islam, in arguing that the west has no moral and ethical right to exist, has rather stripped itself of its own ethical and moral posture as the innocent victim. it has exposed itself as a heinous, vicious, cruel implacable aggressor, and it has lost its moral authority, if it ever had any.
http://wintersoldier2008.typepad.co...s-sown-it-shall-ride-the-wild-whirlwind-.html
islam has killed itself, with its own savagery, with its blood thirst without slake.
my point is that in killing innocence, in making such an eloquent argument that there are no innocents, that no person bears the mantle of innocence, that all who are not muslims are combatants and liable to death in the most debase way, … , islam has rather compelling made the point that we are all exposed to the combat brought to us by islam, that we are all combatants.
that combatants are not entitled to pity, nor exemption from the random fate of the bomber, nor their throats protected from the cold hard zeal of the muslim scimitar.
and, that every person in islam, from man to woman to child may be our executioner.
in short, that there are no innocents in islam.
in short, that there is no innocence in islam.
that all of islam is at war with us, and that all of islam is/are [a] combatant[s.]
islam has sealed its doom. the jihad has pronounced its own death sentence. by giving us the knowledge of its message. in destroying ethical and moral and religious concepts such as innocence, and exemption from battle, islam has destroyed the last great restraints and inhibitions for the west to strike back in the full fury of its retribution and revenge.
islam, in arguing that the west has no moral and ethical right to exist, has rather stripped itself of its own ethical and moral posture as the innocent victim. it has exposed itself as a heinous, vicious, cruel implacable aggressor, and it has lost its moral authority, if it ever had any.
and, more tellingly.--
islam has established without intellectual doubt that there are no innocent muslims, that the myth of the "moderate muslem" is precisely that, and that muslims are no more entitled to exemption or protection from retaliation that any of the other "non-innocent" combatants in the world.
islam has no pretension to "innocence," no more than the victims of islam. there is no innocence. there are no innocent muslims.
islam is subject to killing on grounds of political expediency on the same basis as islam kills its victims, and islam cannot ethically and morally claim otherwise.
i contend that we should have destroyed islam as a force of terror when leon klinghoffer, wheel chair bound, went over the side of the achille lauro to drown on october 7, 1985 still alive after being shot in the head and chest by his attackers.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages//fron...+Notes)&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner
In what ways do Western values, morals, and cultural practices, intrude upon, and [in what ways] are they at variance with Islamic ideals?
I think there are two aspects to this question, in the broader sense of the word. There is Western values regarding governance; Western values regarding separation of powers; Western notions regarding what the role of government is in society; Western notion in terms of democratic institutions and principles and ideas. And to a large extent, Muslims are very enamored of these systems, and would like to implement them in their own societies ... because these principles and norms are completely in sync with the principles of the Quran and the teachings of the prophet. Muslims would like very much to implement these norms within their societies.
When you come to speak about things like behavioral norms, gender relationships, or the kind of things that people will do, this is a separate issue. And there is another aspect of the West, and that is the attitude of the West towards the non-Western countries, in terms of trying to be presumptuous in telling them how they should even live their lives in ways that they are not accustomed to -- like modes of dress, for instance. In the 1930s, when the first shah of Iran forced his soldiers at bayonet point to force Iranian women to take off the chador, for instance.
People don't like to be told how to dress. This is a matter of personal individual conscience. Even we here in the West do not insist that our students in public schools wear uniforms. We give them that level of freedom. People do not like to be told how to do certain things in their personal lives.
What are the key differences between being a Muslim in America and being a Muslim in the Muslim world?
There are many aspects to that. There is the political aspect, the sociological aspect, the social and family aspect, the economic aspect. So there are many aspects to the to the difference between living in a Muslim country as a native especially, and living in this country. ...
If I were to look at maybe the broadest difference: there is a sense of freedom in the United States. So one practices one's faith in the United States as an act of deliberate choice. If you are not [doing so, it's] not so much because of social pressure. There may be a certain amount of social pressure. But at a certain point in one's life, one is relatively free to live one's life as one chooses in this country.
And that sense of freedom makes one's religiosity or the defining lines of one's religiosity much sharper. Religion is a much more personal thing here. It is also a deeper experience within the personal envelope. One is forced to attach oneself to one's religion in a personally deeper way in terms of the existential issues -- it has to be anchored on a much deeper existential foundation.
Another aspect about living in the United States is that one experiences a lot of negative media attention to one's Islamicity. And that has resulted, and can result in a reaction one way or the other by many people. Many Muslims feel in this country like the Christians did in Rome when they were fed to the lions. And here the lions are the media. We hope that perhaps things will change in the United States, as they did in Rome, as well.
It seems there is a societal dimension to being a Muslim, in terms of the ways one would like one's society to be organized. Are there conflicts in that sense between how one would like society to be, and the realities of American society?
I would say that Muslims in America, especially those who come from other countries, experience both an attraction, a strong attraction, to the positive things that America offers: freedom, political freedom; economic mobility and well-being, the ability to live a materially comfortable life. These are all the things that draws people from all over the world, Muslim and non-Muslim, to this country.
However, there are certain things that people, even when they come from their own country, don't like to give up. They don't like to give up certain aspects of their cultural norms. Their practices of family relationships they try to maintain. Their cuisines they like to maintain. Those values, which they consider to be their ethics, they like to maintain.
And so Muslims who have come to this country generally believe that the democratic principles, the political principles, the economic structure of this country really resonates with the faith of Islam, and draw them to this country.
To the sense that, let's say, American social norms or values are not supportive of the families -- in those issues, Muslims may happen to have a different opinion. [On] those values which violate their sense of decency, they may have a different opinion.
In a certain sense, much of the ethical and moral issues which Muslims feel strongly about in this country is shared by what you might call the Christian majority in this country -- more of the moral mooring, or the sense of decency, which is commonly shared in other faith traditions.
... I also believe that, as the American Muslim community matures in this country, that the American Muslim community will be an interlocutor, and important intermediary between the West and the Muslim world. And more so today, because today, we have much more much easier communications between the immigrant Muslim population and their extended families in the Muslim world. ... Unlike those who immigrated a century ago from Europe, there is maintained contacts with the Old World and the New [World]. And this phenomenon will give rise to a much different sense of what it means to be a Muslim in the world.