Let's call it what it is - Evil
If you have never heard Dennis Prager on the radio...he is a must listen. One of the best thinkers and debaters of our time.
The Islamic threat is greater than German and Soviet threats were
By Dennis Prager
Only four types of individuals can deny the threat to civilization posed by the violence-supporting segment of Islam: the willfully naive, America-haters, Jew-haters and those afraid to confront evil.
Anyone else sees the contemporary reality -- the genocidal Islamic regime in Sudan; the widespread Muslim theological and emotional support for the killing of a Muslim who converts to another religion; the absence of freedom in Muslim-majority countries; the widespread support for Palestinians who randomly murder Israelis; the primitive state in which women are kept in many Muslim countries; the celebration of death; the "honor killings" of daughters; and so much else that is terrible in significant parts of the Muslim world -- knows that civilized humanity has a new evil to fight.
Just as previous generations had to fight Nazism, communism and fascism, our generation has to confront militant Islam.
And whereas there were unique aspects to those evils, there are two unique aspects to the evil emanating from the Islamic world that render this latest threat to humanity particularly difficult to overcome.
One is the number of people who believe in it. This is a new phenomenon among organized evils. Far fewer people believed in Nazism or in communism than believe in Islam generally or in authoritarian Islam specifically. There are one billion Muslims in the world. If just 10 percent believe in the Islam of Hamas, the Taliban, the Sudanese regime, Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, bin Ladin, Islamic Jihad, the Finley Park Mosque in London or Hizbollah -- and it is inconceivable that only one of 10 Muslims supports any of these groups' ideologies -- that means a true believing enemy of at least 100 million people. Outside of Germany, how many people believed in Nazism? Outside of Japan, who believed in Japanese imperialism and militarism? And outside of universities, the arts world or Hollywood, how many people believed in Soviet-style totalitarianism?
A far larger number of people believe in Islamic authoritarianism than ever believed in Marxism. Virtually no one living in Marxist countries believed in Marxism or communism. Likewise, far fewer people believed in Nazism, an ideology confined largely to one country for less than one generation. This is one enormous difference between the radical Islamic threat to our civilization and the two previous ones.
But there is yet a second difference that is at least as significant and at least as frightening: Nazis and Communists wanted to live and feared death; Islamic authoritarians love death and loathe life.
That is why MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) worked with the Soviet Union. Communist leaders love life -- they loved their money, their power, their dachas, their mistresses, their fine wines -- and were hardly prepared to give all that up for Marx. But Iran's current leaders celebrate dying, and MAD may not work, because from our perspective, they are indeed mad. MAD only works with the sane.
There is much less you can do against people who value dying more than living.
The existence of an unprecedentedly large number of people wishing to destroy decent civilization as we know it -- and who celebrate their own deaths -- poses a threat the likes of which no civilization in history has had to confront.
The evils committed by Nazism and Communism were, of course, greater than those committed by radical Islam. There has been no Muslim Gulag and no Muslim Auschwitz.
But the threat is far more serious.
Dennis Prager is a radio talk show host, author, and contributing columnist for Townhall.com.
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Elmers,
No, no gulags but in terms of commited attrocities and murdered human beings Muslims aren't behind the other two totalitarian ideologies
Comment by MissingLink— 2006/04/20 @ 02:59 PM — (Reply)
Don't forget to count those "atrocities".
Comment by Cate— 2006/04/20 @ 03:09 PM — (Reply)
you of all people would know Felis, thanks
Comment by elmers brother— 2006/04/20 @ 03:09 PM — (Reply)
Comment by A Conservative Realist— 2006/04/20 @ 03:28 PM — (Reply)
In democratic societies, jihad is waged in the courts and through 'political correctness.'
By the time we realize what has happened, they will have the law on their side.
Comment by Brooke— 2006/04/21 @ 10:45 AM — (Reply)
No need for an Auschwitz or a gulog if you just go ahead and kill your enemies.
I myself have said many times I thought Islam is by far more danger than communism or National Socialism.
They both tried to replace God with the state while Islam replaces the state with God.
To any believer, it's hard to argue with God.
Comment by American Crusader— 2006/04/21 @ 11:31 AM — (Reply)
AC, yeah no wonder Islam is growing so fast they kill all the opposition
Comment by elmers brother— 2006/04/21 @ 01:20 PM — (Reply)
I love Dennis Prager. Great article.
