follow through when he could have, he could only grievingly hold his head in his hands and repeat over and over:

‘But why, why did we not seal off this damn side road?’

“What will be your decision in light of so much evidence? Will you prepare to meet your Risen Messiah? Or, will you choose to not prepare to meet him? If you do decide not to prepare, you will undoubtedly repeat over and over to yourself:

    ‘But why, why did I not prepare for the most important appointment of my life-the one appointment which will determine my destiny for eternity?’

EPILOGUE

Now that you have been asked such important eternal questions, the most usual response is to forget or to ignore both the questions and also to ignore the reading which led up to them. Because the Daily Star headline writer, due to his own bias, so excellently exposed one of our main escape mechanisms, perhaps we will be more apt to not block the eternal questions out of our minds.

He vividly revealed by his own headline, that when an event which is exceptionally emotionally devastating crosses our paths, we often put our own positive spin on it or minimize it in our attempt to avoid experiencing emotional pain.

Thus, to the Star news employee, a very visible road which was more than large enough for a truck to drive down while loaded with sufficient explosives to abruptly murder twenty-three innocent people, suddenly shrank in size. Instead of continuing to be a very visible open road, in his mind it mysteriously became a virtually invisible crack.

Now being a crack instead of any longer being an open road, it required the trained eyes of dedicated murders to be able to locate this crack. But the strong impression in the article was that the trained security people did indeed see the unguarded road. However, they consciously or sub-consciously made the decision that this open road was irrelevant or that trained, dedicated killers would not discover it. For experienced, sincere and trained security persons to make such a serious error of omission required a toxic mixture of irresponsibility, unaccountability, ineptitude and naiveté. Even though most of the U.N. staff had a mind-set that the road posed an imminent danger, neither the trained security people or other staff chose to take steps which could have averted the danger. Amazingly, their optimistic minds were able to minimize the possibility that the danger had any strong linkage to them. Therefore, each and every U.N. person appeared to lack sufficient motivation to take definite steps to eliminate the danger’s major source- the unguarded road.

Tragically, there exists a similar propensity in almost all of us to protect ourselves emotionally, which causes us to minimize and treat as irrelevant an epochal future event such as eternal judgment because we have never witnessed the occurrence of anything remotely resembling such an event. Therefore, since our minds have trouble grasping the reality of our Risen Messiah judging each of us, we dismiss the possibility of such a momentous event even occurring.

Therefore, we consider ourselves free from any obligation to take seriously, our Risen Messiah’s future judgment of us.

But 75 years ago could our minds have grasped the reality that millions of people located in virtually every part of the world would be able to simultaneously use cell phones to talk to other locations, many of them thousand of miles away?

   Or, if we were living 150 years ago, could our minds have grasped the reality that it would be a common occurrence today for over 300 people to sit together in a huge flying machine and travel to other parts of the world in less than one day. So the excuse of ‘it is so far beyond what my mind can grasp that I will not take it seriously,’ is an excuse that may offer us some temporary comfort. Nevertheless, it is an excuse that should terrify us because of the way it is saturated with danger and unreality.

Using such an excuse is approximately equivalent to standing on the railroad tracks as a train speeds towards us and assuming that the train will suddenly jump off the tracks before it reaches us, so we stubbornly refuse to move.

Another excuse some would attempt to use for not taking the judgment by the Risen Messiah seriously, is their conviction that in a world of such a broad multiplicity of cultures that it is totally unrealistic to think that Allah would trust one ethnocentric Jew to be broad minded enough to judge all peoples of all times with Justice. On the surface this may seem to be a reasonable argument. However the very reason that the Jewish people of Nazareth tried to murder him by throwing him off a cliff was because he demonstrated to them that neither he nor the Eternal Allah were ethnocentric and biased in favor of the Jews. The Risen Messiah, of all persons who have ever lived, demonstrated to ALLAH and to us by his teachings, and his life that he is the only one who ALLAH could trust to judge the nations and each individual in the nations, with perfect justice.

Another reason for our complacency is the unfortunate reality that our society is media driven. If either some media personality or celebrity does not proclaim that an event is important, then many of us treat an important event as a non event. However, if we buy into the lie that self important people determine ALLAH’s priorities; we will regret our tragic mistake for eternity.

