War of Ideas against Islam
Chapter # 3
Why normal people can't stand Islam
The question is this: What do Muslims think when they read passages
like those quoted here?
It may be true that these are examples of what is called "lesser jihad,"
with "greater jihad" being inner struggle and prayer to Allah, but we
should
not let such misleading terminology obscure the psychopathic nature of
Muhammad's commands -attributed to God.
Who wouldn't struggle inwardly after killing someone in a horrible manner?
Who wouldn't be conflicted when seeing women raped in the name of Islam?
The point is that these "virtuous actions" -as Muslims think of them-
are criminal actions in every other culture on Earth that upholds basic
human rights. It is about time we called this what it is, utter depravity.
Yet "liberal" churchmen defend this kind of thing, and "liberal" Hindus,
and "liberal" Buddhists, and "liberal" politicians, and "liberal"
journalists,
and liberal you-name-it. Which is damning of liberalism. But conservatives
can hardly rejoice; they are not much better. Establishment Republicans
in America and establishment BJP people in India who follow the
pro-Islam policies of Prime Minister Modi, do the same thing.
How is it possible for such "enlightened" people to justify Muslim
criminality?
Easy. All that is necessary is not to know what the Koran actually says,
not to know what Muslim tradition actually consists of, not to know
what is most basic to Islam at large. All anyone needs to do to achieve
this state of divine ignorance is not to read the Koran, not to study the
values of Islam, not to study the history of Muhammad's religion.
There was a comedy show that ran on CBS Radio in the 1940s called
"It Pays to Be Ignorant." It was similar in some ways to the episodes that
were featured on the Jay Leno show in which randomly selected men
and women are asked "obvious questions" that, it turns out, throw them
for a loop. "What are the inhabitants of Egypt called?" is one example
of humor from the forties. No-one got the right answer, which is:
They are called "people."
The show had a theme song with these lyrics:
One day as I was walking
Down the avenue,
I met a funny fellow
With a funny point of view.
He didn't have a brain cell
Working in his head,
But he was very happy
And this is what he said:
Chorus: It pays to be ignorant,
To be dumb,
to be dense,
To be ignorant.
It pays to be ignorant,
Just like me.
This song, with its catchy tune, should be dusted off for new use:
It would be perfect as the anthem of the political Left
-and the Republican establishment
-and the news media
-and similar populations in India
This is the Achilles heel of supporters of Islam, their abysmal ignorance.
All the while as they sneer at their 'inferiors' as low-life rubes from the
sticks, bottom feeders, knuckle draggers, or boorish know-nothings
from the urban working class, people who are ridiculously uninformed.
Except that who really is unformed are the chattering classes, the elite
intelligentsia, our lofty trend setters and opinion leaders.
Their snobbery ill becomes them.
It may be that Right-wingers and other members in good standing
of the hoi polloi aren't all that well informed but in comparison to
Left-wingers and elitist conservatives they sometimes are exactly that.
They understand the obvious, at any rate, Islam is the enemy,
and they don't make excuses for Muslim bad behavior. They
certainly don't buy into the elite narrative that Islam is "misunderstood"
and is really all sweetness and light. They think that Islam is manifestly
understandable; Muslims are dirty sons-of-bitches who kill people
for no good reason. Essentially Islam is inferior to every other
religion in the world. Its as simple as that.
What is worse, as all of this goes on, "average liberals" -speaking of
ordinary Democratic Party voters, speaking of ordinary Congress Party
voters in India- live in a state of denial. Their political ideology
tells them
that party leaders express truths and that the opposition does all the
lying.
And what party leaders insist, over and over, is that Islam is a peaceful
religion, that criticisms of Muhammad's religion are false to the facts.
Which is preposterous. The facts are exactly what is reported here,
with multiple quotations and the evidence of Muslim carnage on an
almost daily basis every year since 9/11, indeed, many years before
September of 2001.
The facts are there; Leftists refuse to see them. As do establishment
Republicans. As do libertarians, albeit for a somewhat different reason,
namely, they regard religion as meaningless and cannot conceive that
faith of any kind could possibly motivate anyone to do anything
that is important. But we can set aside the libertarian part of the
equation for now; one thing libertarians are not able to do because
they win almost no elections at any level, is set official policy.
It makes the best sense to focus on Left vs. Right.
But what best explains the attitude of people who believe they are superior
to those ignorant Right-wingers? How did these 'enlightened' Leftists
get that way? Which is the same as asking how 'enlightened' conservatives
got that way, also, because the difference in outlook toward Islam between
the far Left and the Bush wing of the Republican Party is paper thin.
This is about people who are capable of informed rational thought even if,
in this department, they come up short.
The problem is not at all difficult to characterize: Ideology-induced
ignorance.
Ideological stupidity, for short.
How this works is a simple process.
An ideology explains everything under the Sun. You believe in
the ideology because of the advantages in confers, certainly group
belonging and, in the process, group helpfulness in addressing issues
that concern you. Furthermore, there are some things that a good
ideology does explain well enough, for instance why unfettered
capitalism results in exploitation (Marxism) or why individual rights
provide you with the freedoms you need for independent thought
(Libertarianism). But no ideology, hence no religion, can supply
nothing but truth and wisdom. Every ideology has its characteristic
blind spots -which people simply cannot see for what they are.
