RELIGION IN THE NEWS
Now Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from The Jewish World Review June 12, 2006, with a headline: Democracy in Iraq? The following are excerpts: What we should aim for is an Iraq that is not a terrorist threat, not an Iraq that is a democratic paradigm. Would such a change in mission mark a defeat for the United States and the so-called war on terror? Only if we fail to rethink our overall strategy, particularly as it pertains to our assessment of Islam. That is, if Jeffersonian democracy remains a strategic goal for Iraq, anything short of that goal will be scored as a failure. But what if we accept the politically incorrect fact that our failure to establish liberty and justice for all in Iraq, namely freedom of conscience and equality before the law, is due to the nature of Islamic culture, not to the efficacy of American efforts. If five years after September 11, we finally face the fact that liberty in Islam defined literally as freedom from unbelief has nothing to do with liberty in the West. We could finally understand why an Iraqi constitution enshrining Sharia is holy incompatible with everything our own democracy stands for, and is thus not something worth dying for. Such a reassessment would remove the political transformation of the Muslim Middle East from our war strategy. This would let us focus on the formidable military task of fighting Jihad in Iraq, and beyond, eliminating deporting and containing the threat as needed. This is a global war with many fronts, from Iran to Syria to Gaza to quite a few neighborhoods in Toronto, London and elsewhere. It is time to arrive at new ways and means to fight on them.
Tom:
Dave, this is from, as Gary mentioned, Jewish World Review, and I think this is insightful. We’ve been saying all along the problem is not political, the problem is religious, the problem is with the beliefs of Islam, based on the Qur’an, based on the hadith, and how they have demonstrated from the time of Muhammad right up until today that this is the way they want to go. It’s a religious take over of the world.
Dave:
Tom, I like this statement here from, as you said or Gary told us, the Jewish World Review. I wish our government would pay some attention to it. I will correct them slightly. They say it is due to the nature of Islamic culture. Well, Islamic culture comes from Islamic religion. So this is not even a cultural thing. We’re not talking about Western culture against Islamic culture, we’re talking about the world, whether it’s Buddhist or Hindu or Christian or what, against Islam, Islam against the entire world. This is Islam, not some culture that came out of Islam. Now, the culture that came out of Islam is we all ride camels and live in tents and dress like Muhammad and eat like Muhammad, and so forth. That’s the Islamic culture that the Taliban tried to impose there in Afghanistan. But we’re talking about Islam, the religion.
Tom:
Sharia, the law that they impose.
Dave:
Well, they have imposed Sharia, the Islamic government in Khartoum has imposed Sharia on Sudan, and as a result more than two million have been killed, hundreds of thousands sold into slavery. There is an active slave market in the Muslim world today. And, as we have mentioned, probably would be a long time ago now,---Look, we don’t have to argue about this, we don’t have to debate about it. You want to know what Islam is, go to Saudi Arabia, no Jew can enter Saudi Arabia by law. Every Jew was killed by Muhammad except for those who escaped. You must be a Muslim to be a citizen of Saudi Arabia. There is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion. You cannot build a non Muslim place of worship in Saudi Arabia. You cannot even have a secret non Muslim worship ceremony in your home, of course you can if they don’t catch you. You may not---no Muslim can convert to any other religion---off with their head in Chop-Chop Square! You wouldn’t dare to carry a Bible on the street in Saudi Arabia, it is a totally oppressive culture.
Tom:
But Dave, how does it change? That’s really what I think this person is addressing here, how do we change it.
Dave:
What they are saying is, we’re going to have to contain them. We can’t allow them to bring this to the West. We give them freedom. They built thousands of mosques in the West, and as you know we document it in Judgment Day, as well as other places, those mosques are centers for spreading Islam, for terrorism. They meet in their own little conclaves, they live together, they don’t interrelate, they certainly don’t intermarry, although they like to marry some non Muslims and then take control of them. But a woman, of course a Muslim woman, cannot marry a non-Muslim man, but a Muslim man can marry a non-Muslim woman, because by law you control your wife, you beat her if she misbehaves, and so forth. But anyway, Tom, what this article is saying is, we’ve got to contain these people. We can’t let them export it out here. Confine it! You want to have that in Iraq, okay, you want to have that in Afghanistan, okay, in the meantime we’re going to be there and see that you don’t use this as a launching pad for terrorism. We’ve got to spread Islam from spreading. Now, as soon as they would give us comparable freedom of religion in their country, then okay, you can bring Islam to the West so long as you give us freedom, because, Tom, it’s got to be a level playing field. They are not willing! Tom, I’ve been calling for years for an open international debate on the issues. You tell us why you think Muhammad is the prophet of God, we’ll tell you why Jesus is the true and only Savior. You tell us why you think the Qur’an is the word of God, we’ll give you prophesies by the hundreds, we’ll give you proof, we’ll pile evidence to the sky, and you Muslims have no evidence! Now, it will boil down to this, do you want to follow the facts, or do you want to follow your prejudice? You tell us of the character of Muhammad. He was a murderer, he was a warrior, he attacked villages and caravans, and so forth. He murdered, he started his career with murders of 25 people, and he gets revelations in the Qur’an to back him up. Compare that with Jesus Christ, whom the Qur’an itself says is without sin. Okay. Let’s have an open debate, and then let’s let the world decide on the facts, okay?
