Ignorance, Deceit And The Petri Dish Of Failure

Islam has come a long way.

From the organized study of medicine, mathematics and philosophy and the pursuit of scientic exploration, Islamic scholars of today have come a long way from their predecessors.

The most recent example of Islamic outrage is the result of words uttered by the Pope. In a recent speech, the Pope said that forced and violent conversion to Islam was “contrary to God’s nature” and reason.

Benedict

…began his address by quoting from a 14th-century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an “educated Persian.’’ The two debate the merits of reason in Christianity and the Muslim concept of holy war. Manuel, who champions faith embedded in reason, is quoted as criticizing Islam with what Benedict called “a startling brusqueness.’’

“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,’’ Benedict quoted the emperor as saying. There is no response from the interlocutor.

Benedict himself remarked on Manuel’s ‘brusqness,’ as he recounted historical events, but apparently, that means little.

It is clear for all to see that Islam, under they tyranny of dysfunctional leaders, has been reduced to a shell of itself. Where once truth was championed and sought, now Islamic leaders demand that even history be rewritten to accomadate the deliberate deceit or ignorance that the Islamic leaders perpetrate.

Nowhere do Islamic leaders, fostering the anti Rome frenzied hysteria, note that the Pontiff’s remarks that

…only by recognizing the “rationality of faith” do people “become capable of that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today.”

Where is the rational and honest response to the Pope’s remarks? He did not insult Islam and in fact, to insinuate that he did only serves to reinforce one of two points. Either Islamic religious leaders are delibertately misrepresenting Benedict’s remarks, or after reading his remarks, they were incapable of deciphering their meaning and the Pope’s intent. In either case, Islamic religious leaders look foolish.

In addition, Islamic leaders that are so sensitive to any religious slight, ought best to look in the mirror. These ‘leaders,’ (a religious carbon copy of the Arab League, whose sole function it is to maintain the status quo at all costs) cannot believe they will be taken seriously even as they spew some of the most vile hatred and religious bigotry uttered in recent memory.

Only foolish people believe that threatening violence now will create more respect for Islam, in the same way only foolish people believe that the cartoon riots were a good idea.

If the Islamic world wants to be taken seriously, they cannot preach hate and violence on the one hand, and then insist they are ‘just like us’ on the other.

Look around at our world and the Islamic world, and compare. Deal with reality- the differences have nothing to do with colonialism, Jews or America. The differences exist because of the choices people and regimes make. We have written about those kind of delusions, before.

We have said that

The legacy of colonialism is what those former colonies make of it. More often than not, colonialists came into a society that was far behind their own, in terms of achievement, advancement and human progress. Notwithstanding the mythical and fabricated notions that ‘the white man’ came into primitive, peaceful and loving cultures, only to destroy them, the fact remains that these cultures and societies could have been greatly benefited by the advent of the ‘white man.’ Those societies resisted the advances they could have assimilated into their own culture.

It is true there were abuses, of course, as there are in any human endeavor. It is also true that taking advantage of modern day tools and ideas are not an all or nothing proposition. Even today, there are groups of people that refuse the tools that might make their lives easier.

We noted why Islam degenerated into nothing more than an enormous petrie dish of failure:

In much of the Islamic world, choosing to fail is encouraged and facilitated by the corrupt and dysfunctional regimes that have come to define that world. Simply stated, a failed and less educated and informed society is a society more easily controlled and exploited. A society that believes failure is inevitable is a society that believes change for the better is impossible. For that Carnival of Dysfunctional Tyrants, that kind of servile and self flagellating society is a gift.

Those tyrants have exploited religion to encourage and fortify their message. That truth cannot be understated. In most of the Muslim world, clerics are in the employ of the corrupt regimes that pay their salaries.

In those societies, where speech and expression are strictly prohibited and media is an integral part of government , it is clear that the hate filled and inciting rhetoric of religious ‘leaders,’ employed by these despotic regimes, are approved and coordinated to coincide with the policies of these dysfunctional regimes. You cannot disapprove of the tyrannical regimes and at the same time, approve of the religious rhetoric and messages that only serve that regime.

