[Ancesthntr]

“Who taught Mohammed the Islamic jihad conquest formula?”

Here’s my opinion: NO ONE. He learned it all by his lonesome self, and figured out that he’d be more successful in pirating entire cities and countries if he said that “Allah” commanded him to do these things. In short, an evil, brutal man figured out how best to manipulate people. That’s it, it is no more complicated than that.

My brother studied Islam for a while (as one studies an enemy). His conclusion was that Islam was, at best, a barracks religion - a religion dedicated to conquest. Its way of life is training to obey commanders, showing its adherents (and others) the positive and negative incentives of following it or rejecting it, and providing a supposed “divine” justification for all that is worst in human nature.

That there are SOME people who follow Islam who we in the Judeo/Christian West would call “good” is besides the point - you’ll get that on the edges of any Bell Curve, particularly one that encompasses 1.3 or so billion people. On balance, however, those on the other end of this particular Bell Curve are so evil and so brutal that most of the rest of them under that curve will follow them without question, thereby strengthening them. In short, if this evil culture of brutal conquest is to be stopped, it must be done in such a brutal and decisive way as to either: a) permanently degrade their ability to harm large numbers of others or b) to persuade their culture that their “prophet” was false. To do either of those things would, IMHO, require nuclear weapons and other ferocious uses of force over such a long period as to rival the Crusades. I fear that we no longer have the gumption to do that, or that it will require the nuking of several dozen of our cities and other gruesome crimes to awaken us.

FYI, here is a very interesting short story about what could happen if we FAIL to wake up: http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message/2006_04.htm

Thank you, Travis, for presenting this essay. As usual, you stand on the walls trumpeting a warning...one that precious few heed.

[Travis McGee]

I think that while Obama wouldn't retaliate massively even if we lost American cities to WMD attacks, the Israelis, Russians or Indians would nuke mecca and a few other key sites out of hand following any serious WMD attack on their nations.

No mecca, no Islam. After 1,400 years, the "supreme, perfected and immutable religion" can't go from the 5 Pillars of Islam to the 3 Pillars. Nor will they chant, robotically, "Our god used to be greater."

No mecca, no islam.

[bitt]

Dan Simmons....he hasn’t written since dec 2013/ is he still with us?

[Califreak]

I also believe mohammed was a narcissist

[BatGuano]

Thanks for the link to Dan Simmons’ letter. His writing reminds me of Andy Andrews who wrote three great stories, The Traveler's Gift, The Noticer, and The Noticer Returns.
Those books are inspiring and the “Noticer” appears in the same manner as the man with the eye-patch.

I heed the warning but I'm afraid that so many are to much like the Athenians of old.