France has once again been subject to an attack which the president has dubbed “terrorist”. A man has been decapitated and the aggressor has been said to wave a black Islamic State flag. Meanwhile, over 40 people have been killed in bombings at a hotel in Tunisia and a mosque in Kuwait. Some believe that the attacks have been coordinated.
The threat of violent extremism shouldn’t be diminished. The Islamic State has an ideology very similar to Nazism – a belief that they’re superior and have the right to kill people who don’t look like and believe like them. Much like the 21-year old boy who went into a church in Charleston, South Carolina, last week and killed nine people because of the colour of their skin. He wasn’t labeled a terrorist that quickly as the guy in France was – instead we got to see childhood pictures of him and speculations about his mental state.
It is ridiculous how common this media logic is: dark-skinned aggressors are politically motivated terrorists, while light-skinned aggressors are confused lone-wolves with mental problems. Even Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik is not very often described as a terrorist, although it has been stated in court that he isn’t a psychopath but had a xenophobic ideology as the basis of his crime.
Speaking of xenophobia, Europeans who lean towards those ideas will most surely use the recent attack in France as an argument for deporting more Muslims to countries like Syria and Iraq, where there is war and terror fully operating. Now, that’s a horrible solution to the problem. The attacks in Tunisia and Kuwait today are illustrative: most victims from Islamic terrorism live in the middle east. Most of the Islamic State’s victims are Muslims! “Solving” Islamic terrorism with deportations is like “Solving” the holocaust and world war two with deporting every Nazi and Jew to Germany. It only gets worse if you do that.
So what is the solution then? Let’s look at the Bible. Did you know that one of Christianity’s greatest missionaries was a terrorist? His name was Saul.
Saul approved of their killing of Stephen. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria… Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. (Acts 8:1, 3)
A religious extremist using violence and persecution to convert people of other faiths, Saul was a big threat to the early church. He wanted every Christian to either join him or die. He later recalls:
And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities. (Acts 26:10-11)
There is no biblical reference to Christians trying to fight Saul with violence, or arguing that he should be deported. Instead, the Bible tells us that Saul was completely transformed by a miraculous vision of Jesus combined with courageous love from an ordinary Syrian disciple called Ananias:
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized… At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. (Acts 9:17-18, 20)
Deporting people to war never is a good idea. Praying for miracles and loving terrorists as yourself, however, always is.
Charismactivism 
Absolut. Vi ska älska våra fiender och be för dem som förföljer oss. Undrar bara hur man gör om en ISIS-krigare återvänder till Sverige för att vila upp sig och sen återvända till kriget, eller en ISIS-krigare reser hit med syfte att bedriva Jihad, dvs inte för att han eller hon är i behov av arbete, mat o husrum, men enbart har onda motiv. Om det från Säpos håll visar sig att någon vill in i Sverige med onda motiv, ska vi släppa in dem då?
Skulle man släppa in en terrorist i sin lägenhet? Klart man ska älska dem, men man borde vid gränsen kunna skilja på dem som har ont uppsåt och de som är i behov av hjälp.
I wonder if you would still have the same view if you lived in Syria or Iraq, with people, not just Christians but other muslims, having their heads cut off? Paul, who you use as an example of a ‘terrorist’, later said that one of the raison-d’etre’s of the state is to punish the evil doer. Like Nazism, which you rightly compare IS with, this evil needs to be dealt with by the force of the state. I wouldnt expect miracles or conversions to break out within IS members, sometimes the heart is hardened to the extent when repentance is impossible. That would apply to many members of IS – only judgement is left.