Friday, August 18, 2017

Islamic Terrorism, Charlottesville, Lakewood, and Antifa

Image from Yahoo News
This morning’s news does not come as a shock. Which is itself a shocking statement considering what that news is. Once again. Unfortunately this happens so frequently that it no longer shocks anyone. Islamic terrorists decided to murder innocent victims for God. This time ISIS actually took credit for it. Meaning that it was not just inspired by them but was carried out by them in their Islamic ‘Milchemes Mitzvah’ (better known Jihad) to achieve a world run K’Hahalcha of Islam (Better known as Sharia Law).

I’ve said this ‘a thousand times’. Most Muslims are abhorred by what these Islamic terrorists do. Most of them are fine upstanding peace loving people and sometimes victims of terror themselves. But it cannot be denied that a significant number of them are supportive of it for religious reasons sourced in a fundamentalist understanding of Islam. For them terrorism is a means to an end in their war for God! 

ISIS is not some criminal element. They are a religion based army. They believe that Islam supports doing ‘whatever it takes’ to get the job done. Including taking the lives of not only innocent people, but even giving up their own lives as martyrs for the cause. Which instantly earns them a place in ‘Olam HaBah’. Much the way Judaism see dying Al Kiddush HaShem. 

These Muslims are not people misusing their ‘Torah’ (the Koran). Theirs is a legitimate interpretation of it. An entire Arab nation, Saudia Arabia, subscribes to it. It is called Wahabbism or Salafism. That is a fundamentalist Islamic doctrine that justifies killing Muslims who disagree with their version of Islam. Many experts believe that Wahabbism is what inspires ISIS. It is not a coincidence that the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi Arabians.

As much as most Muslim clerics try to dissociate Islam from these terrorists - constantly rejecting them as a gross distortion of Islam, it is really hard to accept that. Unfortunately many world leaders do buy into that argument. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard – even Republicans like George W. Bush, let alone Democrats like Barack Obama say that these terrorists do not represent Islam. They are a corruption of it. That may be true about most Muslims. But it is certainly not true about all of them. Which is why we continue to have these kinds of attacks. They are inspired by a fundamentalist version of it. Not something they made up or corrupted in ignorance.

It is time to face reality and say that there is something wrong with a religion that can be interpreted by so many of its adherents to the point of killing innocent victims (even members of their own faith) and to blow themselves up in the process – all service of God. And inspiring others to do that all over the world.

I have no solution to the problem. But at the very least we need to realize what the truth is before we can even dream of a way to stop it. We can no longer afford to react after the fact. Nor is it enough to keep increasing safety measures that increasingly burden the public. Especially at airports. While it is important to do that in the interim, it isn’t enough. These attacks will continue. Islamic terrorists will find their way around the increased security measures. They always do. We have to be proactive on an ideological level to recognize that it is an ideology sourced in Islam. And somehow seek to destroy that ideology. Until that’s done the world will be increasingly at risk for death and destruction at their hands.

Heather Heyer (Info News)
On a completely different subject, I have to applaud what religious leaders of Lakewood just did. I certainly have my issues with Lakewood. Especially in light of some recent arrests there. But I absolutely agree with a statement they just released. Especially in light of the fact that almost 75% of that town voted for Donald Trump. It is worth quoting in its entirety: 
"Heather Heyer, a gentle soul murdered by an intolerant racist in Charlottesville last weekend, died defending our freedoms. Most likely her loved ones would say that she was no hero, simply standing up for the founding values of our great republic – equality before the law, tolerance, justice and the rights of all to live in peace without oppression.
"But she was a hero. She encompassed the heart and soul of all Americans from North and South, East and West, of all skin colors, backgrounds, ethnicities, and religions, indeed of all humanity with a moral compass and a conscience. Her message was timeless, let bigotry have no haven on this earth that we all share together.
"Heather defended the fort – our fort – tragically with her life. She sanctified the moral values instilled by the All-Mighty in our souls and boldly defended the principles embodied in our Constitution.
"Elie Wiesel, the noted humanitarian and the voice of innocent victims once said to a president of the United States: “Mr. President, this is not your place.” Your legacy is not to give fodder to racists and anti-Semites to warp and hate with. Your place needs to be exclusively with the innocent victims of intolerance.
"Groups marching with swastikas and assault rifles, protected by the very Constitution they seek to destroy, are not defenders of freedom – they are not America. Now is the time for us all to rise, as a united republic, and to say to each other, once again, that we are one nation where all are equal, with liberty and justice for all.
"Mr. President, please join the countless good Americans who are honoring Heather's legacy and making that statement.'' 
I could not have said it better myself. But a word of caution. Lost in all of the is the fact that Ms. Heyer’s death could have been avoided had the hate groups (who came prepared for a fight and hoping for one) not been attacked by ‘Antifa’ activists that were there with counter-protesters. There is little doubt that they initiated the fighting. That a hero like Heather Heyer was murdered at the hands of a crazed neo Nazi can be traced right back to that.

True, sometimes you must fight violence with violence. Had those hate groups attacked the counter-protesters first, they would have been right to defend themselves and fight back with everything they had.  But that is not what happened here. As much as those hate groups wanted the outcome they got, had the fighting not been initiated by these ‘Antifa’ activists, Ms. Heyer would probably still be alive today. In that sense these they share some of the blame. You do not throw a lit match into a keg of gun powder. That is what ‘Antifa’ did. They asked for a fight and they got one. And Heather Heyer paid the price.