Mombassa. The latest chapter in the chronicle of terror that’s becoming the nightmare of the 21st century. Fifteen dead, among them 2 brothers aged 12 and 13; their mother and sister among the 80 injured. It might have been so much worse had the 2 heat seeking missiles hit the plane with its 261 passengers instead of missing it by metres. Where does it end, this story that began with 9/11 and has moved from New York to Moscow to Bali and now to the ironically named Paradise Hotel; not paradise lost but paradise destroyed, knowingly, brutally. How do you fight terror that can be organised anywhere, strike anywhere, take innocent office workers, theatre goers and holiday makers as its victims; that seems to have no logic except hate and rage?

The targets of yesterday’s suicide bombing were Israelis about to celebrate the festival of Hanukkah that begins tonight. And perhaps Hanukkah itself has part of the answer. It recalls the moment, almost 2200 years ago, when the Syrian ruler of the Alexandrian empire, Antiochus IV, tried to impose Hellenism on Israel. He banned the public practise of Judaism and erected a statue of Zeus in the Temple. He had power and used it to deny Jews the freedom to live their faith. The Jews fought back and though they were outnumbered they won. They recovered their independence and rededicated the temple. But oddly enough on Hanukkah our celebration isn’t focused on the military victory. We didn’t even include the book that tells the story, the book of Maccabees, in the Hebrew bible. Instead we light candles for eight days, recalling the one cruse of oil found undefiled by those who entered Jerusalem after the war. And for all these centuries, we’ve recalled at this time the words of the prophet Zechariah: Not by might nor by strength but by my spirit says the Lord.

You can see religion as a battle, a holy war, in which you win a victory for your faith by force or fear. Or you can see it as a candle you light to drive away some of the darkness of the world. The difference is that the first sees other religions as the enemy. The second sees them as other candles, not threatening mine, but adding to the light we share. What Jews remembered from that victory over the Greeks 22 centuries ago was not a god of war but the God of light. And it’s only the God of light who can defeat the darkness in the human soul.

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