Children
of Abraham Discuss Evil
By Ras H. Siddiqui
The “Children of Abraham
Initiative” visited the Sacramento Interfaith Service
Bureau on Sunday, March 6, 2005 as around 200 Christians,
Jews and Muslims congregated at the beautiful Saint Francis
of Assisi Church in the California State Capital to hear how
these three related faiths view the subject of “Evil”.
The three panelists present to discuss the topic were Christian
Sister Maura Power RSM, Jewish Rabbi Brad Bloom and local
Islamic leader and teacher Dr. Metwalli Amer. The trio collectively
took us on an intellectual journey into a topic that few of
us study closely.
L
to R :Rabbi Brad Bloom,Dr.Metwali Amer and Sister Maura
Power |
On behalf of the Interfaith
Service Bureau Dexter McNamara made the necessary introductions
of the three speakers. Dexter requested that the listeners
also give their input as to what topics they would like to
be discussed here and what are the current “hot button”
issues that impact us today. In reply, a wide variety of issues
surfaced, but the central ones remained: Why is there so much
religious violence and intolerance in the world today?
On the subject of evil both the historical and the living
views were to be highlighted. Sister Maura Power (RSM) began
with the Christian point of view. She started with the dilemma
that the existence of evil causes. Christian thinking does
not accept that there is a force of evil. “Christians
believe that all that God has created is good,” she
said. So evil is described as the absence of good. She also
went into how Jesus viewed evil and that his victimization
by it was not a loss as his resurrection was good’s
triumph. She said that in Christian tradition evil does not
exist by itself but does appear as a choice.
Participants
in the Interfaith Meeting |
Rabbi Brad Bloom presented how
Jews treat evil in the classical sense and in folklore. “Evil
is not to be understood as an independent entity,” he
said. Every human being has the potential to do good and or
evil. He added that Judaism saw evil in the light of sin.
“Sin refers to behavior that is contrary to the word
of God,” he added. He described evil as something that
is within us which has to do with free choice. In Jewish mythology
a very diverse viewpoint is encountered. Evil spirits and
the evil eye are a part of the folklore.
Dr. Metwalli Amer presented the Islamic viewpoint. “What
is Evil? In Islam (a religion of complete submission to God),
evil is associated with everything that is bad.” He
asked the question, “How can a human being commit acts
that defy his or her creator? The answer lies in the struggle
that we live in everyday, known in Arabic as Jihad. It is
the struggle within one’s self, caused by the strongest
enemy of the human being in this life, Satan.” Dr. Amer
briefly mentioned the story of Adam and Eve and how Adam disobeyed
his Lord and ate the forbidden fruit, led astray by Satan.
“Satan is playing an important role, said Dr. Amer.
“He is distracting us from doing good and encouraging
us to do evil,” he said. “May God keep us away
from Satan and his tricks and temptation,” said Dr.
Amer.
It is interesting to note how Evil is defined and perceived
in a relative way by the three faiths. Now if we could all
collectively confront it to make this world safer for all
of humanity, a significant chunk of which is composed of the
Children of Abraham. Peace, Shalom, Salam.
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