ISLAM'S FUTURE

New York Post ^ | 8/13/02 | DANIEL PIPES

[kattracks]

August 13, 2002 -- 'I AM surprised at your lack of courage, Mr. Pipes," one reader scolded me. "Your point of view is for people who believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus," opined another. "You really dropped the ball on this one!" "I hope you are not beginning to lose your nerve." "Totally wrong." Or, more charitably: "Maybe your hope is overshadowing your understanding of the truth."

[TLBSHOW]

sounds like he has been muzzled.

[CatoRenasci]

I think you are confusing what most of are saying, that Islam itself is evil, with the proposition that all individuals who are Mahometans are evil. The latter statement is not true, nor does it logically inhere in the former statement. That would be the same thing as saying all Germans are evil because Nazism was evil.

[TomSmedley]

So it is not useful to point to Turkey as an example of how Islam can be modernized.

Ahh, but it is. Military defeat, loss of an empire, and military invasion of the heartland tend to open one's mind to new paradigms.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

I find it inconceivable that those who most earnestly seek the face of God have invaribly wound up killing His (by His own admission) greatest achievement -- mankind. We are told in all religious variations of Judaism (of which the Muslims and Christians are the two) that the taking of human life is forbidden, yet lives are wasted like yesterday's newspapers. Catholics killing Protestants in Northern Ireland and vice versa. Muslims killing Jews and Christians in the Middle East and Northern Africa and vice versa.

I submit for your consideration that God is life and life is sacred. The opposite of God is Satan. Satan is death and death is sacred. Those who believe it is in dying that they achieve God's purpose are following a mistaken theology. Dying is easy. Living is the challenge. Living is jihad. Those who seek to kill and destroy are serving their god and will live eternally in his presence. Those who serve life, serve their God and will live eternally in His presence. There is no middle ground.

Until all mankind reveres and holds sacred the gift of life, there will be no peace. Until mankind makes the enemies of God their footstool, there will be no return of Goodness. Until all adherents of one God stand together against evil, this horror will continue, and that, my friends, is what Satan counts on most. His time is up when we figure it out and implement the belief.

[weegee]

The religion must adapt to modern mores.

This can be done. One recent example: In May, the Turkish religious authorities ruled - completely contrary to Islamic custom - to permit women to pray next to men and to attend mosque services while menstruating.

Anyone want to have a stab at what century of civilization they have entered with such a grand gesture?

And to think that some American parents got upset about a surprise "thong check" for violations of a school dress code.

[weegee]

If Turkish theologians can execute such changes, why not theologians in other countries, too?

The two biggest tasks for arab nations to consent to are open practice of other religions and conversion from islam to other religions.

Anything else betrays the notion of islam being a peaceful religion. If the citizens are not free to choose their faith and exercise it (under penalty of death) then they are not free. Their religion dominatates that freedom.

[weegee]

My approach has the benefit of offering a realistic policy to deal with a major global problem.

Sounds like the reasoning of a lib who refuses to accept a fetus as being a living being. It's much easier to solve the problem of unwanted or improper pregancies if we just take that concept off the table.

[weegee]

From Ask The Imam last year: Is Osamah bin Laden is really a hero of Islamic Ummah? Do Taliban government of Afghanistan done right by demolishing the Buddah statues?

1. Usama ibn Laden is a practising Muslim, and thus, our brother in Islam. He has made many sacrifices for the Deen, in particular, the Jihaad of Afghanistan. While we respect him for this, we do not raise any person to any position, except that which Allah Ta'ala wishes.

2. He himself has denied involvement. Why should we then doubt him? Even if a billion Kuffaar say the opposite, the word of a single practising Muslim is more acceptable to us.

3. It was an Islamic duty for the Taliban to have destroyed the idols.

Don't think that they respect our Christian monuments/sites/buildings/etc. any more than the Buddahs.

Remember that hostage situation at the Church of the Nativity?

[weegee]

Islam is more or less exactly where Christianity was 1350 years after its founding.

Their calendar isn't much farther ahead than that figure either...

[weegee]

Could we have gone to the German people and pleaded with them to remove Hitler, drop out of their military campaigns, and become the "pro-Western" nation that a part of Germany did following WWII?

Or do you knock out the leader. Kill their followers (the ones who empower them) and instill your own reforms?

[Jeremiah Jr]

Revelation 13

1 And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.
2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.


It's a family feud,

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, on down to David and to Yeshua.

Abram, Ishmael, on down to Muhammad and to...

[weegee]

How do we and the moderate Muslims beat back the Islamists?

So far (nearly a year later from 9/11) I have yet to see/hear/read any PR campaign from the muslims distancing themselves from the Islamists. I'd heard a few people say that it is just the actions of a few individuals but there has been no denouncement of the actions of the Islamists.

I've been exposed to PR campaigns that the Palestinians children just want to grow up to be wonderful people like Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, John Lennon, and Ghandi but they can't because of violent Jews. I've been exposed to PR campaigns that the arab states want peace if only Israel would come to the table and sign their treaty. I've been exposed to PR campaigns that "I am an American".

Nothing to say: "We do not support the destruction of the ancient buddah statues". "If my nation goes to war, I'll fight side by side with you against the Islamists".

[weegee]

We need to export liberalism to the nations of Islam. Either the libs will be slaughtered as infidels for their vile Western ways or their culture will hit a tremendous shock. Send them a nekkid hippies sex festival with live performances by Rage Against My Allowance, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Manson, Barbara Streisand, and celebrity hosts like Rosie O'Donnell, Alec Baldwin, Robert Altman, Bubba Clinton and his half-brother Rog', Albert Gore Junior and his wife Tipper (someone has to show them how to kiss), Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Hugh Hefner, and Bill Maher.

They can't hate us any more than they already do...

[weegee]

But islam/muslim is a belief system as were the principles of nazism. All arabs are not evil, all Germans are not evil. Not all muslims are evil but those who follow Islamism are; their goal is domination. 100% compliance is not required to dominate.

There may have been some principles of nazism that were "positive" but I'm not going to go looking for them. Some socialists would be proud of the notion of improving transportation (and creating the "peoples" car), funding state sponsored arts, etc..