Author: Alan Caruba
Publication: CNSNews.com (Commentary
from the National Anxiety Center)
Date: June 6, 2003
URL: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=\Commentary\archive\200306\COM20030606d.html
None of us will live to see it,
but before this millennium is over, Islam is likely to have joined the
myths of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome as a religion that was tested and
failed.
The violence being visited upon
the world by al Qaeda and other Islamic fundamentalists cannot survive
a "holy war" against America and the West. Jihad's chosen instrument---terror---did
not save Communism from its failure in the last century's police state
of the Soviet Union and it will not save Islam in the Middle East and elsewhere.
If anything, the Jihad is the ultimate
expression of the failure of Islam, a religion conjured up by Muhammad
in the seventh century of Christendom. The year ascribed to its birth is
622 AD. There are an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims around the world, mostly
in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, but there are more than 31 million
in Europe, over a million and a half in South America, and at least 2.9
million in America.
The religion is divided between
its Sunni and Shiite branches, but there is a deep divide as well in the
hearts of an unknown number of Muslims, many of whom have concluded it
ill-serves humanity in general and their own lives in particular. Some
believe that Islam and democracy can be compatible. I doubt this because
its history is one of monarchy and autocracy.
Edited by Ibn Warraq, "Leaving Islam:
Apostates Speak Out" is an impressive collection of views by former Muslims,
many of whom must still remain anonymous because Islam prescribes death
to any apostate. "Why I Am Not A Muslim" ($l9.00, Prometheus Books, softcover)
is Warraq's scholarly examination of Islam that reveals that it is little
more than a barbarous cult based on the life of Muhammad. Both are worth
reading.
As noted, rejecting Islam to accept
another faith or even to become an atheist brings with it the threat of
death. It is the mark of a religion that believes any deviation from its
dogma gives it the right to kill in order to justify itself. Until the
Reformation transformed Christianity, it too meted out death to apostates
and unbelievers. But this is the year 2003 AD and in free societies, one's
religion is not a concern of the state. Under Islam, the religion is the
state. In Muslim nations, the Koran and sharia law derived from it is the
only law.
While Islam has permitted "dhimmis",
non-Muslims, to live in Islamic nations, in practice their "protection"
has been non-existent. It was and is dangerous to be anything other than
a Muslim in such places. Islam, by its very nature seeks to dominate all
who come under its control and deeply resents those who will not convert.
Brief excerpts from Warraq's books
provide instant insight why Islam stands on shifting sands. Written between
February 2001 and April 2002, here are some posts from the Internet site
Warraq maintains (secularislam.org). There is considerable irony in the
way those who choose to reject Islam did so, as often as not because they
read its holy book, the Koran.
"The biggest flaw of the Koran is
what is not in it. There are many crimes a person can commit; yet the Koran
mentions only the punishments for a mere three or four. I was astonished
at the fact that the Koran mentions nothing about punishment for rape.
The word 'rape' is not even mentioned once in the Koran, as if it were
not worth bringing up."
Muhammad took many wives, but many
Muslims are appalled by the story of Aisha, a child whose age is debated
within Islam as being as young as six but no more than nine years of age.
"How can a man of more than fifty years have sexual feelings for a girl
of only six?" asked a Pakistani who went on to ask, "Why is it that a woman
is lower than a man? Is my mother lower than me? Why is it that a Muslim
man can have four wives? And why did Muhammad have more than four wives?"
He concluded, "Islam is just the ramblings of some dillusioned Arab madman."
Yet another says, "I could not remain
a Muslim because Islam hates women. Islam says that women are inferior
in every way. What sort of religion forces fathers to make their daughters
suffer? Islam has no joy. Islam is a cult of tears and death."
While Warraq's book is literally
filled with such personal revelations by those either raised as Muslims
or converts to it, I will conclude with a view expressed by a former Muslim
who, upon reading the Koran, said, "I became very worried by the amount
of violence in it. Subsequent late-night sessions with the Koran convinced
me that I was reading a guide to war."
The Koran is a guide to war. Thievery
was the way Muhammad supported himself as the self-proclaimed prophet and
conquest was the way Muhammad and his followers initially spread Islam.
The United States, a target and a victim in this Jihad, is waging war to
end the Islamic dream of domination. In this it has been joined by many
nations, including those that are Islamic. This should be seen as a hopeful
sign.
I believe this century will be remembered
as the one in which Islam began its long march to extinction. It will be
defeated in its terror war and it will be defeated because many will abandon
a "religion" that is repelled by modernity, denies human rights, and revels
in the blood of its victims, calling their killers martyrs.
(Alan Caruba writes "Warning Signs,"
a weekly column posted at the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center.)
