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I understand the actions of the pastor and his little flock – to burn a copy of the Quran – is insensitive and offensive to Muslims. I understand how it might make our job in Afghanistan harder. But I also understand these two points worth remembering.
First, we are at war. I know given the present rules of engagement it is hard to remember that. I also know that there are many people in Afghanistan and across the Muslim world who are biding their time, waiting to see how things turn out, and waiting for America to get the H*** out. Some of these are closet jihadists. We all know this.
As I said, I understand how this pastor’s burning of the Quran might make your job harder, but it might also bring some of these Jihadists out of the closet. Instead of fighting this pastor, I recommend fighting the administration who has your military hands tied. That way, when these closet jihadists show themselves you can do some serious butt kicking. Yes, lives will be lost. Lives are lost in war as you know, but if you can see your enemy out in the open, you might be able to bring things to a close more quickly and thus save lives.
Do you think that maybe the continuing violence in Iraq after we “finished our work” is because we left too many jihadists in the closet there?
Second, this pastor’s self-expression is precisely what a free America allows and what you are supposed to be defending: His right to be stupid. The constitution does not say you have freedom of speech as long as it is sensitive and inoffensive. Your job is not to criticize this pastor but to defend him. Your enemy is not this American Citizen but those very people who want to force this citizen to shut-up.
Look, I am in no way condoning the acts of this person, but I will defend to the death his right to do it – as should you. So, here is a suggestion. Maybe this pastor could fly to New York and on 9-11 he can burn his Quran on the site of the ground zero mosque. Hey, this is America! Every stupid, insensitive, offensive act deserves another.
-MichaelThe Fiction Side: The Storyteller http://mgkizzia.wordpress.com/ The Non-Fiction Side: Word & Spirit http://michaelkizzia.wordpress.com/
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Common Sense: Islam for the Masses
“There is no blindness as dark as willful blindness and no ignorance as dangerous as willful ignorance” ------ MGK
The following ought to concern every American, every person in the West and East, or at least every person who is still a Christian. This is not criticism, but a simple telling of three facts about Islam, facts that we should all know.
1. Islam means submission to God. A Muslim is a person who submits to God. Specifically, Muslims conform themselves to the Quran and to the Sunnah, the writing as well as the teachings and sayings of the Prophet, Mohammed. Okay, but on a practical level, what does that mean?
It means that Muslims see themselves as the people of God and everyone else as either deluded by Satan (the devil) or working for Satan against God. As such, Islam will never be tolerant, multi-cultural or open to diversity. No matter what administration in what Islamic state says, it ain’t gonna happen.
You see, Mohammed stands in the long line of the Prophets that began with Abraham. When the last and greatest of the Jewish Prophets was rejected (Jesus, and in Islam he is simply one of the Prophets), God rejected the Jews—the children of Isaac, and selected the children of Ishmael in their place. Through Mohammed, he gave the final and complete revelation for humanity until the time of the end of the world.
Thus, if all other religions, systems, ideologies are inherently deluded or satanic, then Islam leaves no room for them. And, let me be clear about this, this is not the radical idea of a few Muslims. It is the nature of the faith. But Christians and Jews see themselves in much the same way, as the people of God. So what’s the difference? Jihad.
2. Jihad means striving (to conform to God’s will). For the individual to strive to be closer to God’s will (to be a jihadist) is laudable. For a Muslim community or nation Jihad is not a bad thing, but it gets complicated when not everyone in the community or nation is Muslim. But there is one more thing that Jihad means, and that is striving to impose God’s will on the whole world. That is the fundamental drive—to overcome Satan in this world and bring God the victory. And that can be pursued by any means, including the sword.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for any Muslim to be tolerant of other faiths. Equally don’t hold your breath waiting for any Muslim to condemn Hamas, the Taliban or Al-Qaida. It ain’t gonna happen, either. Most Muslims might not be willing to pick up the sword themselves, but they are not going to speak against those who do. The imposition of Islam on the world is considered by some (scholars) to be one of the pillars of the faith. To deny it would be like a Jew denying circumcision or a Christian denying Baptism or the Lord’s Supper. Of course, when dealing with Satan, it is not wrong to cheat, steal and lie, so I suppose some Muslims might say the words they believe the non-Muslim world wants to hear.
