No to War! Call for Peaceful Nonviolent Resistance to United Kingdom’s Air Strikes against Syria
NOBEL LAUREATES, 7 Dec 2015
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service
Mairead Maguire
On 2nd December, 2015 the United Kingdom Parliament voted to bomb Syria and the world watched as British planes, equipped with the latest bombs aptly named ‘Brimstone’ were dropped on Syrian targets. The excuse given for this madness of fear politics and war hysteria is allegedly to stop Daesh (ISIL). Daesh is the name of Islamic fighters whose fundamentalist religious and political ideology allows for the killing and murder of opponents, and to date they have tragically murdered many people.
These Islamic fundamentalist fighters do not represent true Islam, the Syrian people, or their duly elected President Assad and his government (70% voted for him) currently trying to hold Syria together. These DAESH (ISIS) fighters are carrying out criminal acts and must of course be stopped by all legal means. However, you cannot stop fire with fire and bomb an ‘idea.’ For every bomb dropped another ten fighters will be created as every act has its consequence; violence begets more violence.
The Syrian government has not declared war on the UK or any outside government. The question to be asked is, ‘Why are the UK/NATO/USA Israel and the Coalition putting their forces and energy into regime change in Syria instead of working for a diplomatic peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis?’ We have already witnessed this madness of militarism and war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now it is the turn of Syria to be destroyed for geo/political power and domination in the Middle East.
Having returned from my third visit to Syria, the message from the Syrian people is that they do not want outside military interference in their country. They want to stop all violence and build a just and peaceful Syria through peace and reconciliation, and they are already doing it themselves.
The Grand Mufti of Syria, Dr. Hassoun, has appealed to the UK and to the outside world (he has been refused visa by the British government for five years now). He told our peace delegation to Syria in Nov/Dec 2015 “People of Syria want peace, I am willing to go to London, to the British Parliament and to the people , to go anywhere, to tell the true story of what is happening in Syria and to call for no war, but peace.” Let the West give the real moderate Syrian voices a hearing and stop the war against Syria.
In the meantime, we can all do something for peace in Syria and in the Middle East by saying NO to Militarism and War, and yes to peace and a political solution to this crisis.
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Mairead Corrigan Maguire, co-founder of Peace People, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. She won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland. Her book The Vision of Peace (edited by John Dear, with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a preface by the Dalai Lama) is available from www.wipfandstock.com. She lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland. See: www.peacepeople.com.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 7 Dec 2015.
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One thing everyone fails to realise is that war does no good at all.. Thanks for this piece..