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Wandering Views
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Wandering Views 
The following email fits nicely in with what I wanted to tell you today. Even more so because it was sent to me by Mr. B’s daughter (a first wave Baby Boomer):
A German’s View on Islam – worth reading.
This is by far the best explanation of the Muslim terrorist situation I have ever read. His references to past history are accurate and clear. Not long, easy to understand, and well worth the read. The author of this email is Dr. Emanuel Tanya, a well-known and well-respected psychiatrist.
A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.
‘Very few people were true Nazis,’ he said, ‘but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.’
We are told again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the ‘silent majority,’ is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.. China ‘s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.
And who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were ‘peace loving’?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts–the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on!
Let us hope that thousands, world-wide, read this and think about it, and send it on – before it’s too late.
Now Islamic prayers have been introduced into Toronto and other public schools in Ontario , and, yes, in Ottawa too while the Lord’s Prayer was removed (due to being so offensive?) The Islamic way may be peaceful for the time being in our country until the fanatics move in. And we are silent…….
I told you Mrs. B wasn’t doing well and Mr. B was making the decision for them to go into assisted living. Last night he kept showing me photos of various people and telling me they were his nephews. I reminded him they were actually his grandsons. It breaks my heart to see age taking over these vibrant people.
Last night Mr. B was telling me that he had been approached to go on one of the Honor Flights to DC and the WWII Memorial. I joked that I wanted to go as his docent. He said he has been there once and refuses to go again. I protested that I “needed” my own personal WWII Vet to go. Then he told me his reason.
On December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt addressed the nation on radio. He told of the attack on Pearl Harbor, (insert the speech) and finished by saying, “So help us God”. The speech is on the WWII Memorial but not the words, “So help us God”. Mr. B said he contributed money to build the memorial. He even wrote a letter to the committee asking them to correct their mistake. He will not go back until they put the words on the stone. He fought that war with those words ringing in his heart…
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Kim, I predicted that if Obama is reelected, we will see a case settled somewhere in America by shariah law. I expect it to happen.
A book has been written about it, but basically, the Alinsky technique, of which Obama is a student, is to create a crisis for which you can propose a solution.
Rules for Radicals, Reveille for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.
I said yesterday that JoeB had recommended God’s War on Terror, but it was Bob Buckles. Worth reading.
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Kim, this is an outstanding post that movingly connects your relationship with this family to the very important reality that most Muslims and most Americans have little understanding of the threat of radical Islam. Thank you for taking the time to put this wonderful post together.
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It is worth noting that Islam does not move strongly into a nation where Christianity is strong. It moves in and grows in places where Christianity is dying. See Western Europe. Canada and the US are next. It is also worth considering: Would you rather be governed by Muslims or atheists? Practically, would you rather live in San Francisco or Riyadh? I have friends who have recently lived in both places. If I had children, I would choose Riyadh.
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If you have children, Hendersonville, NC would be a good place to live.
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No doubt, Chas. As would Decatur, Texas.
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Ricky your Choice between atheist or Riyadh rule would be a Hobson’s choice. Devout Christians for millennia have found ways to live in a hostile world. In New England the Puritan sermons are littered with criticisms of faux Christians.
Devout Christians for millennia have found ways to overcome despair. Chesterton was right in remarking that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried
I manage decently to enjoy life in secular Massachusetts having serious Christian friends and family; the last thing I would do is leave a place where my family has by and large enjoyed life and prospered since the 1630s.
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Sails, My friends who lived in Riyadh taught Christianity to their children and the culture did not subvert that teaching. The children of my friends who lived in San Francisco were subjected to constant and oppressive homosexualist propaganda and returned to Texas ASAP.
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Ricky,
I have a hard time thinking you would really make that choice. Because anyone who would choose to raise their daughters in Riyadh over ANYWHERE in the USA has no love of freedom. And it’s questionable how they feel about their daughters.
This is the place we have been planted—right here in the US. We aren’t here to find our own comfort, but to be light. I always thought it would be interesting to be a missionary (my dad was for 20 years), but I never thought I would be one right here in this country. Perhaps that’s how we should look at it. I can’t say that I blame you for wanting to run to a new place, but I think you are mistaken to think there is any place to run to that is not now infected with the spirit of this world. If we don’t create the spiritual refuge, there won’t be one.
