How Many Divisions Has the Caliph?

How so? What happened in the 600's that could have fulfilled what is written in the book of Revelation>

Are we then to assume that Chirst has returned and we are now living in the millenial kingdom of Christ?

I think the events referred to were supernatural

I think you would have a tough road to hoe to make a case for that.

There is a man in Fairbanks Ithat beleives that all that is written in the book of revelation is spiritual stuff that is going on inside of him and every beleiver. He does not belevie in an antichrist he says that all of that is made up. He kind of took me by surprise with his views.

I don't think the Roman catholic church beleives that either. I have read on several catholic websites about the prophecies of St. Malachi that prophesy of the rise of the Antichrist coming during the reign of the next pope. They speak of the sacrifice of the mass ceasing and I have read about the coming destruction the Vatican.

Nah, those are just hysterical websites, not Catholic doctrine. BTW -- my views above are again, my own views, not Catholic doctrine.

So lets here about the 600's

Latin America IS part of the Western Christian bloc -- it may not be gringo or WASPish, but it's definitely part of the Western Christian bloc. And as for Russia, it's getting closer, so we're going to have a Christian bloc (East and West) including Orthodox Russia, Catholic Latin America, Protestant England and CAtholic-Protestant America and Germany.

Lousy article. Throughout the 19th century the Ottoman empire was regarded as the "sick man of Europe." Restoring the caliphate would bring that back. Not a good idea. Most empires were created by conquest, not alliance. I think the days of Arab alliance when they made war together on Israel are past. None of the regimes has the support or wealth to embark on wars of conquest.

I agree.

Problems affecting the Muslim world:

Inbreeding leading to birth defects, infant death, and low intelligence in the survivors.

Distrust/prohibition against vaccines because they might be stealth infertility drugs. This also weakens their populations.

What higher education there is, is Islamist. Generally, they have a high level of illiteracy. Fewer books published than anywhere else. Lack of innovation. Dependency upon Western science. Great tendencies for own goals among their jihadists.

Institutionalized poverty, leading to low GDP and locked-up capital that cannot be leveraged to the advantage of the state without widespread appropriation of gold, jewlery or livestock.Crime and oil are the source of the jihadists' wealth. We have clamped down on their *charities*, which was the main institutionalized source of money for jihad and at least made it more difficult for them to raise vast amounts. If they use oil as a weapon, it will only accelerate our search for alternatives.

Half their human capital, the women, excluded from society.

The recruitment of their young and middle-aged males to homicide bombing and generally fruitless jihad that decimates their military potential.

A propensity to honestly state their goals publicly and to encourage their remaining young males to behave so disgustingly (gang rapes, car burnings)within Western democracies that the host societies are forced to legislate them out of the country (Holland, Germany, UK).

Great disparity in the cultures of Muslim countries that lead to civil war and ethnic cleansing within those countries, always perpetuated by the Muslims. When they have cleansed the Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhist and animists, they then turn on each other.

If the Caliphate was possible, why wasn't it instituted first, before declaring war on the West? OBL stated that "the people will follow a strong horse", and then Al Queda proceeded to prove that all they could do was destroy their own Muslim people and countries, while the West continued to be prosperous.

If, by some miracle, they succeeded in establishing a Global Caliphate, the internecine warfare would keep it weak and divided. They can hurt us, they can tie up our militaries, they can play the oil card, but we will prevail. This has been the cheapest war, as a percentage of GDP, that America has ever fought. It has seen the lowest number of casualties of any war we have ever fought. It has not impacted our economies, whatever other problems they may have. Even our own traitors, the left, are forced to proclaim that they support the GWOT, even if they try to make the point that Iraq isn't a part of that.

Islam may have been able to control all Muslims before we had air travel and the Internet and satellite TV. I don't think they can still exert that amount of control. When I watch the *demonstrations* in Pakistan, for example, I see dispirited people covertly watching the minders for the cue to pump fists into the air and shout "Death to America". So, they can mobilize a few thousand people at a time who are terrified and brainwashed into participating. This is not something we have to fear as a global political opponent, IMO.

However, as propaganda for our side, it doesn't hurt to make the West aware of their goals. I am not sure how many people in the West understand the Muslim tendency to brag and exaggerate their strength and successes. If they were quiet and reasonable, they would be a lot more effective and would not mobilize as many of us against them as they already have.

There is one more weakness that bothers me. They have taken lush lands of fabled paradises and turned them into hardpan and desert. If there is one reason to prefer the West to Islam it is the way Europe has taken care of the land it has inhabited and the Muslims have not. They have raped and destroyed it.

Look at the miracle in the desert the Israelis attained. Even after working for years in the greenhouses in Gaza, when the Palestinians finally got ownership of the ones they didn't destroy, they couldn't make the same harvest and they never really learned how to outwit the insect pests.

I do think Iraq is somewhat different, as I have seen fields and irrigation on the video from there. But I also read of low yields because they lacked pesticides, even though Saddam had thousands of drums full of the chemicals stashed everywhere.

I have read of gorgeous gardens in Afghanistan as recently as the twenties and perhaps even later, but before the war with the Russians. Once the taliban took control, the pictures and videos just show desolation.

Jews and Christians have Biblical injunctions to take care of the land. In all I have read of the Koran, I have seen nothing of that sort, just injunctions to kill, maim, steal, rape, pillage and loot.

Again, there is no evidence of innovation or scientific agriculture. Sheep, goats, chickens, olives, dates, chickpeas, some grains and some kitchen gardens for tomatoes, eggplant, onions seems to be all they have produced agriculturally forever.

Fatalism and slavish repetition of whatever previous generations have done seem to be all they have been capable of. I have to think it must have something to do w/Islam, since it is both religion and state.