Inevitably... The future.

Submitted by Neo (Japan), May 14, 2003 at 01:12

1. The non-Islamic world will give up. Russia will give up. The Philippines will give up. Israel will give up. The U.S. will give up. The world will give up its 'infidel' beliefs and customs and convert to Islam.

I give this a 0% chance.

2. The world will have peace. Islam will be finally recognized for what it is. The terrorists will quit killing. Islam will become peaceful.

I give this a 0% chance.

3. The world loses its tolerance for Islam as the terrorism continues.
Prior to this more and more Islamic states develop weapons of mass destruction. The world has an all out nuclear war. Islamic states are completely irradiated and Islam uses its weapons on non-Islamic states. The radioactive fallout and the burning of so many cities poisons the oceans, the rivers, and darkens the air. Nuclear Winter comes and humanity becomes extinct. (High probability)

4. The world loses its tolerance for Islam as the terrorism continues before enough
Islamic states have enough weapons of mass destruction to retaliate or strike first.
Mecca and Medina are nuked and permanently poisoned. Moslems all over the world are infuriated. Some of them recognize the deeper meaning of the destruction of the 2 'holy cities'. The Moslem pilgrimages end. Eventually Islam dies out. Humanity survives. In this future the religion is finally directly targeted and destroyed. Terrorism verses Russia, the Philippines, the U.S., and Israel end. (High probability).

Of course, it's likely true that the majority of Moslems are not bad people or terrorists. We should also remember that the majority of Japanese during WWII weren't bad people either. But, the futility of a continual war or a much longer war with greater casualties pushed the Allies to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the likely Russian Invasion was also a contributing factor).

Much like the question of how to end WWII, eventually the powers will realize that the only way to end the continual threat of terrorism will be through the destruction of the religion itself. Much as the Japanese people were forced to realize that the Japanese Emperor was not a god. Moslems will be forced to realize that Islam must be false if Allah cannot protect Mecca and Medina.
The point will be argued that the destruction of Mecca and Medina will have ended the war and saved lives.


5. The world goes on doing the same thing. Lack of stronger responses to terrorists acts cause the wars to get bigger and more and more people die. Nuclear weapons are used. San Francisco or New York is obliterated. Other western and Islamic cities burn. The problem goes on. More people die in scenario 5 than 4.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".