Thank you for stopping over. It is frustrating not being ab]e to comfort friends. How can anyone truly comfort someone who loses a loved one? Only Christ can do that.
I moved my site over to Loving God Holy. This makes it easier for me to write anytime I choose. The other way I could not.
Have a great weekend.
Comment by Rosemary— 2006/04/21 @ 10:38 PM — (Reply)
Comment by A Conservative Realist— 2006/04/22 @ 05:22 AM — (Reply)
Barry...Rosemary is a great lady. She has four blogs..News
n Ideas is one of them. I invite you to visit if you haven't. She is well informed and posts some great stuff.
Comment by elmers brother— 2006/04/22 @ 05:29 AM — (Reply)
Comment by A Conservative Realist— 2006/04/22 @ 05:38 AM — (Reply)
I meant no offense Barry.
Your Friend,
Elmers Brother
Comment by elmers brother— 2006/04/22 @ 07:00 AM — (Reply)
Comment by A Conservative Realist— 2006/04/23 @ 04:44 PM — (Reply)
Bush has made more terrorist than ever by starting a war with no end started on lies.
Comment by Cheeseburger— 2006/04/23 @ 04:50 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2006/04/23 @ 04:52 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Brooke— 2006/04/24 @ 05:01 AM — (Reply)
Comment by MOS— 2006/04/30 @ 04:40 PM — (Reply)
Wow the lunatic fringe has paid me a visit. I have watched the "proof" of 9/11 conspiracy and I think Cate pretty much said it all very well here.
If you paranoid freaks don't watch out you might conspire to take yourselves out. You might want to also check into rehab it will do wonders for a reality check. Ask Charlie Sheen.
Comment by elmers brother— 2006/04/30 @ 05:10 PM — (Reply)
hey buddy the word is "innate" not enate did you learn how to spell in the drunk tank or at an AA meeting
Comment by elmers brother— 2006/04/30 @ 05:13 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Susan— 2006/04/30 @ 05:16 PM — (Reply)
He's either in Pino's class with Millard or part of the unholy alliance
ahh it could be both
Comment by elmers brother— 2006/04/30 @ 06:13 PM — (Reply)
Here is one review of the book.
It sounds absurd: why would Leftists make common cause with a religion that is diametrically opposed to everything the Left stands for? David Horowitz explains that it is really quite logical given the Left's first principle: America is evil and anything or anyone opposed to America is good.
Part I of the book is a brief history of 9/11 through the end of major combat operations in Iraq, and the Left's behavior during this time. Horowitz includes the reaction of Katha Pollitt of The Nation magazine: "The flag stands for vengeance, and jingoism, and war." Anthropology Professor Nicholas De Genova of Columbia University said he hoped for "a million Mogadishus." His colleagues objected, not to the despicable sentiment, but because of the bad publicity it brought their "teach-in." Our tax dollars at work!
Part II is the heart of the book: a history of the American and international Left. Horowitz calls them Neo-Communists or Neocoms. The Neocoms of old believed in the Soviet Union the way religious people believe in God. Those who spied for the USSR didn't see themselves as traitors to their country, but rather loyalists to humanity and an ideal of America that's never existed. When the Soviet Union fell, a few of them stopped for some introspection but most pressed on as if nothing happened. Communist historian Eric Hobsbawm put it nicely: "Without the Revolution, my life and my work are meaningless."
Now that they no longer have to defend an indefensible regime, modern Neocoms are simply nihilists. They know what they oppose but they have no plans for the aftermath of the revolution which they still believe will happen. They don't know what they want, but they know what they hate: the United States, capitalism personified.
So why are they allying with radical Islam? Horowitz says that the Neocoms still believe in Marx's dictum that "religion is the opiate of the masses." Once private property is abolished, the need for religion will vanish, and Islamic radicals will stop being Islamic and radical. The only thing standing in the way is the United States.
Sound insane? It is. They are. I highly recommend this book. Horowitz makes the insanity understandable.
Comment by elmers brother— 2006/04/30 @ 06:16 PM — (Reply)
These morons don't realize that sticking their fingers in their ears and refusing to pay attention isn't going to work!
Refusal to deal in reality is a big sickness in this country nowadays. If these X-Philes want to see a movie about 9-11, I would suggest Flight 93.
Comment by Brooke— 2006/05/01 @ 02:19 AM — (Reply)