OT-“Relentlessly and Thoroughly”
Cathputer
of art.
From the October 15, 2001, issue of National Review
old and uncompromising words were spoken by American (and British) leaders in
the immediate response to the Manhattan Massacre. But they may be succeeded by
creeping appeasement unless public opinion insists that these leaders stick to
their initial resolve to destroy international terrorism completely. One
central reason why appeasement is so tempting to Western governments is that
attacking terrorism at its roots necessarily involves conflict with the
second-largest religious community in the world.
It is widely said that Islamic terrorists are wholly unorthodox in their belief
that their religion sanctions what they do, and promises the immediate reward
of heaven to what we call "suicide bombers" but they insist are martyrs to the
faith. This line is bolstered by the assertion that Islam is essentially a
religion of peace and that the very word "Islam" means "peace." Alas, not so.
Islam means "submission," a very different matter, and one of the functions of
Islam, in its more militant aspect, is to obtain that submission from all, if
necessary by force.
Islam is an imperialist religion, more so than Christianity has ever been, and
in contrast to Judaism. The Koran, Sura 5, verse 85, describes the inevitable
enmity between Moslems and non-Moslems: "Strongest among men in enmity to the
Believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans." Sura 9, verse 5, adds: "Then
fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. And seize them, beleaguer
them and lie in wait for them, in every strategem [of war]." Then nations,
however mighty, the Koran insists, must be fought "until they embrace Islam."
These canonical commands cannot be explained away or softened by modern
theological exegesis, because there is no such science in Islam. Unlike
Christianity, which, since the Reformation and Counter Reformation, has
continually updated itself and adapted to changed conditions, and unlike
Judaism, which has experienced what is called the 18th-century Jewish
enlightenment, Islam remains a religion of the Dark Ages. The 7th-century Koran
is still taught as the immutable word of God, any teaching of which is
literally true. In other words, mainstream Islam is essentially akin to the
most extreme form of Biblical fundamentalism. It is true it contains many sects
and tendencies, quite apart from the broad division between Sunni Moslems, the
majority, who are comparatively moderate and include most of the ruling
families of the Gulf, and Shia Moslems, far more extreme, who dominate Iran.
But virtually all these tendencies are more militant and uncompromising than
the orthodox, which is moderate only by comparison, and by our own standards is
extreme. It believes, for instance, in a theocratic state, ruled by religious
law, inflicting (as in Saudi Arabia) grotesquely cruel punishments, which were
becoming obsolete in Western Europe in the early Middle Ages.
Moreover, Koranic teaching that the faith or "submission" can be, and in
suitable circumstances must be, imposed by force, has never been ignored. On
the contrary, the history of Islam has essentially been a history of conquest
and reconquest. The 7th-century "breakout" of Islam from Arabia was followed by
the rapid conquest of North Africa, the invasion and virtual conquest of Spain,
and a thrust into France that carried the crescent to the gates of Paris. It
took half a millennium of reconquest to expel the Moslems from Western Europe.
The Crusades, far from being an outrageous prototype of Western imperialism, as
is taught in most of our schools, were a mere episode in a struggle that has
lasted 1,400 years, and were one of the few occasions when Christians took the
offensive to regain the "occupied territories" of the Holy Land.
The Crusades, as it happened, fatally weakened the Greek Orthodox Byzantine
Empire, the main barrier to the spread of Islam into southeast and central
Europe. As a result of the fall of Constantinople to the ultramilitant Ottoman
Sultans, Islam took over the entire Balkans, and was threatening to capture
Vienna and move into the heart of Europe as recently as the 1680s.
This millennial struggle continues in a variety of ways. The recent conflicts
in Bosnia and Kosovo were a savage reaction by the Orthodox Christians of
Serbia to the spread of Islam in their historic heartlands, chiefly by virtue
of a higher birthrate. Indeed, in the West, the battle is largely demographic,
though it is likely to take a more militant turn at any moment. Moslems from
the Balkans and North Africa are surging over established frontiers on a huge
scale, rather as the pressure of the eastern tribes brought about the collapse
of the Roman Empire of the West in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. The number of
Moslems penetrating and settling in Europe is now beyond computation because
most of them are illegals. They are getting into Spain and Italy in such
numbers that, should present trends continue, both these traditionally Catholic
countries will become majority Moslem during the 21st century.
The West is not alone in being under threat from Islamic expansion. While the
Ottomans moved into South-East Europe, the Moghul invasion of India destroyed
much of Hindu and Buddhist civilization there. The recent destruction by
Moslems in Afghanistan of colossal Buddhist statues is a reminder of what
happened to temples and shrines, on an enormous scale, when Islam took over.
