Solomon2
BANNED
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2008
- Messages
- 19,475
- Reaction score
- -37
- Country
- Location
Believing The Islamic Lie
June 3, 2013: Christians in countries with Muslim majorities, or large minorities, are having a difficult time getting the rest of the world to recognize that most (as in about 80 percent) of the religious violence in the world is carried out against Christians and most of the violence is committed by Muslims. This is because the Islamic world, while unable to do much in terms of economic, scientific, or cultural progress, or even govern themselves effectively, have proven quite adept at convincing leaders and media organizations in the West that Islam is not the aggressor and is actually the victim. For those who have spent any time living among Muslims, this all seems absurd. But this delusion is real.
For example, its official policy in the U.S. military to eliminate any mention of a war between Islam and the West. This policy is enforced despite the fact that Islam, at least according to many Islamic clerics is at war with the West. The U.S. has officially maintained this since shortly after September 11, 2001, despite the fact that many Islamic clerics and government officials in Muslim nations, agree with the "Islam is at war with the West" idea. But many Western leaders prefer to believe that by insisting that such hostile attitudes are not widespread in Muslim countries, the hostility will diminish. To that end the U.S. government has, for years, been removing any reference to "Islam" and "terrorism" in official documents. This comes as a shock to military or civilian personnel who have spent time in Muslim countries. The "Islam is at war with the West" angle is alive and well among Muslims.
There is plenty of evidence. For example, twenty nations account for over 95 percent of terrorism activity in the world. Of these twenty (Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Uganda, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Palestinian Territories, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Colombia, Algeria, Thailand, Philippines, Russia, Sudan, Iran, Burundi, India, Nigeria, and Israel) all but four of them (Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Colombia, and Burundi) involve Islamic terrorism. In terms of terrorism fatalities the top four nations (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia) accounted for 75 percent of the world total of terrorism related deaths. All of these were the result of Islamic radicalism, often directed at other Muslims and not just non-Muslims (infidels).
This has been the case for decades, and the Muslim world does not like to dwell on this fact. Many Muslim leaders admit that there is a lot of Islamic terrorism but insist that its all the fault of infidels (non-Muslims) who are making war on Islam, so some Muslims feel compelled to fight back. The catch-phrase Muslim leaders like to repeat is that Islam is the religion of peace. It is not, and the historical record makes that very clear.
It's not just a long history of Muslim violence but lots of violence that is still going on. Currently, you find Muslims attacking Buddhists in Thailand, Jews everywhere, Baha'is in Iran, and Christians in Egypt, Iraq, the Philippines, Pakistan, Malaysia, and elsewhere. Islam does not discriminate when it comes to religious violence, and most Muslims killed because of religious violence are killed by fellow Muslims over religious differences. Usually its Sunni extremists (like al Qaeda) killing Shia (or any other sect that deviates from strict Sunni interpretations of Islamic law and religious customs).
This is not a sudden and unexpected outburst of Muslim violence against non-Muslims and Muslims considered heretical. It is normal and at the root of Islamic terrorism. While this violent behavior represents only a small number of Muslims, it is a large minority (from a few percent of a population to over half, according to opinion polls). Moreover, the majority of Muslims has not been willing, or able, to confront and suppress the Islamic radicals that not only spread death and destruction but also besmirch all Muslims. This reveals a fundamental problem in the Islamic world, the belief that combining righteousness with murderous tactics is often the road to power and spiritual salvation. Throughout history, when these tactics were applied to non-Muslims, they often failed. The non-Muslims were unfazed by the religious angle and, especially in the last five hundred years, were better able to defeat Islamic violence with even greater violence. Thus, until quite recently, the Muslims fought among themselves and left the infidels (non-Muslims) alone. But after World War II that began to change.
Naturally, this began to show up first in the Middle East. During the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990, Christian and Muslim Arabs fought bitterly over political, cultural, and, ultimately, religious differences. The capital, Beirut, was divided into Christian and Muslim sections by the Green Line. The name came from the fact that in this rubble filled no man's land only grass and weeds survived. And that the line on a ceasefire map was drawn in green. There have been a lot more Green Lines since then. Few realized it at the time but this war was but the first of many major conflicts between Christians and Muslims in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Many of the earliest Muslim converts were Christians. And many of the people Muslim armies unsuccessfully sought to conquer were Christian. The original Crusades, which modern Muslims portray as Western aggression, were actually a Western attempt to rescue Middle Eastern Christians from increasing Islamic terrorism and violence. But Islam as a political force was in decline for several centuries until the 1970s. Then things changed and they continue to change. Fueled by oil wealth and access to Western weapons and technology, Islamic radicals saw new opportunities. Islam was again on the march and few have noticed the many places where it was turning into religious war with Christians and other non-Muslims.
