The Religion of Hate
I have noticed a definite trend lately in diatribes and calls for “action” (usually undefined) against a so-called religion of hate. Almost always this comes from another religion, which, of course, will profess itself to be the opposite of hate: love.
I'm sure you've already guessed to which two religions I refer. For the moment, however, I will not spell it out and focus instead on the dogma and the dynamics of this exchange.
What we have is one group, often wrapping itself in a combination of religious zealotry and nationalism, continually pontificating against another group: calling them hateful, murderous, and whatever other low things they can get away with. This, of course, is in the name of love and goodliness, all of which are, obviously, the very foundations of both this first group and their national values.
When you look at the situation from that stand point, without labels or names to interfere, you see something you may not have noticed before. Leaving behind the embroilment of names and labels, you perhaps begin to see the underlying hypocrisy inherent in the whole attack.
Do you see the inherent hypocrisy in a religion professing to be peaceful literally calling out the troops against another religion, all in the name of God and country?
Yet everywhere, both online and off, we're seeing Christians in America (figuratively) marching against the believers of Islam. They call them hateful things, they tell us about how dastardly their scriptures are, how fundamentally flawed their view of the world is, and above all, how their religion is a “Religion of War.”
I'm not going to defend Islam. In my view, it is a warmongering, ugly religion full of hate. Just like all other religions seem to be. Christians included.
In roughly 2,000 years of history, both religions have co-existed as spinoffs of Judea. That religion doesn't deserve any love either, by the way, and it is the well from which the other two sprung.
In that 2,000 years, both Christianity and Islam have become the world's largest religions with literally more than 2/3 of the people around the globe following one or the other. They are, by the numbers, pretty close to each other in size with Christians only slightly edging out the Muslims.
In that two thousand years of existence, only one of those religions has managed to dominate most of the world's governments and only one of those religions has really been the crux or background to nearly every war that's existed in most of the West.
Guess what? It wasn't Islam, the religion of warmongering hate zealots.
Today, we see a rise of Islam (usually called “Islamo-fascists” or “Islamic fundamentalists”) around the Middle East as the people who practice this religion have finally, apparently, decided to rise up. What they are rising up against is not some Bible/Qua'ran prophesy, though some of them might use this as a reason. Just as Christians use their own Bible verses, quite often, to justify blowing up innocents.
No, what they're rising up against is the one thing, in their perception, which appears to have been stifling and ruining their existence for decades now. They're rising up against the imperialism of the Western world, specifically the United States and the United Kingdom.
Just simply looking at the facts makes it quite obvious what is going on right now in the world.
One simple illustration of the matter should show you the dynamic at work here. Where do nearly all of the bombings and attacks by Islam take place? In the Middle East. Right.
That key point is what should tell you that this is not a war against Americans or even Christians. It's a war against imperialism. Otherwise, the tens of millions of Muslims living on American soil (or at least a significant percentage of them) would be actively fighting here to “overthrow Christianity” or whatever it is they're supposedly doing besides bucking Western imperialism.
I've heard a lot of hokey explanations for why this is so. Talks about a “ftah” or some esoteric reasoning. That makes no sense. If the bullwark is that Islam only attacks on the fronts where it can win (which, apparently, is the Middle East) then why are the Palestinians fighting the Israelis? They obviously can't win this protracted engagement. They're going to lose. They're sorely outnumbered, out gunned, and out monied in the fight. They literally have nothing in their favor. So why do they fight?
Using that same argument, you can see that America would be extremely vulnerable to a concerted attack by a large group of Muslims who wanted to do so. No number of federal agents listening in on cell phones, Gun Free school zones, and MIAC reports is going to stop them if all they want to do is blow a bunch of stuff up and kill a lot of people.
By the official line, they did it in 2001. Why not in the 8 years since then? It's not like there hasn't been opportunity and it's not like their numbers are small. There are an estimated 38 million Muslims in America today. Even just 1% of them is a lot of suicide bombers and lunatics with AK-47s shooting up the mall. Yet, this doesn't happen.
