Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Islamic Fundamentalism
A friend and I were discussing the attacks in India today. I kept coming back to- What is it that the Islamic Fundamentalist want?? I think there are only two things that they desire of us, and it is an either / or situation. They want us to convert to Islam as THEY wish it practiced OR they want us to die. As a Christian, I know that we had the crusades. The things done in the Lords name were horrible. Fortunately, Christianity survived it's barbaric period without inflicting too much damage. Unfortunately, Islamicism is hitting it's 'crusade' period in a world that cannot bear it. The damage that can be done by a few today is greater by a huge factor over what the same number could achieve a thousand years ago. What the Christians, Jews, Liberals, Conservatives - Everyone in this country has to realize is that THIS IS A RELIGIOUS WAR!!! To the enemy this is a religious war. This means the enemy is prepared to die to get to us. This means that there is no negotiation possible. To them, we are evil, they are on the side of God. To them, since they are god's warriors, any unspeakable act is ok - it is God's will. I don't know what it will take to get the people of this country to understand this. I don't know if people like Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon will ever be able to grasp it. If the Islamic fundamentalists were suddenly in power, Penn, Robbins, and Sarandon would be three of the first that would be slaughtered. That is what I find so ironic. The many many peaceful practitioners of Islam will eventually have to make a choice. Will they continue to be relatively quiet as the Fundamentalist kill in the name of Islam - or - will they denounce the fundamentalists??? This outcry has to be huge. What may eventually have happen is that practitioners of Islam in this country may have to be segregated and isolated like the Japanese in World War II. That was horrible, and I hope it never has to come to that. The fact remains that if it comes down to survival - rights get trumped. Looking back, the situation with the Japanese was jumping at ghosts. I am sure that most of those involved then did not know that. I hope the Islamic Fundamentalists back off and let us live in peace and that they can live in peace. If they do not back off, it WILL be US or THEM - NOT because WE want it that way, but because THEY do. If we have to fight for our survival- if that group of humanity continues to hold it to us in those terms, then what our general populace needs to realize is that we can not fight nice. We WILL commit atrocities. We WILL kill women and children. We WILL torture when necessary. We will do this not because we wanted something that the Islamic Fundamentalists have, but because we want to live. We will do this or we will die. The Geneva conventions will only apply to us. If the other side will not abide by them - and they won't - then we cannot do so either. I am sorry Sean, Tim, Susan, - Real war is brutal. It is not what we want, but what is being forced upon us. In order for you to be able to live like you live, our soldiers are going to act in uncivilized ways. War is not civilized. Rules are only rules when both sides abide by them. Otherwise, rules are the noose around the neck of the side that does abide them. There WILL be innocent casualties. Innocent people WILL die. We DON'T want it, but it is an unavoidable part of war. The point to remember is that if the Islamic Fundamentalists practice their beliefs without imposing them on others on threat of death, then none of these bad things happen.
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3 comments:
This was a reply on a forum I frequent.........
I dont know November 27 2008, 4:46 AM
what to say, I am only 25 years old, so I have not been around as much as some of you, but my dad and his dad spent 40 years between them in the middle east and other oil rich area's and he said most of those people are some of the dumbest people on the face of the planet no matter what they believe, I doubt them believing enough will allow them the technology/manpower to get us over here in a serious attack.
Yes there was 9/11 but I am going to call that luck due to a combination of problems at the time, could it happen again yes, will it happen again sometime in in era of this country (wont be around forever) it will happen again, do I think peoples rights should be infringed upon for peace of mind or to be safe, hell no.
I didn't serve in the military nor do I plan do but I do believe that one reason people serve is to protect the country, and not just physically I hope they are also there to protect the ideals of this country, you know you can come here and work hard and make a good life for yourself and be free no matter where you are from..
I know some may think it sounds naive but thats what I think, we are great because we give visitors the benefit of the doubt, I don't know what the three movie stars you mentioned have to do with anything, as far as Christianity not inflicting to much damage, I would have to disagree I wont get into it if you want to e-mail me we could chat about it, but I don't see any one religion being better then another...
Some people because we have rapists and murders in prison and other criminals in prison, could say we are all bad people yadda yadda, but those are extreme cases the majority of people are not like this..
I believe it is the same with people who are Islamic, and its all a matter of interpretation, the Islamic Extremists while being bad people, to me do not reflect on the rest of the people who follow that faith.
Same as I do not let other people of various backgrounds ruin my outlook on a people because they are assholes, except the Irish those people are extremely stupid.
My point being, while they do want to kill us I don't see it happening on a massive scale you mention if those people come to power that they would start killing those three movie stars for some reason, do you mean like in this country or just come to power in their own country?
