MY HISTORY OF ISLAM
posted on 2005-01-01
For hundreds of years the Arabs were these swarthy, fractious, truculent, tribes of people living in a state of chaos; till, one day, a sensitive man, named Mohammed, thought it a good idea to start a hill climbing club. The onus was on him to vet the best trails - so off he went. At the summit of his first journey he sat down tired and immediately became cognizant of a way of life which could bring about some form of cohesion to his benighted people. He returned to spread the word and became an overnight sensation, at least with the male population; for his inspiration gave rights to any male to:
- Quickie divorces
- Circumcision of females so men didn't have to be good lovers
- Several virgins (circumcised) to satisfy him after death
All he had to do was prostrate himself facing East 5 times a day and scream. Not a bad deal. Problem was Mohammed got old and died. Immediately these Arabs reverted to their old ways and started arguing violently about how the successor should be chosen. One group wanted a vote (democracy may not be so foreign a principle after all); the other wanted the successor to be from Mohammed's bloodline. They couldn't come to an agreement so they formed two opposing parties: the Shiites and the Sunnis; these two groups have been trying to kill one another ever since - all in the name of the world's most peaceful religion.
That was then; this is how Muslims have evolved over the ages:
- The Dutch government said it would set aside more than US$520 million to combat terrorism in coming years, citing threats to national security in the wake of attacks in Europe by Muslim extremists.
- Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said attacks like the Madrid train bombings and the murder by an Islamic radical of Dutch filmmaker Theo
van Gogh in November were 'the reason to allocate extra resources to fight terrorism.' Van Gogh's film criticized the treatment of women under Islam.
- Recently in Birmingham, the play Behzti was cancelled after violent Sikh protests.
- Iran's hard line Revolutionary Guards have renewed the death sentence on British author Salman Rushdie issued 14 years ago by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
When will Arabs accept their own failings for aiding and not confronting terrorism? When will they accept the fact that their people haven't moved forward for hundreds of years, after their losing efforts to conquer Europe?
There are 1.25 billion Muslims in the world, and they basically control the energy supply of the world. There are about 13 million Jews still living; so when are Arabs going to stop blaming the Jews for their problems and take control of their own destiny without looking for scapegoats?
During the recent tsunami, rich Arab states gave a token pittance making certain their charities were for Muslims only. Meanwhile, the U.N. calls America 'stingy' and Indonesians wearing 'Osama Bin Laden' T-shirts receive life saving supplies from U.S. soldiers.
When will the world wise up and admit how cowardly it's been in disparaging the United States and its partners in the war on terror? Of course, it isn't safe to write an article or voice an opinion criticizing terrorists because it may invoke the wrath of these malevolent fundamentalists, but not so with one's steadfast allies.
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