We may be kaffirs, but we aren’t stupid.

**UPDATE**

The Anchoress has an excellent piece, Benedict’s Blunder Was Partly Media Enhanced, in which she looks at the media’s part in the current brouhaha. While George Bush may be the media’s red center of the bullseye, religion- Christianity and Catholicism in particular- are the blue rings closest to the bullsye, that are often hit.

Headlines have a powerful effect on the world. Busy or incurious people rarely read past them. For some, the headline tells them all they will ever know about a thing…found its headline in a Lebanese newspaper… The headline, though, is meant only to inflame.

The Anchoress also goes on to note that

Just so we’re straight – Pope Benedict made a speech in which he invited Muslims to dialogue, criticized terrorism as a means of movement and then quoted a 14th Century Byzantine to make the point that Islam and the West have had rather a long history of struggles. Three paragraphs of the speech covered all of that. The rest of the speech was about faith and reason, and a criticisim of secularism in the West. The pope was basically doing the job of the pope, and doing it the way a scholar, teacher and theologian – that would be Benedict – would do it.

There’s more- read it all. When The Anchoress takes aim, duck.

Life Cycles

This morning, I received an email from the widow of a friend. She asked us to republish a post that was written a year ago, so that she might share with her son my words about what kind of man his father was.

I wish to relate a story from my school days.

Andrew was a classmate, born with Down’s Syndrome (no, this is not about a sappy, hugging and kissing, loving Andrew, so read on, you sanctimonious ass).

We were cruel to Andrew, as you can imagine. He was clumsy, oafish and uncoordinated. He was always the last to get picked for sports, and whichever team got saddled with him automatically claimed the advantage of sides, or points or whatever. Of course, in a close game, we knew Andrew would screw up and thus the chances of his team winning was nil. Andrew would be blamed unmercifully for his teams loss. He took it all good naturedly and poked fun at himself- and this infuriated us even more.

Whatever his shortcomings on the playing field were, they were magnified in the classroom. There was no way Andrew could keep up, try as he might. There were no special ed classes back then, and Andrew paid the price. He was the class dummy, the idiot- and we made sure to never let him forget it.

Andrew was doubly cursed. Besides his own affliction, he had a younger brother who was brilliant. The real thing, a true genius. Andrew was very proud of his brother, so much so he would boast about him even as we mocked him. No one was going to seperate Andrew from his brother.

Andrew’s younger brother would always try to protect his older brother from the rest us, without much success. It was on a regular basis they both suffered the beatings we administered, just for fun.

Andrew’s younger brother would help Andrew with homework. They would spend hours and hours on the simplest of things, until Andrew got it- at least he did, for about 10 minutes. That didn’t matter, of course, because Andrew wanted to learn and Andrew wanted to be smart, so he could be just like the rest of us. Throughout his school years, Andrew always want to learn something, everyday. He studied mightily, as best he could. To what end, we never understood at the time. His determination to learn something, everyday, was his mission.

With time and age, our attitude toward Andrew changed. In our final years of High School, we came to love Andrew and to understand all he had gone through- and all that we had put him through. We were ashamed of what we had done to him, but Andrew never made mention of those things. It was as if it had never happened.

When Andrew received his High School Diploma (or whatever version thererof they gave him), we all stood and clapped and cheered and whistled. His mother and father wept as he walked across the platform to recieve his honors and his younger brother kept yelling out, “That’s my brother!” That was a special day.

We thought that we had all come a long way, in our ‘maturing’ into young men. We were very wrong.

As we all moved on to college, Andrew took a vocational course in automotive painting. What was a six month course, took Andrew two years to complete. Andrew got a job, prepping cars for paint jobs. When we heard that news, we were all so very proud of him. We were told that he would take his younger brother out for pizza every week. After all, older brothers look out for their younger brothers.

Andrew passed away in his sleep three years later. He had never missed a day of work. He saved his money because someday, he used to say, he was going to help his brother buy a house and maybe, just maybe, his brother would let him live in a basement apartment.

