The Way I See It

The Way I See It

If Islamic believers are concerned about public backlash to the recent bombings in London, they will police their clerics and strip the Mullahs that preach hatred of their religious credentials.

Historically, while some Muslim leaders decry terrorism they are split on whether it is martyrdom to kill infidels or simple slaughter of the innocent. They are split of the proper interpretation of the Koran.

The Christian church went through a similar upheaval with the birth of the Protestant branch of Christianity. Judaism and Christianity are older religions that Islam. Like all religions it has growing pains where the teachings undergo more refined interpretation. Usually this refinement is measured by the amount of tolerance and compassion that is left after the violence of the rift has subsided.

Our only hope for a peaceful Middle East is when open societies are in existence there. As long as their countries remain closed to other beliefs and other cultures, there will be no peaceful solution. It can be demonstrated historically that a more educated and free a society, the more peaceful it is with it’s neighbors.

I see even in America the tendency of Muslims to send their children to Muslim schools. (Nothing wrong in that I’m just noticing the difference in percentage of children that attend “religious schools” as compared to other immigrant populations historically) There is a tendency for Muslims to be more private than other immigrants. Muslims act as if they are guarding something that they don’t want sullied by Western Culture. (My observation and a poor attempt at putting into words these observations). I think if studies were done it would bear this out.

They see opportunities here and freedom so they come. The Islamic immigrant population also brings with them the fanatics among them. These fanatics are not rooted out by their congregations. Although their Mosque can be the focus of a backlash they point to us as the oppressors and not their clerics. It doesn’t seem to occur to “mainstream” Muslims that the true oppressors are those Islamic leaders that keep their people enslaved through the teachings of intolerance of other cultures.

Until this rift in Islam blossoms and Muslims take control of their clerics and hold them responsible to teach only tolerance, love and compassion, their claims to be innocent victims of American bigotry will fall on increasingly deaf ears here in America.Is there a separation of church and state in the Middle East? This is one of the basic tenets of our democracy and has allowed us the amount of freedoms we enjoy, precisely because we are not restrained by a state sponsored religion.


Pakistan: “The country is an Islamic republic; Islam is the state religion. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35519.htm

Saudi Arabia: ”Saudi Arabia is an Islamic monarchy without legal protection for freedom of religion, and such protection does not exist in practice. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2002/14012.htm

Iran: “ The Constitution declares the "official religion of Iran is Islam and the doctrine followed is that of Ja'fari (Twelver) Shi'ism." http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2003/24449.htm

Afghanistan:The June 2002 Loya Jirga (or Grand Assembly of traditional leaders) declared that the official name of the country is the "Islamic Transitional Government of Afghanistan (ITGA)." http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2002/14020.htm

Lebanon: “There is no state religion; however, discrimination based on religion is built into the system of government. The Government appoints and pays the salaries of Muslim and Druze judges as the judicial system is historically part of the State apparatus.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35502.htm

Egypt: Under the Constitution, Islam is the official state religion and the primary source of legislation.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2002/13994.htm

If a government sponsored religion is wrong in America, why isn’t it wrong in Saudi Arabia?
The dark ages was marked by state sponsored religious oppression. This oppression suppressed science, the arts and self government. Is the Middle East somehow immune to the outcome of state sponsored religion (oppression)?
It is clearly not.

This very "Religion State" that our forefathers were condemning exists today throughout the Middle East. The exact same circumstances that exist in the Middle East today existed then in Europe. Torture, denial of rights and the persecution of those that didn't believe as the Government existed then as today.

Was America founded on universal truths as our forefathers wrote or does that truth too become the victim of being only relative to what country you are in?

If we know something has a certain outcome, do we not have the obligation to their and our grandchildren to change it?

Are we now concentrating our efforts on change in the Middle East, or are we using our strengths to fight over Terry Shiavo, Roe vs Wade, Social Security Reform, Medicaide improvements, Union Rights, Teachers Pay, Supreme Court nominees, Bush's Lies, Rumsfeld's bluntness, Cheney's daughter, Gay Marriage, Burning the flag, blocking appellate court nominees, commandments in the courthouse or Gitmo Bay?

