Posted on 04/17/2004 5:17:31 AM PDT by Clive
HOW DOES one discuss the state of the Islamic faith, the Middle East, terrorism and the world without upsetting people? Frankly, it's almost impossible.
I'm not talking here of a fear of abuse and attack or of being accused of political incorrectness. I couldn't give a fig about that. No, I mean the need to hold on to common courtesy and avoiding making generalizations that could hurt good people.
Here are some recent examples, in that I have so little room to discuss this issue in full.
We used to be told by pop stars and other philosophers that "the Russians love their children too." It was self-evident then that all people loved their young. Now I'm not so sure. Do the Palestinians, for example, love their children too?
I should think most of them do.
But I have to be candid: many of them don't. We can't just rely on tired old relativism when we look at all this. Nobody who loves his or her child will send that little being out as a suicide bomber. Nobody who loves their children will line them up in front of tanks.
The natural instinct of a loving parent is to hide the children. Armed struggle and resistance I can understand, even if I do not approve. This, though, is something different. I've seen it myself. Mothers screaming for their tiny offspring to come out of the house, stand in front of Israeli patrols and throw stones at soldiers.
I take here no position on the causes of Israelis or Palestinians, but I do on the moral substance of a parent who would send children to fight the battles of adults.
Do not, please, tell me they have no option. There are legions of young Palestinian men willing to kill Israelis. It's just that children can sometimes be undetected. And are easily convinced of the delights of paradise in the world to come when, I quote, "Zionist skulls, blood and limbs fly against the walls."
British Muslim fundamentalists planned terror attacks and arrests were made in Ilford, England, my hometown. Boring Ilford may be, but nobody is oppressed there! Muslims who grew up with British democracy, free British health care, free British education and British tolerance have no reason to kill anyone, let alone those who gave them such privilege.
Remember, these people came to Britain, as they did to Canada, the United States and the rest of the free, Christian-based world to escape Islamic states and their harshness.
It is the pluralistic openness and decency of Europe and North America that has allowed so many Muslim immigrants. How ironic that a minority of those people hate that very pluralism and decency and want to slaughter women and children in the name of their god and their cause.
I opposed the war in Iraq, but I cannot remain silent when people kill contract workers, then disembowel and hang them from wires in the street. While children dance.
And, no, these murderers are not refugees from pain but the favoured sons of Saddam. Their fight is to restore fascism, not liberate their nation. Even if it was, nothing justifies such sadism.
German bomber pilots, their planes shot down, would parachute into London after destroying entire towns and killing thousands of people. Almost without exception they were treated properly, as prisoners of war.
It's not about colonization, globalization, Zionism, American dominance or any other cliches. The Muslims themselves are colonizers, having pushed most Christians out of the Middle and near East, once the cradle of the Christian world.
The Ottoman Turks, Muslims all, colonized the region for centuries. Arabs colonized Persians, Assyrians, Kurds and others. The Saudis, sponsors of so much terror, are nobody's victims. They are wealthy beyond belief, and deprive women and minorities of most basic civil rights.
This is something deeper, darker, than an imagined fight against a foreign foe. There is a virus at work. For the sake of the good, law-abiding Muslims of the world -- the majority -- we cannot pretend any longer it's about anything other than what it is: a religion gone mad and gone bad.
Stop the lies, they only make it worse.
And thanks to Mohammed proclaiming himself the last prophet, there is no hope for major reform either.
What do you do about it? You can't reason a person from a religion. You have to keep him from being raised in it. I doubt Muslems are about to stop having kids.
Islam has nothing related with Christianity.
Ishmael, the son of Abraham, is the so-called father of Arabs, but not to Islam.
Islam's god is NOT the same God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Muslims are not MY brothers in Christ. To be a fellow Brother in Christ, you must submit to Jesus Christ and receive Him! (John 1:12)
Stop the lies, they only make it worse.
Very good article but..
If the madness was just "religion gone mad" it could be isolated and mostly fought "over there." But the madness is bigger. It's those who distort the war to seize power and force America to submit to international (and their) dictates.
It's Democrats like Ellen Ratner hoping Bush "messes up in Iraq," it's the best and brightest Sacramento Bee brains stating within hours of 9/11/01 that we are partly to blame for not "understanding," it's Democrat (Ms Halfbright for one) lies that the U.S. "carpet bombs" Afghan and Iraqi civilians, it's Kerry not admitting that he lied that U.S. military personnel are "war criminals," it's the mainstream media's news management that supports all the left's lies (they won a North Vietnam Communists' award for their help a generation ago), it is Berkeley's Hatem whatz-his-name, et al. calling for a war against Americans here in America and the diseased-brained students cheering -- it is all these things and lots more.
It's a war within the bigger war. We will win the big war but the winner of the inner war defines the winner.
I am sorry to report to this good fellow that, were those "good Muslims" in Britain the majority, they would stand by cheering if he were executed for failing to accept Islam.
The Islamic religion holds all infidels as effectively inhuman, thus permitting inhuman treatment of infidels. As masses abide by its words, they are, by social pressure and to curry favor from all-powerful Mullahs, forced to outwardly express ever greater heights of fervor. That fervor ends up expressed as barbarism and "good Muslims" turn into monsters.
The origins of the Koran are in Babylonian paganism, a religion that celebrated child sacrifice long before Mohammed. The book was substantively changed several times, the most outstanding example being the excision of Allat, a female deity co-equal to Allah (either the test marketing must not have gone well or Mohammed figured out that divided adoration didn't sufficiently channel through him). The Koran, however beautiful, is a proven fraud. The mullahs know the archaeological news is out and their cushy deal will come to an end if the people find out. They must attain full domination of the planet or it's over. After all, it's not their skin blowing up in Middle Eastern markets.
Mohammed was the "Charles Manson" of the seventh century.
Therein lies the relation.
Muhammed was wise to do this in order to make it easier to convert the large numbers of Jews & Christians in the area. Then he proclaimed himself the last prophet to keep anyone else from pulling the same stunt on him.
Just as in cancer, which spreads like, well...cancer, so does the meme for Islam.
Drastic measures are called for when a rogue meme gets loose, no less so than when cancer cells begin metastasizing.
Cautery, chemosurgery, radiation do come to mind.
--Boris
You forget that it was "the seventh century". Manson was a fool and would never do better than a prison cell. Muhammed exploited his times cleverly to establish a foundation upon which to build a rapidly growing and lasting empire.
Unfortunately the foundation was so strong that Muslims today are still stuck in the Middle Ages. Aside from cohesiveness all they have now to offer humanity are anachronisms and two-bit thugerry.
Yeah. Saudi Arabia makes a lie out of the notion that enrichment will lead to civility. Instead in only leads to rich thugs.
I'm thinking more the L. Ron Hubbard of the seventh century.
Islam - the most intolerant religion on earth. Also, the religion most closely linking church & state. Also, they want to take over the world. Hey, nice work, mohammed.
_Stranger in a Srange Land_ gives an interesting spin on this idea.
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