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Source: www.assistnews.net Date: 2007-12-27
By Ken Joseph Jr.
Special to ASSIST News Service  | | Benazir Bhutto | TOKYO, JAPAN (ANS) -- I first met Benazir Bhutto about two years ago. I was amazed at her courage. Being in Iraq and seeing the way women are treated in the Moslem world it was a breath of fresh air to be with a woman, educated, eloquent but most of all so courageous. She was fearless! She was also very funny because she towered over all comers with her impeccable speech, knowledge and "aura." As I watched the coverage of her sudden and sad death, I was immediately reminded of another courageous leader who shared the same fearlessness in the face of evil. I was with Anwar Sadat along with the late Harald Bredesen at his place along the Suez Canal in Ismalia. He said, "Look at all these advisors! They are all telling me to be more careful; to wear a bullet prooof vest; to not go out to my people anymore. This is what I tell them: 'God has given me a mission. Until that mission is completed nothing can hurt me. When my mission is completed nothing will be able to protect me.'"  | | On April 4, 1977, President Anwar Sadat and his wife, Jehan, were welcomed to the White House by President and Mrs. Carter. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by Islamic fundamentalists dissatisfied with Sadat concessions during the peace process (Photo: The Jimmy Carter Library) | I will never forget the image of him standing up as the shooting began, realizing that his time had come and he would face it with courage. In the days ahead, the life of Bhutto will be analyzed and evaluated. As an Assyrian Christian, her death as the death of Sadat was will have tragic consequences for the whole of the Moslem world. Having faced the same evil many times, the word cowardly comes to find. These are people who are unable to face truth. The evil that they all face does the only thing it can - kill and slaughter and intimidate. What is happening in the Moslem world is not just something for another time and place - it is a direct threat to all who value freedom, the rule of law and justice. The evil side of Islam is simply that of intimidation. It cannot fight the battle of ideas, on morality or even the most simple form of stability, as it has none. It can only move forward on a river of blood. There is one thing, though that has stopped evil and it is the triumph of good. Benazir was all that the evil hates - a woman, strong, eloquent and beautiful.
The answer to the tragedy of her death is for a new generation of leaders to stand up for truth, in particular young women and speak it to power. It is faith and faith alone that will provide the truth that the evil side of Islam cannot stand against. In a day in which most of us, without realizing it, have come to deny that there is real evil in the world, her death should remind us that in spite of the advances in technology, medicine, international politics, there still remains evil and the first step towards destroying it is to realize that it exists and to, with faith, stand up to it. Jesus was a good example of this. Walking into the temple, where evil was going on, he simply, quietly and courageously turned the stalls of the moneychangers over. It was the beginning of their end. Let's turn over some "moneychangers" today!
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