Posted on 02/20/2006 7:46:11 AM PST by Dark Skies
When President Bush gave his "axis of evil" speech he went out of his way to make the world understand that it isn't a war with Islam itself that we were joining — and I say joining because the war had been started by the Jihadists decades before. And, in observance to our Western principles, that must be the correct way to view our conflagration with radical Islam.
Let's face facts, it certainly is uncomfortable to a Westerner who has been brought up on tolerance, freedom of religion, and liberty to contemplate a war against an entire religion. But are we approaching a time when Western nations won't have a choice but to target Islam itself in certain ways to keep their own people safe. The best course of action is to make public displays of Islam and certain of its practices illegal in Western nations.
So, the question becomes are we at that time now? Are we fast approaching a time when Mosques will be closed and banned? Have we come to a time when Islamic literature is turned away from our borders? Have the childish and dangerous reactions of Muslims to this cartoon in a Danish newspaper proven that Islam cannot be trusted to be a vital, peaceful, and law-abiding segment of society?
It is looking like yes is the answer to these queries.
We are already approaching this today. In Ontario they have officially outlawed Muslim Sharia law, that law that uses religious precepts to enforce moral and society codes of conduct. And Muslim "family councils" have been stopped where local community groups may supplement Canadian law with their local custom.
Several members of the John Howard administration in Australia have spoken out against Islamic clashes with Western notions of law and societal comportment many times over the last few years.
Recently Howard himself said, "I do think there is this particular complication because there is a fragment which is utterly antagonistic to our kind of society, and that is a difficulty ... You can't find any equivalent in Italian, or Greek, or Lebanese, or Chinese or Baltic immigration to Australia. There is no equivalent of raving on about jihad, but that is the major problem."
Muslims routinely destroy property, threaten death and bodily harm to those who speak out against them, and they constantly fund terrorism throughout the world. In Syria they have burnt an embassy, in Europe Muslims have been responsible for murdering people who have written out against Islam or made movies, and other forms of art. These actions are also approved by Islamic teachers (Imams) and religious leaders, not just undertaken by warped loners claiming to represent Islam quite against the will of the majority or authority.
With this ridiculous cartoon issue, we have seen that Islam has no sense of perspective. In the west parody or satire is seen as not only common, but completely harmless for the most part. And religion is not immune to parody and satire, though even in the west most people are often uncomfortable with religious satire. Usually only people filled with hate attack religion in parody and most in the West instinctively know this. As a result, most people dismiss such parody as foolishness and bad taste.
But with Muslims overreacting — in western eyes at least — to this silly cartoon issue in the way they have, it becomes nearly impossible for Westerners to view Islam as a peaceful religion, but more as a vicious hate group itself. And that perception is justified with the actions that Muslims have increasingly perpetrated over the ensuing years. So, we find that Islam presents a danger to the safety of the populace all too often. It is violent, oppressive, and reactionary.
But, what is to be done about it? We have been raised to feel that religion should be left untouched by government. Freedom of religion is at the very core of our beliefs. And this concept is an important one to uphold. So, how can we honestly and without hypocrisy begin to look toward making Islam illegal?
There is a parallel of sorts in the USA that might be used as a template for action. The Ku klux Klan.
After the Civil War ended, the KKK arose from the ashes of war as an advocacy group for the disenfranchised white voter in the south. But it quickly became a terrorist organization bent on taking out revenge on the south's newly freed black population for having lost the war. It got so bad that even one of the original organizers, C.S. Cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, denounced the organization and quit it in disgust.
But as the late 1800s rolled on and the south began to re-enter the Union as full partners in government, the KKK began to lose steam and prominence. For a time it subsided. But as the 20th century neared, it re-emerged and this time became a nationwide and powerful force taking on the flavor of religious, civic and racial duty. The KKK became invested in government and claimed millions of members nation wide.
In the 1920s, however, it became too much for a liberty loving country to allow the KKK to any longer exist. In Indiana, the entire state government was scandalized by their fealty to Indiana's Klan leader who had raped and beaten his secretary on a train trip. Violence against and frequent lynching of southern blacks became so pervasive that Congress finally acted and banned the Klan. The organization collapsed never again to reclaim the power and prominence it once had.
Now, the KKK has always based its precepts on Christianity, as well as racial identity. It also reacted with violence, rallies, death threats and killing when it was threatened. It careened far away from being a mere "idea" or religious theology and became a terrorist organization. And it became a terrorist organization even though literally millions of Americans that belonged to or identified with the Klan were not themselves violent, evil, or dangerous citizens.
The leadership of the Klan supported violence. The leadership preached violence. The leadership planned and fomented it. Therefore, it had to go because it became a danger to every law-abiding citizen, whether they agreed with the racial and religious concepts the Klan espoused or not.
Islam has become the KKK of the 21st century. The sooner we awake to this truth and take steps to ban the religion, or somehow curtail its pernicious influence the better. The west is going to have to put sever restrictions on Islamic Mosques and public display of Islam. Further, devout Muslims should not be allowed to hold public office (though it certainly should not become a racial issue — sins of the father should not be visited upon the sons).
This is no religious purge as in centuries past. In the past religions were banned to be replaced by the state sponsored sect and believers of the banned religion were mistreated, tortured, unduly taxed, and terrorized. This is absolutely not the model the west would follow by banning aspects of Islam today. No religion is replacing Islam and no one is suggesting that Muslims be mistreated. But the creed to which they hold is fast becoming the most dangerous one in the world today. It is a fine line that we walk to consider banning Islam, but the safety of society is at risk not to do so.