It's an interesting point that I hope at least a few Christians, who are truly Christian, will stop and ponder for a moment.
Consider always who has benefited and who will benefit in the future from a specific movement, attack, or defense against an attack. By all accounts, 9/11 didn't benefit very many Muslims or Islamic world causes. It has benefited several private interests, power-grabbing politicians and agencies, bolstered our continued unquestioning support of Israeli policy. It has most definitely benefited the military-industrial complex and especially the Bankster Elites.
It has not, appreciably, benefited Islam or any Muslim movement or similar cause to any real, perceptible degree.
Further, when you look at history, only one religion seems to have profited considerably from warfare. That would be Christianity, not Islam. So, turning back to the original point at the beginning of this writing, how can a religion of peace be so often advocating war?
In my view, true Christians would not be “calling out Islam,” but would instead by asking why we are at continual war with them, from the Cold War through to today. A true follower of Christ would question war up and down, left and right, back to front before ever engaging in it. Do the actions on far off shores, amongst a people who have undeniably been pawns in a larger planetary game (formerly called the Cold War), really surprise true Christians of real faith?
Coincidentally, it just happens that real Americans would ask those same questions. Yes, I believe that we are fundamentally a Christian nation, but probably not in the way most people who use that phrase would think.
A Christian is neither a robot nor a warmonger. A Christian is, by necessity of being a follower of Christ, a sensitive and thoughtful person. A Christian must be always considerate of the other before him or herself. In this regard, a Christian is required to consider the actions of another by first looking at the underlying emotional reasoning for their action.
A child is not born evil, but must be made to be so. A people are not fundamentally evil, but must be driven to become so. This is the very core of Christian thought. Otherwise, why would Christ have bothered in Gethsemane?
If Islam is inherently evil and driving its adherents to slaughter innocents, why does it only seem to happen in one place, despite followers of Islam being literally on every portion of the planet?
-----
Got comments? Email me, dammit!
Permanent link for this article which can be used on any website:
I'm sure you've already guessed to which two religions I refer. For the moment, however, I will not spell it out and focus instead on the dogma and the dynamics of this exchange.
What we have is one group, often wrapping itself in a combination of religious zealotry and nationalism, continually pontificating against another group: calling them hateful, murderous, and whatever other low things they can get away with. This, of course, is in the name of love and goodliness, all of which are, obviously, the very foundations of both this first group and their national values.
When you look at the situation from that stand point, without labels or names to interfere, you see something you may not have noticed before. Leaving behind the embroilment of names and labels, you perhaps begin to see the underlying hypocrisy inherent in the whole attack.
Do you see the inherent hypocrisy in a religion professing to be peaceful literally calling out the troops against another religion, all in the name of God and country?
Yet everywhere, both online and off, we're seeing Christians in America (figuratively) marching against the believers of Islam. They call them hateful things, they tell us about how dastardly their scriptures are, how fundamentally flawed their view of the world is, and above all, how their religion is a “Religion of War.”
I'm not going to defend Islam. In my view, it is a warmongering, ugly religion full of hate. Just like all other religions seem to be. Christians included.
In roughly 2,000 years of history, both religions have co-existed as spinoffs of Judea. That religion doesn't deserve any love either, by the way, and it is the well from which the other two sprung.
In that 2,000 years, both Christianity and Islam have become the world's largest religions with literally more than 2/3 of the people around the globe following one or the other. They are, by the numbers, pretty close to each other in size with Christians only slightly edging out the Muslims.
In that two thousand years of existence, only one of those religions has managed to dominate most of the world's governments and only one of those religions has really been the crux or background to nearly every war that's existed in most of the West.
Guess what? It wasn't Islam, the religion of warmongering hate zealots.