What to do here?
The need for our unity mounts. America will be called upon to sacrifice more than her expendable troops. America, unlike Vietnam, is facing an asymmetrical enemy. They have been within our borders. They are still.

Americans will have to sacrifice our bickering and calling each other names. America’s Government must be united no less than in World War II. We must willingly give up some rights for the need of the greater good.

Internment camps were a harsh reality brought about by an executive order from a very liberal President F.D.R. To complete that harsh reality the German population and Italians, many of whom were also treated the same.

When a Governments first priority is to protect the country from fatality, civil liberties will be surrendered and the Government will turn its own troops on civilians to maintain that control.Since our enemies live in a sea of civilians how else can this turn out?

Eventually the Muslim population in immigrant countries will be under such restriction and suspicion that they will leave that country, die there, or police their clerics. There is no other way that I can see that this would turn out 5, 10 or 20 years from now.

Islam must heal itself from within or it will face a very uncertain future. Finally the kid on the block that says he’s been misunderstood and oppressed will be.

This early in the game they have the opportunity to proactively seek out those that preach hatred and confront them.

Also this early in the game our Government will use more refined ways to attempt to find those that preach hatred and insurrection. If those methods are unsuccessful then progressively more blunt ways will be implemented until control is maintained.

If the terrorists have their way with our economy, all Americans will lose equally. The rich and the poor will be devastated.

Our victory is in the future but our being in danger is now. It is obvious we can only blame ourselves if we once again do not respond to the call to unite.

This time it won’t be “pulling out” like in Vietnam. We can no longer conveniently walk away from a South East Asian poor country. We can not be satisfied that we once again restricted an over reaching Government. Our enemy is not George W. Bush. Our enemy is anyone and everyone that threatens our country. We have been lulled to sleep by the lack of repeated attacks within our borders.

The Right Wing and the Left Wing has distracted us with a series of false crises. Because our attention is constantly directed toward Roe v Wade or the FBI snooping into our libraries or Bush lying about the circumstances that sent us to Iraq, we have squandered our attention to the dangers that confront us.

We have squandered our tools in communication on those that are not America’s enemies. We have used our communication to blast headlines about the torture of terrorist bent on our death instead of 600 Iraqi schools being opened. We have squandered our time debating Terry Shiavo, Karl Rove and the Religious Right stealing an election.

We have made Al Jazeera smile with our headlines. They were only mildly disappointed by our last election. Taking heart in the fact that the election showed a split country where the opposition party carried 49%.

They see our civil liberties as our weakness. They rely on our Government detractors, including our press, to keep the ferment of new crisis boiling. This allows them the space to come here and grow ever stronger.

What does this mean, we can’t criticize our Government?

No, it means that we should be criticizing our Government for being swept up in the Terry Shiavos, we should criticize President Bush for not putting Social Security reform behind National Security. If the same effort were made securing our borders as was spent on Social Security Reform we would have more secure borders by now. Yes, criticize our leaders for calling good “can-do” spirited Americans vigilantes in front of the Mexican President. We should be telling our leaders to cease bringing up tempest in a teapot issues and concentrate on the danger we currently exist under. Instead of our Government leaders telling us what they are doing that makes us safer they could be asking for our help. Like civilian border patrol that act as reporting observers. We did much the same during World War II. How quickly we want to drop what worked before and act utterly clueless about the methods we should employ now to secure victory.

Yes, criticize for a safer America. No, don’t give Al Jazeera a smile by calling our President dumb, dense and a liar. This rhetoric only emboldens our enemies.

Bush gave us a message of truth in his evaluation of what we need to do to secure our safety. It’s the same truth that rang at the end of World War II. We do in the Middle East like we did in Germany and Japan. The 49% of us that scream, “This is different!” or, “Bush is a liar” or “We won’t give up our civil liberties.”, only make us less mindful of the dangers that face us. We have chosen to kill the messenger and in so doing we are killing ourselves.

We should use our powers of swaying public opinion and apply those powers to the Middle East. Europe and America has the greatest propaganda machine on the face of the earth. We have the technology to cripple Al Jazeera (Electronic Counter Measures) and flood the Arabic states with universal powers of freedom guaranteed by the separation of church and state?