Think again, Anne

Submitted by Don (Pakistan), Jan 24, 2008 at 00:41

Anne, you obviously hate the United States government. You're in Japan. Do you hate the Japanese government for what they did to the Chinese in the 1930s or the Filippinos in the late 30s and early 40s, or what the Japanese did to the Pacific Islanders in the early 40s? It was as brutal and unjust as anything that had been done upon a people in centuries. They even filmed themselves extensively in Nanjing, and the atrocities are enough to make you cry watching it.

I hate what they did, but I don't hate them now. You brought up the Civil War as an example of American brutality. Yet the Civil War is a perfect example a "good war." First of all, an entire people were freed from bondage because that war was fought, and it was almost all Whites fighting for it. Also, Lincoln knew that had the South been allowed to withdraw from the Union - if he did not physically bring them back into the Union - North America would become like Europe, and eventually Texas, California, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and other territories would have also claimed their own independence, and we would have, basically, a Europe-like continent of different countries always at each others' throats fighting over territory and fighting wars.

But we are an entire continent at peace with each other - one people. Even Canada and Mexico. Thank God that the Civil War was fought, no matter the bloodshed (which makes that war even more precious and meaningful to all Americans). The point of all of this is though, in regards to Islam: None of what we have done or what the Japanese had done or what the Nazis had done was done in the name of God; they weren't religiously based. Islam spreads a religious ideology by the sword, which makes it uniquely dangerous to us all. It does NOT separate relion from politics. If it were about territory or power or money, that would be par for the course and the world could somehow manage it - probably through war, unfortunately. But there would be an end result.

The only end result for Islam is religious submissiom - exactly what Islam means in formal Quranic Arabic. Their Holy Book makes it a cause, an obligation, and an honor that will bring peace on the Earth when it is complete, and martyrdom to those who die trying. You should see the difference then between "us" and "them." Right - neither of us are perfect, but there IS a big difference.

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