Isam is not peacefull - Lets call this one out!

Is Islam peaceful? I have done a deep dive (for a non-politician) and read many books on it and history related to the Iraq war, researching on the internet and wikipedia for divergent opinions, and reading and marking up my own copy of the Koran for verification of the offending passages. Finally, I have had intimate conversations with three different Muslims about the religion. Here is what I found. The prescription for violence is not even hidden in metaphors!

Let's review the indisputable facts:

1) Islam regards Mohammad as “the highest example of human behavior
2) Mohammad commanded over 70 battles in his 23 year prophetic career – that’s more than 1 every 3 months! He was a busy man. They subsisted by raiding and booty (no time to farm). This is not disputed even by adherents and apologists.
3) The reason for these battles was not self-defense in the sense we Americans are familiar with. They were in response to laughing at Mohammad’s claim to be a prophet and for pouring goats’ blood & pee on his head. Again, this is not disputed even by adherents and apologists.
4) Islam grew to its current size by conquering and then by relegating non-Muslims to second class citizen status and taxing them 20%. When they got sick of it, suddenly they had miraculous conversions! No missionary program was ever part of the main stream growth plan; it was not necessary.

Islam is all about fear and intimidation even to the present day. In the current 57 Islamic Stateswhere Sharia law is the law of the land, the penalty for apostasy is death by family member (it’s their duty) – slitting the throat is the traditional and currently accepted method. (Including new Iraq for which blood and treasure has been spent)

This violence is based on the Koran, Hadeeth, and Sura, which are the three bodies of writing in the Islamic cannon. The Koran is only the beginning of the prescription for violence. It is full of militaristic language, and for good reason. Mohammad orders Muslims to fight Jihad in order to go to the highest heaven.

What’s the difference between Bible based violence and Koran violence? It comes down to the difference between present tense as opposed to past tense in the way that current adherents understand it.

The worst passage in the Bible is in Deuteronomy where God commanded the prophet to kill a whole people, every woman and child, sparing no one. The current Old Testament reader (99.9999%) does not detect any imperative to commit violence from this because it was a command from God to a specific people to:
1) Kill a specific people – limited in scope
2) At a specific time – now passed
3) For a specific reason – they were grossly wicked

A Christian reads this and simply wonders in awe, never getting the slightest notion of a command that they should do the same. The New Testament puts away any doubt that the new law is anything but peace. It speaks of violence only in metaphorical terms like how the “sword” brought by Jesus will divide families and pit family members against each other. Of course, Christians understand this to mean that family members would disown those who followed Christ and that HE was admonishing them to stick with HIM anyway.

By contrast, if a Muslim decides to do a deep dive and become more religious, he will read the three collections of the Islamic cannon. It tells them in present tense command form to wage Jihad, and it is not metaphorical.

Americans misunderstand the harmful intent of Islam because we don’t understand their culture, history, or their Books. “Attacks on Islam” in Islam’s context consists of our mere existence as a predominantly non-Muslim country. Our “innocence” is not granted us in the way we think of it. This justifies the need to replace the constitution with Sharia law (giving permission to beat your wife and kill apostates) and to subjugate, and to kill us if we resist.

Still thinking this is a tiny minority that supports violence? In Pakistan, 87% believe Osama Bin Laden is a Holy Man, after 9/11! This is why we found Sadam Husan, but we cannot find Bin Laden. Sadam did not have popular support; Bin Laden has an approval rating that any President in U.S. History would be envious of. In the UK, 40% want Sharia law (civil rights atrocities and death) to replace their constitution. In the US, 20% of young people surveyed agree that violence should be used by Muslims.

