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ROLE OF RELIGION |
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ROLE OF RELIGION |
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Islamic Anti-American Riot in Pakistan, 2001 |
Arab violence and terrorism has been a constant presence in Israel since the early 20th Century, and especially in the years since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. While Palestinian Arabs claim that the underlying reasons have to do with land, settlements, "occupation" and the like, there are deeper reasons, based on Islam, in what has been called a "clash of civilizations", from Samuel Huntington's essay for Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993).
Islam arose from pre-Islamic tribal society, and borrowed extensively from an untutored version of Judaism sprinkled with Christianity. Its intentions were stated at the beginning by Muhammad. He declared that Islam is the "final revealed word of God", and thereby eclipsed all other religions (called "replacement theology"). Muhammad aspired to conquer the world in the name of Allah, and his followers are still on the same path. It is the duty of Islam to subjugate and destroy the infidels, the Christians and the Jews. The word Islam itself means "submission".
The military victories by Islam in the 7th Century, sweeping across the Middle East, North Africa and into Europe and Asia, convinced the masses that they were the one true path to God. But the failure of the once-mighty Islamic empires to advance technologically led to humiliating defeats in the 19th and 20th Centuries, leaving Muslims in the Middle East at the mercy of European colonialist powers. For Islam this was an existential crisis: how can the true faith of Islam be defeated by the Infidel West?
Possibly the most theologically obscene development for Muslims, particularly Arabs, was the creation of the State of Israel – a dhimmi State – at the heart of the Abode of Islam. The insult only grew when tiny Israel defeated Arab aggression in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. To cope with the repeated failure of Islam to fulfill its prophecy, myths were created. These myths explained away the failures and supported the popular will to further the jihad against Western civilization and what Arabs saw as the Western colony in Israel. The most important myths are:
As is heavily documented in the web pages of Palestine Facts, all of these myths have been exposed as false. Statements and documents from British, American and UN officials and even by Arab leaders, as well as the studies of neutral journalists and historians, refute these fabricated myths and their implications.
People in the Middle East and the Arab world mostly hate the regimes they live under. Despite oil wealth and massive aid from the West, there is poverty, political repression, and despair. Arabs point to the United States as the supporter and protector of those regimes. They look at prosperous Israel not as proof of their own deficiencies, but as a demonstration that they are being unfairly targeted. Radical Islam has easily seized the initiative in this unstable climate.
Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, speaking at Yale on December 3, 2001 said:
In Islam, religion and politics are joined together. The basis of Islam is simple: Allah is destined to rule the world. Everything else is related to that goal. The world is therefore divided into two parts, Dar-al-Salaam meaning "House of Peace" where Allah rules, and Dar-al-Harb, "House of War" where the people are not in submission to Allah and Islam.
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Palestinians Celebrate Sept. 11, 2001 |
This is why Americans waited in vain for "moderate Muslim leaders" to come forward to denounce the horrific September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. With rare and marginal exceptions, the Islamic world celebrated the acts of Osama bin Laden and raised him to heroic stature. Few condemned his organization and their acts. And the closer geographically to Israel, the more Muslims identified with bin Laden rather than the US.
All religious extremists exploit religion through selective reading and interpretation of sacred texts, history, and doctrine. Yasser Arafat and Osama bin Laden appeal to grievances that exist among many mainstream Arabs and Muslims, from foreign policy issues like Israel, the American military in Saudi Arabia, and the Russian presence in Chechnya, to domestic complaints against repressive and corrupt governments and failed economies. Within Islam, the extremists do not have to torture mainstream doctrine -- it already supports their aggressive requirements.
MEMRI provided the following quote from an Al-Qa'ida-Affiliated online magazine, in an article entitled "On the Importance of Jihad as a Means of Destroying the 'Infidel Countries'":
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