Revival. Not relocation or secession. :–)
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When Little Bush sent Karen Hughes to speak to Saudi women about how great it was to drive, work and vote, the Saudi women told her they liked raising their families without working outside the home, they had chauffers to drive them and they did not care about voting.
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San Francisco has the smallest number of children per square mile of any major city in the US. Anyone with money sends their children to the Catholic schools working hard in the midst of challenging situations.
My friends who lived in Saudi Arabia have told stories of living their faith underground. The women can’t drive, they have to wear abayas and the children, while sequestered in DOD schools, lived their lives behind walls.
OTOH, they knew the world was dangerous and they became wiley at adapting to it.
Jesus told us in the world we would have tribulation, but to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world. Our marching orders are to be the light for the world. It’s hard to do that in Saudi Arabia and while persecution certainly is evident in San Francisco, the city is a freer place right now than the middle east.
I’d choose San Francisco–because I could always drive over the bridge and visit all my well-loved Christian brothers and sisters in the North Bay.
And Jews for Jesus is headquartered in the city near Haight Asbury. If they can thrive–making Jesus an issue to the world–why not me?
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Debra, amen.
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Yes what Debra said. I am currently with many believers from Muslim countries. They would choose San Fran if they could.
Ricky, are your friend Americans or Saudis? Makes a huge difference. And Muslim women have to say those things or their husbands can legally beat them.
King Faud offered my atheist father multi-millions of dollars to come design his latest palace grounds (he was a landscapte architect) and traing on drip-irrigation (he was an expert), but in the end he sent a single associate out of love for his wife and three daughters. Now looking back, and having spent a lot of time in Muslim countries, I am very grateful for my father’s decision.
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My friends were Texans. Many Texans in the oil business have spent a lot of time in Muslim countries. Texans generally get along reasonably well with Muslims. Culturally, they have much in common with Mexicans.
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While we are discussing women, are women safer in Saudi Arabia or in Detroit or Philadelphia? Are they more likely to be assaulted in Bagdad or at a fraternity/sorority party on a US college campus?
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We had a Kuwaiti friend, her husband was in a school in the US and she and the children came with him, who was afraid to set foot out of the apartment due to our crime rate. She had seen it on TV. I explained that a lot of it was our freedom of press, allowing that stuff to be out there for all to see whereas the other countries had crime but were not so free to report it. She started coming over to our house a bit at the end of their time.
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Debra, thank you for your excellent comment at 10:06. America for all its faults is a far better country to reside in than Saudi Arabia that has a long history of treating non-Muslims as Dhimmis, or essentially as second-class citizens. Christian churches are not allowed to be built in that country. Women and girls don’t get the sort of respect that the best of Americans give.
The best of Americans like you don’t whine and complain about America but get to work as missionaries to reform people and institutions.
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To follow up on Mumsee’s point, Is a woman more likely to be abandoned by her husband in the US or in Egypt? Is a woman more likely to be abused by a drunken husband in Kuwait or in the US? Is a woman more likely to be killed by her husband or boyfriend in Turkey or the US? I do not raise these questions to defend Muslim countries. I raise them to indict the US.
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Saudis don’t abandon their wives; they find others to marry, often younger ones. All of this with the approval of that great Muslim religion.
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Also, if a woman is sexually assaulted she may be put to death in a Muslim country.
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As far as I can tell, the universe is an accident and we (humans) are animals with big brains who said, “I will die. I don’t want to die. Life is unfair. Something should make it more fair.” Thousands of years of discussions and pondering led to belief in an imaginary creator, ideas that we will be reborn, values we call morality. Even though probably the idea of God is imaginary, and even though there lots of political and religious beliefs, we are a mixture of vicious and altruistic behaviors. Although religion is most likely imaginary, and ideas of good and evil arbitrary products of our physical and cultural evolution, we are struggling to evolve ourselves into better creatures. As Christianity and Islam are the most successful “viral” religions, it is no surprise they feel great hostility and jealously about each other. As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as “Christianity” and “Islam”; there are individuals and groups of Christians and Muslims who believe various ideas (most of which are nonsense) and who behave in various ways, some of which are more unpleasant to me than others. Still reading this? WHY. Expecially Sails, but everyone?