Today, we see a rise of Islam (usually called “Islamo-fascists” or “Islamic fundamentalists”) around the Middle East as the people who practice this religion have finally, apparently, decided to rise up. What they are rising up against is not some Bible/Qua'ran prophesy, though some of them might use this as a reason. Just as Christians use their own Bible verses, quite often, to justify blowing up innocents.
No, what they're rising up against is the one thing, in their perception, which appears to have been stifling and ruining their existence for decades now. They're rising up against the imperialism of the Western world, specifically the United States and the United Kingdom.
Just simply looking at the facts makes it quite obvious what is going on right now in the world.
One simple illustration of the matter should show you the dynamic at work here. Where do nearly all of the bombings and attacks by Islam take place? In the Middle East. Right.
That key point is what should tell you that this is not a war against Americans or even Christians. It's a war against imperialism. Otherwise, the tens of millions of Muslims living on American soil (or at least a significant percentage of them) would be actively fighting here to “overthrow Christianity” or whatever it is they're supposedly doing besides bucking Western imperialism.
I've heard a lot of hokey explanations for why this is so. Talks about a “ftah” or some esoteric reasoning. That makes no sense. If the bullwark is that Islam only attacks on the fronts where it can win (which, apparently, is the Middle East) then why are the Palestinians fighting the Israelis? They obviously can't win this protracted engagement. They're going to lose. They're sorely outnumbered, out gunned, and out monied in the fight. They literally have nothing in their favor. So why do they fight?
Using that same argument, you can see that America would be extremely vulnerable to a concerted attack by a large group of Muslims who wanted to do so. No number of federal agents listening in on cell phones, Gun Free school zones, and MIAC reports is going to stop them if all they want to do is blow a bunch of stuff up and kill a lot of people.
By the official line, they did it in 2001. Why not in the 8 years since then? It's not like there hasn't been opportunity and it's not like their numbers are small. There are an estimated 38 million Muslims in America today. Even just 1% of them is a lot of suicide bombers and lunatics with AK-47s shooting up the mall. Yet, this doesn't happen.
It's an interesting point that I hope at least a few Christians, who are truly Christian, will stop and ponder for a moment.
Consider always who has benefited and who will benefit in the future from a specific movement, attack, or defense against an attack. By all accounts, 9/11 didn't benefit very many Muslims or Islamic world causes. It has benefited several private interests, power-grabbing politicians and agencies, bolstered our continued unquestioning support of Israeli policy. It has most definitely benefited the military-industrial complex and especially the Bankster Elites.
It has not, appreciably, benefited Islam or any Muslim movement or similar cause to any real, perceptible degree.
Further, when you look at history, only one religion seems to have profited considerably from warfare. That would be Christianity, not Islam. So, turning back to the original point at the beginning of this writing, how can a religion of peace be so often advocating war?
In my view, true Christians would not be “calling out Islam,” but would instead by asking why we are at continual war with them, from the Cold War through to today. A true follower of Christ would question war up and down, left and right, back to front before ever engaging in it. Do the actions on far off shores, amongst a people who have undeniably been pawns in a larger planetary game (formerly called the Cold War), really surprise true Christians of real faith?
Coincidentally, it just happens that real Americans would ask those same questions. Yes, I believe that we are fundamentally a Christian nation, but probably not in the way most people who use that phrase would think.
A Christian is neither a robot nor a warmonger. A Christian is, by necessity of being a follower of Christ, a sensitive and thoughtful person. A Christian must be always considerate of the other before him or herself. In this regard, a Christian is required to consider the actions of another by first looking at the underlying emotional reasoning for their action.
A child is not born evil, but must be made to be so. A people are not fundamentally evil, but must be driven to become so. This is the very core of Christian thought. Otherwise, why would Christ have bothered in Gethsemane?
If Islam is inherently evil and driving its adherents to slaughter innocents, why does it only seem to happen in one place, despite followers of Islam being literally on every portion of the planet?
-----
Got comments? Email me, dammit!
Permanent link for this article which can be used on any website:
posted by Aaron Turpen @ 8:28 AM
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