Islam - The Enemy Within

No...I'm not converting. However, I do feel that one must have a clear understanding of the opposition. Part of the opposition is using Islam in it's extremist state, to shore up a political ideology. As secular Americans, it is difficult to understand how someone can allow their religion to guide them in law, living, politics and war.

Or not. One of the ten commandments (Christian/Jew/Muslim) is "thou shall not kill". And that is written in our law. Of course, if you are an athiest or secular humanist, you may also believe that this is basic law of humanity. Possibly, the commandments are simply the writing of well know humanist laws within a religious text? Possibly. Or, did religion come first and secular humanist come second? The Chicken or the Egg?

Either way, it is best to understand how your opposition (dare I say "enemy") operates in order to create a sound method to defeat them.

Let me start out by saying, Islam is not my enemy. No more than Catholicism, Judaism, Pentacostle, Amish, Anime, Hindu, Buddha, atheist (yeah, I count that as a religion), etc. Singling out the religion as the "enemy" or any person that worships in that particular mode as the "enemy" is a rather crude and unrealistic method of sorting out the players in our current situation. If you do, you may well alienate a crucial part of the population from being your ally.

So, tonight, I started reading all of the sites and other information passed to me from different sources regarding Islam. The first thing that became perfectly clear is that trying to lump all worshippers of Islam into one catagory "Muslim" is like saying "Christian" and think that all Christians worship the same and have the exact same beliefs or all follow the Pope. The same can be said for Judaism, although I will not go into the different sects here because that is not my focus.

Islam has as many sects and schools of belief as Christianity. I hazard a guess, though not widely studied by me, that Hindis and Buddhists probably have the same sort of splits.

I based the title of my entry on this fact: there are many sects within Islam and they are at war with one another for supremacy. Within this war, there are those that seek to keep their power and those that wish to use this war as a vehicle to their own power. This war has been going on for centuries and, in fact, can mirror Christianity or Judaism's struggle to define itself. Currently, those wishing to come to power via this struggle have determined that the best way to consolidate their base is by declaring the enemy to be someone or something other than their Muslim brother that might not worship or believe exactly as they do. First, they will bring these folks into the fold and then they will slowly wash away their previous sectarian beliefs and mold them into their own political/religious image. Identifying a single, outside enemy, can serve as a powerful uniter.

It is obvious that the enemy chosen is the United States and, more roundly, Western Civilization.

In the same respect, in the best guerilla methods, the enemy has chosen to hide within a large population and proclaim their "religion", thus depriving us of the same unifying enemy as we felt in WWII against the Japanese and the Germans.

So, what is at stake here is the future of Islam to exist as a religion within secular laws or whether it defines itself completely as a separate movement, with it's own laws that rise above any state. At this point, it is hard to know the future. As it is, I hear many non-Muslims crying out for the Secular or Moderate Muslims to condemn the acts of their fellow extremists. I hear also the frustration of the same non-Muslims when this is not forthcoming in the strong language that we expect to hear. It is simple enough to understand that, in this war for the soul of Islam, the Muslims fear speaking out, not because of retribution, though there may be some, and not because they actually condone these actions, though some may well do so.

The point here is that the Muslim world is about to splinter. These folks fear that their very religion will disappear in a puff of smoke should they begin this leg of "fighting" against each other. Hence, whenever a Muslim does speak out about attrocities or other acts of violence and lawlessness that may otherwise offend them, they always pose it with a qualifier that asks for or demands that we or those outside of their religion, share the blame.

They are in a real sense, walking a fine line between their feelings of humanity and their solidarity with their Muslim brothers in the face of potential implosion of Islam.

The problem here maybe that these folks have already missed the point that Islam is within a perpetual struggle to define itself just as Christianity and other religions continue to do. It us only the strong that step forward and take the wheel of the careening bus that may save the passengers. Currently, that careening bus seems to be under the control of the extremists. Frankly, I see a large scale struggle for taking control of the steering wheel.

We are in the middle of this situation and, through attack on ourselves, are compelled to take sides. That side being that a secular Islam is acceptable, but extremism is not. It's not a hard choice. The extremist have already hit us.

I do find it rather amusing to see many Europeans and Americans claiming that WE chose Islam as our enemy. That is not so. Never said by the administration. Continuing to forget the extremist Islam has lasted over a century and continues to fight within itself for a supremacy of beliefs or recognizing that this extremism was on a crash course with secular society. Note that I do not say "western culture" here, because it is all secularism, regardless of country or culture, that Islamic extremists are bound and determined to fight.

Islam is not doomed to complete destruction, but is definitely doomed to committ the same follies of the ultra religious Christians of the middle ages complete with all of it's mummery and superstitious beliefs. Thus, Islam, the enemy within.

I am going to attempt to publish some continuing thoughts on the subject over the next few weeks. The best method to understanding who is the enemy and how we can ally ourselves with "secularism" in Islam and force it to part from their group think that denouncing a fellow Muslim will destroy Islam, is to completely understand it's history and relationship, both secular and relgious, with itself and with the western cultural.

I will not cover the crusades or Spain or really the Ottoman Empire as these were mostly wars of dominion with religion barely a kiss upon it's cheek. Discussions will only veer into that area if there is a direct correlation to the subject at hand. Namely, Islam self destructing and we, the "Kuffir" standing in the middle.

My next post, will continue on from the original discussion where I pointed out the beginnings of the relationship between Islam and Judaism, titled: Islam and Judaic History: Sibling Rivalry and Jealousy in which I discuss Islam's claim to Abraham and the potential of a very ugly sibling rivalry. In the next point, we will jump ahead to Mohammed hijacking pieces of Judeo/Christian religion and using it for his own purpose.