Are lunatics running the Arab asylum?

Jewish World Review ^ | 3-8-04 | Rachel Raskin-Zrihen

[SJackson]

Ramallah, March 14, 2002

Let's assume for the sake of argument that most Arab leaders are correct in their assertion that the seemingly never-ending string of horrific mass murders the world has suffered for the past several years at the hands of Islamic terrorists, are the work of a relatively small band of crazy fanatics who have hijacked the otherwise peaceful religion of Islam.

When was the last time in the history of civilization that the lunatics were in control of the asylum in so broad and terrifying a way?

I recall reading about some relatively minor, localized incidents like the Salem Witch Trials, and several others. But I think maybe there have been only two times in history during which the forces of darkness had, temporarily, overpowered the light on a massive scale — the appropriately named "Dark Ages," and the Third Reich, otherwise known as the Nazi Holocaust.

In the first instance, a group of religious fanatics was permitted to overrun most of the known world, and plunge human kind into a darkness of culture and spirit that took a whole rebirth, or Renaissance, to pull it out of. Then, like now, there were forced conversions and mass murders, mostly of Jews.

While the black cloud known as the Third Reich that descended upon the world in the 1930s, was not a traditional religious movement, it bore all the earmarks of a cult, and employed many of the same tactics, of forced "conversion" and mass murder, mostly, once again, of Jews, to expand in numbers of adherents, influence and territory controlled.

Most of the world's population were not actual "believers" in either of these cases, but the lunatics nevertheless succeeded in taking over the asylum, primarily because most people are unwilling or unable to "read the writing on the wall" — a Biblical reference describing this type of selective blindness — until it's too late to do much of anything but comply and hope for the best. That's as long as you don't happen to be the lunatics' declared target, that is.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Lunatics would be over qualified.

CG

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[eno_]

Until the West says up front: "Islam must change or perish" we will be in perpetual peril.

[Redbob]

Why is it so hard for Rachel to come to the conclusion that there is only response to terrorists, and that response, as some wretched Communist once said, comes from the barrel of a gun?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

This is a rhetorical question, right?

[tkathy]

Not just attack with the barrel of a gun, the entire faulty belief system must be publicized and attacked.

[rageaholic]

Damn, where's Kofi when you need the UN to condemn human rights violations? Oh wait, maybe he thinks arabs aren't humans?

[The Great RJ]

After a cultural Renaissance in the 15th century --primarily in Spain-- that was characterized by religious tolerance particularly of the Jews and a flowering of the arts and sciences, Islam retreated to a fundamentalist position. The backward, politically repressive Islamic theocracies we have today are result of this retreat.

The only hope is for the Islamic countries to develop a secular democracy--like Turkey.

[DonaldDuke]

Islam retreated to a fundamentalist position.

And the only hope for the continued existence of humanity is Islam retreating to nonexistence. Whatever that takes.

[thoughtomator]

The world needs to recognize the danger it's in, Jews and Gentiles alike, and band together to dissipate this cloud of locusts before it consumes all that is good in the world.

amen

[expatpat]

It's not lunacy -- the Arabs by and large do not have the critical and logical thinking skills that we Westerners are familiar with.

[bukkdems]

In the late '80's, after the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, a psychotic idea took hold of Muslims already involved in an organized cult of hatred against the U.S. and Israel. It spread rapidly in the vacuum of the Clinton years. The idea was that Allah would now lead them to defeat the other superpower, the U.S. They tend to forget the assistance of the CIA in their earlier victory.