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To Ree. The Chesterton book is on the hold shelf at the library but my wife has the car today. I might be able to pick up the book tomorrow. Perhaps reading it will “open my heart” up to religious nonsense, but only Jesus knows that. Don’t hold your breath. Every day, I think, I will die. But probably not today. It’s kind of irritating, but eternal life would be a drag. Christians prate about “eternity” endlessly (so to speak), but apparently they don’t really understand the word.
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Random – Please see my comment from yesterday…November 12, 2012 at 8:06 pm, & also Ree’s…November 12, 2012 at 11:40 pm
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That is, if you haven’t seen them already.
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Random: As far as I can see, the universe is an accident.
One doesn’t simply “see” the universe. We are taught by the Judeo-Christian tradition to have faith that the universe was created by God with a moral order. Sensible folk have little difficulty understanding this.
Further, the philosopher, Aristotle, proved rather well that the universe of necessity was created by an unmoved mover, another name for God
Your view that the universe is an accident amounts to codswallop, British slang for nonsense.
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To follow up on Mumsee’s point, Is a woman more likely to be abandoned by her husband in the US or in Egypt? Is a woman more likely to be abused by a drunken husband in Kuwait or in the US? Is a woman more likely to be killed by her husband or boyfriend in Turkey or the US? I do not raise these questions to defend Muslim countries. . . .
That’s good, because U.S. is a much better place for a woman to live! A woman has no value under Islam–her husband can treat her however he wishes, and she has no authorities who will prosecute her husband if he chooses badly.
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AJ,
When Little Bush sent Karen Hughes to speak to Saudi women about how great it was to drive, work and vote, the Saudi women told her they liked raising their families without working outside the home, they had chauffers to drive them and they did not care about voting.
I’m perfectly happy not working outside the home, and I could also be quite content not driving and not voting under the right circumstances. In fact, life in Puritan New England sounds way more attractive to me in some ways (except that I’m spoiled by the comforts and conveniences here) than life in the 21st century San Francisco Bay Area (in which I live). (You’d be surprised if you’re only familiar with the Puritan stereotype). It isn’t the lack of a modern Western lifestyle that would make living in a place like Riyadh so unpleasant. It’s that here in America, even post-Christian, post-modern America, there’s still some remnant of a Christian ethic even among the atheists and neo-pagans. In Riyadh, Christian ideals of the innate dignity of all people are not just fading away the way they are here, they’re completely foreign and non-existent!
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Oops, sorry for the italics. I guess Random’s senility is contagious.
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Random,
How can you still not see that “better” and “worse” are meaningless concepts in your worldview. In fact, all concepts are meaningless in your worldview because there’s no transcendent category in which such things as ideas and concepts even exist.
Anyway, I’m glad to hear that you’ll be getting the book. Which one did you put on hold? The Everlasting Man or Orthodoxy
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Ree, While we are talking about the innate dignity of all people, we might remember that almost 30% of all babies conceived in the US in the last 40 years were killed before birth. In Saudi Arabia that figure is less than one thousandth of one per cent.
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Random,
From yesterday’s thread,
Yes, that, plus much more. It also means that I came to recognize the foolishness and the presuppositional flaws in my prior reasoning that led me to dismiss God (the transformation of my mind). And it also means that my recognition that the triune God exists, and that the Gospel is true, became a source of joy to me instead of the source of uneasiness which it previously was when I so lightly dismissed them (the transformation of my heart).
And it’s especially complicated and confusing when you try to cram all of reality into your constricted materialistic paradigm.
You say there’s no evidence for the God we testify to, but what all your explanations really come down to is that you justify your dismissal of God by holding to a stilted epistemology that provides no means by which the existence of God can be known. What you’re refusing to even consider is that the shortcoming might not be in the evidence but, rather, in your expectations. The scientific method is an amazing tool, but it’s usefulness is limited to understanding repeatable, physical phenomena. The evidence for God is in an entirely different category.
As I said, there’s absolutely nothing that we know today that we didn’t know 1000 years ago or 2000 years ago or 4000 years ago that makes God’s existence any less apparent.
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Granted, Ricky, that’s why I referred to a remnant as opposed to a healthy, thriving understanding. But abortion, as horrific as it is, isn’t the only way to violate human dignity. I don’t think you have a very realistic view of how Islam shapes society.