This is not an easy conclusion at which to arrive. But if we continue to turn a blind eye to the danger that Islam presents to the west, we are signing our own death warrants.
The KKK was put down in the USA and made powerless for the same reason. Communism was destroyed for the same reason, as well. Islam is a danger to the world.
Unfortunately, it is just that simple.
Fair nuff,
Most of the emotions I'm arguing against are here on this sight :)
Wrong, most athiest generaly do not rally for or against religion.
"Atheists have been hell bent on destroying this nation for over sixty years."
Which atheists are those? I'm an atheist. I've been one since I was about 18. During the Vietnam war, while a lot of my good "Christian" friends were doing whatever they could to avoid military service, I dropped out of college and enlisted.
Am I one of those atheists, there, JCEccles? C'mon...tell me.
Yup. Thanks, BTW...
Brothers in arms?
You don't have to create falsehoods in order to make a point. Persecuting, deporting or executing people for their religious beliefs is no more than cold blooded premeditated murder.
If Muslims were one day the majority and proposed these things against Christians and Jews you'd have a different point of view. Killing someone before you know they are going to kill you is justifiable. Killing millions because of the acts of hundreds or thousands is barbaric genocide.
"This country made membership (you were likely to have an FBI tail for just belonging) in the mafia a crime because of their criminal actions. Why should islam be any different?"
On what planet is the mafia a religion?
Ah yes. The first thought crime ever...
You are making a weak and transparent strawman argument. Let's focus on the evil. Muslim children are NOT the evil.
You have undoubtedly driven past many mosques. We have reliable reports that the destruction of the United States and the replacement of its Constitution and system of laws with Islam and Sharia law has been preached and is being preached in mosques throughout this country. Do you not see a problem with that?
Muslim children are innocent. They are victims of radical Islam first and foremost.
The Mormons committed a number of crimes, especially once they were in Utah. They also tried to create a state church in Utah, which was clearly against the Constitution. This is what prompted US military intervention against them, and rightly so.
Wrong on all counts. Your ancestors must have been the ones spreading those lies in the 1800's and you are bearing the family standard high 160+ years later.
The only crime the Mormons committed in Missouri was being against slavery. There was no state church in Utah--it wasn't even a state or U.S territory when the Mormons first went there (to escape your relative's bigotry) so it couldn't have been a U.S "crime" even if it happened.
What prompted military "supervision" was the reports of drunken, corrupt rapist federal judges who sent back false reports to Washington because the Mormons exposed their adulterous and scandalous behavior. (Imagine be told by a federal judge who was committing adultery and had 3 or 4 skanks on the side that YOU had to go to prison for having 2 wives)
"Making Islam "illegal" is unworkable and an affront to western ideals."
If Mohammad was alive today in America he would be arrested and tried for pedophilia, rape, slavery, murder, domestic abuse, and armed robbery. Probably fraud too, for passing himself off as a prophet. A most remarkable messenger for "Allah."
The aim of Islam, as stated by the koran, is subjugation of the rest of the world, by persuasion (lying if necessary) or intimidation, violence, and death, if necessary. The latter resort to intimidation and violence is what qualifies Islam as "illegal." The methods of Islam in spreading its "Creed" are the methods of a criminal organization, not a religion. Since these violent methods are set forth in their "Charter," the koran, and that will not change, we should consider it a Ricco act organization, not a religion.
"And exactly when did the Branch Davidians call for the forcible overthrow of the government?"
It doesn't matter; when you give the government ANY power, it will be abused to some degree, generally proportionate to the amount of power. That is why conservatives oppose granting large amounts of power to the government. Giving the government the power to outlaw an entire religion is giving the government a lot of power--so, one can expect that it will be abused on a truly massive scale.
"If the laws had been enforced as intended, Waco would never have made national news."
In other words, if everything was perfect, and nobody had a speck of evil in their hearts, Waco would never have made national news.
Bad news for you: nothing is perfect and who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? (Well, besides God and The Shadow, of course.)
If we don't do something, we will have only ourselves to blame.
If anyone is at all interested in just what has been going on in Iran, and in learning Islam's full intent, may I highly recommend John Hagee's book, "Jerusalem Countdown"? It is available at less than $9.00 at your nearest Costco.
PLEASE EVERYONE READ IT.
"I wasn't aware that
there are three left.
"
Yup. Murder. Theft. False Witness.
That's it. Adultery is still on the books in some states, but not enforced. It's also in the UCMJ, but enforced only on occasions where it's useful.
All the rest are not in the books of law in the USA.
So, only 30% of the 10 Commandments are reflected in our laws. They're reflected in the laws of every country, whatever the religion of that country.
Let me strengthen your well-put question:
What do you do with the religion that seeks to destroy the Constitution and its adherents?
My point is, getting the democrats on the side of exterminating islam should be a cake-walk based on the left's obsession with stare decisis. Right or wrong never has anything to do with what the left wants.
So, I take it that you support detaining American citizens you dislike?
Holding beliefs and opinion can never be treason. Treason in the USA can only be charged against those who actively wage war against us, or give tangible aid and comfort to a declared enemy.
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