This MEMRITV footage of the Iranian missile test (via LGF, with thanks to Junk -- I can't find it at MEMRITV; has it been taken down?) begins with the test commander intoning:
In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. O Messenger of Allah! O Messenger of Allah! O Messenger of Allah!
The "rasool Allah" is, of course, Muhammad. This past weekend I spoke at FreedomFest, and on a panel on "The Future of the Middle East" one of my fellow panelists, economist Warren Coats, insisted that the conflicts in the Middle East today are not religious, but purely political. I explained in turn that Islam rejects any distinction between the sacred and secular, and is inherently political as well as religious.
And here we have the specter of an Iranian military commander invoking Allah and Muhammad while testing Iran's missiles -- a clear indication of how the Iranians see their conflicts with America and Israel as religious. This is a key to their motivations and their goals that we ignore or downplay to our own peril.
Warren Coats was probably not sitting in church last Sunday. Our Western intellectuals, who pride themselves on their secularism, have no idea how important Muhammad is to Muslims and how religion is at the heart of everything. Wafa Sultan was correct when she commented in an interview a few weeks ago that even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is religious more than it is political. To our detriment, we don't understand that.
In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful . . .
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Here's this commander, invoking Allah's "compassion" and "mercy" right before *launching missiles*.
Words *are* used differently in Islam. I've often noted that Allah seems to be invoked in his guise as "the compassionate, the merciful" right before acts of violence.
A good Protestant* knows how to read scripture and interpret it to his life. It was an amazing shock to read the Quran and Roberts’s books on Mohammad. How could anyone believe Mohammad as a source for morality? Few western secularists can make the connection between Islamic scripture and Islamic reality because they don’t think that way.
I have had success with these types by comparing Mohammad to Buddha. Then I compare Christ and Buddha. Christ and Buddha never killed anyone. Where the list Mohammad’s crimes are so long It’s hard to get them all into a conversation. When I get the Holy Wars or the Crusades thrown at me, I just mention pre-Christian Europe was a blood-bath too. Defending the Crusades takes time and most people wont listen to it.
*Yes I am ethnocentric, thank you very much.
Robert,
A thought I had was to word smith a new phrase or word that would communicate how as you say the sacred and secular are one in the same. This compartmentalized thinking is like blinders that horses wear.
Must of the fight at this time is over ideas or better defining thoughts about who we are and who the enemy is or is not. Words and phrases define these to our disadvantage but can be used to our advantage as well.
As soon as I think of something I will post. Any other readers/posters should also think on these lines and offer suggestions as well.
Proverb 22:21
In this way, you may know the truth and bring an accurate report to those who sent you.
المثل 22:21
وبهذه الطريقة ، يمكنك معرفة الحقيقة وتحقيق دقيق لتقرير من أرسلت لك تلك.
"Iranians see their conflicts with America and Israel as religious."
All our leaders can see is that Iranians are "pro-American" and only want peace.
Ayatollah Khomeini was my introduction to political Islam. His many pronouncements were ignored in or downplayed by western media. First we were told the shia were a minor sect. Then it was that these statements were for domestic consumption and we should ignore them. The spinning only got more and more outrageous with each act of violence perpetrated in the name of allah.
Even after 9/11, they still don't get it.
"In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful."
Well yes, Allah is commander in chief and doesn't that say a lot about Islam, in just those few words, while admiring your missiles of war.
It looks like part of the message wasn't sent. Like understanding Islam. There is always some part that is never allowed to get off the ground.
Cluster Bomb Targets, with all those Iranians around.
A lot of people in this world are yelling "peace, peace" when there is none. Hmmm
flowerknife wrote:
It looks like part of the message wasn't sent. Like understanding Islam. There is always some part that is never allowed to get off the ground.
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Oh, the message was sent, all right. It's just that so much of the West is not set up to receive . . .
have all our bombs going to iran signed kiss yer butt goodbye alla babba to you to.
American - a small correction: you should have written, of the crypto-Jews in the immediate wake of the Muslim conquests, not that they were 'praying secretly to Moses', but that they were 'secretly worshipping the God of Israel'.