Tom’s Blog

There are still people who give up their lives for the things they believe in. One example I saw when I was in Vietnam during the Christmas break. We were in a temple in Hue, the Linh-Mu Pagoda. There we saw pictures and the car of a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire in protest against the Diem government. That happened on June 11 in 1963.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet/monk.jpg

But also now in 2007 we see news were people give up their live, as I also just posted my current event. There somebody used a truck full of  bombs to kill many  people, but he himself was also killed in doing so. He gave his life, because he thinks his religion is a better religion than that of the people he killed.

Deaths as Maliki hails crackdown , BBC.CO.UK , BBC News , Saturday, 24 February 2007, 19:43 GMT

25 Feb. 2007

Link to news article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6393127.stm

http://www.theodora.com/maps/new8/middle_east.jpg

What is the issue?

In Iraq, various religious groups are killing eachother. Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, had installed a new Security Plan 10 days ago to avoid these kind of murders. However, yesterday a truck bomb exploded as worshippers left the mosque in Habbaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. At least 42 people have died and more than 60 are hurt. It is still unknown who did this, but the American government said they didn’t do it and that they will try to find out who really did it.

Who is involved?

The religious groups of Iraq are involved, because they are throwing bombs and using other kinds of weapons against each other.

The Iraqi government is involved, because they have to do something about the problems between the various religious groups.

The American government and military is involved, because they are trying a peace-keeping mission in Iraq and try to find who did it.

Who is affected and how?

 In the article they give some statistics about the effects of the religious war between the various groups in Iraq:

* 62,473 families displaced by sectarian conflict in last year (source: IOM)

* At least 56,000 civilians killed since 2003 (source: IBC)

* More than 3,400 coalition military deaths since March 2003

So, all the people of Iraq are involved, because a lot of people don’t feel safe anymore.

Also, various other nations of the world are affected, because the military coalition is made up of a lot of countries.

What would you do if you were directly involved?

I would ask the Iraqi government if they could protect the mosques better, because then they could prevent such attacks.

The best solution would be if people would be more understanding of what somebody else believes. They should respect each others religious beliefs. If there is more respect, then Iraq would be a much safer place. Now, nobody trusts each other and that should change because that would be the best for Iraq and its people.

Religion was very important in the Middle Ages and I am going to tell about that. The Middle Ages had 3 religions Christianity, Judaism and last but not least the Islam. They had people called monks who gave up their normal lives to live in a momastery where they could pray in peace for God and his son Jesus Christ. There were persons called Friars who traveled around helping the sick and the poor just all for their religion. Religion was so important that people in the Middle Ages paid 1/10 of their money or gifts to the church. However, sometimes they went a bit too far with the religion and believed so much that they thought that some people were witches because they didn’t believed in God. This is what I learned about the religion in the Middle Ages and I hope my classmates learned as much as I did.

I have learned many things about the Middle Ages in the two lessons of Social Studies we had. We started with a joyful sounding poem (Ring around the Rosies), but it turned out to be everything but joyful. The poem is actually about the Plague, which killed many people all over Europe during the Middle Ages. The people had nothing to protect themselves from the Plague. They did not know what caused the disease and thought it was a punishment from God, but it were the fleas that bit people. Nobody could stop the disease, but eventually it stopped by itself.

I also learned that the Middle Ages started when the Roman Empire fell apart. But other Empires bloomed, like the Byzantium and the Arabian Empire.

We also learned about the Crusades. Several times European Crusaders tried to reach the Holy City of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a Holy city for Christians, Moslims and Jews. In the Middle Ages Christians from Europe tried a few times to go to Jerusalem to free the city from the Moslims. They never succeeded. There were also two children crusades. I found that very interesting because I have read a book by a famous Dutch writer (Thea Beckman) about a childrens crusade. The book is called “Crusade in Jeans”. Last year they made a movie off it and I’m looking forward to see it this summer.