The 20th century witnessed two world wars that broke out due to reasons that could be easily prevented. The cause of the outbreak of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo.
By 1918, when peace was ultimately established, a total of 15 million people had perished.
World War II broke out with the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Europe, then the whole world, was engulfed in disaster, costing the lives of 85 million people over six years.
Today, while addressing these wars, historians talk about various reasons such as the ever-ending competitions between countries, imperialism and colonial greed, the personal ambitions of leaders, inflated egos, and the interest of military commanders in conquest. Perhaps the most important of these reasons was “the passion of war” that ruled the world at the beginning of the century. Problems, which could have been easily solved through diplomatic channels, were carried on to the battlefield. Peace and diplomacy was swiftly replaced by warmongering.
However, the unbelievable destruction of World War II contributed to an awakening in the world: The world saw that the worst peace was better than the best war. Leaders subsequently took remarkable steps in order to avoid the recurrence of wars.
However, the excitement of war came back suddenly after 1979. The whole world, from the Balkans to the Caucasus and from Central Asia to the North Africa, fell into an endless environment of war. More than 5 million Muslims lost their lives within 10 years in the Middle East alone.
Today, although it has not been clearly named yet, we are going through a period as bloody as the years of World War II. A small flame could trigger a new world war at any moment. Due to the Ukrainian crisis, the Syrian civil war and Sunni-Shiite divisions, certain countries have been acting like bombs waiting to explode.
Changing this tide is a matter of urgency. There has never been and will never be a winner in war. For instance, the aggressive policies of Saddam Hussein ultimately ensured the occupation of Iraq for years and ultimately led to the de facto division of the country into three parts. Gaddafi and Assad led not only themselves, but also their countries into destruction.
The world has no more strength to stand war. Preferring peace to war is a necessity of rationality and good conscience. The warmongers should urgently start considering what they are doing and seek refuge in God for being the ones responsible for the death of millions of people.
The West should stop responding to every situation conflicting with their interests through invasions, bombardments, soldiers, secret prisons and torture. And some Muslim countries should stop seeing those who are not with them as "enemies" and the senseless divisions in the Islamic World must cease at once. The blood being shed is not that of an Arab, a Kurd, a Shiite, a Sunni, a Christian, an American or a Syrian, but that of all mankind. The priority of everyone in the world should be to prevent this madness from spreading and drowning the world in bloodshed.
