Islam Vs The Separation Of Church And State

For anyone wanting to dig more deeply into the Syrian refugee controversy and take it a step beyond the political hysteria, reading the following two articles by Ulysses Black is a must.   A deeper issue in the refugee debate: Separation of church and state and part two, Beware the freedom to kill the freedom of religion.

To  complete the exercise and be really well informed you might want to seek out both "The True Believer" and  "The Ordeal of Change" by Eric Hoffer. Though they may be difficult to find and reading them is a bit of a slog, upon reflection you will come to understand motivation and motivators, both good and evil.

With any or preferably all under your belt you will be very well informed as to what the conflict is all about and why it's vital we approach the problem with knowledge rather than emotion.

To The President - Quit Condescending And Listen

According to The Wall Street Journal the summit our President should have sponsored was held in Mecca, Islam's most holy city.  Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb, a grand Imam from Cairo, gathered some 700 moderate Muslim clerics from several countries to appeal for combating the escalation of extremist violence.

He recognizes, as have other Egyptians including their President Al Sisi, that this interpretation is what is causing strained ties with the rest of the world.  To put it mildly.

It is an internal struggle for the heart and soul of Islam and if it is recognized and so stated by men such as these who our we to disagree?  The problem they must resolve is changing the mind set of their more radical members who look at their own people who don't believe as they do need to be destroyed.

Al-Tayeb even went so far as to say those who burned the Jordanian pilot alive are the ones who deserve the Quranic punishment of death or crucifixion for being enemies of God and the prophet. He even suggested there is a need for a joint Arab military force to combat the extremism.  He has an uphill battle considering the fear that grips the Muslim world.

To say that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam and that by calling them Islamic Extremists insults moderate Muslims is just not true. It does go to show that timidity creates vacuums that are filled by those seeking weakness for an opportunity to further their own agendas.

As as example as stated in another Journal article,  the latest issue of Daibiq, the Islamic State's online English magazine, has an article that explains Islam is not a religion of peace but rather a religion of the sword.  It boiled down to interpretation much as Christians of the world take different interpretations of the Bible yet still consider themselves Christian.

Yes, it is complex.  It is also Islam.   It is time to call it what it is and do what is necessary to help the moderate Islams with the task they face.  That is to arm those who are willing to fight and pick up the slack where it is needed to annihilate the barbarians who at this point are winning the psychological war with physical brutality.

This President is so sure of his superior knowledge of all things mortal I know he will not admit that those who are Islam just may know more about themselves than he does.  I also know he will do nothing to help, he will only appease those who will make matters worse.  The Iranians.  They who are more aligned with the thinking of ISIS than of the West.

 I can only take heart that some clerics and Arab leaders are beginning to find their voice.  I grieve, however, for all those who are yet to die in the most inhumane of manners. This President and those he would call allies, though many of them take issue with that, have no claim to moral clarity.  It is most un-American. 

Pure Evil

The world has gone mad, completely mad and both Christians and Israel are sitting in the cross hairs of the manifestation of hatred and evil beyond belief.

I could not believe this headline when I read it, Arab Spring Run Amok: 'Brotherhood' Starts Crucifixions.  Crucifixions?  Are you kidding? No. According to WND radical Muslims have begun crucifying those opposed to Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi. Naked.  On trees in front of the presidential palace.

I could not believe what I was seeing so I searched about a bit and found other articles reporting the same news. Apparently the victims can be anyone with extra brutality reserved for Christians.

Well, here we go again.  Savagery in the name of religion.  It seems it's not only a normal part of Islamic doctrine but obligatory according to the Quran.  Therefore the Muslim brotherhood is obliged to include it in their legal code in order to comply with Shariah.

We've long known the Muslims are bound to wage war against Christians who in many instances are synonymous with the west.  Us.  Are we not a 'Christian' nation?

Israel is in trouble because they thwarted an attack by Hamas trying to cross into Gaza.  Morsi used this as an excuse to purge the top ranks of the military, those who were fighting to preserve some degree of sanity.

