Posted on 09/04/2004 2:10:11 PM PDT by fporretto
It appears that we now know the approximate scope of the carnage in Beslan, Russia. The totals are not complete, as there are still Chechen Muslim terrorists struggling to resist capture by the Russian troopers who stormed the school. Undoubtedly a few more bodies will be added to the pyres before the day is done.
Would anyone care to argue that the Chechen Muslims who perpetrated this horror were just acting on their legitimate nationalistic aspirations? Come closer, please. My arms aren't that long.
There is simply no defense for the use of civilians as military targets, or hostages, or bargaining chips, or anything else in pursuit of some political or religious goal. There's a special circle reserved in Hell for those who use children in this way.
Meanwhile:
Before Black Tuesday, Americans knew little of Islam or the horrors committed in its name. They thought it was just one more monotheistic faith, perhaps a little more passionate than the others, whose adherents just happened to dress oddly, for being mostly from a single part of the world. Our awakening, despite the warm-up acts at the World Trade Center, the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole and other places, was slow and reluctant. I'm not criticizing; I was one of them.
Our excuses are gone. Our hour of decision is upon us.
Except for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the world has done nothing. Americans can be proud of that, I suppose. But it's not enough. As much as we've already done, as much as it's cost us in money, men, and national will, it's far short of being enough.
I have struggled with this for three years now, and I still can't see another way out. Islam is arguably the most evil creed ever to be unleashed on this planet. Don't take my word for it; read the Qur'an and the hadith yourself. Opposing individual excrescences of the creed is simply not enough; we must oppose the creed itself.
If Islam were merely a demented belief that confined its depredations to its voluntary adherents, like the self-mortification cults of Christianity during the Middle Ages, we could relax about it. But this is emphatically not the case. It is a doctrinal pillar of Islam that Muslims have an obligation to convert the entire world, by any means expedient, including force if necessary. Islam's medieval code of "law," the shari'a, must be imposed on the entire human race.
Thus, Islam is incapable of being civilized. By "civilized," I mean capable of confining its brutalities to those who've freely chosen to live under them, which is not a particularly high standard. Some ten percent of Muslims -- about 150 million of them -- are estimated to be either active participants in Islam's worldwide jihad or enthusiastic supporters thereof. This demonic tenth shelters easily among the others, using them as human shields while they mass to strike.
How high must the butcher's bill rise before we go on an all-out offensive? What will it take to armor our consciences sufficiently to address the ever more evident need to wipe this vicious totalitarian ideology cleanly out of human memory?
The Nazis killed about ten million before we decided to expunge them. The Russian Communists racked up nearly thirty million before they stumbled into the dustbin of history. The Chinese Communists have killed far more, yet they retain their grip on power, and even enjoy the favor of large parts of the Western world.
Those are not comforting numbers. They speak of fantasies of "peaceful coexistence" resolutely retained in the face of evidence that should convince any sentient being of its impossibility.
How many deaths can be attributed to Islamic fury and ambition already? How many more will it tot up before we resolve to put an end to the tally?
We have hoped for an outpouring of condemnation of Islamic barbarism and good will toward non-Muslims from the "moderates" of that faith. We have hoped and waited in vain. No such expression of civilized anger at their demonic co-religionists has arrived, and none will. "Moderate" Muslims, however many there are and wherever they hide, are more afraid of the vengeance of their terrorist brethren than they are of anything else in this world.
It's time to raise the sword of freedom, not against specific regimes, but against the whole ideology of Islam. Free speech? Freedom of religion? Of course. Those are the standards of all decent men. But they do not oblige us to support evil in any way. No decent man anywhere should have even the least little thing to do with any Muslim, and I mean anything at all, including employing him, working for him, buying from him or selling to him, unless and until he publicly recants his so-called faith.
No, I'm not interested in hearing about your nice Muslim neighbors. Muslims are taught that it's perfectly acceptable to lie to "infidels" about their beliefs and intentions, as long as some benefit accrues to Islam thereby. Muslims are also taught that in any controversy between a Muslim and an "infidel," all Muslims must take the Muslim's side regardless of the merits. These are doctrines of their creed. Again, don't take my word for it; read their scriptures and the statements of their leading clerics, and satisfy yourself.
Islam is the greatest obscenity in motion in the world today. It must be effaced before it can do any more harm. Our own concepts of justice deny us a pogrom against them -- that would lower us to their level -- so Islam must be marginalized and made non-viable by exclusion, ostracism, and unceasing public pronouncements against it. That's the method of freedom. It's the only tool by which we can draw a line under the Islamic butchers' bill.
Do you care enough about the future of human life and liberty to join in this effort?
Francis W. Porretto,
Eternity Road
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