| Submit your comments on this article |
| Terror Networks |
| Absolute Certainty |
| 2006-02-27 |
| Think Islamic fanaticism arises from material want? Think again. by Bruce Thornton Coming hard upon the heels of the cartoon riots and the election of the Hamas terrorists, the destruction of the Shi’ite mosque of the Golden Dome in Samarra by Sunni jihadists, and the subsequent Shi’ite bloody retaliation, should put to rest Western delusions about the true nature of Islam. But don’t hold your breath. Such displays of Islam’s violent intolerance have been coming thick and fast the last few decades, and can be found on every page of history going back to the 7th century, when Islam began its expansion with the blood of several hundred decapitated Jews. Yet still some Westerners, enthralled to their own materialist assumptions and multicultural “we are the world” sentimentalism, wave away this evidence and reduce this destructive behavior to any and every cause except the one that counts: spiritual belief. So we hear that the violence is caused by a lack of jobs, or a lack of liberal-democratic institutions, or “frustration” and insecurity about the dismal backwardness of most Muslim states, or wounded pride in the face of Western success, or resentment of Western imperialist and colonialist sins, or oppressive autocrats, or . . . take your pick. The same therapeutic mentality that thinks destructive behavior in teens results from a “lack of self-esteem” reduces the religious values of Muslims to mere “epiphenomena,” as the Marxists see it, symptoms of some underlying condition rooted in material deprivation, political impotence, or psychological trauma. The problem with Islam, however, is not a lack of self-esteem but too damned much. This is a faith fanatically certain of its truth and righteousness, the culminating vision of God’s relations with humanity, the ultimate meaning of human existence on every level, including the social and political. ... Meanwhile, all our attempts to bolster Muslim self-esteem, our desperate protestations of respect for their wonderful religion, our groveling apologies for exercising our own rights and values, our donning of the hair-shirt of racist, colonialist, or imperialist guilt, do nothing more than convince the jihadist that his spiritual superiority is justified. He looks at our appeasement, our fear, our rationalizations, our self-doubt, our unwillingness to defend the values we preach to the world, and sees the craven inferiority of the dhimmi, the conquered infidel who must acknowledge by his public actions the superiority of Islam, and who must pay the jizya, the “poll tax” that purchases his trembling security. Only we call the poll tax “foreign aid” or “welfare payments,” and the gestures of submission “respect for diversity.” We think our submission buys us affection and gratitude and respect for our interests, but in fact it purchases nothing except more contempt for our spiritual bankruptcy, more scorn for our belief that money and material comfort trump spiritual truth. The true measure of our failure adequately to respect spiritual motives can be taken from the Bush administration’s steadfast refusal to put the crisis with Islam in these terms. The materialist left, of course, has been taught by Freud and Marx that religion is an “illusion,” so obviously we can’t expect them to grasp how powerfully spiritual imperatives can move people. But when a self-proclaimed born-again Christian either can’t or won’t see the clash of spiritual goods underlying the conflict, then we know how thoroughly the materialists have done their work of marginalizing religion in the West. Go and read the whole article. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #11 Geez, Joe - I'm sure you can find a class about the location of the caps lock on your keyboard. Just root around the internet a little. Or one of us would be happy to oblige, I'm sure. No charge. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-02-27 23:16 |
| #10 Gentle with the caps, please. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-02-27 22:20 |
| #9 Radical Islam = Leftism-Socialism = the solution for their failed/dying -ism, short of self-reform or power-sharing, is to go GLOBAL, i.e. more Leftism, more Socialism, more Islam, NOT STAY LOCAL OR REGIONAL. MARX, STALIN, and MULLAHS are NOT wrong - its the lazy Capitalist Democratic anti-Regulation anti-OWG Infidel Dogs and future Global Slaves-Peons whom aren't working hard enough, or being worked hard enough, so that Local-National-Regional-Global Gummermint can take more. Remember, its incompetent, dishonest, Rapist Molester Abuser, Robber Baron, Imperialist Male Brute Fascist = Limited Communist "WASHINGTON WHOM ISN'T GIVING ENOUGH". TO CALIFORNIA, TO FEMA/NOLA, DETROIT, WEST VIRGINIA MINE SAFETY, and .................@now PORT-GATE. POOR CLINTONIAN AMERIKA, A BLOG POSTER > WE'RE A SOCIALIST NATION-WORLD MOVING TOWARDS COMMUNISM AND THE LEFT DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO STOP IT!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-02-27 21:41 |
| #8 I'll apply one of my favorite quotes out of context here; Never has there been a |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-27 15:39 |
| #7 lol, Sea...I noticed that too! |
| Posted by: BA 2006-02-27 11:28 |
| #6 All the GooogleAds are for self esteem therapists... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-02-27 11:11 |
| #5 Perhaps the best example of this contempt for our spiritual foundations came when the President apologized for using the word “Crusade.” So true. I've been taught from school that the Crusades were 'evil'. Funny there was not a peep of the 'Convert-or-Die' bloody Islamic expansion which preceeded it. I shudder to think what appears in todays history books - if the how 'The Crusades' on the |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-02-27 10:58 |
| #4 another way of saying it is The problem with Islam isn't poverty. The problem with Islam is Islam. |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-02-27 10:54 |
| #3 ;-) NS. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-02-27 09:47 |
| #2 Sooner or later we're going to have to face the ugly truth: the problem is Islam. |
| Posted by: Gleash Tholurt6598 2006-02-27 09:11 |
| #1 The problem with Islam, however, is not a lack of self-esteem but too damned much. A link between the Mullahs and the NEA. I'm not surprised. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-02-27 08:58 |