We sit here taking no stand on the slaughter that continues in Syria.  We have taken a back seat to the entire theater of war that has been going on in the middle east for years, giving thumbs up to dictators who we declare redeemable but who never are.  Mubarak.  Ghadafi.  Al Assad.  Karzi.  Now Morsi.  We only give the thumbs down when it's apparent they can't extract themselves from the destruction they reigned down upon themselves.  Why is this?

I know the country is tired of war.  We get into them for all the wrong reasons and stay out of them for the same. Our foreign policy is floundering if indeed we have any.  Leading from behind is not a policy.  Or is it?  That makes it even worse.

Morsi is instituting a reign of terror to consolidate his power.  He will be attending a summit in Iran this month.  That does not bode well. He has an invitation to visit the White House in September.  They will try to convince us he is a moderate.  One more monster we wanted to see in power.

All I can do is ask why?  What are we thinking?  Al Assad is slaughtering his own people by the tens of thousands.  Morsi is having his opposition crucified.  This is pure evil.  Period. Yet we neither hear it, see it nor speak it.

We give Israel the cold shoulder, leaving them to fend for themselves.  We welcome these governments with open arms.  Something is drastically wrong.  We are the west.  We are mostly Christian.  We are targeted. Don't ever think we're not.  Just look at the number of our soldiers being murdered by the Afghans who we're training and providing with the very weapons they use.

Somehow, in the grand scheme of things, I could care less what Mitt Romney paid in taxes the last ten years or whether or not he releases that information.  You want something taxing to worry about?  Consider the future as the countries of the middle east fall like dominoes to the Islamic radicals.  Consider too, these monsters are beginning to be put into office by their own people.

What will we be putting into office?  Better yet, what have we put into office?

What Do YOU Believe And More Importantly, Why?

What kind of a news person, reader, would rather have a terrorist be something other than what they are so as to de-emphasize prejudices? MSNBC's Contessa Brewer. Or as in Judith Miller's case on Fox News Watch , we have to learn to get inside these peoples heads so as to understand them. They both make me cringe and in their own way, they're saying the same thing. The poor mis-understood terrorist.

It's really not all that complicated, ladies. It's their religion. It's what they believe, for whatever reason and no amount of breast beating on our part is going to change that.

I got to thinking about people and their religious beliefs. How long has it been since you have sat down and actually thought about why you believe what you do? There are as many religions and offshoots as there are millions of people believing in their premises. Not all are the same by any stretch. Some promote peace and good will, others live and let live and yet others death to all who disbelieve. Somewhere in that hodgepodge there must be a common thread. I don't think it's the belief in a supreme being as much as it's the filling of an inner need. The need to understand our very existence and justify our place in the world.

Obama wasn't all wrong when he spoke of people clinging to their religion and their guns during times of turmoil. It's a comfort zone, sanctuary even, from the troublesome unknown and least understood. An excellent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal speaks to how those who value their religious beliefs over any nation have found themselves disenfranchised no matter where they reside.

Think about it. This country was settled by people who were disenfranchised from the religious beliefs foisted upon them by England, the Jews, Catholics in Northern Ireland. To varying degrees, it is not just Muslim. They just happen to have the most violent of extremists.

It really has nothing the news folk would so like to find. They aren't necessarily loners, underachievers nor poor and uneducated. It's what they've come to believe and they are just as faithful to their beliefs as we are to ours. We are in a ideological fight with those who's beliefs are the antithesis of ours. Where we would open our arms to include them, they would cut ours off as a punishment.

To try to understand that is futile; better minds than Judith Miller's have tried and failed. And to hope a failed terror attempt was the act of someone other than one with that mindset displays a lack of intellect that should be banned from the air. Changing the color of the skin, the accent or religion makes it no less deplorable. What we don't need is more.

The Depths Of Hatred

Literally! It's really difficult for me to understand the depth of hatred of those in the Muslim world who would eliminate us. They take one upping our attempts at security to continually higher levels.

