in a time of division, anger and confusion
I come from a family of four brothers, but my oldest brother died when he was 36 years old. The cruel disease AIDs had taken hold of him, and after a sickbed of seven years, and no medicine yet to save him, he passed away in 1998. Just as all brothers, we fought a lot. All of us had to find our own, unique way, and in the process we now and then turned against each other. But his death showed me something essential: deep underneath our differences and likes and dislikes, there was love. Undivided, powerful, overwhelming love. A love that is beyond death.
UNITY OF RELIGIONS
Before he died he asked me to make something to hang on the wall behind his bed: eight small boxes in a circle with the symbols of eights religions in it: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism, Taoism and Nature-religion. Although we were raised Catholic, he wanted to make sure that the light of all religions was shining down on him. In his rather short life he had realised that all religions were one, brother religions pointing to the same Father. The Unity of Religions.
ISLAM AND JUDAISM
My own life led me to work in the Middle East, more specifically: Gaza. While doing traumahealing I got to know muslim men and very soon they became very dear friends. I realised that beneath a thin layer of cultural and religious differences, we are all the same: Men struggling to make sense of our lives, dealing with the same issues: women, money, sex, health, self-worth and God. We were all brothers of the same father. After working for some 10 years in the small enclave of Gaza, a jewish woman came to me, and told me: ‘Now you have to come to our side, otherwise you will become too onesided in the conflict. And by the way: you have more jewishness in you than you realise…’ That made me curious and I started doing men’s work with Israeli men. The same process of bonding happened there: I quickly became friends with many dear jewish men, and I started to appreciate judaism and its deep insight into life. And yes, the woman was right: I recognized myself in it very much.
THE MISSING FEMININE
Many times I pondered about the strange and complex path that life had showed me: a catholic boy, working first with arab Muslims, and later with Jewish Israelis, and loving them both. Just as with my own brothers, I realised a deep love connected us all. More so; we all come from the same father: Abraham. All of our wars and conflicts are nothing more than fights and envy between brothers. What we have in common though is that all these patriarchal religions miss the ‘feminine’, or the Mother. Where is the feminine touch, the healing energy that connects us, that makes us whole and brings healing to our hearts, and that shows us the other side, as my jewish friend had done?
RISING CONFLICT
Somehow it seemed we were fighting over the same things that we are lacking in ourselves. We all want respect, acknowledgement of our wounds and a safe place for us and our children to live in. We are not so different after all. And yet, the world seems engulfed by another wave of wars and conflicts, and we desperately try to distance ourselves from our ‘brothers’. We fight them to the death, and see them as a threath to our own culture, values and identity. We still don’t realise that God, Jawweh and Allah are simply one and the same.
INQUISITION
In my life I ended up living in Tomar, a small Templar town in the middle of Portugal. The story goes that once upon a time both Muslims, Jews and Christians were living harmoniously side by side. But in Spain King Fredinand and Queen Isabella became more and more fanatic in their Christian faith, and started to expell the Jews and Muslims from their land. The feared Inquisition, that had also cleared the south of France from the Cathars, became a tool of torture, death and religious cleansing. In the end this led to the Reconquista, in which all muslims and jews were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula. The Catholic church of Spain became all powerfull, and ruled as far as Belgium and the Netherlands. During the 80 year long war the Dutch finally kicked the spanish rulers out, and became independent.
FREEDOM?
We would always value and defend our freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom over own country. Since the last two decennia we even have ‘A Party for Freedom’, the PVV. Ironically it is the leader of this party, Geert Wilders, who is forging another religious war and crusade against the Islam. As a young man he lived some time in a kibbuts in Israel and became fervently pro-Israel. He hates the Islam and is already two decennia trying to kick the muslims out of the Netherlands. He wants the Quran to be burned, mosques to be destroyed and Islam to be forbidden. He is most proud of our christian-jewish ancestry. And he is not the only one: many political ultra-right parties fear the muslim culture. Lately they came together in Spain, of all places, to strengthen their bond and their common goal: the fight against muslims.
HEIL EUROPE
‘We are Christians,’ the spanish host Santiago Abascal, leader of the ultra right party Vox, spoke. ‘Europe is Christian soil and we must protect it.’ Wilders praised in his speech the Spanish Reconquista. ‘You were the first to push back Islam and restore the rich Christian heritage in your country.’’ Wilders also praised Donald Trump, whom he called a ‘brother in arms’. André Ventura of the Portuguese party Chega (Enough) ended his speech with: ‘heil Portugal, heil Spain, heil Europe, and heil freedom’. Wilders and all others stood up to applaud.
It frightingly reminds us of the history of Nazi- Germany, which ended in its utmost horror of the Holocaust. And now we see an ultra-right party in Germany winning overwhelmingly. It seems history repeats itself again, this time not against the jews but against the muslim population. As we have witnessed how 6 million jews were brought to the gaschambers, after decennia of sowing hatred and division, now a collective hatred seems the turn of the third brother: The Islam.
SCAPEGOAT
Not only in Europe, but also in India and in the US the antipathy and hatred against muslims becomes more and more widespread, emboldened by divisive leaders as Modi and Trump who are using the islam as their scapegoat. Housingproblem? Energyproblem? Any problem? Blame the muslims. It creates the conditions for another cruel chapter in history, if we keep going this way.
We have seen already how this has turned out in Israel and Gaza. Gaza has been entirely erased to the ground and more than 45.000 men, women and children were being killed. Now the virus of division is infecting the whole world again, people either being pro-Israel or pro-Muslim. Somehow it seems we truly miss the point of religion: Religare means reconnecting…
AGE OF AQUARIUS
My oldest brother, apart from being a banker, became a minister in the last few years of his life, and preached in the Amsterdam church ‘The Dove’. In his 36 years he moved from the material to the spiritual and finally met God. When he died people from all over the world attended his funeral and gathered in the church, lighting a candle around his coffin. On his request I had painted his coffin, with all colors of the rainbow and a dove on its head. He had finished his work on earth and was ready to fly back home. Part of that was leaving his vision of the unity of all religions.
In this new era – astrologically we have entered the age of Aquarius – we need a new idea of spirituality. Not one that is divided into many different religions, who conquer and fight each other. We need to see that only brotherhood (and sisterhood) can save us. What inspired me in the last year of war in Israel and Gaza were the few young people from both sides, Palestinian and Jewish, who got together and found a way to connect and bridge the gap.
THERE IS ONLY ONE
Just as I witnessed that underneath the quarrels and differences between me and my brothers there was a vast power of love, we need to understand that in the end we are all part of one family, one planet, one humankind. There is simply no other way. All the rest leads to more war, conflict and suffering. When I asked my jewish friend what she thought was the solution to the problem of Israel and Palestine, she answered prophetically: “There is only One.”
NB. take a look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ4fmx6T0BE
READ: The Fifth Element
