Defusing the Holy Bomb

The New York Times ^ | 11/27/2002 | THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

[Pokey78]

To: Leaders of the Muslim world

From: President George W. Bush

Dear Sirs,

As you approach the end of Ramadan and we approach our Thanksgiving, I thought it would be a good time for me to share with you some concerns. Let me be blunt: I am increasingly worried that we are heading toward a civilizational war.

How so? Well, let me point out just a few news stories in recent days: Imam Samudra, the Indonesian Islamist accused of masterminding last month's Bali bombing — in which nearly 200 tourists were killed — reportedly said during his confession that it was a "holy bomb" that ripped apart that disco, and that it was aimed there because it was full of foreigners — i.e., non-Muslims. There is nothing "holy" about a bomb that kills 200 people just because they are foreigners.

Then I read about Bonnie Penner, a young U.S. missionary nurse at a prenatal clinic in Sidon, Lebanon, which provided care for needy Palestinians and Lebanese. She was shot three times in the face. A Palestinian security official told The A.P. that "the killing was the result of a hostile Muslim reaction in Sidon to the preaching . . . lessons the center was giving to Muslim youths." Do you know how much proselytizing Muslim groups do in America? A lot. We have no problem with that. That's who we are. Who are you? I have no idea whether this woman's clinic was involved in proselytizing Muslims, but I do know that she was a nurse, caring for Muslims, and she was shot for who she was.

Then there was Azmi Abu Hilayel, whose son Na'el strapped himself with dynamite and blew up an Israeli bus with school kids. Azmi was quoted as saying: "I thanked God when I heard that my son had died in an operation for the sake of God and the homeland." I can't believe that the God of Islam, a God of mercy and compassion, would bless killing anyone's kids. Believe me, I know Israeli soldiers have killed dozens of Palestinian children during the intifada. That is shameful. But I don't hear Israeli generals, parents or rabbis thanking God their sons could kill Muslim kids. Soldiers shooting kids is wrong. Suicide killing is wrong. There is no God that blesses either.

On top of all this, we just had the imam of a Paris mosque arrested for allegedly helping the airplane shoe-bomber. And we had two U.S. marines shot in Kuwait, a country we helped rescue from Saddam, and we saw one of our top aid officials in Jordan killed in his front yard for a similar "crime" — being an American in the Muslim world. Now you see why I ordered that young men from most Arab countries who are studying in America be fingerprinted and photographed by the I.N.S. I had no choice.

You say all this is happening because we support Israel. I know we need to do more to bring peace, but I don't think that nurse was shot, or that Bali bomb was made "holy," because we support Israel. I think it has to do with the rise within your midst of a deeply intolerant strain of Islam that is not simply a reaction to Israel, but is a response to your failing states, squandered oil wealth, broken ideologies (Nasserism) and generations of autocracy and illiteracy. Armed and angry, this harsh fundamentalism now seems to totally intimidate Muslim moderates.

But the values it propagates will bring ruin to you and conflict with us. As Brink Lindsey of the Cato Institute wrote in National Review, "No faith will make rote memorization of ancient texts, suppression of critical inquiry and dissent, subjugation of women, and a servile deference to authority the recipe for anything other than civilizational decline."

The decent, but passive, Muslim center must go to war against this harsh fundamentalism. Yes, we have our intolerant bigots too. I just publicly distanced myself from those Christians who smear Islam with a broad brush. But our moderate majority and press regularly denounce them too. They are not dominating our society. We've had our civil war against intolerance. Now I'm urging you to have yours. Don't tell me you can't. Look at those courageous Iranian students who are now taking on the extreme fundamentalists within their own society — risking their lives to fight those who want to take Islam, and Iran, back to the Dark Ages. God bless them.

Friends, unless you have a war within your civilization, there is going to be a war between our civilizations. We're just one more 9/11 away from that. So let's dedicate this next year to fighting intolerance within so we can preserve our relations between.

Sincerely, G.W.B.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Is this really from Bush or is it someone's wishful thinking? I can't believe such forthrightness capable from any sitting president since Theodore Roosevelt. May I be wrong in my cynicism.

[Paleo Conservative]

And then the Lord spake, saying:

"First, shalt thou take out the holy pin.

Then shalt thou count to three.

No more, no less.

*Three* shall be the number of the counting, and the number

of the counting shall be three.

*Four* shalt thou not count, and neither count thou two,

excepting that thou then goest on to three.