Now that the world is about to embrace whole body scanners, having found wanding to be ineffective, the radical element has issued another "catch me if you can" element to the battle of wits. Planting explosives within the body. In breast implants no less! Is nothing sacred? Perhaps the hatred itself. To those who are consumed by it.

Britain's MI 5 has learned that the planting of explosives within breast implants for women or around the appendix area for men opens a whole new realm of possibilities. They can be planted deep enough that the scanners do not detect them. They would be detonated by inserting a syringe into the protective sac.

I see a few flaws in this. For the men it might be passed off as a diabetic giving himself a shot. I might be suspicious seeing a woman inject her breast. Of course, if not detected in time suspicion would be moot.

I find it doubtful that women are being used for suicide bombings willingly. Once on a plane out of the reach of my handlers I'd give the whole idea the heave ho unless I was so juiced on drugs or brain implants I didn't know what I was doing. I just don't see women wanting to sacrifice themselves to the gender who has built an ideology around abusing them. Then again, it's all in what you know. If that's it and you know of nothing else perhaps you are more willing than one would think.

As for the men? We already know there are enough nut cases looking for their 72 virgins to keep attempts coming, probably forever.

Here I had just about convinced myself that the screening machines would probably be preferable to being pawed only to find out they may be obsolete before they're even installed!

No one ever accused the Islamic radicals of being dumb. They are smart and clever and full of hate. We too are smart and clever. We just seem to be behind the curve rather than ahead of it. That would seem to be a matter of motivation. For the moment they're winning.

It's time to stop the dumbing down of America so that the rest of the world feels more equal with us. We're America. We're supposed to be the leaders of the free world, leading in innovation and ideas and principles.

It's time to reclaim our place. If this administration won't do it we need to get one that will.

Be Careful What You Wish For!

I often wonder if either politicians or the media "get it". The current news cycle seems to be little more than whether or not we should torture. Chris Matthews almost drools at the thought of really getting the bad guys. It's frightening.

There are always the "What if you knew the bad guys had information about an imminent attack. Would you torture them to get the details?" questions. Gene Robinson is the only one I've heard question, to Lynn Cheney no less, just how anyone would have that information in the first place.

There has been little discussion regarding just what actually comprises torture other than water boarding. Then the discussion turns even more political. Has Obama waffled on the release of "enhanced interrogation" photos? What ever became of the promise of transparency in this administration?

As M*A*S*H's Colonel Potter would say, "Horse pucky"! Obama's military commanders strongly urged him to reconsider his inclination to release the photos. Wisely, he listened. Reconsidering and changing ones mind is not waffling! It's showing good judgement when a wise argument has been made.

Why anyone would want to see what we've actually done or contracted to have done is beyond me. That isn't the point. It's the perception the rest of the world will have. More importantly the perception the Islamic world will have. It needs no help to make it more negative!

Forget the argument as to whether or not torture actually works. I'm sure there are times it does and times it does not. The point the military commanders are trying to make is that our enemies can and will give worse than they get. To put our service men and women at greater risk than they already are would be irresponsibly reckless.

Photos speak volumes and are fair game to be interpreted in any manner the observer wishes, be it accurate or not. Those so anxious to have them released would do well to remember not only the Islamic rage that accompanied the Abu Ghraib fiasco but also the emotions that are stirred, even today, of the Holocaust atrocities. The Jewish community will never let it go. Why should the Islamic community be any more generous with what they see as a total humiliation of their religious beliefs.

Jon Stewart summed it up one night when he explained he understood the rage and shared the same blood lust, but the point he made is one we should all consider. This country is better than he is.

I will never understand a culture that is so fanatical that it will stone to death it's own people. And worse. Or behead captives like Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and so many others.

I do understand that flame of hatred is no ember. It is burning strong and flares out of control frequently. Why should we add fuel to it by releasing photos which would be proof positive that there was a day our country was not better than the sum of it's peoples' rage?

Equal Opportunity Brutality

I never cease to be amazed at the depth of difference between the culture of Islamic nations and Western civilization.

