A few days ago Dean Esmay, the blogger with whom I have had several exchanges (during which he followed the familiar pattern of heaping abuse upon me personally but not dealing with the substantive points I raised), carried out an ideological purge at his site, demanding that posters and commenters agree with five points about "Islamophobia" or be gone. These points included things that no one is affirming ("Islam does not represent the forces of Satan or the Anti-Christ bent on destruction of the Christian world") and things that can be affirmed of some, but not all Muslims.
The main flashpoint, I'm told, was the assertion that "Islam as a religion is no more inherently incompatible with modernity, minority rights, women's rights, or democratic pluralism than most ancient religions." In this he was demanding that writers affirm something of which there has never been any demonstration in history, such that if it is true, that is a matter for the future -- rather as if he had demanded that people accept the proposition that tomorrow the rivers will flow in the opposite direction. Maybe they will, but large-scale evidence is so far not forthcoming.
Anyway, a good many good writers jumped out of Esmay's ideological gulag at that point, including Ron Coleman of LikelihoodofConfusion.com (who tells me that he is looking for a "home" for general-interest blogging; I invited him to write here but he politely declined my invitation because he is not primarily focused on the jihad; however, he is eager to hear from anyone with any suggestions of a better fit); the superb Jane Novak of Armies of Liberation; and Kevin Dombrowski, who, as you can see, has begun posting here (he wrote the two posts immediately below this one).
Welcome, Kevin, and thank you for coming on board. At Jihad Watch we are dedicated to the defense of human rights as they are threatened by the Islamic jihadists, and beyond that we welcome a diversity of points of view. I look forward to reading more from you.
("Islam does not represent the forces of Satan or the Anti-Christ bent on destruction of the Christian world")
How is "destruction" defined?
Of course Islam is not the force of Satan or an anti-Christ, but how does anyone deny that Islam is bent on eliminating all other relgions (including Christianity) from the face of the earth? How else do you describe people who will not rest until the entire world recognizes their god as the only true god?
Of course they're not looking to destroy the peoples of the world, but they ARE looking to impose their own belief system on all of us, a belief system that is anathema to everything we hold dear - like human life and the freedom of the individual.
Before saying that Islam is not the force of Satan or an Anti_Christ so offhandedly, perhaps one should know that in fact there are a several published authors that espouse just that.
It may not be Roberts, or Jihad Watches view, but there are those that have connected the dots, and the picture is not pretty.
I for one am convinced that Islam is the religion that the future Anti-Christ will in fact use during the time of the great tribulation.
http://www.answering-islam.de/Main/Authors/JR/Future/index.htm
Some Chapters.
Chapter 5. Comparing The Biblical Antichrist and The Mahdi
Chapter 6. The Muslim Jesus
Chapter 7. Comparing The False Prophet and The Muslim Jesus
Chapter 8. The Dajjal: Islam’s Antichrist
Chapter 9. Comparing The Biblical Jesus and The Dajjal
Chapter 14. End Time Martyrdom And Islam’s Practice of Beheading
Kevin
Welcome to JihadWatch. I was puzzled to read your previous post, where you requested that we abstain from bashing Dean. I actually wish that we avoid covering him at all - he's a distraction from the task at hand, and that too, one with a very limited coverage. If we are going to bash media apologists for Islam, I'd rather we do that to those with a wide audience, like Sean Hannity or George Soros.
Other than that, you're off to a good start. I'm glad those military tribunals finally opened. I'd suggest they use reverse-sharia in trying those perps.
Expanding on Lorgan's post a little.
What I believe will happen is that the believers in Jesus will be taken out of the earth (the rapture) at which point real chaos will ensue...sound familiar? As the moslems have been endeavoring to establish mosques in many areas, they will use the chaos to proclaim the time of the mahdi's coming and the mosques as outposts to push for the caliphate to bring the world under control. In my estimation, it will literally be hell on earth.
(What will the US government and armed forces look like if a large number of them are no longer around? Something like 25% -40% of the US representatives have labelled themselves as evangelicals.)
Although many will also come to be believers, they will no doubt be the ones martyred and spoken about in the book of Revelation.
One of Jesus' companions, John, who wrote the gospel, the general epistles and the book of Revelation, wrote in 1 John 2:22-23 "Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist--he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also."