The writer V. S. Naipaul has recently pointed out that the destructiveness of
the Moslem Conquest is at the root of India's appalling poverty today. Indeed,
looked at historically, the record shows that Moslem rule has tended both to
promote and to perpetuate poverty. Meanwhile, the religion of "submission"
continues to advance, as a rule by force, in Africa in part of Nigeria and
Sudan, and in Asia, notably in Indonesia, where non-Moslems are given the
choice of conversion or death. And in all countries where Islamic law is
applied, converts, whether compulsory or not, who revert to their earlier
faith, are punished by death.
The survival and expansion of militant Islam in the 20th century came as a
surprise. After the First World War, many believed that Turkey, where the Kemal
Ataturk regime imposed secularization by force, would set the pattern for the
future, and that Islam would at last be reformed and modernized. Though
secularism has — so far — survived in Turkey, in the rest of Islam
fundamentalism, or orthodoxy, as it is more properly called, has increased its
grip on both the rulers and the masses. There are at present 18 predominantly
Islamic states, some of them under Koranic law and all ruled by groups that
have good reason to fear extremists.
Hence American policymakers, in planning to uproot Islamic terrorism once and
for all, have to steer a narrow path. They have the military power to do what
they want, but they need a broad-based global coalition to back their action,
preferably with military contributions as well as words, and ideally including
such states as Pakistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. To get this kind of
support is not easy, for moderate Moslem rulers are far more frightened of the
terrorists than of Americans, and fear for their lives and families. The danger
is that they will insist on qualification of American action that will amount,
in effect, to appeasement, and that this in turn will divide and weaken both
the administration and U.S. public opinion.
It is vitally important that America stick to the essentials of its military
response and carry it through relentlessly and thoroughly. Although only
Britain can be guaranteed to back the White House in every contingency, it is
better in the long run for America to act without many allies, or even alone,
than to engage in a messy compromise dictated by nervousness and cowardice.
That would be the worst of all solutions and would be certain to lead to more
terrorism, in more places, and on an ever-increasing scale. Now is the ideal
moment for the United States to use all its physical capacity to eliminate
large-scale international terrorism. The cause is overwhelmingly just, the
nation is united, the hopes of decent, law-abiding men and women everywhere go
with American arms. Such a moment may never recur.
The great William Gladstone, in resisting terrorism, once used the phrase, "The
resources of civilisation are not yet exhausted." That is true today. Those
resources are largely in American hands, and the nation — "the last, best
hope of mankind" — has an overwhelming duty to use them with purposeful
justification and to the full, in the defense of the lives, property, and
freedom of all of us. This is the central point to keep in mind when the weasel
words of cowardice and surrender are pronounced.
This is the post "This guy agrees with Ty and Brice" written out.
Cath
azure spirit
Excedrin!!
All I know is when they first showed the pictures on TV of the "suspected" hijackers, the guy that we later learned was Atta just
really gave me the creeps...just from his picture. I was just half-watching a feature where there were some girls in Atlanta that
worked at a health club that he and the other 2 terrorist "pilots" worked out. I can only imagine putting myself in the place of
some of these people that had contact with all of these guys all across the country. Some were even neighbors! How freaked out would
you be ...knowing that you were right near to, or in contact with these guys???
azure spirit
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"Cathputer" <cath...@aol.com> wrote in message news:20010929061934...@nso-ch.aol.com...
azure spirit
the very beginning of the reference that you wrote, Cath. I had missed it the first time that the person was writing an Art History
book. That really struck me now, because just about all of my knowledge of religion and the history of these parts of the world come
from MY study of Art History! I'm not quite sure how it worked out, but I never really learned much about World History.When I was
in high school in southern California, I was in some"advanced seminar" class. It was supposed to be like an enrichment class for
English and World History. Well, let's just say the things I remember were the "fun" field trips we took...far away from our school
to placed like the Huntington Library in San Marino. I did see "Pinky" and the "Blue Boy" and one of the original Guttenberg
Bibles...but I also remember wandering wild through beautiful gardens and orange groves . We learned quite a few things that
year...but I don't think that they were on the class syllabus!! Sadly, I got an "A"!!
Luckily for me, I did end up taking a total of 6 Art History classes in college, so I did learn about world history and religions
through this method.
azure spirit
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"Cathputer" <cath...@aol.com> wrote in message news:20010929061934...@nso-ch.aol.com...