I worry about the safety of our men and women in uniform who serve in these countries when, as in Iraq, the Iraqi government wants them to be subject to Iraqi law. Any one in our government who agrees to this should be hung and quartered. That's just about what Islamic law would demand should they be found guilty of a crime like rape or adultery! Well, actually, they'd be stoned.

I had thought that women bore the brunt of their 14th century mentality but it seems not. According to Radio Free Europe , an Iranian man has been stoned to death for adultery. In this case, the woman went unpunished because she repented. Wow. If that's all it takes!

I found a couple of things interesting while I was searching for information with which to flesh out this post. One being I could not find one single photo of a man being stoned, but as you can see, women could.

The expression on the woman's face says all that needs to be said. I guess if you're lucky, the first stone stuns you enough so you don't feel the pelting until it's ended with your death.

Here's how it goes. Women are buried up to their chests, men to their waists. The stones are not to be so large that they would kill you immediately. Next time a criminal in this country who has committed a heinous crime pleads that execution by lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment might be given the choice of an Islamic execution! For far less than the grisly, inhumane murders that bring about such penalties in this country!

Do you think Western influence will stop punishments such as this? I doubt it. Iran ordered a moratorium on stoning in 2002. This, of which I write, happened this year. This March. 2009. Two more happened in February. Some moratorium.

I guess the reason the we speak of Western civilization is because we are civilized. Culture is not a synonym!

The Good Old Days; Well Maybe Not...

I still remember how often my Mom would extol the "good old days" in our conversations. I even find myself falling into the delusional trap as I age in this chaotic world of ours. Two articles in this morning's paper reminded me of how skewed memories can become.

I grimaced at bit at a photo of Obama with his hand on Venezuela's Hugo Chavez's shoulder at the Summit of the Americas. It made me think about how dangerous appeasement can be. This type of "touchy feely" diplomacy requires a delicate touch lest it be considered such. Right above the photo was headline Freed radical cleric seeks Islamic law for Pakistan.

Pakistani President Asif Aki Zardari, along with Parliament, released this man from prison. It's important to remember Pakistan is fast becoming a failed state under the leadership of a man who achieved the Presidency on the back of his assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto. She was corrupt. He was known as Mr. 10%. The implications are obvious.

Just recently he allowed the reinstatement of Islamic law in the Swat Valley. Now, in one more concession, this man who is supposedly an ally, has released this cleric who had barely cleared the prison walls before beginning his drive to spread Islamic law nationwide. This is a chilling event for our efforts to curb the Taliban and eliminate safe havens for al Qada. How the Pakistanis can forget what Islamic law is all about is beyond me. I can think of nothing more oppressive. Especially for women.

It isn't just Pakistan either. The law recently passed in Afghanistan giving men renewed power over their wives has created a chaotic response. The most disturbing part of protests, however, is when some women actually sided with the men in pelting the opposition with stones. What sort of memories does this law evoke in those women? Was their life that good? Or have they effectively shut it out because it was anything but? I haven't a clue as to how they think. That's a large part of the problem.

The cheery morning paper brought it even closer to home and I have a hunch the good people of northern Idaho will not even consider appeasement. Another headline read Racist group leaves fliers on lawns. It would seem the Aryan Nations have once again raised their ugly heads. A local neighborhood has been targeted for recruitment.

Many of us who live in the area know the movement did not disappear with the death of one time leader Richard Butler. This was as recent as 2004! Heck, he even ran for mayor of Hayden shortly before he died and one of his henchmen ran for city council but couldn't vote. He was in jail. For assault on a Hispanic in a grocery store parking lot.

The organization split, part going to Pennsylvania and part to Alabama. Some remained. I know how the people here feel about them. They will never think of their heyday as the good old days. It will always be a source of embarrassment to the community.

What does one circumstance in Pakistan have to do with another in northern Idaho? Both are doing it under the guise of religion. How so? The fliers were signed "Aryan Nations Church of Jesus Christ Christian".

Ouch.