New Hope Journal
Personal Essays and Public Opinions since 1979
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Muslim response to the disaster in Asia worthy of note
We Americans in the past few years have learned more about Muslims and the Nation of Islam than perhaps we ever really wanted to know. And, the more we learn, again perhaps, the less we understand what we know.
One fundamental truth about Islam, however, is simple and straight-forward, and we will disclose this truth at the conclusion of this column.
To begin with, the Nation of Islam is not a conservative problem, nor a liberal problem, nor a Christian problem, nor a Jewish problem, nor an athiest problem--the Nation of Islam is, pure and simple, a problem for any group of the world's people who are not Muslim. So, then, this is a problem shared, if not equally, certainly shared by all of the non-Muslim peoples of the world.
We are citizens of the world's greatest nation, but because our nation is relatively so young--barely two centuries old--it is difficult for us to relate to peoples who regard events of 500 years ago as having occurred only yesterday, but that is a defining characteristic of the Islamic faith.
Considering the disaster caused by a tidal wave in Southeast Asia not long ago, it is worthy of note that the International Red Cross was involved almost from day one, and every following day as well. A similar somewhat parallel organization exists in the Islamic world, known as the Red Crescent, and it was conspicuous by its absence from the very beginning.
The United States has led the relief effort financially and logistically; any aid from the oil-rich Islamic nations of the Middle East has likewise been conspicuous either by its absence, or its niggardly amounts. As only two examples, Kuwait pledged $2 million, and Saudi Arabia $10 million. Whoopee!
A major part of the devastation occurred in the nation of Indonesia, at more than 250 million, the fourth most populous nation in the world, with more than 85 percent of its citizenry being Muslim. Not much over a year ago, some of those fine folk set off explosions in the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, the capital, with the express purpose of murdering American tourists along with any other Westerners who might happily be present.
So, then, while the United States provides succor to the suffering Indonesians, at the very least they have abstained from murdering American tourists. For now. Their Islamic brothers in Iraq, on the other hand, continue to murder our military people with enthusiasm, as well as those who support their effort to bring free elections to that benighted nation.
The fundamental truth, then, regarding the Nation of Islam is this: Believing Muslims who adhere to the Koran have a single goal in life, and that is to convert the entire world to the faith of Islam. Conversion can be by persuasion, or by force, that is unimportant; what is important is that conversion eventually occurs.
Those who refuse to convert to the Islamic faith are, by Koranic definition, infidels—and it is the obligation of every devout Muslim to murder the infidel, wherever and whenever he can. It is unimportant if a Muslim loses his own life in the effort because the faithful believe that as a martyr he will then immediately be transported to paradise.
Little room exists for accommodation between the Nation of Islam and the Judeo/Christian world—who will win? Ah, that is the question. Population growth in the Islamic nations runs from two to five percent annually; in the Western world, well under one-half percent. At this point in time, a reasonably astute handicapper might well put his money on the Muslims.
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