An American soldier of Jordanian descent, described as "a devout Muslim," has murdered 12 fellow soldiers and injured 31 at Fort Hood in Texas.
As you know, I take a very dim view of the power of religion to inspire (if I can use that word in this context) people to commit the most horrific of crimes. Although the Council on American-Islamic Relations quickly condemned the attack as "cowardly" and noted that "No religious or political ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence," one has to accept the fact that Islam is a religion which also puts the absolute and all-consuming worship of God above any considerations of life or love of fellow man. I am afraid that we will continue to see this cycle of foul murder and pious condemnation as long as Muslims continue to believe in a faith which demonizes the "infidel" and condones murder and suicide in the service of God as justified and holy "martyrdom."
This is a sad day for America and for people of love and good will everywhere.
Have a good day. Remember the families of the dead at Fort Hood in your prayers. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
3 comments:
From what I've read, it didn't seem that being Muslim was the issue.
Muslims continue to believe in a faith which demonizes the "infidel" and condones murder and suicide in the service of God as justified and holy "martyrdom--that's not mainstream Islam and an awful lot of people died in the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Protestant Reformation--also in the name of God and religion.
I'm not making excuses--I think the whole thing was horrific and seems to have been fueled by this guy not wanting to deploy. I guess it just goes to show that psychiatrists can be as crazy as anyone else. Don't shrinks have to go to shrinks to make sure that they're not crazy?
Judaism was spread by diaspora (and actually makes it very hard to convert into the faith). Christianity was spread by the power of its reformist and humanitarian message. Buddhism spread in exactly the same manner, and for the same reason. Hinduism spread mostly by population growth. Only Islam spread by conquest. Its very name means "submission." Surrender, if you're trying to be a peaceful Jew, Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu.
Read the Koran. Read the history.
Eminence Grise
Leslie, you are correct that many people have died over the centuries in the name of God and religion...however, those who keep invoking the Crusades as a sort of equivalent evil miss the point that the last Crusade was conducted in the 1200's...and that radical Islamists (a tiny minority though they may be) are committing their heinous crimes today. Expressions of condemnation from CAIR go only so far; my question is this: what are you doing to prevent these things from happening in the first place? I'm not seeing major efforts across the Islamic world to rethink the more bloodthirsty chapters of the Koran, isolate and muzzle the more violently extreme imams, or stress peaceful coexistence as opposed to forcible conversion of the infidel and Islamic rule of the world. I have to say, sadly, that I agree more with my friend Anonymous.
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