Posted on 02/11/2006 12:10:09 PM PST by reasonisfaith
The cartoon riots are all about power, not about silly drawings. Power in the middle east has always been gained through the use of terrorism and brutality. Not only do the imams want this tradition to continue, they want eventual global domination for Islam. But that goal is threatened by the Bush Doctrine, which has initiated changes such that the means to political power in the middle east will increasingly be gained via the ballot box. So these cartoon riots are the islamists' attempt at demagoguery. They are trying to drive a wedge between the muslim people and the West.
The Islamists know Bush’s success in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to have a domino effect in the rest of the middle east. The Bush Doctrine has begun to shed light on the fact that the true enemy of the people in those countries is terrorism and dictatorship. Within the “us versus them” mentality, “us” will increasingly and accurately be defined as simply the people, while “them” will be correctly identified as the tyrannical imams and political dictators who have for centuries ruled with cruelty and violence. Such a redrawing of battle lines will bring down the traditional rulers of middle eastern nations, and these rulers are not happy about it.
The tyrants and dictators are aware they will be swept away if the people of the middle east are truly liberated. As will their goal of world domination. As the Iraquis have experienced, purple ink on the finger is much better than a suicide belt around the waist. The imams are beginning to lose the hearts and minds of the muslim people, and they want to get them back. So they must stoke the fires of anti-Western fear and hatred while such embers are still burning. The advancement of Islamism requires that the fight must be defined in the minds of the muslim people as Islam vs. the West. Due to the current cultural psychology of middle eastern muslims, sparking mob mentality is a viable strategic move for the Islamists. This cartoon thing can create political support for the terrorists and other Islamic extremists.
To win this war we have to think big. That means strategery. Yes, I have entertained the thought of printing millions of copies of the cartoons and spreading them around wherever possible. But that’s the reaction the imams want, because they know the mindset of many muslims worldwide is still such that they can still be swayed to the side of the terrorists.
The best answer to this political action by the imams is to maintain focus on the Bush Doctrine and on our own traditional values. Liberation is still the answer. A liberated middle east can still be a peaceful middle east. We must continue to destroy the enemy while supporting democratic political reform and maintaining the development of friendship with muslim countries. Human beings are corruptible, and muslims are no exception. We know this from Christian teachings, and we can observe it on the domestic front in our war against Cultural Marxism. But just as any given individual can be tempted to sin and to act on hatred and unjust rage, he can be shown the true way to peace. That’s why in this just war on terror we have to continue to win the hearts and minds of the muslim people even as we kill the enemy. Let the cartoons go.
Sadly, the difficulty is that Islam itself is the source of these problems. Islam has created the same thing for nearly 1400 years: violent, aggressive societies that take over other productive societies and render them sterile and dead within 100 years, adding them to the legion of zombies following Mohammed. No Muslim society has ever created anything, had any social or intellectual progress, or improved the standard of living of its people.
That said, we obviously cannot attack people on these grounds, because there are probably many people who had the misfortune to be born Muslim but aren't really with the whole program. Still, when you're fighting a war, there are always bound to be innocent victims, and I'd rather have the innocents on their side than ours. We have something to offer the world: Islam does not and never has.
And no, even though it plagiarized the Old Testament and Jewish ritual law and classifies Jesus as a prophet, it has nothing in common with Jews or Christians.
"Sadly, the difficulty is that Islam itself is the source of these problems."
True enough. But the muslim people can be converted.
Just shoot these 'rabid-dog' SOB's. Quit pussy-footing around.
Believe me, I could stop two or three hordes of savages before they reached my front door.
But I'm not talking battlefield strategy here.
No offense, but how many historically have ever been converted? 1 in 50,000, at best? And only if they're in a Christian country? One of the tenets of their faith is if you leave Islam, you can be executed. Sort of hard to leave under those rules, huh? Sounds more like the Mafia, Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia to me, don't you think? The Christians that exist in Muslim dominated countries are ones that remained from the original Christian families that were overrun and subjugated centuries before, not new conversions. Hence, the concept of sending missionaries into Muslim countries for anything but medical or social aid is practically a death sentence for them, especially in times of trouble. Hell, it is a crime to bring a Bible into Saudi Arabia, there are no other religions or their buildings (churches, synagogues, temples) allowed on Arab soil, and if you attempt to preach to Muslims there you can be deported (good), jailed (bad) or executed (very bad) under their legal system.
They believe conversion from Islam is a massive step down, a total error, committing yourself to catastrophe and shame, a complete no-no, and just to make sure, they'll kill you for doing it. End of story.
I didn't make the statement to mean that such a conversion could actually take place in an immediate sense. You are correct--the task of converting muslims to Christianity would be impossible, involving countless political, cultural and military obstacles. But these three aspects of human society exist sort of in a different time frame than religion.
For example, I could come across a river and say to you, hey let's get rid of this thing, it's in the way. You would tell me I'm crazy. But rivers do change course and eventually dry up. It just happens within a scale of time that is unfamiliar to us.
Look at the character of the muslim religion, in the light of terrorism and cartoons. It's no fountain of novel ideas, and I can imagine it running out of water someday.
Perhaps you are right. Christianity provides civilization hope both in this world and particularly for the next. With a constant, direct exposure to Western thought and technology, maybe there will be an Enlightement (of the good things of the West, not some of our current rot and moral decay which has brought us into this situation to begin with), but I believe it will have to be Divinely inspired, so to speak. In that process, I'm afriad there's going to be a lot of ugly instances along the way.
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