Please understand. Jihad is not the invention of Radical Islam, Islamic fanatics or anything of the kind. It is foundational to the faith, and the example is Mohammed himself, who in his last ten years or so in Medina did everything from sending out hit squads against anyone who insulted him to holding an all out military crusade against the Byzantines. But what does it mean to impose Islam on the whole world because there will always be Christians and other faiths, won’t there? Not necessarily under Sharia.
3. Sharia is the perfect expression of God’s will – even if various schools of Islamic thought and teaching vary on the fine points of the law. Ultimately, Muslims do not have to conquer by the sword. All they have to do is get the nations to come into conformity with Sharia. But again, on a practical level, what does that mean?
It means women and children are little better than property. Women can own property, they can inherit and do not have to share their fortune with their husbands, but they are restricted in their appearance, movements, associations: no school, no driving, whatever, depending on the location and local interpretation. It is always restrictive—less than men. Women can be beaten and effectively raped by their husbands with little recourse, if any. Their voice in court carries only half the weight of a man. A man can accuse his wife of adultery and though she protest, she is guilty, and that can carry a brutal death penalty.
Likewise Christians (and Jews believe it or not) as “People of the Book,” (and others added to the list since Mohammed’s day) have some limited protection but are second-class citizens (dhimmi) at best. They cannot build churches, or in some cases cannot even repair their existing buildings, and they dare not speak their faith in public. The simple accusation of proselytizing was enough for the Muslim world to justify the murder of medical missionaries in Afghanistan. And for any Muslim who converts, that is an automatic death penalty.
You see, Islam, Mohammed, the Quran and Sharia are above debate. To criticize, critique or in any way suggest another way might be better is considered insulting to God, and to insult God is to receive the death penalty. Go ask Rushdie. Go ask the Danish cartoonist.
So With that, here is what Christians have to look forward to: Watch yourself become a second class citizen with heavy, extra taxes. Watch your secular, nominal Christian neighbors and friends fall away from the faith – attracted to where the power is and they won’t want to pay the heavy burden of extra taxes. Watch your daughters (potentially) raised in ignorance, restricted in what they can do and (potentially) brutalized. Watch your sons be proselytized in school and turned toward Islam while you dare not talk about Jesus in public on threat of death.
And that is just scratching the surface of the expectations of normative Islam. You should see what the fanatics have in mind.
Will the East survive? Yes, for a time at least, and they will defend their borders. India has an army and Nukes on the border like a wall. Is it against Pakistan? Not exactly. It is against Islam.
Will the West survive? Not at this time, and here is why: “But we are better people than that, aren’t we? We believe in freedom regardless of race, creed or religion. Surely we can make room in our nation (society, culture) for Islam. We are a tolerant people and if we show tolerance and respect for Islam, surely the Muslims will return tolerance and respect for us, won’t they?” Let me just say this: When a group of American Jewish tourists with cameras swinging from their necks stop for a beer in Mecca at the pub across the street from Islam’s Holy of Holies, then I will say yes.
-Michael
The Fiction Side: The Storyteller http://mgkizzia.wordpress.com/
The Non-Fiction Side: Word & Spirit http://michaelkizzia.wordpress.com/
The following ought to concern every American, every person in the West and East, or at least every person who is still a Christian. This is not criticism, but a simple telling of three facts about Islam, facts that we should all know.
1. Islam means submission to God. A Muslim is a person who submits to God. Specifically, Muslims conform themselves to the Quran and to the Sunnah, the writing as well as the teachings and sayings of the Prophet, Mohammed. Okay, but on a practical level, what does that mean?
It means that Muslims see themselves as the people of God and everyone else as either deluded by Satan (the devil) or working for Satan against God. As such, Islam will never be tolerant, multi-cultural or open to diversity. No matter what administration in what Islamic state says, it ain’t gonna happen.
You see, Mohammed stands in the long line of the Prophets that began with Abraham. When the last and greatest of the Jewish Prophets was rejected (Jesus, and in Islam he is simply one of the Prophets), God rejected the Jews—the children of Isaac, and selected the children of Ishmael in their place. Through Mohammed, he gave the final and complete revelation for humanity until the time of the end of the world.
Thus, if all other religions, systems, ideologies are inherently deluded or satanic, then Islam leaves no room for them. And, let me be clear about this, this is not the radical idea of a few Muslims. It is the nature of the faith. But Christians and Jews see themselves in much the same way, as the people of God. So what’s the difference? Jihad.
