How can religions resist evil? This was the question that animated a discussion led by the theologian Armand Puig I Tarrech. Coming to Paris from Lebanon plagued by violence, Mohamed Sammak, political advisor to the Grand Mufti of Lebanon, asked: ‘I do not know how religion can be used to resist evil, when it is itself considered by many as evil’. The terrorists ‘used Islam against Muslims themselves’ and, although it took time to have a reaction to this mode, when it occurred ‘it led to a new concept of Islam itself’.
For Lutheran Bishop Bedford-Strohm, we wonder ‘how to react to the extreme brutality of the 7 October killings’ but ‘at the same time, there are good reasons to deplore the Israeli government's totally disproportionate response to the Hamas attacks’. All claim to resist evil. ‘We are not accusing cold, inert metals,’ emphasises Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Joan, ‘but those consciences that feed on the innocent blood of our fellow human beings. Perhaps the most profitable industry in the world is the production of weapons. Here, some know how to profit from blood, wounds and death'. To resist evil, insists the director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Ian Ernest, ‘we are all invited, regardless of our religious affiliation, to serve others without counting the cost’.