In Asia we have a Green Line between India and Pakistan. Inside India many Muslim communities remain and feelings aren't always neighborly. Indonesia and the Philippines suffer growing strife between Muslims and non-Muslims. Malaysia has fanatical Muslims persecuting more laid-back ones and non-Muslims in general. China has a large Muslim community that generates an increasing amount of violence. Russia and America have formed a curious partnership to deal with Islamic-based terrorism coming out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Chechnya Russia faced Islamic-inspired violence all alone in the 1990s.
Africa has a rather dusty Green Line, south of the semi-arid Sahel region. Many African nations are split by increasingly sensitive religious differences. The Muslims are in the north, Christians and animists in the south. Nigeria, Egypt, and Sudan are among the more violent hot spots at the moment. When the Muslim Somalis stop fighting each other they will return to raiding their Christian and animist neighbors to the south.
The Middle East still contains many non-Muslims. None have their own country, except for Israel. But Egypt contains five million Copts, native Christians who did not convert to Islam. Similar small Christian communities exist throughout the Middle East and growing hostility from Muslim neighbors causes many to migrate or get killed.
Muslims are particularly vicious when they turn their righteous wrath on dissident Muslim sects. The Druze and Alawites are considered by many Muslims as pagans pretending to be Muslims. Similarly, the Shias of Iran and neighboring areas are considered less orthodox, not just for their admitted differences but because many adherents openly practice customs of the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian religion. These differences are less frequently overlooked today. To survive, many Druze have allied with Israel and most of the current Syrian leadership are Alawites who pretend to be more Shia than they really are.
Even Europe has a Green Line. The Muslims in the Balkans (Albanians and Bosnians) have been a constant source of strife for the last decade. Muslim migrants in Europe face even more persecution because of all those Green Lines, and this makes it easier for radical groups to recruit and carry out their crusade against Christians. In many European cities with Muslim minorities there are neighborhoods non-Muslims are advised to stay out of.
But the Green Lines are about more than religion. A lot of it is politics. One of the reasons Islam ran out of steam centuries ago was that the Muslim areas never embraced democracy and intellectual progress. Until the 20th century most Muslims lived as part of some foreign empire, under local totalitarian monarchs. The foreign empires disappeared 50-100 years ago but democracy has had a hard time taking hold. The dictatorships are still there. And the people are restless.
Radical Islam arose as an alternative to all the other forms of government that never seemed to work. In theory, establishing "Islamic Republics" would solve all problems. People could vote but only Muslims in good standing could be candidates for office. A committee of Muslim holy men would have veto power over political decisions. Islamic law would be used. It was simple and it makes sense to a lot of Muslims in nations ruled by thugs and thieves, especially if the people are largely uneducated and illiterate.
Islamic Republics don't work. The only one that has been established (not counting others that say they are but aren't) is in Iran. The major problems were twofold. First, the radicals had too much power. Radical religious types are no fun and you can't argue with them because they are on a mission from God. Most people tire of this in short order. To speed this disillusionment many of the once-poor and now-powerful religious leaders became corrupt. This eventually sends your popularity ratings straight to hell.
It will take a generation or so for everyone in the Muslim world to figure out where all this is going. This is already happening in Iran, where moderates are getting stronger every day but everyone is trying to avoid a civil war. While the radicals are a minority they are a determined bunch. The constant flow of Islamic radical propaganda does more than generate recruits and contributions in Muslim countries, it also energizes Muslim minorities (both migrants and converts) in Western countries to acts of terrorism. In the United States you find such Muslims regularly getting arrested for attempting to carry out religious violence.
Radicals throughout the Muslim world continue to take advantage of dissatisfaction among the people and recruit terrorists and supporters. To help this process along they invoke the ancient grudges popular among many Muslims. Most of these legends involve Christians beating on Muslims. To most radicals it makes sense to get people agitated over faraway foreigners rather than some strongman nearby.
Most radicals lack the skills, money, or ability to carry their struggle to far-off places. So most of the agitation takes place among Muslim populations. Any violent attitudes generated are easily directed at available non-Muslims. Thus we have all those Green Lines. But the more violence you have along those Green Lines the more really fanatical fighters are developed. These are the people who are willing to travel to foreign lands, deal with non-believers, and kill them for the cause. We call it terrorism, the fanatics call it doing what has to be done.
Not surprisingly, Muslims get motivated to do something about Islamic radicalism when the violence is literally next door. That's why terror attacks in the West are so popular. The infidels are being attacked, without any risk to those living in Muslim countries. Iraq changed all that, and during the course of that war (2004-7) the popularity of Islamic terrorism, in Muslim countries, declined sharply because the terrorists were killing so many Muslims. That, in the end, is what has killed, for a while, most Islamic terrorism in Iraq. Worldwide, al Qaeda never recovered the popularity (in the Muslim world) it enjoyed after September 11, 2001. It would also be nice if the Muslim world got their act together and expunged this malevolent tendency once and for all. The Arab Spring was supposed to help but so far it hasnt. Change is coming but don't hold your breath waiting for it to suddenly appear.
, yanks ahahahaha
