INSECURITY AS CONSEQUENCE OF FAMILY MISUNDERSTANDING
Whenever lives and property are not free from attack, danger, risk or loss in a particular place, it could be deemed as a state of insecurity. This is the case in most parts of the world today.
God formed man from the dust of the ground, He named him Adam and later caused man to sleep, during which He took a rib out of him and made a woman known as Eve. There were several descendants from these two human beings up to Abraham and his wife, Sarah. Sarah could not bear a child for Abraham and so she took her maid, Hagar, the Egyptian and gave her husband to sleep with. Abraham then met Hagar and she bore a son called Ishmael. At this time, Sarah was 86 years old.
However at the age of 90, Sarah bore a son for Abraham who was one 100 years of age and he named him Isaac. A year before Isaac was born, God appeared to Abraham and said He will bless his wife, Sarah, make her a mother of nations and kings of people shall be from her. He also said He will establish his covenant with Isaac for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him. He promised to bless Ishmael, make him fruitful, multiply him exceedingly as he shall beget 12 princes and make him a great nation.
At a point, Sarah asked Abraham to cast out Hagar and her son. Although her request was displeasing to Abraham, God told him not to let it be displeasing in his sight but to listen to Sarah’s voice which he did.
The Arabs are from the lineage of Ishmael, the first offspring of Abraham and their faith is Islam while the Jews are of Abraham’s lineage whose second son is Isaac and their faith is Christianity. Obviously, the Arabs and the Jews are family members because their ancestries are both products of two different seeds of one man, which is Abraham.
There seem to be a feeling by the Arabs and their followers that Ishmael came to this world before Isaac was born and that Hagar and her son were slighted when Sarah asked Abraham to cast them out while the Jews and their followers on the other hand feels they are children from the actual wife of Abraham, Sarah, and also have a covenant with God.
This family misunderstanding has led to supremacy struggle in the form of propagating religion and establishment of institutions and organisations by Moslems and Christians in order to have more world dominance. While the later may be harmless, the formal has no doubt manifested through the desire to forcefully acquire territories which has led to destruction of lives and property in some parts of the world. While appreciating the responsible conduct of some Moslems, I wish to lament that of others. If only they understand that Christians and Moslems belong to one family, they will call themselves to order. The United States President, Donald Trump is not unaware of this and that is why he said in his inaugural speech in January that, “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilised world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate from the face of the earth.” Still in January, later after his inauguration, Trump tweeted that, “Christians in the Middle-East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this horror to continue.”
It is my desire to remind Trump that Christians in Nigeria have also been affected by killings and he should be decisive in his approach to world insecurity.