And some ideologies are worse than others -or far worse.
Where we are at as a culture in America in the early decades of the
21st century is a place where several ideologies and religions converge
to the effect that "all religions" necessarily teach one universal truth
despite their surface differences. This ideological fusion combines
something of Theosophy, the Baha'i Faith, Unitarian-Universalism,
liberal Christianity, Brahmo Somaj, and broad-based ecumenism.
You may be able to identify still other strands in this mix.
While this ideological outlook is commonplace in the United States
it is found in variants in just about all industrial nations of the world.
It certainly exists in India and other Asian nations. It is anything
but limited to the West.
.
Which make sense. Ours is a global age. We need to get along
regardless of race or ethnicity -or religion. Populations are
increasingly blends of peoples of diverse backgrounds. It would
be foolish to allow population groups to antagonize each other
and possibly damage one another. Besides, in a market economy
it is irrational to allow resources to be diverted -or lost- for the
sake of needless fighting among groups who otherwise would be
consumers or investors or shareholders of each other.
"All religions are one" ideology, therefore, serves a useful purpose.
It promotes brotherhood, it promotes the value of tolerance, and it
promotes national cohesion in polyglot societies. You can even argue
that prosperity depends on it -or at a minimum is helped along by it.
In a divided world it may also seem to make good sense to minimize
differences between nations as much as possible to further the
efficient exchange of goods between markets and states. Far better
to "make nice" with an erstwhile enemy than to field and army
to go to war against another state -costing thousands of lives
and squandering national treasure.
All of these considerations matter; they are important. There's just
one problem: The intellectual foundation of this system is blatantly
dishonest.
The entire ideology of oneness is based on a lie; it is false to the
facts, it is
a house built upon shifting sand. And there is a price to pay for not
facing the truth for what it is. Just ask the survivors of the massacre
on the French Rivera, or the survivors of the suicide carnage in London,
or the survivors of the shooting at Ft. Hood, or the survivors of
the Taj Mahal Hotel massacre in India, or many other outrages
perpetrated by Muslim fanatics who, after all, were simply doing
pretty much what Muhammad did in Arabia 1400 years ago.
Do you want a "real time" picture of Muhammad and early Islam?
It is readily available -in the form of the Islamic State in Syria and
Iraq,
in the form of Boko Haram in Nigeria, in the form of Hamas in Gaza,
or a score of other Islamic organizations currently active in the world.
The exemplar for all these criminal groups is one and the same,
the actions of Muhammad when he was still alive, especially
when he ruled his proto-Fascist despotism in Medina.
Bertrand Russell thought a better comparison would be to the Bolsheviks
and he had a point. In any case, this is to discuss pathological
criminality
dressed up to resemble a religion.
What every establishment type is afraid of, needless to say, are the public
consequences of open criticisms and condemnation of Islam. This means
the reactions of somewhere between a billion and 1.3 billion Muslims.
None of whom could be expected to be happy if Islam was exposed
for what it is. If the dirty little secret that Muhammad was a mentally
sick psychopath was brought into the open.
Another song from the thrilling days of yesteryear comes to mind,
the "Merry Minuet." Lyrics were written by Tom Lehrer. A performance
is available on YouTube, sung by the Kingston Trio. The words are:
They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much!!
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud...
We can dust off this song, too, and amend the lyrics to say:
They're rioting in Africa
They're rioting in Pakistan
They're rioting in Saudi Arabia
They're rioting in Afghanistan
They're rioting in Iraq
They're rioting in Iran
They're rioting in Turkiye
They're rioting in Morocco
They're rioting in Indonesia
They're rioting in Jordan
They're rioting in the West Bank...
You get the idea.
Basically the thought of the probable effects of open criticism of Islam
make each and every 'official suit' in an office have a conniption fit,
that,
or losing sphincter control and needing to change pants.
After all, who really wants WWIII just yet? Can't it wait for a while?
Actually, no. This crap has gone on for fourteen centuries and has
been the cause of massive suffering for much of humanity all that time.
Exactly why do we need even more horror and suffering at global scale?
The situation we need to confront is little different than what
western civilization was forced to confront starting in the late 1930s,
which it did not confront and things only got worse.
How do you finesse your way out of Fascism? You don't.
The threat must be confronted directly, one way or another.
This is as good a time as any, and the sooner the better.
The point being that things were bad enough when Pakistan
developed its A-bomb. There is a real possibility that Iran
will have its own nuclear weapons in the future; as soon as that
would happen four or five additional Muslim countries might
well take steps to get their own bombs. And there could be
"private" nuclear devices controlled by terrorist organisations
bankrolled by wealthy Saudis or filthy rich sheiks from the
Gulf nations who already fund operations of the Islamic State.
More waiting is unjustifiable.
We need to confront Islam now, not in ten years or even later. Now.
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