Imagine A World Without Islam
The World Trade Center would still be standing. 3,000 people and countless rescue workers and others would still be alive and have their full lung function. The USS Cole dead would still be alive. Bataclan, The Pulse, those French cafes, and so many other places would be places of entertainment, not places where horrible mass murders happened.
Many Muslims are appalled by these acts -- but there are enough who follow Islamic ideology to the letter that the civilized world has started to be dotted with ugly mass murders of those who don't follow Islamic ideology or who don't follow it enough or who follow the "wrong" kind of Islam.
I am an atheist, but I have been reading in and about Islam since 9/11, and I see that it is not like other religions. It is a violent, totalitarian system masquerading as a religion. And because the Quran is said to be the word of Allah -- handed down from Allah through the Angel Gabriel to Mohammed -- it is supposed to be unquestionable and unchangeable. This likely means there is no reforming Islam.
That's why this piece -- an excellent piece by Andrew Harrod at Jihadwatch -- is so scary.
"You may not be in a religious war with me, but I'm in a religious war with you," recalled former CIA interrogator James Mitchell the views of al-Qaeda (AQ) mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM). Interviewed on December 6 at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) before an audience of about 70, Mitchell provided chilling, essential insight into the jihadist worldview currently threatening the globe.AEI Resident Fellow Marc A. Thiessen introduced Mitchell as someone who "has spent thousands of hours with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and other senior al-Qaeda operatives" and "looked directly into the face of evil." Mitchell concurred that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, considered the leading technical genius behind AQ's devastating September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was "devil and diva," whom Mitchell and other interrogators called "muq" after the Arabic word for brain, muqtar.
...While "not attacking all of Islam," Mitchell saw in Khalid Sheikh Mohammad how "these Islamists, who want to destroy our way of life, have a set of beliefs that make them incredibly dangerous." For Islamists, "how we're supposed to live was established 1,400 years ago in the Koran and in the perfect words and deeds" of Islam's prophet Muhammad. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad considered Islam a "religion of peace. The world will be at peace when sharia law is imposed on the whole world."
Speaking of jihadists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Mitchell emphasized the "depth of their belief. I don't think most Americans understand that they, no kidding, believe what they believe." Jihadists "really do believe they're going to end up with 72 spiritual beings that become virgins every time you have sex with them." "It sounds ridiculous to me," but "they really do believe they're going to be treated like rock stars up there."
Mitchell's interrogations of another captured AQ jihadist, Abu Zubaydah, revealed that "Al Qaeda dreams of bringing down America with catastrophic attacks, but that's not particularly practical." For him, the "real way to bring down America was with low-tech, 'lone-wolf' attacks because the target is not our military capabilities. It's not our buildings. It's not our roads. It's the minds of the Americans." "We don't have to defeat you. We only have to persist long enough for you to defeat yourself."
Similarly, Mitchell noted that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad "got fascinated by the Beltway sniper" who killed numerous individuals outside of Washington, DC, in 2002; he "would spend hours to me talking about that" and its "economy of scale." Accordingly, he fantasized about multiple "single martyrs, shahids, who would go into the American culture and pull off low-tech attacks...with enough of those low-tech attacks, like happened with the Beltway shooter, it would cripple America." Thus he "bought a gas station in Pakistan so he could figure out how to build a bomb that they could slide down into the gas tanks at gas stations."
Describing such subversion to Mitchell in 2004, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad proved to be "pretty good at predicting the future." He believed that
Islamists, like himself, are going to migrate to the United States, immigrate to the United States, wrap themselves in our civil rights to protect themselves, live off our welfare system to feed themselves, spread their jihadi message, and then when the time is right rise up and overthrow us from within.Jihadists like Abu Zubaydah explained to Mitchell how they intended to exploit the nature of free societies against them. Abu Zubaydah "told us that our civil liberties, our willingness to be tolerant of other people, our openness, those were all flaws that Allah had put into our character to ensure that Islamists could win." Mitchell was "certain if I sat down and said, what do you think of all this obsessive political correctness, he would say, another flaw...it's a cloaking device so they can operate in the open without being confronted."
