Jihads And Crusades
By James Bowden (05/23/05)
The alleged desecration of a single copy of the Koran sends deadly Muslim mobs into the streets, creates howls from Muslim governments and gathers condemnation mixed with groveling from the U.S. Government and mainstream media. The actual Muslim destruction of Christian churches, this year, in Iraq, Kosovo, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria is met with silence. Apparently, moral equivalency for desecration isn’t moral or equivalent. The same holds true for Jihads and Crusades.
Americans are lectured endlessly that ‘Jihad’ means a personal struggle to subject oneself to godliness. Yet, 300 Muslim clerics in Tajikistan outraged with the one Koran tidy bowl issue wrote, “if an investigation does not happen within three days, we will launch a jihad against America." Obviously, Jihad really means fighting real holy wars.
Jihad threats must worry us, because the U.S. State Department sent a cable saying the U.S. "is a tolerant society in which freedom of religion for all faiths is ardently defended.... Disrespect of the Holy Quran is not, has not been and will never be the policy of the United States." Or, maybe the U.S. just needs Muslim allies to hunt the Islamists and Muslim vendors for oil. Pandering respect about the ‘Holy’ Quran, the book that calls for Jihads against Jews and Christians which millions of Muslims interpret as ‘Death to America’, is a nice try, but never good enough.
Jihad is integral to Islam. Islam was spread by the sword, not by missionaries. Now, Islam attacks with terrorism and conquers with immigrant invasions. Mohammed started massacring Jews just five years after he kicked off his new ‘religion of peace’. Mohammed’s armies started murdering, raping and conquering Christians on a much grander scale a few years later. Today, at least 10 per cent of Islam, about 150 million Muslims, is at war with the rest of the World, but especially America and Israel. Islam hasn’t repudiated Jihad, so all 1.2 billion Muslims are potential Islamists.
Only the Muslims can decide for themselves to have a Reformation and an Enlightenment to give up Jihad and killing people who convert, killing people who criticize Mohammed, killing innocent and their own people with suicide bombers, public stonings, or beheadings. It’s up to the Muslims to catch up 800 years of civilization. Islamic civilization is as backward and barbarian to the West as the Visigoths were to the Romans. Civilizations aren’t morally equivalent. Neither are the religions the civilizations are based on.
Likewise, the Crusades aren’t the moral equivalent of Jihads. The Crusades were strategic counter-attacks from the West. Like the long liberation of Spain from the Moors ending in 1492, the Crusades returned territory and people to Christendom. It seemed like a good idea at the time, even if war is evil. ‘Crusade’ was a good word for a noble struggle until very recently.
Liberal Human Secularists and Sissy Christians, who hate Conservative Christians so much they would rather see the West go under Islam than rise with Evangelical Christianity, push a multi-cultural historical curse on Crusades. My youngest daughter spared me the PC torture of the ‘Heaven’s Kingdom’ movie by seeing it first and wretching. Liberals sputter over ancient Crusades and ignore Jihads.
I visited Haggia Sophia in Istanbul (Constantinople) when I was a rifle platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne on an exercise in 1973. This architectural wonder was a Byzantine Christian church from 537 A.D. until Muslims conquered and made it a mosque in 1453 A.D.. The huge Muslim symbols desecrating that beautiful church made me sick at my stomach. As I stood in the corner reserved for infidels I prayed for the cleansing of this church and return to Christ. The building was Christian for 916 years. It has been Muslim, by conquest, for 552 years. So, should it stay Muslim forever or someday return to Christianity? Maybe a Billy Graham kind of Crusade can return the light to the building.
Until Evangelical Crusades truly roll back Islam, America must face Muslims’ implacable hostility and insatiable demands. The prostrate moral hysteria and hypocrisy of Liberals serves Islam. Yet, Islam deserves as much respect from Christians and Jews as Elijah showed to Baal worship (I Kings 18:19-40). Islam descends from pagan, Baal-like worship like the moon symbol and the black Kabba in Mecca.
Americans can tip toe on eggshells over Muslim sensitivities forever, but it won’t prevent Muslim outrage. There’s no need to insult on purpose. But, if the truth hurts, like ‘Islam is barbaric’, offer a healing balm, like the Holy Bible.
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