Cabletow 4th issue - GM Ebdane - Grand Lodge of the Philippines

The Cabletow
remembered as a hard fighter and a skilful military commander’. (No one would say
this about Christ or Buddha.) … The Koran and other statements of Muslim beliefs
contain few prohibitions on violence, and a concept of non-violence is absent from
Muslim doctrine and practice.
“Second, from its origin in Arabia, the spread of Islam across northern Africa
and most of the middle East and later to central Asia, the Subcontinent, and the
Balkans brought Muslims into direct contact and conflict with many different peoples
…
“A third possible source of Muslim-non-Muslim conflict involves what one
statesman, in reference to his own country, termed the ‘indigestibility’ of Muslims …
Muslim countries have problems with non-Muslim minorities comparable to those
which non-Muslim countries have with Muslim minorities. Even more than Christianity,
Islam is an absolutist faith. It merges religion and politics. …As a result, Confucians,
Buddhists, Hindus, Western Christians, and Orthodox Christians have less difficulty
adapting to and living with each other than any one of them has in adapting to and
living with Muslims …
“Finally, and most important, the demographic expansion in Muslim societies
and the availability of large numbers of often unemployed males between the ages
of fifteen and thirty is a natural source of instability and violence both within Islam
and against non-Muslims …”
After quoting Prof. Huntington, MW Puno stated, “You may or may not agree
with the perception of Prof. Huntington. However it may be, I respectfully submit
that Masonry offers a more penetrating perspective of the aetiology of violence by
man against man … We know that Hiram Abiff was the victim of violence by the
three ruffians. He was ultimately murdered.”
He proceeded to give the reasons given by Bro. J. Otis Bell for this violence, as
follows:
“In life’s journey, man encounters many obstacles which may be symbolically
referred to as enemies. They may be considered as accosting him from the three
aspects of his being – the mental, spiritual, and physical. Three of these enemies
are Ignorance, Doubt, and Prejudice.
“The encounter with Ignorance (the 1 st J) may be considered as symbolical of
the first effort which man makes in his progress. The twenty-four inch gauge, as
the weapon used by Ignorance, is symbolical of the mental and the idea that the
knowledge which man already has is sufficient.
43 Cabletow