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Islam’s Insanity

By Alan Caruba

Americans are largely unaware of the way, throughout the Middle East, the truth is turned on its head. Facts and evidence that is "obvious" to the Western mind is immediately declared a lie, a hoax, and a fabrication by the voices that rule the Middle East. "The story of the arms ship is but a licensed fabrication by Israel," said the editor-in-chief of the Egyptian government’s daily newspaper, Al-Akhbar. To the rest of the world, it is evidence the Palestinian Authority wants nothing but war with Israel.

Everything the US offers as proof of the plots of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda is declared false. Anything that suggests Israel is actually engaged in self-defense is denied. This infinite capacity for self-deception and the fact that the media of the Middle East is entirely controlled by the despots who rule there, leaves the population in a state of utter stupification.

One thing, however, is clear. Islam, not just as a religion, but as a culture, as a society, is a bankrupt failure. If one looks at the world, it is the West with its science, its representative forms of government, its dynamic economy, and its sheer creativity that represents and defines modern civilization. Islam is stagnation, poverty, and defeat. Were it not for oil, the Middle East would be a region of little interest or concern to the West except for its mad dreams of Islamic world domination.

So, when World Tribune.Com posted an article on January 11^th, "Muslim scholars meet to define terrorism and agree: Israel to blame", it provided the key for both Christians and Jews to understand why America was attacked and why Muslims around the world pose a threat to all governments. No other major religion issues calls for the death of those who worship another faith. No other demands to be the government of all people.

The article began, "Abu Dhabi – Saudi Arabia, under pressure from the United States to cooperate in the war against terrorism, has defined Islamic holy war against Israel as legitimate self-defense." Has Saudi Arabia been attacked by Israel? No. Its primary enemy is Iraq with which it shares a border. Iraq is a nation that attacked its neighbor, Kuwait and, previously, Iran, both Islamic nations. Who is currently protecting Saudi Arabia from an attack by Iraq? The United States of America.

"The definition was formulated during a Saudi-sponsored seminar on terrorism attended by Muslim scholars from the kingdom and abroad. The seminar was held as part of a Saudi campaign to defend the kingdom and other Islamic states from charges that they have encouraged insurgencies in the West."

Well, yes, they have encouraged a militant Islam now for decades. They have funded thousands of schools where the most fundamental version of Islam has been taught. What did they think would occur as these students—the Arabic word for student is "taliban"—grew up and went out into the world? Millions of Saudi dollars have underwritten Yasser Arafat’s struggle to drive the Jews of Israel into the sea.

The Muslim scholars concluded that Israel’s efforts to defend itself against suicide bombers and others who continue to attack both civilians and military, were "all acts of aggression unjustly committed by individuals, groups or states against human beings", deeming Israeli "aggression as the worst form of terrorism (justifying) any retaliation against the Jewish state and its people."

Here’s a bit of history for you. Immediately following the announcement of its independence in 1948, Arab nations attacked Israel. They were defeated, but Israel was partitioned between its Arab and Jewish populations. In 1967, Arab nations again attacked and suffered a catastrophic defeat in the "Six Day War." The Israelis took possession of the Golan Heights of Syria and the West Bank formerly controlled by Jordan as buffer zones against further attacks. In 1973, Arab nations choose the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, to attack again. Egyptian and Syrian forces were decisively defeated. In more than a half century, Israel has never truly known a single day of peace. And, still, its universities, its science and technology, its economy thrives amidst the poverty of its neighboring states.

I ask you. Who are the aggressors? Who attacked Israel repeatedly? And who has refused and betrayed every effort to seek peace within Israel? The Palestinians. Who has supported them? The Saudis, the Iranians, and the nations of the Middle East. But the Muslim scholars concluded that Israel’s continued need to defend itself constitutes "the most dangerous terrorism to world peace and security and its confrontation is a just self-defense and jihad (holy war) in the way of Allah." This is irrational.

And the destruction of the World Trade Center, along with the simultaneous attack on the Pentagon was what? Justified by jihad? Was the US in a state of war with the Saudis or any other Middle Eastern nation at the time? No. The US pours billions in oil revenue into these nations. Everything about 9.11 was irrational.

So the answer has to be that a state of total insanity exists among the Muslim scholars and the whole of Islam that permits them to ignore reality, ignore history, and continue to call for a holy war. It is not just a war on Israel. It is a war on Judaism. It is a war on Christianity. It is a war on the values and achievements of Western civilization.

For the Muslim scholars in Saudi Arabia jihad is the answer to Israel’s appropriate acts of self-defense and, by extension, those of the United States after 9.11. For too many Muslims around the world, loyalty to Islam comes before loyalty to the nations in which they live. Since 622 AD, Islam has called for jihad. It needs a dose of reality and it is going to get it.