I reproduce here the article I wrote in different newspapers and websites after September 11, 2001
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The tragedy in the United States stirs passions. Words fail to describe it. After all, when the knell sounds, nobody has the right to ask for whom it tolls. All innocent victims, wherever they are, deserve our sympathy.
In love as in hate, it is necessary to keep cool and to remember some principles that may help us to understand, and to take the correct action.
The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: « disregard and contempt of human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind »; « it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law. »
The Prophet Isaiah said before 2700: « Peace will be the fruit of justice » (32:17). It is obvious that Washington and New York, as well as the Middle East, wherefrom probably come the perpetrators of the present tragedy, are not in peace. Therefore, there is somewhere an injustice.
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Mr. Bush and other politicians, who let rot the situation in the Middle East, are horrified and vow revenge. This is not the first time that such attacks against American interests took place. And each time Americans revenged. But what was the result? Attacks only intensified. And everybody fears that what happened in New York and Washington may happen elsewhere. We are therefore in the infernal cycle of violence. These politicians forget Jesus’ word: « All who take the sword will perish by the sword » (Matthew 26:52). They don’t remember Isaiah’s word: « Peace will be the fruit of justice. »
Instead of driving the world towards a spiral of violence and unforeseeable mutual destruction, instead of pushing people to despair and suicide, politicians have the duty to come back to justice and to solve the problem of the Middle-East according to justice. Today, more than ever, the world is called to choose between barbarism on behalf of all, and justice for all. And what we say about the Middle East applies to any other situation based on injustice. « Those who swallow bones, cannot sleep, » says an Arab proverb. Those who sow injustice harvest barbarism.
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