Posted on 09/12/2002 8:30:12 AM PDT by dennisw
Muslims gather behind a banner reading "ISLAM Will Dominate the World", at the Finsbury park Mosque, in London, Wednesday Sept. 11, 2002, to participate in a conference entitled "September 11 A Towering Day in History". The conference is due to hear from some of the most radical Muslim clerics in Britain. (AP Photo/Mark Lees, PA)
Has this appeared in any of Feder's outlets (e.g., Townhall.com or JWR?)
I would add one thing to this:
Why this reluctance to confront manifest reality?
Political correctness and the multi-culti, self-loathing, hate-America cult that rules media and education in the USA. The chattering class's cocktail party chic, upside-down world, where cop-killers and child-molesters and bus-bombers are cool and Jerry Falwell and Bill Bennett and George Bush are the faces of evil.
I once saw an entry in TV Guide for a movie that I believe was called "The Message", starring Anthony Quinn. The description said (as best I can recall it): "The story of the founding of Islam. Action packed."
I don't want anything to do with any religion whose founding is summed up by TV Guide as "action packed".
I honestly don't believe that even conservative mainstream venues, like JWR, etc., would publish this. It is WAYYY too politically incorrect. This is wayyy beyond the pale.
Well, not really. They were all lawgivers. All of the Hebrew patriarchs were very successful warriors in a time when if you weren't, you ended up chattel of somebody who was. Jesus was a carpenter (perhaps "joiner" might be more accurate if you really want to pick nits) and Mohammed was a merchant. And all of that is quite irrelevant.
I wouldn't go so far as Mr. Feder as to say that Islam is irremedially militant and aggressive. We have long periods of recorded history that indicate that it can be quite accommodating if its adherents see that military victory is infeasible. But the current accession of militancy within Islam is a very disturbing development, and, I suspect, one that is artificially maintained by major economic subsidies from those (notably the Saudis, but others to be sure) who find that convenient for their own internal purposes. It is not, in fact, dissimilar to the Crusades, in which some secular governments found it useful to subsidize the retaking of the Holy Land for their own secular purposes, notably trade routes and population control of the politically inconvenient. In short, militant religious aggression is pretty easy to whip up with a little money and a little ulterior motivation. I do not think many Muslims would be flattered by that comparison, though.
What is even more disturbing to me is, just as Mr. Feder points out, the reluctance of Moslem coreligionists to disavow these activities. It isn't simply a matter of conviction that murdering innocent people is an inescapable part of promoting Islam, for it is specifically prohibited in the Koran and is danced around by certain mullahs who grandly proclaim that there are no innocents. Yet that point, which one might think would be shouted from the minarets, is in fact muted to a whisper.
There are two reasons for this, IMHO - first, that anti-American politics is an even more pervasive and useful mechanism than anti-Christian religious drives and are synergistic with the latter, and second, that the radicals are armed and quite capable of murdering dissenters, and have done so in the recent past.
This is something about which Americans can't really do a lot. There aren't any foreign policies, including total isolation, that can't be twisted to suit a cynical and hypercritical anti-American stance for those for whom America's existence itself provides a useful foil. The danger to the Moslem world - and the Europeans as well - is that this constant drumbeat numbs Americans to the point at which none of it registers anymore; the danger to the U.S. is that certain portions of the political spectrum take this incessant barrage of hostility uncritically.
It seems like we are trying to appease the devil (arab nations) to take out one of his princes (Saddam).
God help us all.
The reason why the powers that be will not confront the face of our true enemy is two-fold and very simple.
First, how in the face of the First Amendment to the Constitution can we declare ourselves at war with a religion, however screwed up it may be. If we ID Islam as the enemy, the government is, in effect, prohibiting the practice of that religion.
Secondly, can you conceive of the consequences within this country of declaring Islam our sworn enemy when a substantial portion of the black population of this country identify themselves as Muslims? Talk about bringing on a race war!
Just my opinion,though.
Either that, or they are playing 'good cop, bad cop.'
Re: the calling of Islam an ideology not a religion...Now that's a tough sell. I almost think that is tantamount to what the meaning of is is.
Well, not really. They were all lawgivers. All of the Hebrew patriarchs were very successful warriors in a time when if you weren't, you ended up chattel of somebody who was. Jesus was a carpenter (perhaps "joiner" might be more accurate if you really want to pick nits) and Mohammed was a merchant. And all of that is quite irrelevant.
I beg to differ. Moses was a politician-turned-shepherd, who was best known for giving the Hebrews the Law. Jesus was a carpenter-turned-prophet, who is best known for dying on a cross and coming back to life three days later. momo was a merchant-turned-warrior, who was best known for conquering Mecca. Among his last words were a plea for allah to slay Jews and Christians.
To some extent, these religions reflect the character of their founders.
We don't allow the Mormons multiple wives so we do interfere with the free exercise of religion.
Islam calls itself a religion, but it is really a military organization. It is little different from Nazism except that Hitler didn't say he got his marching orders from an angel.
ML/NJ
I'm sure that Janet Reno would have the answer to that.
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