Friday, June 13, 2008

The Essence of Religious Leadership

I don't often post twice in one day, but I couldn't pass up this one.

Check out this story on CNN.com, which tells about how that paragon of religious virtue, Moqtada al Sadr, is announcing that he's forming a new force to fight the U.S. in Iraq. I'll wait a minute while you read it.

Done? Okay, did you notice the part where Mr Sadr says, "We will not stop resisting the occupation until liberation or martyrdom"?

Who do you suppose the "we" is to whom Mr Sadr refers? I don't think for a moment that he will be risking his empty, turbaned head to seek "martyrdom" fighting against the "occupiers." He has plenty of deluded young men and women he's willing to encourage to die on his behalf while he urges them on from his place of safety.

This is what passes for principled religious leadership in the Middle East.

You have to think that God is shaking his (or her) head in frustration at the morons who act in his (or her) name.

Have a good day. More thoughts later.

Bilbo

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come out you coward! I will help you with your martyrdom plan! Me and old man Ruger.

Jean-Luc Picard said...

He sounds a really fun guy!

Mike said...

Who said Friday the 13th was unlucky!? We got two posts from Bilbo! Bilbo may be having a bad day but we're not. Maybe if we get him cranked up a little more we'll get ANOTHER post.
HEY BILBO ... I heard white guys can't dance!!!

lacochran said...

'Who do you suppose the "we" is to whom Mr Sadr refers? I don't think for a moment that he will be risking his empty, turbaned head to seek "martyrdom" fighting against the "occupiers." He has plenty of deluded young men and women he's willing to encourage to die on his behalf while he urges them on from his place of safety.'

Substitute Bush for Sadr, cowboy hat for turban, freedom & democracy for martyrdom, and terrorists for occupiers. Amazing how well that works, no?

All of which doesn't make Sadr right.

Bilbo said...

Mike: nice try. If I didn't have to go dancing shortly, I just might have done it.

lacochran: you are, sadly, correct. I looked at it from a religious, rather than political perspective, but it works your way, too. "Only" 220 more days until we can say adios to The Decider...and then we get to see whether the devil we know is better than the devil we don't. I'm not looking forward to it.

John A Hill said...

A good post, Bilbo. Freedom of religion and freedom from religion have a lot of similarities. For religious fanatics that are in control, neither is a desirable thing.