Posted on 09/25/2001 4:45:04 AM PDT by IronJack
What is it about the Islamic religion that lures such as Osama Bin Laden to use it as a convenient moral mask for their madness? Why is it that the most heinous crimes committed against innocents in the last half of the 20th century have come at the hands of men who profess to be the arms and legs of a loving god? Is it just ennervating rhetoric, denial with religious overtones? Or is Islam ultimately incompatible with Christianity?
There are really only two possibilities: either Allah sanctions such barbarity as the Trade Center attacks, or he doesn't. If he does not, then the actions of Mr. Bin Laden and associates are simple vanity, and have probably earned them a fiery berth in the afterlife. This of course, belies their aspirations, which are decidedly more celestial. It also punctures their pretense. They merely swell a pantheon of butchers that is ignominious, but hardly exclusive. Just another placard on the roll of the dishonored.
The other possibility is that Allah does indeed sanction the murder of buildings full of innocents. In that case, Islam is anathema to Western philosophy, and must be eradicated as a blight on humanity. In addition, since it creates an ethos which justifies any action in its defense, it has no moral high ground from which to proclaim outrage when its own tactics are used against it. In effect, it gives the entire non-Islamic world permission to engage in the same scorched-earth terrorism the self-proclaimed "jihad" uses. In that case, Allah doesn't stand a chance.
If the Christian and Jewish nations of this earth are to respond in kind to the war waged against them by Islamic zealots, Islam is doomed. Up till now, westerners have been constrained by a morality that forbids the random slaughter of people for their religious beliefs. Jerry Falwell can't drag Wiccans to the ducking stool or brand scarlet letters on Hollywood's forehead. When a Muslim extremist tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, the wounded pontiff went to the gunman's cell and forgave him his trespass. By contrast, Osama Bin Laden would have his cleaning lady horsewhipped if she forgot to dust behind the hookah.
Under the Taliban's Inquisition, chewing with your mouth open is a felony. Women who try to learn to read can be shot. Making armpit farting noises will get you an electrode enema. In America, possession of narcotics will get you into trouble; in the twisted world of Islamic rule, it's possession of cosmetics. In fact, it seems there are only two classes of crimes in Osama's Afghanistan - those that get you summarily executed, and those that get you executed after lunch. In a jihad, one can't put too fine a point on the body count.
If this is truly to be a holy war, my money's on the Judeo-Christians. With only half as many followers and a growing reputation as the agency of chaos, Islam is concentrated in pockets of the world mired in the technical and cultural Dark Ages. Depravity committed in the name of its god does little to draw adherents, and everything to generate distrust, resentment, and hatred. Allah and I don't speak, but if he's any kind of god, I find it hard to believe that he struck up a heavenly chorus while the Trade Center collapsed. And if he did, if in fact Bin Laden and his army of misanthropes actually reflect the opinions of the Muslim Almighty, then he is not fit to be called a god, and might prefer the company of demons. Apparently he welcomes their services.
Imagine if the moral constraints of Christian decency are removed, and the West gets a green light to use tools of terror against its enemies. Imagine a handful of Americans hijacking a herd of Afghani goats and stampeding them through the financial district of Kabul. Well, okay. That probably wouldn't get anybody's turban too twisted. But a gallon of cyanide in the communal well might. A canister of phosgene popped in the local warlord's yurt might. Or an ice pick applied at the base of the village gauleiter's skull.
Various treaties prevent our government's using chemical and germ warfare, but no such pacts govern the actions of individuals. There are folks in this country wealthy enough to rent a C-130 and buy enough Agent Orange to reduce Afghanistan to a backward, desolate, … never mind. But we could probably drop enough anthrax spores to give the Taliban a debilitating case of black lung. If we send Special Forces troops in first, followed by ground forces, and followed immediately by relief expeditions, , we could probably win a lot of hearts and minds quickly. Of course, that obligates us to occupy the liberated areas until the mop-up is complete, lest we fall victim to the Vietnam game, in which neutral villagers became pawns in a bloody game of "My God can beat Your God."
The point is, we can beat the terrorists at their own game. Americans can out-deprave the depraved and out-atrocity the atrocious if we set our minds to it. Now add to that the advantage technology gives us in the legitimate theater of operations, the economic superiority we have to prosecute a drawn-out engagement, and simple numbers, and Osama's sandal commandos are defeated before they start. The genie these thugs conjured is far too powerful for their meager minds to constrain, and could spell the end of the Cause to which they claim they're dedicated. Their training camps should include a course on not shooting themselves in the foot.
I know little about Islam, but I'm told repeatedly that it is a peaceful religion. I call on that community now to live up to the claim. Condemn these acts as the indulgences of madmen, and help the victims track down their butchers. Turn your backs on this culture of chaos, and shun the hypocrisy that allows you to take our money and our assistance, but denies our humanity and our right to exist. Your brethren have drawn the line. Decide where you stand. There is no middle ground left.
200 years from now, I want their children's children's children's children to cower and cringe in fear whenever they hear the sounds of jet engines overhead because their legends tell of fire from the sky.
I want them to hide in dark caves and holes in the earth, shivering with terror whenever they hear the roar of diesel engines because the tales of their ancestors talk about metal monsters crawling over the earth, spitting death and destruction.
I want their mothers to be able to admonish them with "If you don't behave, the Pale Destroyers will come for you", and that will be enough to reduce them to quivering obesience.
I want the annihilation to be so complete that their mythology will tell them of the day of judgment when the stern gods from across the sea .. the powerful 'Mericans .. destroyed their forefathers' wickedness.
"When a Muslim extremist tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981"
Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish terrorist, shot Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981. Originally he claimed to be a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but they stated that he had no ties with them. Later he said he was part of a conspiracy assisted by Bulgaria, which was pressured by the KGB to assassinate the pope because of his support of Poland's Solidarity movement. To date, no definite conclusion has been reached as to the actual motive. Agca is current serving a life sentence in Italy.
I thought the title said "A Pork in the Road for Islam"
Oh well. Looking for humor on a Tuesday morning...
Anyone who told you that was either a fool or a liar.
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