Here are the Islamic terror attacks of the previous 30 days:
During this time period, there were 147 Islamic attacks in 24 countries, in which 1196 people were killed and 1515 injured.
"Imagine a world without Islam."
Yeah... Why not?
"Imagine a world without Islam."
crid at December 29, 2016 10:53 PM
There are so many wonderful reasons to not select John Lennon as your favorite Beatle. But decade-in and decade-out, this is one of the best.
Crid at December 30, 2016 12:08 AM
"The USS Cole would still exist."
Umm, USS Cole is still in service.
The article says her skipper at the time of the bombing was denied promotion, which I understand, even though it's VERY hard to think something like that could happen. In port in Charleston, USS James Madison was "buzzed" by a small boat a few moments before I emerged on deck, going to the tender for parts. An outboard had come within 100 or so feet while the topside watch simply watched with no reaction; his M-14 remained on his shoulder, unloaded.
I think he might work for the TSA now.
Radwaste at December 30, 2016 12:48 AM
Thanks, Rad -- I wrote this post late at night. Dumb error. We'd know if it were gone. It was a suicide mission. Will fix.
Amy Alkon at December 30, 2016 6:13 AM
My concern w/your point Amy is that it is applicable to many more "cultures" including the Leftist dogma that exists in colleges and MSM today.
Imagine 6 million jews/gypsies still alive. Imagine no lynchings of negros. No men of all races enslaving men of all races. No children in Venezuela hospitals starving to death while their military hoards food to sell for profit.
Islam is nothing special regardless of how many billions of people worship in its name. The individual actions of relatively small numbers (how many Catholic priests do NOT molest children) are always a threat to others. Period. Dot. Period.
This is why many of us w/simple minds consider thhe rights put forth by our Founding Fathers are key to our freedom to push back against evil no matter where it exists. Legally first of course but ...
"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
This is America's "tribal" core whether Dems/Leftists acknowledge it, like it, or even understand it.
(How on earth can DEMs, Leftists, college kids boycott Israel which is the only place in the ME where gays, lesbians, Arabs, and Jews coexist peacefully w/o paying tribute. If it goes what type of life does any other ME entity have in store for them?)
Bob in Texas at December 30, 2016 6:48 AM
Imagine a world that never had a unifying civilization between Constantinople and Tashkent. Imagine a world without the Mu’tazila scholars translating Greek, Indian, Aramaic, Persian, and Indian texts, keeping them from falling into obscurity. Imagine a world without the Abbasid caliphate to absorb the shock of the Hulagu's Mongol Horde.
Imagine a Europe in which the Crusades never happened. Overrun with now-idled warriors originally hired and trained to defend against depredations by the now-Christianized Vikings, Europe was sinking into internecine warfare and endless violence. The Crusades allowed the Pope to send those violent warriors off to do God's work reconquering the Holy Land and gave Europe a chance to recover.
Just because we don't know Muslim history doesn't mean it isn't rich and complex; along with the history of scholarship and intellectual thought during the various caliphates and dynasties.
The Islamic world contributed significantly to the development of algebra, from the Arabic, al jabr. Islamic thinkers also contributed significantly to the development of astronomy, architecture, and other disciplines.
That reformation some people keep insisting Islam needs has already happened. Islam went backwards when the Mongols defeated them on the battlefields, plagues broke out, and it seemed that Allah was no longer on their side. Hulagu's sack of Baghdad destroyed the Abbasid caliphate and shifted the center of Islamic power and thought leadership from Persian Baghdad to Egyptian Cairo. Islam began a retreat away from scholarship and into fundamentalism and strict interpretations of Sharia.