2. Jihad means striving (to conform to God’s will). For the individual to strive to be closer to God’s will (to be a jihadist) is laudable. For a Muslim community or nation Jihad is not a bad thing, but it gets complicated when not everyone in the community or nation is Muslim. But there is one more thing that Jihad means, and that is striving to impose God’s will on the whole world. That is the fundamental drive—to overcome Satan in this world and bring God the victory. And that can be pursued by any means, including the sword.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for any Muslim to be tolerant of other faiths. Equally don’t hold your breath waiting for any Muslim to condemn Hamas, the Taliban or Al-Qaida. It ain’t gonna happen, either. Most Muslims might not be willing to pick up the sword themselves, but they are not going to speak against those who do. The imposition of Islam on the world is considered by some (scholars) to be one of the pillars of the faith. To deny it would be like a Jew denying circumcision or a Christian denying Baptism or the Lord’s Supper. Of course, when dealing with Satan, it is not wrong to cheat, steal and lie, so I suppose some Muslims might say the words they believe the non-Muslim world wants to hear.
Please understand. Jihad is not the invention of Radical Islam, Islamic fanatics or anything of the kind. It is foundational to the faith, and the example is Mohammed himself, who in his last ten years or so in Medina did everything from sending out hit squads against anyone who insulted him to holding an all out military crusade against the Byzantines. But what does it mean to impose Islam on the whole world because there will always be Christians and other faiths, won’t there? Not necessarily under Sharia.
3. Sharia is the perfect expression of God’s will – even if various schools of Islamic thought and teaching vary on the fine points of the law. Ultimately, Muslims do not have to conquer by the sword. All they have to do is get the nations to come into conformity with Sharia. But again, on a practical level, what does that mean?
It means women and children are little better than property. Women can own property, they can inherit and do not have to share their fortune with their husbands, but they are restricted in their appearance, movements, associations: no school, no driving, whatever, depending on the location and local interpretation. It is always restrictive—less than men. Women can be beaten and effectively raped by their husbands with little recourse, if any. Their voice in court carries only half the weight of a man. A man can accuse his wife of adultery and though she protest, she is guilty, and that can carry a brutal death penalty.
Likewise Christians (and Jews believe it or not) as “People of the Book,” (and others added to the list since Mohammed’s day) have some limited protection but are second-class citizens (dhimmi) at best. They cannot build churches, or in some cases cannot even repair their existing buildings, and they dare not speak their faith in public. The simple accusation of proselytizing was enough for the Muslim world to justify the murder of medical missionaries in Afghanistan. And for any Muslim who converts, that is an automatic death penalty.
You see, Islam, Mohammed, the Quran and Sharia are above debate. To criticize, critique or in any way suggest another way might be better is considered insulting to God, and to insult God is to receive the death penalty. Go ask Rushdie. Go ask the Danish cartoonist.
So With that, here is what Christians have to look forward to: Watch yourself become a second class citizen with heavy, extra taxes. Watch your secular, nominal Christian neighbors and friends fall away from the faith – attracted to where the power is and they won’t want to pay the heavy burden of extra taxes. Watch your daughters (potentially) raised in ignorance, restricted in what they can do and (potentially) brutalized. Watch your sons be proselytized in school and turned toward Islam while you dare not talk about Jesus in public on threat of death.
And that is just scratching the surface of the expectations of normative Islam. You should see what the fanatics have in mind.
Will the East survive? Yes, for a time at least, and they will defend their borders. India has an army and Nukes on the border like a wall. Is it against Pakistan? Not exactly. It is against Islam.
Will the West survive? Not at this time, and here is why: “But we are better people than that, aren’t we? We believe in freedom regardless of race, creed or religion. Surely we can make room in our nation (society, culture) for Islam. We are a tolerant people and if we show tolerance and respect for Islam, surely the Muslims will return tolerance and respect for us, won’t they?” Let me just say this: When a group of American Jewish tourists with cameras swinging from their necks stop for a beer in Mecca at the pub across the street from Islam’s Holy of Holies, then I will say yes.
-Michael
The Fiction Side: The Storyteller http://mgkizzia.wordpress.com/
The Non-Fiction Side: Word & Spirit http://michaelkizzia.wordpress.com/
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