Here’s my personal experience:

1) I worked along side a Pakistani for 3 years. He was a nice guy, a family man with a full beard. One day, we are getting laid off and our conversation evolves into religion and politics with the new atmosphere. I find out that he believes Bin Laden is a Holy Man even though he himself does not like the violence! He bought his house through the Holy Land foundation which is like Bank of America for Islam. They buy their houses through this foundation in order to work around the law that they do not pay or charge interest. It basically buys the house they pick and rents it to them until it’s paid off. This foundation was found by the CIA to be funding Al-qaeda – A terrorist organization! This is mainstream Islam funding Terrorism. I can only imagine how many American houses are owned by it and how much money it makes from them.
2) I was a missionary in the former Soviet Union where I met a Muslim student and he invited us to his apartment. We got into a discussion and he seemed interested. Then, in the middle of my teaching him, he injected his feelings. He said, “you know, I really do believe in Jesus…but do you know what my Father and my Brothers would do if they found out?”. Then he drew his finger across his throat! He was dead serious, literally. This experience meant enough on its own, but was especially forceful to me in light of some recent events at that time. Many of my fellow missionaries had taught and baptized Muslims who, after returning home and telling their families, had been threatened with death. One of them, who my friend had taught, narrowly escaped an attempt on taking his life by his Father. He came back to the foreign land to stay. He said he could never go back or he might get killed. The mission leadership in this particular country even decided not to each Muslims anymore because there were plenty of people to convert who would not get killed for it.
3) I recently had a chance to have an intimate conversation with a young non-bearded moderate Pakistani professional. I told him the story above and he simply said, yes that epitomizes "about 98% of any man you meet in Pakistan with a beard like that".

So Islam is violent. What does that mean?
1) It explains why Bush has been acting like a tough cowboy on TV. The CIA, State Department, and Military have asked him to. Why? Because in order to win a war there without instituting the draft, we need to win over the confidence of the people. It's all about an image of power.
2) We can win there by understanding this. Their ancestry converted to Islam out of fear and they are ruled by fear to the present day. This is the basis of their society now. Everything is done because you might be destroyed if you do not obey Sharia law and the clerics and Al-Qaeda etc…
a. Because of this, they are not deeply religious and spiritual as the American thinks of it. They are intensely devoted to preserving life and the prosperity of their families from the wrath of Ala, their government, their tribal leaders, and their clerics.
b. They will turn to our ways of democracy and capitalism and freedom and civil rights (Iraqies wanted it to the tune of 80-90% according to ABC & CNN polls right after Sadam’s fall) IF they know that the U.S. is the ultimate power in the region. They are not totally backwards; they like freedom!
c. The problem has been that Al-Qaeda has better press coverage than Bush and the US military. This has led the people to believe the US is weak and that Al-Aqaeda will defeat it. Looking at our history of showings of weakness and our congress threatening to leave, who can blame them.
d. Our war strategy in the second IRAQ war was based on the Afganistan war plan of recruiting warlords to fight for us so that we don’t have to institute the draft. The trouble is that the US suffers from an image problem thanks to past signs of weakness and the media’s distortion of them.
e. The average Iraqi is thinking, I want freedom, but if the US leaves, I’ll get killed for having supported the US when their gone or cannot help.
f. All wars against the US have been fought through propaganda increasingly since WWII. Hitler used it on us and there was actually a substantial following of Nazi’s in the US, but it was mostly conventional bombs. The Soviet Union took propaganda to a new level and actual spent millions of dollars on Vietnam and won it by using non-profit organizations and college campuses in the US via their spy network, advertising, the new york time, and hollywood actresses. Now, no enemy thinks about taking our military head on; they hire lawyers, spy’s, non-profit orgs, and liberals instead. That is what Islam is doing against us right now.
g. That’s why it’s all about image, not vanity, but it is literally the main strategy for winning the war. We have to have an image of power, firmness, and decisiveness. Democrat congressman threatening to leave Iraq have hurt our main strategy.
h. That is why we took Iraq, as a base. It shows our resolve and capability and helps us recruit people to our side. It borders most of the countries we are concerned about. All they want to know is that we will win and we are there to stay. It is working.
i. Our old allies, the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were abandoning us because their Al-Qaeda connections are stronger and our reputation is weaker. Their top leaders want to please the US to keep the oil money flowing, but they also have a largely Islamist constituency to please. They are torn. It took our presence there in Iraq to persuade them onto our side. Finally, last week, Pakistan announced it was actually in battles with the Taliban because of US pressure to hunt them down. Today, 10/19/07, 70 people were killed by a Taliban/Al-Qaeda bomb in Pakistan. It looks like we are really stirring things up. Things will come to a head sooner instead of festering and growing, and Bin Laden will be caught. We never could have had this success in the war on terror without occupying Iraq. Pakistan would simply not be helping us like they are and putting themselves in peril.