This entry started out as a reply to a comment but I have decided to post it as an entry to gain more attention to the issue of Peace.

Yes Peter I absolutely agree with you.  I have been saying that it is time that what I would believe are the true followers of Jesus Christ start to say the following in regards to the war and oppression in the Middle East,

"Not in Our Name".

My hope is that when people such as Christians and other religious people and atheists do a search for a group that matches their belief system that they come across our group United for Peace and consider joining. 

I believe that there are many peaceful Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Atheists and all of the other groups I have missed and it is these people that need to mobilise.

I am a Buddhist, raised as a Christian.  I admire the teachings of Jesus and so I respect all Christians who try and live by his teachings of love for all mankind.  I am not very well versed in the other mainstream religions and non-religions of the world, but I am prepared to learn about them and understand them.


For me it really doesn't matter what we believe as long as we all have the goal of accepting each other and we aim to live peacefully side by side.

We cannot dismiss the benefits of religion because of the extremists in the world.  We must remember that Gandhi based his campaigns of non-violence on the teachings of various religions and Martin Luther King Jr based his non-violence campaigns on the teachings of Jesus.  I cannot ignore the campaigns of non-violence by Buddhists such as H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama (China/Tibet and the world) and Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnam and the world).  It is a shame that our Australian leaders won't have a meeting with the Dalai Lama when he is in this country over the next few weeks - maybe they will change their minds as it will be a great opportunity missed if they don't meet with him.

I plan to write an entry on the teachings of Jesus and how wrong he would see this war in Iraq, based on his teachings - from the Bible.

I would love to hear from Muslims and get their perspective as an everyday Muslim what their teachings really say about love and killing.  I would love to hear it from them, as I am sick of hearing it from the extremists.  The same goes for all of the other religions, I don't want to hear it from the extremists in your religion I want to hear the views on love and war from the everyday rank and file members - the people who count.

At the moment we really do need to hear from the Christians, Muslims and Jewish people as the wars in the Middle East do concern these religions the most.  The Middle East issues affect us all but these are the religions that need to start voicing some common sense.  For the benefits of their religion they must make their voices heard if they are really for peace in this world.

So come on people and I mean everyone are you prepared to say:

"Not in Our Name"

I hope so.

Peace and love to all.

While I have got your attention I would like to recommend a documentary to any one who may not have had the opportunity of watching it.  Firstly thank you to Snowy for recommending it to me in the 1st place.

The documentary is "The Power of Nightmares" it is an excellent documentary that shows how both the Western world and the Islamic people have been mislead for decades.  If you don't agree with what is shown that is okay, but please don't deny yourself the chance to see how you may have been mislead by our leaders.  Anyway for anyone interested it can be viewed and downloaded as a 3 part series at VideoGoogle or at archive.org if you have a slow internet speed.

I have decided to mention this documentary series here as it may help reduce the divide between the Western and Islamic worlds and therefore help lead towards world peace.