Posted on 11/18/2001 11:10:06 AM PST by Sabertooth
"but..."
It's such a commonplace word. A simple monosyllable mastered early by children. One innocuous word, but since 9/11, it is a word now fraught with the revelation of an evil secret that threatens the lives and liberties of four-fifths of the human race.
"But" is the word we've come to expect whenever we hear Moslems anywhere speak of the attack upon America.
"We condemn the attacks, BUT…"
"It was a Zionist Conspiracy," or:
"America starved Iraqi children," or:
"Infidels are on the Arabian Penninsula," or:
"Israel won't give back the land they were attacked from in 1967 to those who attacked them…"And so on.
"But" is the most poisonous word in all of Islam, and a billion Moslems are ignorant as to its significance. More than "jihad," more than "terrorist," more even than "Hussein", and more by far than the attacks of 9/11; the morally equivocating "but" of the disciples of Mohammed has proven to Americans and to the World exactly the nature of the threat posed to our civilization.
The entire civilized World was horrified on 9/11 as enormous skyscrapers and thousands of innocent lives were ground to a bloody, limestone paste. We know now that evil madmen of enormous wealth, hell-bent on global conquest like James Bond villains stepping from the dank caves of Ian Fleming's imagination, are diabolically capable of atrocities that beggar the capacity of our language to describe. On 9/11, such men and their vicious, suicidal pawns appeared to be full the scope of the peril we face. For a few days we were angrily, mournfully resigned to that.
Then, by mutters and whispers, in open rants and polite conversations, a more dire threat emerged, far more ominous than the attacks of 9/11: There came from the mouths of millions and millions of thought-to-be civilized Moslems that damning word… "but."
Weeks later the awful, inescapable truth is still sinking in: the "but" is intrinsic to Islam.
All manner of hatred spewed forth and every act of bloodlust and carried out in the name of their "religion," can be summarily ignored or justified with a word. "But" is the fulcrum of Mohammedan thought. "But" is the three-letter Islamic distillation of Joseph Goebbel's entire career. "But" is the Moslem conjunction where reality ends and the evil at the heart of their dark theology is exposed.
The conjunction of Christianity is "and." The Old Testament "and" the New Testament. Jesus Christ is God the Father "and" the Son of Man. While Islam concedes the Bible, the Moslem conjunction "but" overrules it with the Koran. 'Jesus was a Prophet, "but" wasn't the Son of God. Jesus was great, "but" Mohammed is greater.' In truth, if Jesus wasn't the Son of God, then He wasn't a Prophet, because it was as a prophet that He proclaimed His Divinity. Logically, either Jesus is both Prophet and Savior, or He is neither. Logic is about objective Truth, "but" Islam isn't about logic.
And Islam isn't about Truth.
"But" was the justification of Osama bin Laden when he decided to kill thousands of American citizens, and people from dozens of other countries on 9/11.
"But" was the justification of the Taliban in every atrocity they committed, in every barbaric atrocity against their own people and especially their own women.
"But" was the justification of Ayman al-Zawahiri and his Islamic Jihad when they assassinated Anwar Sadat for making peace with Israel.
"But" was the justification of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to assassinate Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi
"But" is the justification of "palestinians" to teach anti-Semitic genocide in their schools, and encourage their children to act out skits costumed as suicide bombers.
"But" is the justification of the Arab Moslems of the Sudan, when they slaughter, torture, and physically crucify hundreds of thousands of black Christians.
"But" is the justification of Nigerian Moslems when they murder and mutilate Christians and animists.
"But" is the justification of Moslems in Pakistan who walk into a church service spraying bullets and murdering worshipers.
"But" is the justification of the Islamic Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the Philippines when they behead Christian hostages and force conversion to Islam.
"But" is the justification of the bloody Islamic camel whose nose I have only just begun to describe as it invades our tent.
However, none of these "buts" justifies the conclusion that Islam as a force in the world is evil at its heart, a threat to our lives and our civilization, and needs to be vanquished. Instead, it is the treacherous word "but" that is spoken daily and held close to the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of Moslems around the world.
By three little letters, by one small word, by the fatal moral compromise of "but" from their own mouths, the faith of Islam is condemned.
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When [a large company]'s data department decided to embark on a new, warm & fuzzy management structure, all employees were compelled to take a month of brainwa...er, training on how to interact with other employees and operate in what amounted to a leaderless business environment (which could be the topic of another rant, but I digress). The one worthwhile phrase (not even a whole sentence) I gleaned from four weeks of touchie feelies was:
"The all-negating 'but'."
Consider: "I love you but...", "we worked hard on it but...", "the tickets weren't sold out but...", "the tickets were sold out but..." and so on. In nearly every sentence where the word 'but' is used, the speaker builds up an emotional state (usually positive) in the listener then says 'but' to negate that emotional state. Often 'but' is followed by an inverse of the preceeding statement. Even worse, 'but' is a powerfull enough word that nothing need be said after its utterance, and it still utterly destroy whatever was built up with all the words before it.
Next time you are about to make a statement of the form "X, but not X" consider leaving out the entire buildup and mind-wrenching alteration of 'but', and instead pursue the pure honesty of saying what you really mean to say. Use 'and' instead and change the whole sentence accordingly. It's hard, as it's deeply ingrained in our language and culture. Eliminate most occurences of 'but' and enjoy the fresh clarity of up-front honesty.
ctd 7/97
A subsequent email exchange debated the related word "yet":
"Yet" may be even worse than "but". It's used for the same purpose, and achieves its goal in a more subtle fashion. "But" is a slap in the face. "Yet" is more like the line about diplomacy: "Diplomacy is the art of telling someone to go to hell such that they will look forward to the trip." "But" is a bullet, setting the person up then shooting them down. "Yet", especially when used frequently, is more like arsinic.
Faith?
Don't you mean dangerous gutter cult?
imho, buddhism is also an "and" religion, in fact, possibly more so. they seem to be
less "us not them" than most other "organized" religions...
however (and, yet, but) they also are more, well, accepting of evil in this world
(or understanding, or accommodating?) than most.
just an offhand observation, and in no way meant to be an attack on anyone's beliefs.
The boss calls me into his office and says "You are my most valuable employee, you work 10 hour days (without overtime pay) and do an outstanding job, BUT I noticed you were 5 minutes late for work today...
Love your silver Mustang, Is that a '99 V-6 on your homepage? Nice car!
But...
I still like my 2000 GT.
By which he meant, in trying to turn English into formal logic, 'but' == 'and'.
I dunno. I forgot my modus ponens and modus tollendo tolens long ago!
--Bori
Don't you mean dangerous gutter cult?
Well, yeah but... I had to leave you something.
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