So though mohommed wasn't the antichrist, I believe that islam will be used to usher in the anti-christ since islam denies what Christians know is true about Jesus: he is the Christ.
Welcome Kevin.
Nice coup Robert. I'm sure Dean Esmay is fuming right now.
eve_anne_gelical,
With respect, I must disagree with you. First, anyone that denies Messiah is an type of anti-Christ. Islam will no more usher in the Antichrist than will Shintoism or Hinduism. Unless you've got Scriptural evidence to support your position that Islam will play a unique role in bringing the Antichrist to power...
Also, I do not believe there is to be a Rapture. Yeshua knows I wish there were! The Rapture is a very, very new doctrine and one that ignores Yahweh's pattern in dealing with His people and disasters.
He led Noah through the Flood. He led Moses and His people through the Exodus.
The Biblical pattern is Yahweh guiding His people through these things, not removing them from it all.
Don't put all your eggs in the Rapture basket - else the basket disappear.
Esmay also demands that you use your real name or at least your real initials to sign up to his blog. I suppose that explains why he hasn't responded to my membership request, since I see no reason why I should give him any personal information that I strive to protect. One has to wonder what his motivation is to ask for such things, and I couldn't help but think to myself -- "Sure, I'll give you my real name and then a year later I get a visit from unfriendly fascists of one shade or another?"
As I grow in my web presence, I'm going to start giving blogs like Dean's more attention, and not in the way he is going to enjoy.
Foehammer
Dean doesn't deserve any attention - positive or otherwise. Don't feed the troll - that's how he gets referenced more, and more hits. In fact, I wish Robert and Kevin would do the same.
We have enemies more prominent in magnitude - not to inflate our individual or collective importance, but there is no reason to waste time on such losers.
I look at this mess as an undercover of a World Domination threat, it isn't about the Bible or anything relating to the past......we're only made to believe that crap, like a few hijackers hijacked a religion....I ain't buying it. This threat has been unrecognized since Joe McCarthy, and now the world is waking up to its insidiousness.
Long live the war against Terror !
Infidel Pride:
For my part I completely agree. I have mentioned Esmay again in connection with my exchanges with Ali Eteraz -- and I have already explained why I undertook those -- and in connection with Kevin's coming on board, but I think he has abundantly illustrated that he has no interest in basic human decency or honesty, and thus at this point merits no serious attention whatsoever.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
Infidel Pride, Robert:
I must politely disagree. I think that it's sometimes more useful to point out the fools among the enemy in order to bring on board more converts to the true cause. When you take some absolute radical no-good-nick like Dean E. and turn him upside down in front of his cohorts, you end up gaining an ally now and again. Robert, you've even pointed that out yourself.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
A shame he won't allow me access though -- I was going to have a little fun once in awhile at his expense, just with some playful jibes, but alas, I guess I'll just have to stick to the more important business at-hand, like getting to my overdue mapping project again...
Kev, dOOd, nice gig! howareya?
heh, hey Rob, tnx.
Jane
I had a look at your blog. Is it an Yemen centric site? And if yes, what are your goals - promoting secularism in Yemen? It wasn't obvious at first glance.
Kevin D., thanks for the response. Though I have no scriptural evidence per se, I do believe that islam is unique amonst world religions in that it has a well-developed doctrine of ruling the entire world for allah, politically as well as spiritually, as I have learned here on JW. As we have seen for the last 25 years, the fundamentalist moslems are bringing the message to many places throughout the world and are gearing up for the reestablishment of the caliphate...they aren't shy about it either. (I was first made aware of it in the early '80s in London at Speaker's Corner.)
As Lorgan above mentioned, I am not the only one that has the opinion of islam being the religion of the anti-christ spoken about in Revelation pertaining to the Last Days. Whether there will actually be a rapture or not, that isn't a fundamental issue to Christianity and you know the doctrine of the rapture is predicated on a couple of scriptures in the gospels where Jesus is discussing the last days or end times with the disciples: Matthew 24:40, 41 and Luke 17:34-36. I actually ascribe to the Pat Robertson view of the rapture: it will all pan out (the pan trib), ; ).
"There is no god allah (though it wouldn't surprise me if it were lucifer) and mohammed was no prophet" is my feeling about it.
Mary Madigan left Dean's World today.