Five is RIGHT OUT. Once the number three, being the third

number be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade

to-wards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff

it. Amen.

[LouD]

Why defuse it? I say light that puppy and let's get it over with. In a war between the 7th Century and the 21st Century, there can be only one victor.

[mhking]

"Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!"

[Pokey78]

Not from Bush. It's from Friedman.

[BullDog108]

It is an editorial by Thomas Friedman.

[mgstarr]

[MHGinTN]

But he's right ya know, just one more 9/11 incident here in America and the dogs of civil war against ALL Moslims will be loosed. Sadly, that is exactly what Osama is counting on, for he has the blood lust of a demon that prays for world-wide chaos and mayhem, from which Osama wrongly assumes Islam will emerge victorious and rule the surviving masses. Osama cares not one whit for the killing of Moslems, if it brings his intended consequences. How many Moslems died on 9/11?... They are the 'necessary' sacrifices the Osamas of Islamism are more than willing to make to his demon. Add Hezbollah, Hamas, and a host of other blood lusters and you have the makings of a real world-wide blood bath.

[11B3]

The blood that will flow like giant rivers will be coming from Moose-Limbs (or their carbonized smoldering stumps). One more 9/11 and "Let's Roll" will be an understatement.

[John O]

I agree with you both. I think it's way past time to let the mohammedan world know that we will start flinging nukes their way with the slightest of provocations.

We need to erase the concept that genocide is a bad thing since it will take the total eradication of islam to end this war. Let's start with mecca and medina and then nuke every arab/mohammedan capital. (of course we'll give them one week to convert to Christianity and/or evacuate their cities)

God Save America (Please)

[MHGinTN]

How is what you advocate any different from the fanatical jihadis who want to convert the masses to allah at the 'point of a sword'? Whew! Give the New Testament a spin, might defuse some of the hate festering inside of your heart. Focus first upon Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Try reading for comprehension in the little Book of Philemon, with special attention to the fate of Onesimus.

We are not called by Jesus to convert even one solitary soul at the point of the sword, that is one of the fundamental errors at the heart of Islam. Please, don't make that mistake in the name of the Lord.

[r9etb]

We are not called by Jesus to convert even one solitary soul at the point of the sword, that is one of the fundamental errors at the heart of Islam. Please, don't make that mistake in the name of the Lord.

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)

The martyrdom of Bonnie Penner is instructive. Had she (and the clinic) been ineffective, Bonnie Penner would be alive today.

Instead, the apparent success of her mission quite clearly got under the salamikazis' collective skin.

This points out two things: there is fertile ground for Christian evangelism in the Islamic countries; and for that reason, we need not treat all of Islam as enemies (because they're not). We need instead to introduce them to Jesus.

[MHGinTN]

Amen! 'Ever vigilant to share the hope that is within you' ... hardly sounds like vengence.

[John O]

We are not called by Jesus to convert even one solitary soul at the point of the sword, that is one of the fundamental errors at the heart of Islam. Please, don't make that mistake in the name of the Lord.

You misunderstand. Islam lets you live if you convert. I offer a chance to convert and go to heaven because you're going to die anyway. In war someone must live and someone must die. The bible does not forbid us from being the ones who live.

I realize that most mohammadans are just mislead and that only the leadership is truly evil, however, each one left alive is another threat to me and my children and my way of life. So, as an act of mercy, I offer them a chance to make peace with God. A chance that they have never given to any of their victims.

I do not hate the mohammedans, but I do hate the system they are trapped in. The sad truth is that as long as they are in that system (and unfortunately due to the rules of that system, even after they leave it) they are a threat to me and mine. A mohammedan would gladly claim to be a Christian in order to gain access to more victims. Their religion commands them to lie so how can we accept even their conversion or surrender at face value. There really is only one lasting answer. (May God have mercy on their souls)

GSA(P)

[NewRomeTacitus]

Today a veteran of Viet Nam argued with me over how he believed Muhommad was descended from Abraham, that he was a true prophet and that Islam was indeed more peace-loving than Christianity. He cited some incident about a black flag representing their bountiful mercy. Anyone up on this? To me Black Flag means Henry Rollins Rules!

[jedwardtremlett]

It's Friedman, yeah.

I really wish he wouldn't write these things and sign the current President's name to them. They might be good pieces, but when they get reprinted in some Muslim countries they don't make it clear that Friedman wrote them, and the locals all think this came from the President.

He used to do this with Clinton all the time, and I was hoping he'd stop doing it with Bush. No such luck.

J