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Ree, That is an interesting point, and I would appreciate CB’s thoughts on this. Many of the patriarchal features of Middle Eastern Islamic society were/are present to some degree in many other cultures, from 19th century Native Americans in the US to Hindus in India to many Latin American societies.
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Sails, thank you for your civil reply. If everyone in the world agreed with you, I would be worried. Given, how many different versions and descriptions of God there are, my skepticism that anyone knows the slightest thing about the nature of God hangs on pretty well.
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Ree:
I guess Random’s senility is contagious
I will try dipping my fingers in alcohol before typing any more comments, but I am not sure such an action prevents dementia. Perhaps the only action that will protect you is not to read any more of my comments. Though I would think the radiation coming out of your computer would cook the germs (not to mention your brain cells).
Seriously, while I am not an expert on Islam, and have less desire to convert to Islam than to Christianity (we’re getting into negative numbers here), I have talked with women from Islamic countries and with American women who converted to Islam who seemed fairly happy with their lot. I remember a conversation with a woman from Egypt (attending graduate school at the University of Washington) who assured me that Islam was a fine religion and most of the bad things said about it were unfair. I was very skeptical, but I listened politely. Generally, my policy is not to tell people from other countries and cultures that I know more about their lands and beliefs than they do. (Even though I may consider what they say merely a different flavor of nonsense.)
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Ree:
How can you still not see that “better” and “worse” are meaningless concepts in your worldview. In fact, all concepts are meaningless in your worldview because there’s no transcendent category in which such things as ideas and concepts even exist.
I’ve heard various formulations of this on wmg and tv, and it’s very old and tired.
I am an animal. All animals strive to stay alive. Animals with big brains say, “Not trying to kill me.” Good. We say, “Trying to kill me.” Bad, we say.
No “transcendant category” to tell me I want to stay alive? My goodness, how dumb and ignorant of me.
If I lived in Roger Williams’ time, I suppose if I happened to belong in the wrong Christian sect and was tied to a stake waiting to be burned, or with a rope around my neck waiting to be hung I would be greatly comforted if the executioners explained to me that they were operating off a “transcendant category.”
“Yes! Yes! Now I understand! Light the match! Swing the ax! Drop me from the gallows!” I might cry. “Here I go to transcendant land!”
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Ree:
And it’s especially complicated and confusing when you try to cram all of reality into your constricted materialistic paradigm.
Reality is indeed complicated. There was Plato, Aristotle, Newton, Darwin (washing my mouth out with soap after typing his name), Einstein, to name a few, and we are still discovering new things. Then there was Christ, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, and so on and we crazy big-brained animals are still creating new religions.
Why at this very moment, I bet some scientist is discovering some new fact about empirical reality and some crazy seer is inventing a new religion. Somewhere an egg is being fertilized, a baby is being born, and a mortal human is dying. Very strange indeed.
What a long strange trip it’s been.
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Yeah, because your comment that you were left “speechless” wasn’t implying anything, right? Okay, then.
I won’t dispute with you about the failure of your imagination, but I will say this. Not all things we can imagine are imaginary things.
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🙂 Saw the first Christmas lights in the neighborhood tonight on the way home from dog class.
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Random,
I’m not overlooking your other comments and responses to me. I’ll look at and respond to them tomorrow.
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Ricky,
Yeah, it seems that patriarchy has been pretty much the norm across cultures throughout time. It’s not patriarchy per se that’s the problem. As far as I can tell, our God is the ultimate patriarch upon whom all patriarchy should be patterned. Therefore, patriarchy is a true reflection of reality, and to the degree that various patriarchies reflect truth, they’re good. But the lies inherent to all false religions/worldviews are the root of all kinds of societal problems. This isn’t to say that Christians societies are problem free. But Christian societies have the potential for improvement to the degree that they’re reformed upon Christian principles, whereas other societies are inherently irreformable without changing their foundation.
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Ree, I agree with your comments at 12:57, particularly the second half of those comments. I also believe that some false religions/worldviews are more harmful than others. For example, I believe that Mormonism and Islam (although clearly false) are not as harmful as the Aztec religion focused on child sacrifice. America is not a Christian society. It used to be. In Lubbock, Texas and Hendersonville, North Carolina and a thousand other places around the country, the remnant of a Christian ethic remains. However, that remnant is being daily whittled down by our government, our educational system and our popular culture. As you noted, America is increasingly atheist and neo-pagan.
