Greetings Skydancer,
Originally posted by Skydancer
Its blind support for Israel over the interests of the arab world that has caused this mess anyhow!
All that crap about Moslems wanting the world to be one big Islamic state
Its all about power politics and people who feel unjustly treated. The religion thing is just a smokescreen.
One of my Arabic history profs at the University of St. Andrews used to start his first lecture to the incoming class by stating something along the following lines.
"Most of you being Westerners, and in particular academic, secular, upper class Westerners from the UK see everything in political terms. That is your template for interpreting everything. The class struggle, left wing vs. right wing, Capitalism vs. Socialism. That way of thinking is absolutely ingrained in the Western psyche, most of you, perhaps without even thinking about it frame everything in the same terms that have framed thinking in the West since the rise of nationalism and the publication of
Origin of the Species and
Das Kapital. So you will try to see Arabic History through that lens, you will try to interpret their actions, their religion, their history, their economy through the lens of Western, Secular, Political ideology. DON'T DO IT! You will never understand the Arab mind, or Arab history, or Arab actions if you do so. You will simply fail to understand the middle east as profoundly as most westerners do and will instead find it to be irrational or or incomprehensible or irritating at best.
The average Arab doesn't see things in terms of the class struggle or left vs. right, oh some Westernized ones do, but that is not their worldview, it is your worldview and you are simply being foolish and quite possibly arrogant to demand they use it as well.
What then is the right lens to use to understand them and interpret them? It is Islam. The Arab world neither knew nor wanted to know anything of secular humanism or separation of religion and state until we forced it on them during the colonial period and now that is unraveling as the river returns to its natural course. Islam is more than a religion, it is law, it is government, it is economics, it is the life of the Arab. It is literally the constitution of many Arab states, its propagation and defense which is written into their constitution didn't actually need to be, it would be understood by the Arabs even if it weren't. They don't even call themselves citizens or subjects, they are the
Umma the faithful. Even those who don't believe in Allah, believe in Islam.
Therefore begin to understand Islam, and then you will begin to understand the Arabs."
Skydancer, respectfully, you cannot simply transplant your Western socialist worldview onto the Middle East and erase 1300 years of Islam's hegemony as a worldview, and equally respectfully, you are never going to be able to understand them or react to them until you begin to take Islam very, very, seriously. You have grown up in a nation where women can wear whatever they please and go where they want with whom they want, where it is taken for granted that the people may create and enact laws for themselves, where people can criticize Christ and Christians (and theoretically any other religion) without fear of imprisonment and where people are free to choose whether they want to be any religion at all. Where living together with a member of the opposite sex without being married is no big deal. This is not the case throughout most of the Middle East.
Al-Qaeda didn't attack Washington and New York because of Israel, they attacked - and they have restated this again and again - because there are infidels on the sacred Saudi Arabian peninsula and that simply cannot be allowed. The Jihadis are fighting the West in Iraq not because we are American or Republican, or Conservative. Heck they'd be bombing them if they were French Communists. They are fighting them because they are infidels occupying Muslim land. That is also why they objected in the strongest possible terms to the democratic elections, because they undercut the entire concept of Islamic rule (A Caliphate which enforces Sharia) and that's not me saying that, that's Al-Zarqawi:
" Now they are completely preoccupied with making the big American lie called 'democracy' successful. Americans have been playing with the minds of many peoples with the lie of 'civilized democracy;' they have deluded them that their happiness and prosperity is conditional upon this inadequate human system, and subsequently the infidel American administration declared war on Iraq and Afghanistan because it is the primary protector and guardian of democracy in the world...
...
"This principle - that is, government of the people [and] by the people - is the very core of the democratic system ... and it exists only through this [principle]. This, then, is the 'religion of democracy' which is being praised and glorified with much fanfare. This is what its theoreticians and thinkers and missionaries keep publicizing, and this in fact is what we see and experience in the reality from which we suffer. Democracy, in all its variations and interpretations, is based on principles and foundations, the most important of which may be summarized as follows:
"First: Democracy is based on the principle that the people are the source of all authority, including the legislative [authority]. This is carried out by choosing representatives who act as proxies for the people in the task of legislating and making laws. In other words, the legislator who must be obeyed in a democracy is man, and not Allah. That means that the one who is worshiped and obeyed and deified, from the point of view of legislating and prohibiting, is man, the created, and not Allah. That is the very essence of heresy and polytheism and error, as it contradicts the bases of the faith [of Islam] and monotheism, and because it makes the weak, ignorant man Allah's partner in His most central divine prerogative - namely, ruling and legislating. Allah said: 'Sovereignty is Allah's alone. He has commanded you to worship none but Him' [Koran 12:40]. 'He allows none to share His sovereignty' [Koran 18:26]...
"Second: Democracy is based on the principle of freedom of religion and belief. Under democracy, a man can believe anything he wants and choose any religion he wants and convert to any religion whenever he wants, even if this apostasy means abandoning the religion of Allah... This is a matter which is patently perverse and false and contradicts many specific [Muslim] legal texts, since according to Islam, if a Muslim apostatizes from Islam to heresy, he should be killed, as stated in the Hadith reported by Al-Bukhari and others: 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him.' It does not say 'leave him alone.'
"One may not make a [peace] treaty with an apostate, nor grant him safe passage or protection. According to Allah's religion, he has only one choice: 'Repent or be killed.'
"Third: Democracy is based on considering the people to be the sole sovereign, to whom all juridical matters and conflicts should be referred, and if there is any controversy or conflict between governor and governed, each of them threatens the other to refer to the will of the people and its choice, so that the people should decide on the matter on which is disagreed. This conflicts with and is contradictory to the principles of monotheism, which determines that the arbiter, deciding by His judgment in matters of discord, is Allah and none else. Allah said [Koran 42:10]: 'And in whatever thing you disagree, the judgment thereof belongs to Allah.' Democracy, on the other hand, says: 'And in whatever things you disagree, the judgment thereof belongs to the people and to none beside the people...'
"Fourth: Democracy is based on the principal of 'freedom of expression,' no matter what the expression might be, even if it means hurting and reviling the Divine Being [i.e. Allah] and the laws of Islam, because in democracy nothing is so sacred that one cannot be insolent or use vile language about it.
"Fifth: Democracy is based on the principle of separation between religion and state, politics, and life; what is Allah's is rendered unto Allah, which is just worship in the places designed for it. All other aspects of life - political, economic, social, etc. - are the people's prerogative...
"Sixth: Democracy is based on the principle of freedom of association and of forming political parties and the like, no matter what the creed, ideas, and ethics of these parties may be. This principle is null and void according to [Islamic] law for a number of reasons... One of them is that voluntary recognition of the legality of heretical parties implies acquiescence in heresy... Acquiescence in heresy is heresy...
"Seventh: Democracy is based on the principle of considering the position of the majority and adopting what is agreed upon by the majority, even if they agree upon falsehood, error, and blatant heresy... This principle is totally wrong and void because truth according to Islam is that which is in accordance with the Koran and the Sunna [i.e., the tradition of the Prophet], whether its supporters are few or many; and that which contradicts the Koran and the Sunna is false even if all the people of the world agree on it..."
" The matter, then, is a matter of principle; it is non-negotiable, and there can be no concession regarding it whatsoever... It is a matter relating to the principles of our creed - nay, it is the very essence of our creed." - Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, January 23, 2005