Conan the Grammarian at December 30, 2016 7:16 AM
Family Guy did something like that but with Christians:
https://youtu.be/lLnDy9Mjbnc?t=53
Sixclaws at December 30, 2016 8:16 AM
Unfortunately Conan, their efforts today would get them killed in the ME (except in Israel but BDS).
That's a shame. As is what's going on in Europe. What's the difference in mindset between "refugees" today and those in the 1800's or even later. (See German migration into Texas for example.)
Bob in Texas at December 30, 2016 9:31 AM
Haven't we had this conversation in many different forms before?
Where someone gleefully points out how perfect things would be if X didn't exist or if we hadn't done X instead of not X?
The invasion of Iraq comes to mind.
Then historians, and readers of alternative history point out that evil in the world is caused by human nature whatever label you stick on it, and *not X* is never a null set?
In reality there are a million possible alternatives that are often a lot worse than X?
Isab at December 30, 2016 10:30 AM
I dunno why you might bring up something else when talking about the risk right in front of you.
Wait - yes, I do. To pretend it's not there, by the debate technique of minimization by comparison.
Huh.
Radwaste at December 30, 2016 5:39 PM
Conan: "The Islamic world contributed significantly to the development of algebra, from the Arabic, al jabr. Islamic thinkers also contributed significantly to the development of astronomy, architecture, and other disciplines."
The other POV is that people that conquer a civilization tend to adopt or use of elements of that culture. That dreaded cultural appropriation thingy.
Using that culture's math because it is better than your math and then through your future conquering spread that math concept is NOT the same thing as inventing that math.
http://www.meforum.org/blog/2015/12/does-the-west-owe-islam
Bob in Texas at December 30, 2016 5:57 PM
Using that culture's math because it is better than your math and then through your future conquering spread that math concept is NOT the same thing as inventing that math.
http://www.meforum.org/blog/2015/12/does-the-west-owe-islam
Bob in Texas at December 30, 2016 5:57 PM
Math was well developed in some respects before Islam came along.
There is no such thing as Islamic culture. There are a number of middle Eastern cultures. Conflating them for either scientific credit or blame is a mistake.
Isab at December 30, 2016 7:00 PM
> There is no such thing as
> Islamic culture. There are
> a number of middle Eastern
> cultures. Conflating them for
> either scientific credit or
> blame is a mistake.
NoNoNoNoNo! Isab!
Amy knows exactly what the quintessential truth of Islam is!!
!
And she wants you to KNOW that she knows! It!!
So...
Don't be FOOLED, Isab, that's very important, don't be fooled by other people who've thought about the religious inclinations of
Because Amy "Knows all about" Muslims.Even though she's never actually met one.
Crid at December 31, 2016 12:33 AM
Notice I said, "made significant contributions to" and not "invented." Islamic conquerors may have appropriated Hindu numbering and mathematics, but later thinkers and teachers expanded on them and added to the collective body of knowledge in those disciplines.
Yep. That's part of that backwards reformation I mentioned.
The Islamic world was truly stunned by Hulagu. Until then, Islam had been ascendant, had never faced an enemy it could not eventually overwhelm. The sack of Baghdad destroyed any sense that Allah would protect the faithful from earthly harm.
Add plagues breaking out in major cities and you've got the makings of a mass crisis of faith.
Allah had abandoned them. What had they done wrong? In this maelstrom of doubt, apocalyptic interpretations were common. Many of the new radical imams told the yearning faithful to go back to a strict interpretation of the Quran and the hadiths to figure out how to get back into Allah's good graces.
As with the Christians of Europe, the "Devil's Horsemen" sowed the seeds of doubt and fear among the faithful, destroying the exiting order and sense of security.
It's really amazing to read about the Mongol Horde and its effects on the world. They came only to conquer and plunder, rarely to spread their own civilization or take ideas and knowledge from the conquered. They burned libraries and universities indiscriminately, destroying centuries of learning. They destroyed ancient civilizations without a care. And, yet, they were highly intelligent, organized, and ruthlessly efficient.
Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, they stopped. Scientists can only theorize why, since the Mongols didn't leave extensive written records.
