Reply to David John
Reader comment on item: Civil war likely in Iraq: Pipes
in response to reader comment: Can't see the Forest for the Trees

Submitted by Jason (United States), Mar 13, 2006 at 07:43

David John asks:
"isn't it true that the ayatollas from Khomeni onwards have gone back to the Koran and found there the the doctrines of jihad, of Islamic superiority, of murder and mayhem."

It's actually just the opposite. These "leaders" are basing most of their BS on hadiths and fatwas, both of which are the Muslim equivalent of Papal Encyclicals. And just like the Papal Encyclicals, the historical hadiths and fatwas are merely the written religious beliefs of a single individual, at a specific point in time, and often have no basis in the underlying scriptures. Most of what is quoted here as being from the Koran is actually from these hadiths and fatwas, and not from the Koran at all. As I stated in my original posting, even Mohammad warned against using hadiths as a basis for one's faith, to include hadiths the he, Mohammad, had written. Only the Koran matters.

Remember also that the ayatollas are the Islamic equivalent of the Church leadership, albeit not so formally structured. They are the old guard, committed to the old ways, whether the old ways are right or not. The present wave of violence is their attempt to re-assert these old ways as this new generation finds that there is a discrepency between what they are taught by their religious leaders, and what is written in the Koran. This is an exact repeat of what happened during the Christian Reformation.

I have two final analogies that I believe will help people understand this a little better. During the Christian Reformation, two entities arose in an attempt to enforce the old order. They were the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and the Inquisition. Islam has its own versions of each. They are, repectively, Wahabism (Islam's most fanatical branch) and Al-Qaida.

The Wahabi are like the Jesuits in that their version of their faith is based entirely upon the "traditions" of their religion, with little direct connection to their scriptures. It is the worst kind of blind, maniacal faith that allows people to be so easily manipulated by their leaders. Al-Qaida mirrors the Inquisition in that both were/are willing to do whatever is necessary to protect those traditions, no matter how evil such actions might have to be. Protecting the traditions and the established order are all that matter. Whereas most of the Catholic Church's inquisitors are probably burning in Hell, most members of Al-Qaida will probably share the same eternal fate. They'll have a lot of war stories to swap.

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