"Moderate Islam" will not be a factor in future; "Liberalism" is the ultimate threat to Israel

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Nov 30, 2015 at 03:58

Pardon me for jumping in after only hearing some 35% of the video; I need to comment now, or I'll forget what was said.

Considering the subject of "Moderate Islam" vs. "Moderate Christianity", there if a definite dichotomy between the two:

1. Christianity's "dark ages" of continual sectarian violence and terror probably were at their height between the start of the Albigensian Crusade in 1209, and the end of the Spanish Inquisition in 1834. This period was marked, on the one hand, by reformist movements in Christianity such as the Waldensians, Hussites, Lutherans, Anabaptists and Methodists. In every case, the direction of reform was to bring Christianity closer to practices demonstrated in the scriptures. The other side of this period was marked by Roman Catholic reaction, trying to suppress the changes. The most definitive blow to Catholicism and the authority of the Pope was the widespread distribution of the scriptures, with the invention of moveable type and the publication of the Gutenburg Bible in around 1454. This was accompanied by various translations of the Bible into German, English and other vernaculars.

2. Islam was in a period of religious stagnation during this period. The founders of the Sunni schools, Abu Hanifa (d. 767), Malik ibn Anas (d. 795), Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafiʿi (d. 820), Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855) and Dawud bin Ali bin Khalaf al-Zahiri (d. 883/84) had died long, long before this, during the time of the major caliphates. The scholarly Sunni reform of the past was replaced by highly political empires spreading Turko-Persian culture: the Mamelukes, Ottomans, Safavids and Moguls.

While the Christians were moving away from the highly political papacy, then, and toward a more scripturally-based form of Christianity, the Muslims were moving away from fundamentalism and toward an Islam that kowtowed to more secular political forces. This was a time of great mingling and coexistence between Islam and Christianity, as well as between Islam and Hinduism. The point I want to stress, though, is that this move towards "moderation" in both religions was marked by increased fundamentalism in Christianity and decreased fundamentalism in Islam.

As I said above, the great surge toward reform in Christianity, which led to the liberalism of our time in the Western World, came with the widespread dissemination of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. This dissemination was accompanied, in progressive countries, by a push for literacy among the masses. In the Islamic world, illiteracy has been the norm until very recently, being relatively unaffected by the Printing Revolution.

Islamic illiteracy has had its great challenge recently with the coming of the "Information Age" brought about by widespread dissemination of computers. During this modern revolution of thought, everything is now more available, including religious scriptures and philosophical writings: Ordinary Muslims are able now to study not only Qur'an, but also the Bible and other religious works; also the writings of Marks and the endless parade of modern philosophers. These are readily translateable through online services, and can be read in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and the other major languages of the Islamic World.

Islam today is at a place, intellectually, that Christianity was at in the Sixteenth Century. That period was marked by the Inquisition, religious wars in Europe and a venturing forth of Christians into all the world -- a curious analogy to what is happening among the Muslims today. There's a distinctive difference, though: In Christianity, the reactionaries were those trying to prevent the spread of the Bible; whereas in today's Islam, the reactionaries are those trying to spread the reading and application of Qur'an.

The Christianity that emerged from the demise of Roman Catholic political power could hardly be called "moderate". There has been a "moderate" philosophy in modern times, called "liberalism", which is the governing philosophy of most Western countries today. This movement had its immediate roots not in Christianity, but in the Deist and Atheist movements of the late 1700s and early 1800s, and was given its great empowerment with the technical marvels of the Industrial Revolution. The notion of "Moderate Christianity", therefore is a misnomer. In fact, I foresee the greatest conflict to come in our lives to be between "Liberalism" and "Christianity". It will be a bloody conflict, with most of the spilled blood being Christian.

I get the feeling, Daniel, that what you are looking forward to as "Moderate Islam" is just another flavor of "Liberalism". It will not be "Islamic", any more than liberalism today in "Christian" countries is Christian; and the scriptures, both Qur'an and the Bible, will be suppressed as Liberalism becomes all-powerful.

The last great act of LIberalism, as I foresee it, will be an attack on Jerusalem in order to suppress Jewish (and Christian) religious aspirations on the Temple Mount. Attacks of this nature, on a rudimentary scale, are being carried out by Muslims; but they are being facilitated by liberals in Europe and America. The Islamic threat on the Mount has been receding because of the extreme internal strife among Muslims; but the threat from the LIberal world, as embodied in the EU and UN, has been getting steadily more intense.

The time is coming, very soon, when knife attacks by Arabs will not be the greatest problem in Jerusalem; the greatest problem will be a UN Security Council resolution, backed by the US and Western powers, to economically and militarily attack Israel -- based on any pretense of one's choosing: a "Nuclear-free" Middle East, a "final solution" of ME instability, Jewish "apartheid" or "intolerance"; you name it. The anti-Semitic attack is certain; the excuse(s) for it is(are) irrelevant. The underlying reason, is an attempt to destroy and discredit the Bible.

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