For any one who takes the Holy Quran seriously: for any one who takes the unchanged Scriptures previous to the Quran seriously, for any Christian who takes the event of Easter seriously, for any one who even thinks that ALLAH/GOD exists and that since He is Reasonable and Just, that he must hold man accountable, for each of those groups, the evidence is absolutely overwhelming that our judgment by a Just, Risen Messiah, is rapidly approaching, Even though our minds try to cancel this certain future event due to our being unable to comprehend such a huge event that has no precedent, it is going to occur. In some incomprehensible way, it will involve every person who has ever lived. Because ALLAH is a God of Justice, this event must occur.

Since the overwhelming evidence indicates that this virtually incomprehensible.

event will definitely take place, why are so few people talking about it? Why is the vast majority of the whole world acting as this greatest event in the history of man, has been cancelled?

Though Holy Qurans and Bibles exist all around .us which proclaim such a main event, we work hard at not taking it seriously.

Though the former rabbi who himself wrote a majority of the New Testament explained to enquiring Greek philosophers that the Messiah being raised from life to death was proof that he will one day judge each of us with perfect Justice being the criterion, we avoid thinking about it. It seems that our minds are able to convince us to suppress the inevitable rather than to wisely make our preparations. So we personally employ a wide variety of psychological avoidance mechanisms.

The majority of the Hebrew Prophets who prophesied in the Hebrew scriptures previous to the Quran, each in one way or another proclaimed this coming event and we refuse to think about how our not being just and compassionate to others will affect our eternal destiny. Our minds bury the urgent proclamations under a huge pile of much less urgent information such as business details, sports even the garbage of gossip, and how much we will lose at gambling while eternity rushes towards the doors of our minds and to the windows of our hearts.

One Priority Chart

·   The Judgment by ALLAH’s Messiah is not relevant. Whether my favorite sports team will win is relevant.

·   The importance of preparing for the last day as proclaimed in the Quran is not important. Whether I am angry at current Arab leaders and at George Bush is what truly matters.

·   What the previous Scriptures teach about out Messiah judging us does not matter. Whether I am a good parent is what matters.

·   The Messiah’s Judging us does not matter! My health, my food, and my exercise are what matters.

·   How can I be concerned about the Risen Messiah judging me when I am concerned about my job and whether I have enough income to meet the needs of my loved ones?

·   Of course, both ALLAH and the Messiah know that we must take care of earthly responsibilities. But the essential point is this. While we are serious about taking care of earthly responsibilities, we push aside our top responsibility to obey and please ALLAH. So we throw away the next life when we give all our priorities to this life. And for this wrong headed priority, we will be eternally regretful.

Right now, as I sit in the Milano Italy departure information and ticket area at the Milano airport, my mind is having difficulty dealing with the reality which my eyes are observing.

Within five meters of where I am sitting alone before my connection flight to Atlanta there are four muscular young policemen, each carrying a sub machine gun. My eyes are screaming at me that our world is in serious difficulty. Less than forty meters away, there are four more similar serious young men, each with their sub machine guns.

This worrisome situation to some degree is duplicated in almost all international airports throughout the world.

Our world is building with tension

   Our luggage goes through x-ray machines again and again searching for weapons and we are again and again asked about whether we know what is in our suitcases. We are living in the post 9/11 era. Security people saturate these airports, desperately trying to prevent airplane hijackings, airplane bombings or other terrorist activities. In other words, our whole world is on high alert. Nevertheless, no one is talking about the high alert we should each be in regarding the certain judgement we will all face as we stand or kneel before the penetrating and knowing eyes of our Risen Messiah.

When confronted with the definite reality of this unparallel coming event, the majority of us respond with an annoyed, “Forget it! I have too many other more important things to think about. If it happens, it happens. But please don’t bother me with something I can’t touch and is as abstract and as irrelevant as eternal judgement. I am involved in what I can see and touch. Man, if I can’t see and touch something, it does not mean anything to me. It will always be that way. So please respect my world view and leave me alone. I will…..”

Our conversation is interrupted as his cell phone rings bringing him the voice of his girlfriend, not by wire but by invisible radio waves that he cannot see and touch.

When that coming day actually arrives, do we want our response to be similar to the pathetic response of that distraught, grieving senior U.N. official?

We will we put our heads into our hands and while our knees and lips tremble, we will almost silently repeat over and over:

“But why, oh why did I not take the certain judgement of my Risen Just Messiah more seriously?”

A reality such as this has one unique circumstance.

We will have an unlimited amount of time in which to question our foolish excuses for not preparing for such an important appointment about which we had been warned.

Yet, if we decide not to prepare, will our answers to our own questions bring us the comfort which we deeply desire?   No!

Please remember, if 23 intelligent U.N. employees had made a decision to protect themselves, they would probably be living today.