Thursday, May 24

something you have to read...

I believe that this is something we should all read and consider:

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War Two owned a number of large industries and estates.
When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.
"Very few people were true Nazis "he said," but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care.
I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools.
So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen.
Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come.
My family lost everything.
I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories."

We are told again and again by "experts" and "talking heads" that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace.
Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant.
It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.
It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide.
It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave.
It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill.
It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque.
It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals.

The hard quantifiable fact is that the "peaceful majority" the "silent majority" is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia comprised Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people.
The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

China's huge population, it was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War 2 was not a warmongering sadist.
Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery.
Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were "peace loving"?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awake one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun. Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

I am not sure who wrote this; but it is something I feel very strongly about.
I learnt a lot of this in history classes at achool and this all reminds me of a saying about questioning whether a person is good or not by their actions; if they stand back and do nothing...say nothing...don't respond to devastation and murder...are they still good?!

1 comment:

  1. Yeah I got this in my e-mail basket too. No sig. Very brave. Very committed. My reply to the person that sent it to me:

    "Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late."

    Two Thoughts:

    1) It is fallacious thinking to say "a" is like "b" if "a" is nothing like "b".

    Germans = Nation State
    Japanese= Nation State
    Chinese= Nation State
    Russians = Nation State
    Rwandans = Nation State
    Serbs= Nation State
    Afghans = Nation State
    Iraqis= Nation State (past-tense)
    Palestinians = Nation State (future tense)
    Somalis = Nation State
    Nigerians = Nation State
    Algerians= Nation State

    The "lessons learned" about a fanatical minority with political objectives taking control of a political entity (a nation state) is not applicable when applied to a religion that does not exist as a separate political entity. A religion cannot be controlled by a minority except within the specific application case of individual nation states. It cannot happen here or most countries where Islam is a significant presence, but could happen in some specific nation state examples, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq (the last due specifically because the Bush administration made it possible for it to happen there under our watch and security umbrella).

    "Islam" is not a nation state. "Muslims" are not a nation state. It is a religion that exists in many different (most) nation states. Fanatical Muslims cannot take over Islam as suggested in this article in the same sense that a fanatical minority can take over a nation state. In some of those nation states fanatical Muslims do indeed threaten individual states political structures, in other (most) states other they do not.

    Fanatical Christians have managed to disrupt and threatened to take over the nation state of Ireland for decades. That same fanatical Christian minority has no possibility of taking over Christianity. That is an appropriate comparison.

    Second:

    "Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence."

    This is simply a false statement. If you propagate this e-mail, you are propagating a lie. A blatant assertion of false propaganda to support a fallacious argument.

    A good summary of the counter argument can be found here and here.

    BTW - I am not saying that fanatical muslims are not a problem. They are obviously a huge problem that must be fought. But taking the next step as in this unattributable e-mail of generalizing the problem to the entire religion of Islam is wrong and false and bigoted and prejudiced.

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