Faith In the Face of Militarization pdf download

Faith In the Face of Militarization – Indigenous, Feminist, and Interreligious Voices Jude Lal Fernando

Book Contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Empire, Militarization, and Indigenous Voices
• Chapter 1: Guam: Chamorro People’s
• Resistance at the Tip of America’s Spear
• Chapter 2: The Empire, Powerlessness, and the
• Power of the Oppressed
• Chapter 3: Indigenous Peoples and Liberation
• Theology
• Wars, Women, and Feminist Voices
• Chapter 4: Hope that Confronts Oppression and
• Suffering
• Chapter 5: Trampled Women, Forests, and
• Sacred Sites
• Struggles for Just Peace and Interfaith Dialogue
• Chapter 6: Spirituality of Resistance to the Total
• Militarization of Global Society
• Chapter 7: Plurality of Faiths and Dialogue for
• Just Peace
• Chapter 8: “Walking in Evil”
• Chapter 9: Facing the Challenge of Zionism
• Solidarity as Liberation
• Chapter 10: Crucified Bodies and Hope of
• Liberation
• Chapter 11: Countering counter-insurgency in
• Grenada, Belize, Bahrain, and Sri Lanka
• Contributors
• Bibliography

FAITH IN THE FACE OF MILITARIZATION – INDIGENOUS, FEMINIST, AND INTERRELIGIOUS VOICES

Book’s Preface

In order for its neocolonialism to be sustained, the Empire uses its brutal military machine, both overtly and covertly.

Meanwhile co-opted ethnoreligious allies propagate exclusivist nationalist ideologies and foment persecution of those who resist. In neocolonial contexts, militarization by the Empire and the militarism of ethnoreligious states have an umbilical relationship.

Empire utilizes conventional weapons, ranging from precision-guided munitions to small arms and light weapons around the world to destroy, kill, and maim. High-tech weaponry such as nuclear weapons is used as a tool to manipulate international relations and geopolitical power structures.

Many emerging weapon technologies such as drones, robots, and space weapons are meant to further maximize the destruction of our planet and resist peoples.

 There are direct correlations between enormous resources spent on war and weapons on the one hand and global social and economic inequalities and poverty on the other.

War destroys lives, livelihoods, infrastructure, and well-being creating a culture of fear and violence.  is impedes development by upsetting social programs, education, transportation, business, and tourism, which in turn prevents economic stability, social and mental well-being, and sustainable livelihoods. 

The manufacture and use of weapons also undermine sustainable ecological development and preservation creating inequality in access to resources which further impedes poverty-reduction initiatives.

 In the search for alternatives to militarized security, it is necessary to problematize justification of war and military expenditure while fully recognizing the need to uphold human rights obligations, including socio-economic rights. 

These issues cannot be addressed in isolation from one another. e COVID pandemic has exposed, more than ever before, the brutal interconnection between the war paradigm and social inequalities that had been concealed by imperial peace and security.

War and militarization are morally justified under certain political and ideological conditions which give rise to particular militarisms, both in the main domain of the Empire, and its vassal states where battle lines are forged on the oppressive overlap of religion and race, ethnicity, gender, class and caste.

Religiously forged militarisms are pitted against one another causing deep polarization between diverse faith communities. Ethno-religious or religio-nationalist conflicts continue to rise at the communal, national, and international levels.

One-third of the world’s population meets hostility because of their religious affiliation, be they Christians, Muslims, Jews or people of other faith traditions, including indigenous traditions. We discern the violence and dissension of the Babylonian Empire at work in the modern neocolonial Empire. 

These imperial designs and moves come as a coordinated, deliberate effort to undo the work and progress of decolonising undertaken by many resisting peoples and to prevent their civil and human rights movements that are geared towards reclaiming human dignity and the integrity of creation by posing alternative visions of the eco-human community. Some of these movements are inspired by the liberative thrust of faith that others a permanent critique of the oppressive forms of religion that justify the existence of the Empire.

In problematizing the justification of war and militarization, it is necessary to integrate a gender perspective into our analyses and initiatives for a just peace.

We need to take a comprehensive view of all genders and gender identities in order to analyze and challenge conceptions of masculinity and femininity as they relate to war and militarization.

 Ideas about gender aspect the way people and societies view war, militarization, and militarism. Inside and outside of war, the so-called gun culture is overwhelmingly associated with cultural norms of masculinity.

Men are perceived to be protectors and warriors whereas women are seen as helpless victims who need men’s protection. Men fought to protect the Mother-Nation! Inversely, rape of women who belong to the enemy nation becomes a tool of war as a form of subjugation.

To disgrace a man, rape his woman!  is is the most perverse logic of patriarchy that is associated with war and militarization.

Highlighting the ways in which the possession and proliferation of weapons are underwritten and supported by a particular construction of masculinity enables us to see just how dehumanizing, dangerous and illusory is the image of militarised security promised by the war paradigm of the Empire.

Extension of the same analysis can also help demonstrate that the enshrinement of nuclear weapons as an emblem of power is not a natural fact, but a social construction.