As far as the Islamic extremists backing off, I am really confused have they done something to us recently that warrants this post, or did you see something, or are you implying something about the president(not saying you are just curious as to what brought the post on).
Now I am not saying we rest on our asses if someone was to attack us, by all means blow their asses to hell, but if we are not sure, or want to get someone else because they are friends with the other guy, but did nothing wrong that is wrong..
People says America does not need to be nice well it does, we need to set an example so the rest of the world straightens out, but we also cant go around pissing people off because that will make people extremely angry, imagine your a little kid in 91 and your whole family gets killed from a bomb but it was a total accident you are angry but there is nothing to do the guys who did it are gone, now imagine your in your 20's you have a young wife and kids and the same thing happens the same people drop a bomb and accidentally kill all the people you love, that would piss people off, not saying we are perfect and we should not drop bombs but avoid it as much as you can because suddenly the guy with a family becomes a guy who wants to kill us because we accidentally dropped a bomb on his ass, while looking for WMD's that were not in his country in the first place.
I know that went off topic but I always try to picture myself as the other guy when thinking about situations.
Anyways thats all, I think people make to much of it, I know other people are a serious threat to us, but the only way any other foreign nation or power or people can EVER be a TRUE threat to the US, is by scaring us enough to take away rights of people to ensure we stay safe. Then that is when we would have a problem.
Rights should never be Trumped.
This was another comment.....
Rights.....
You may be dead right, but you're still dead.
This was my response....
Absolutely. If you are dead - the Bill of Rights is pretty much irrelevant.
I am not saying Christianity was better in the barbarism of the Crusades. What I AM saying is that the damage was not as great as it would be for an Islamic crusade now. This is due to the technological state of the world and not to any religious factor.
All it will take is a single small team of Islamic Fundamentalists detonating a nuke in a major city and the toll will surpass the death toll of the crusades in a microsecond. One fundamentalist with a machine gun can do the damage of 50 crusaders in a minute.
Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson (a couple of christianity's fundamentalists) may have preached close-minded things, but they never sent their congregation to kill those who would not worship as they do.
Our Freedoms and rights are very important to me. Sometimes, though, other people's drive to deprive us of our lives clash with our rights. The encroachment of rights that follows by us is not what we want to do, but something forced on us by the situation. We do not, as a nation, like having our hand forced, so the suspension of rights usually is a last resort.
The three actors that I mentioned are very talented. I like them all as actors, but their grasp on the realities of the situation facing us is non-existent. They are sheltered children in this regard. They truly think that the reason that we are hated is due to things we have done. We did help create Bin-Laden. We helped create the situation. When the USSR occupied Afghanistan, we trained and supplied the Afghan insurgents. We brought them up to a modern level in weapons. Many of these people that we used came to believe that we did not give a damn about Afghanistan, but just wished to harm the USSR. They may have been correct in this regard. So upon closer examination, these people that we trained came to loathe us due to our loose morality as seen from their perspective. They believe their morality is the only right morality, and they are willing to kill to further it. Getting back to the three actors mentioned, they believe an apology can stop it. They believe that we can kiss and make up if only we would. What is ironic to me is those three actors would be some of the most reprehensible people to the very fundamentalists that they want to make nice with. Sarandon, especially, would offend them. She is the ultra modern feminist. If you don't know why that would be an issue, then you are not cognizant of the issue.
War is and always will be an ugly business. This is the fact with which America's people must come to terms. It is wrong to have CNN and Fox and all the media in there with them in a war. Things get taken out of context and the ugliness gets magnified. An example is the picture of that one Vietnamese guy getting ready to have his head blown off in a summary execution by a South Vietnamese officer. This was used to paint our side as the bad guys. That poor man about to get the skull ventilation had caused the death of untold numbers of South Vietnamese. It was war and the person being executed was a combatant. Now do I like it that that man was killed - no I don't. Still, this is a picture that harmed our cause. As powerful as the picture is, it should never have been taken. So Harry Reid can sit in DC and bitch about our troops, but he is not in that situation under those pressures. He is getting a snapshot and not a true grasp of the situation. Do you see how partial information can tremendously harm a cause, can defuse morale? As a nation we must recognize that war IS ugly, Innocents WILL be killed inadvertantly. What we must also realize is that if the other side chooses to recognize basic human rights, then we do no killing at all. We can not play angels in a world of devils. That will get us all killed. We have to do what it takes to keep us and our way of life in existance. We can certainly make an effort to minimize the carnage, but we cannot expect to eliminate it.
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