Conan the Grammarian at December 31, 2016 8:12 AM
I don't know if this link will stay open or hide behind a registration-required firewall. It's a Wall Street Journal article about a Malian book collector who helped rescue thousands of books from Islamist extremists after they took over Timbuktu.
Not all Muslims celebrate ignorance, nor hold intolerant and rigid views of Islam.
The 51-year-old Malian and his collaborators "organized a small army of packers who worked silently in the dark and arranged for the trunks to be carried by donkey to their hiding places."
"Over the course of eight months, the operation came to involve hundreds of packers, drivers and couriers. They smuggled the manuscripts out of Timbuktu by road and by river, past jihadist checkpoints and, in government territory, suspicious Malian troops. By the time French troops invaded the north in January 2013, the radicals had managed to destroy only 4,000 of Timbuktu’s nearly 400,000 ancient manuscripts."
Conan the Grammarian at December 31, 2016 1:06 PM
"Even though she's never actually met one."
Meanwhile, you self-important minority, nations the world over are deploying police in record number amid New Year's Day celebrations in hopes of preventing terrorism by Mormons.
Whoops. Muslims. Same thing, right?
Damn you all who cannot see that the threat in front of you is what you must deal with, even if it claims religious import.
"First Amendment! First Amendment!" It's not a suicide clause. You who squeal "First Amendment" on a regular basis are ignorant, in that the purpose was to prohibit the restriction of speech on the course and actions of government.
It's neither hate speech nor phobic to state out loud that a religious group wants the common white Christian dead. They say so themselves, and tie self-important people in knots by enticing them to mouth platitudes and idealism as they are killed.
Radwaste at December 31, 2016 6:10 PM
"Whoops. Muslims. Same thing, right?"
I really hate that *scary Mooslims* has become the reactionary shotcut to actually learning something about the Arabs, and other primitive tribal cultures from the middle East.
At certain times and places in history almost every ethinic group has had their turn at being the boogyman, and Mormans are no exception to that rule.
I suppose when someone gets all their news from Pop journalism, a shallow perspective is to be expected.
Isab at December 31, 2016 6:58 PM
At certain times and places in history almost every ethinic group has had their turn at being the boogyman, and Mormans are no exception to that rule.
And yet when you compare an actual BODY COUNT of people deliberatly murdered, what do you see?
lujlp at January 1, 2017 9:56 AM
At certain times and places in history almost every ethinic group has had their turn at being the boogyman, and Mormans are no exception to that rule.
And yet when you compare an actual BODY COUNT of people deliberatly murdered, what do you see?
lujlp at January 1, 2017 9:56 AM
I see socialism/totalitarianism practiced by Christians, Buddhists and atheisits way out ahead....
Isab at January 1, 2017 1:12 PM
Here, let me annoy both sides at once by saying that Islam is eminently reformable and the reformation is called Islamic State.
Admittedly, that's assuming that by "reformation" of a world religion you mean something more specifically parallell to the Protestant Reformation of another world religion, rather than just "make it nice". I am all on board with making Islam unspecifiedly nice.
But being more specific about our historic precedents and references, we see IS engaging in the same kind of mass iconoclasm and puritanism that accompanied the Protestant Reformation. "This looks pagan, we should destroy it to return to the pure form of the religion." Likewise with the everyman priest approach and invitation by Abu-Bakr for laity to correct him (very much nominal of course; but still the sort of thing a Protestant would say and a Catholic wouldn't during the Protestant Reformation), the fervent millennial eschatology, the shit flung at a metaphorical Rome, the establishment of a type of religious morality police parallelling that of European Protestants - although the Societies for Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice of the latter mostly evolved into Temperance Leagues and other less harmful things.
In short, what I'd wish for instead of a reformation is something more like a catholicization of Islam: put it under a head guy who has the authority to make changes and the responsibility to be complained to as a functioning unit.
Erik at January 5, 2017 3:26 AM
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