Why do I harp on this point? It is because I believe American Christians still see America as the worldwide force for good it was from 1941-1993. When America promotes abortion, drunkenness, obscenity, homosexuality and creation-worship around the world, it is not a force for good. We do some good things for other nations, but so does Saudi Arabia. Impending bankruptcies will force the US and Western Europe to curtail their international presence. I am by no means certain this will be a bad thing.
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Ricky, I definitely don’t see American international presence as (mostly) a force for good anymore. We keep starting wars to depose other nations’ leaders (though we have a bad one ourselves), and we import Hollywood’s version of entertainment all over. Our level of sexual promiscuity, abortion rates, out of wedlock births, and divorce rates (exaggerated though they are) are all dangerous.
But we do still have some “traces” of a Christian worldview: for example, the ideas that we need to care for the poor (though it’s twisted in a government-mandated “charity” today), the idea that women have value and not just men, and so forth. We are fast losing what we have left, but I too wouldn’t even think of turning it in for the satanic doctrine of Islam. I think you may underestimate the danger of those beliefs, both to those within the system (particularly women and children–yes, children, not just girls, as boys end up raped under that system) and to those who resist it and are seen as infidels.
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Yes, Cheryl, that’s what I’m saying.
Ricky,
When I talk about the traces (as Cheryl aptly put it) of influence that Christianity still has the West, I’m not just talking about those who still profess a Christian creed. I’m talking about an influence that still deeply affects even people who openly hate God. Granted, that influence is shrinking as God gives us over to our depravity, but it isn’t gone.
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Somebody named “anonymous” says they will get back to me. I don’t know who anonymous is. I don’t recall addressing anonymous. Oh, well.
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Cheryl and Ree, I have many friends who have been missionaries to Muslim countries and I know many people in the US who are Muslims or ex-Muslims. The view of Muslims portrayed in the American media is not consistent with what I hear from missionaries, Muslims and ex-Muslims. The portrayal of Muslims in D’Souza’s The Enemy at Home is consistent with what I hear from other sources.
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Ricky, I said nothing about Muslims (the people), who often are good people. I’m talking about the religion, which is evil. Nations that are predominantly Muslim have a lot more freedom to carry out the issues of putting women down, killing a woman who is raped, and so forth. I personally haven’t seen the American media focus on this side much at all, though books like The Kite Runner and non-fiction titles do show the more chilling side of the satanic and dangerous religion.
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Cheryl, Ever since 9/11 I have seen a great deal of media coverage of the bad treatment of women in Muslim countries. However, I think you could find similar things happening in the poorest areas of Central America, India or non-Muslim Africa. Women are abused in primitive cultures. Perhaps the worst example I have read about was the Comanche in West Texas.
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Anonymous was me. I forgot to type in my name. But I suspect you know that.
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Ricky,
@7:59 PM
No doubt, but if you think in terms of culture as religion externalized, and you think of the various abuses as reflections of the given religions which inform the cultures, this might clarify people are saying. I’m not familiar with most of those cultures you mentioned, but I am familiar with the Hindu culture of India. Indian culture is definitely not uniformly and purely informed by a Hindu worldview, and I’m certainly not indicting all Indians. Also, there have been plenty of other influences that have worked their way into the culture, including some influences from Christianity. But the poor treatment of the weaker members of society in India, including the women, is specifically consistent with the outworking of Hindu assumptions and beliefs.
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Ree, I agree, so why is it that we read so many stories about poor treatment of women in Muslim countries and so few about poor treatment of women in Hindu countries? Answer: Both Republican Neo-cons and the media have promoted the idea that Islam has replaced communism as our greatest threat. However, our greatest threat is what the US, itself, has become.
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Ricky,
Because Hinduism isn’t a conquering religion, that’s why. You’re right that we brought our problems on ourselves, but the reason Islam is now the threat that it is is because we’ve made ourselves vulnerable by our own choices. And if you don’t believe that Islam can fill the void we’ve created, pay attention to places like Great Britain.
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