- Sep 16, 2010
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So, concerning Radical Islam, or whatever term gets criticism these days, I see that making religion the center if the problem . . . . IS the problem.
No. In the secular Western world, religion is compartmentalized and you can swap religion at will. But Islam is much more deeply embedded in a state's psyche and government apparatus, such as the Islamic religious police. Also, leaving Islam is punishable by death. I encourage you to ask questions at https://www.reddit.com/r/exmuslim if you want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. As one person there recently posted, the problem is that people who grew up in non-Muslim-majority countries have a certain experience with religion and think that it's the same way in Muslim-majority countries, so they don't understand.
There this this phony idea that all religions are created equal. In actuality all religions are just cults. Some cults are better than others, in terms of real-life consequences.
Also, the whole idea of respecting religions and dismissing cults is fucking stupid since they are the same thing. The only difference is popularity and longevity. I were to create a cult of personality advocating what the Quran and Mohammed did, you would call me a cult leader. (Same thing with Christianity except that if I really did walk on water and do whole fish-and-loaves thing, then you had better pay attention to me.
You have to examine the history of the Middle East since World War I. It was sliced and diced by the European powers. And they sliced it and diced it for essentially the same reason that made sure England entered WWI: The Turks were going to blockade the Suez and stop vital oil shipments.
Why were the Nazis and Rommel running around all over North Africa? Take a look at Germany's oil production today as well as then. 50,000 barrels a year doesn't fuel the Autobahn. Hitler might have won the Battle of Stalingrad if he hadn't split the Panzer divisions to take the Baku oil fields in the south.
Then, there's Iran. Most of the cornpone half-wit Americans think the '79 hostage crisis was all about our support for Israel. Kermit Roosevelt and the CIA had overthrown a democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister -- Mossadegh -- and installed Shah Rezi Pahlavi around 1952. Iran was our client state. The coup was made on behalf of the British, who didn't want to pay royalties for their oil, while Iranian oil-workers were being paid $0.50 per day. As the Shah's position weakened, he created SAVAK -- a brutal secret police organization, trained at Fort Benning.
WE were told, back in the 1950s, that Mossadegh was a socialist and aligning himself with the Communist Bloc. But all Mossadegh wanted was fair compensation for oil. The Brits offered to help us with Korea in exchange for unseating Mossadegh.
So OF COURSE they hate us.
Iraq? Could never have been a nation-state by itself. It was forged after WWI with the Balfour Declarations. Why? It's STILL the third largest proven petroleum reserve in the world. They never fully embraced a national identity, but ALWAYS clung to their tribal and religious identities.
NOW. Let me ask a question.
What do Adam Lanza, Holmes of Aurora, Dylan Roof, the Clackamas killer, Christopher Dorner and several others -- seem to have in common?
Americans seem to get confused about legal standards representing the entire truth of a matter. Even if these villains would not have been found unable to stand trial for mental defect or insanity -- that's the LEGAL standard. ALL of those killers were pathologically nuts.
From bin Laden and Al Qaeda forward, you either have to say they're just plain criminal, or they're criminally insane.
What end-game do they have? What's their strategy? Their strategy is the same as Charles Manson's or Dylan Roof's! "Divide the masses; create an apocalyptic conflict."
Our misfit recruits for ISIS are more of the same human flotsam. They are either seriously disturbed and in need of psychological counseling, or ignorant -- or both. What's their idea of education? ONE BOOK. Anything other than a bomb-making manual is useless to them.
So -- while the terrorists of ISIS should be feared to some degree or a cause for concern, they are also to be derided and laughed at. Just think! A propaganda of the Truth that would boost MSNBC's loser weekend fare of "Lockup" and "Caught on Camera:" "Osama skips his meds;" "Al Zawahiri meets his shrink to discuss his progress dealing with issues about his mother and sister."
Back to "Catholic." I really like Pope Francis. I think he's a wonderful person, and a wise man. But he's made two mistakes these recent weeks that betray his flawed humanity similar to everyone else: he said "This is like World War III." And he's going to visit five African countries, offering a temptation to Boko Haram and others to perform the ultimate outrage and leave the global impression that this is "World War III."
Those lunatics never deserved the recognition of having "America at War." Should've called it a "police action" even for the same level of troop insertion and spending.
Look more closely. The terrorists have hijacked Islam with the goal of making the world THINK this is a Holy War. The Quran-burning hick preacher in Florida, Mike Huckabee and the rest of the evangelicals have all swallowed the bait. MY CAR MECHANIC has swallowed the bait! That's the war THEY (the terrorists) want us to fight.
If you define the conflict, then you have much more certainty of winning it.
So I say -- give us and the world many many weekends of "Lockup: Gitmo" and "Caught on Camera: bin Laden picks his nose." Over . . . and over again . . .
Leave our SANE Muslim brothers and sisters alone.
ADDENDUM: I forgot to ask the second question. "What do Adam Lanza, Dylan Roof, Manson and the others have in common with the Paris killers?" Not Islam. But you'd think the Paris misfits have no capability of original thought: they read the news about Sandy Hook, Aurora and South Carolina. They're a bunch of copy-cats. The detritus of history -- nothing more.
As for the rest of your post, nobody is saying that Islam is the sole source of resentment. However, your history is way off.
E.g., your "of course they hate us" bit... who is "they"? Take your interpretation of the Iranian revolution for instance. Did you know the revolution was led by multiple factions and the Islamists murdered their opponents and hijacked it to the point where many people today who don't know better, think it was an Islamic revolution against a tyrant? And that the Iranian people actually aren't THAT mad at the US/UK anymore for the coup despite decades of propaganda? The hardcore Islamic Iranian leadership is the one trying to shift the spotlight off Iran's internal problems, with tons of propaganda against Israel and the US.
Also, you need to step way back to see the forest instead of the trees with your "The terrorists have hijacked Islam" argument. It goes way farther back than that. Many people of various religions have tried to steer religious fervor for their private gains--including using religion as pretext for wars of aggression, as Muslims (and Christians, etc.) have done. Indeed the US looked the other way re: decades of Saudi Wahhabi proselytization in part due to world reliance on Saudi oil and in part because DOD thought we could use jihadis to curb Soviet influence in Afghanistan. The veterans of that war would go on to form AQ, which would in part turn into Daesh later on. You reap what you sow.
However that does not change the fact that Islam is alone among major faiths is how overzealously confident it is, and how difficult it is to secularize it. Secularization of Islam doesn't make any sense if you know how the Caliphate and Sharia law are supposed to work. Islam really is different from the other major religions whether you want to believe so or not.
As for your "leave our SANE Muslims alone" plea, I would say that a better way to phrase that is that the entire world but especially other Muslims must rise up against Wahhabism and stuff that genie back into the Saudi bottle it came from.
As for your addendum: cherrypicking non-Islamic crimes is nonsensical because nobody said Islam has a monopoly on evil, in the first place.
Also, if you are a liberal or moderate and want to understand why Islam is incompatible with secular and liberal values, see: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37859619&postcount=65
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