The following email was sent to me by my sister. I present it in it’s entirety with my reply I sent back to her discussing the matter, and a few extra remarks I added.
—– A thought-provoking dissertation
There was a man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War
II. They owned a number of large industries and estates. I asked him
how many German people were true Nazis, and the answer he gave has
stuck with me and guided my attitude toward fanaticism ever since.“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 a 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 specter 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. The hard quantifiable fact is that the “peaceful
majority” is the “silent majority” and it 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 not a
war-mongering 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 were 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 awake 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.At the risk of offending someone, I sincerely think that anyone who
rejects this as just another political rant, or doubts the seriousness
of this issue, or just deletes it without sending it on, is part of
the problem. God Bless America!
My Comments:
The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.
I am good friends with an Arabic scholar and historian that has spent the last 25 years of his life writing and studying the Bible (which includes an understanding of Hebrew, Arabic, and other languages, as well as history and other religions as well). When I say he 25 years of his life, I mean that is pretty much all he has done in the last 25 years. He grew up and lived most of his life in the Middle East. He states the exact opposite of what whoever wrote this stated. That most Muslims don’t practice Islam strongly just like most Christian and Catholic Americans don’t practice their faith strongly either.
He said his family was more strongly Muslim than any other family in their community and he rarely prayed. He said he remembered growing up and he rarely saw people pray. He said what we hear, read, and watch in the media is Muslim fundamentalism.
But even if we believe for one second that the above quote is true, than why did so many Arabs leave Iraq and Afghanistan prior to the war? Surely if they were the Christianity hating fundamentalists we are to believe they are then they would have stayed behind to kill some Americans right?
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.
This leads me to believe whomever wrote this is a Christian. Probably the same type of Christian as the others that say Christianity is being attacked (think Billy Boy).
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.
I guess it just disheartens me every time I hear or read what someone says about war and peace they always have to point to Islam as the shinning example. But in all actuality, all religions have just as much death, destruction, and war associated with it as any other, and for one simple reason.
People believe. Beliefs are something hard to change. Beliefs are what ground someones thinking making it hard to accept outside evidence. And once you have a belief, it is just one more step to fundamentalism or radicalism…
No comment yet