It was a larger funeral than anyone anticipated. We all came back, from wherever we were. We, his old friends, the college boys and his new friends, calloused, working men, all. Whatever divide there was between us, was narrowed by a shared reality. Since hearing of Andrew’s passing, none of us had gotten much sleep. We all truly loved Andrew and had just come to realize how deeply he had touched us.

One of the eulogies was given by our former School Principal, a man known for his gruffness and demanding ways. This man, whom we had all feared and loathed, never looked smaller. He tried to say a few words, but we could barely hear him. He finally took a sip of water from the glass under the lectern, cleared his throat and looked down at the casket in front of him.

He proceeded to ask- actually, plead- for Andrew’s forgiveness. He remarked that for years, Andrew was the first one who would rise, as he, the Principal, entered a room. That was wrong, he pointed out. “I should have stood for you,” he said. He then found his seat and wept openly. On that day, we all saw humility, up close and personal, for the first time in our young lives.

Over time, we learned an important lesson. Simply recognizing our faults or shortcomings, does not mean we have matured or learned enough, or put what we have learned, into the right perspective.

It is only by incoporating into our lives, not just the ideas, but tangible actions, that prove we are indeed better. Our actions are the real indicators of what we have learned.

I have been fortunate to know a few people who have influenced my life and have made me a better person. I may not always agree with them, but I do know I am well served by their thoughts and their willingness to exchange ideas.

I have come to value their opinions, ideas and thoughts. More than just value them, I try to behave in a manner consistant with the lessons learned.

Andrew taught me well- well enough I believe, to prepare me for the present and future.

In the post last year, I noted

A few weeks ago, Andrew’s brother was killed in a car accident. He leaves behind a wife, Helene, and 3 children- Simon, Rachel and his youngest son, Andrew.

We often take sides and engage in what is often no more than an excuse to join in the cacaphony of voices commenting on the days events- and we demand to be heard- usually, at the expense of what really matters.

We need to reflect on that.

I recently wrote about the struggle to become ‘better and elevated people.’

How rich I am to have know two of them!

Second Cup Considerations

Fausta covers a lot of territory this morning- and she isn’t happy. Her post, The View And The Radicals, addresses some of the current events that seem to have assumed a life of their own. As a rule of thumb, if Fausta isn’t happy, ‘ain’t nobody happy.’

In responding to Rosie O’Donnel’s assertion that Radical Islam is no different than fundamental Christianity, Fausta coolly and not so subtlety reminds her readers that Rosie O’Donnel notwithstanding, moral relativism does not make everyone equal- no matter how badly Rosie and her fellow leftists want that to be so. Her post addresses the realities of FGM (100 million women and counting) and the ‘real world’ treatment of women in many Islamic societies, radical Sharia Law, the treatment of homosexuals, and a host of other issues.

She also briefly touches on the (artificial) Benedict brouhaha. In fact, the Benedict matter has been largely a creation of a less than honest media. The Pope quoted a 14th century figure who criticized violent Jihad. The Pope noted that authentic faith did not need violence to express that faith.

It is true that Christianity experienced periods of violence. That said, those periods of Christian violent expression ended a long time ago.

It would be nice if those outraged Muslim religious leaders (virtually all of whom are the mouthpieces of less than savory regimes) applied the same standards of decency they demand to themselves.

The Anchoress posted a rather sublime piece, draped in a religious cloak, but in fact, her post is a scathing commentary at moral relativism and the deliberate degradation of those who don’t subscribe to those beliefs.

Her post (aptly named) Our Lady Of Sorrows, notes in speaking of women in Scripture that

There are no accidents in scripture. Nothing is put in there as a “throw away,” that is, not really meant to be considered. Despite what Dan Brown and the DaVinci Coders contend..

Simply stated, when the ideology du jour cannot mesh with Scripture, there are those who take it upon themselves to redefine what is meant to be a universal and timeless message. In what is nothing but sheer hubris, there are those that insist that man no longer answers to God, but rather, God becomes a junior partner to His creation. Now, they say, God must answer to man.

It is ironic that those who want to rewrite and redefine the Bible, would vigorously defend their own copywritten material. They cannot see the irony of that.