A Plague upon all your houses.....
Reader comment on item: Jihad through History
in response to reader comment: Jihad

Submitted by Alano (Australia), Sep 3, 2007 at 08:05

Dr Bales' comments strike a chord. Certainly since the rise of Islam, the combatting of it's pernicious aspect of theologically justified oppression in pursuit of a uniformly Muslim world has been a recurring theme. Yes, where it has been once established, the struggle to liberate the subjugated peoples has been long (700 years for the "Reconquista" in Spain. Top marks, Dr. - few in the non-Hispanic world are aware of it).

His commentary raises a question - and it is this: Given that Jihad has flared whenever the fortunes of the Islamic world have waxed (or waned) (being fomented by "humiliation" as some of it's present-day apologists would have it) - is it not perhaps time that Muslims took note, that perhaps Allah has denied them world dominance not because they have been insufficiently pious/observant/militant, but because they have neglected to evolve away from the anti-social aspects of their reading of the messages he delivered to them ? - and is it not time that the others who also inhabit this world finally reacted to just that set of Muslim conceits which manifests again today, as militant Islamism, by shooting on sight?

Nor need any of us exempt from condemnation and rejection, the adoption of conceits of superiority by Hinduism; Judaism; Christianity; Soviet Communism; and the hugely flawed versions of "Secular Democracy" implemented by most Western nations.....which latter (after Christianity in the list) are frequently spoken of by their promoters and adherents in frankly religious terms!

Optional voting; limitations of suffreage; selective registration of voters; gerrymandering of electorates - and much worse though more infrequent repressions and other abuses - these have been the rule throughout their "Democratic" histories.

If Deity is broadcasting one salient lesson -wordlessly- it seems to me that it is this: No Ideologically-fuelled movement is to achieve world domination. And another: Diversity is the salvation of Humanity - and the constructive variation eventually prevails........not within the lifespan of an individual; not within a generation; nor within the lifespan of a culture - but eventually. One might say -"In God's good time".

Perhaps the next sea-change in Human history will come when those who meditate or cogitate - religiously or not - upon the meaning of life: or upon the fundament that underlies all things Human.....come to contemplate, seriously and at length, the abovementioned possibilities; and shine that light upon their consciences.

In the meantime, who sows the wind, can as always, look to the harvest of the whirlwind......or a runaway "Greenhouse Effect" that might overtake all of our divided species.......

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