Chowk Staff July 11, 2006
#594 Posted by echoboom on July 19, 2006 10:03:56 am
``suun toa saheeh jahaaN meiN hai taira fasana kyaa
Kehtaa> hai tujhh ko dushman-i deeN ghaibaana kyaa``
Aatish!
tr:italics emended words
Listen! just Listen how your story is being told in the world
What the ill-wishers of your creed say behind your back``
It always pays to know the enemy mind.
THE WORLD
TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
By: Phil Brennan
There was a mid-17th century nonsensical ditty ``The World Turned Upside Down`` that some believe was played by the British as they marched out to surrender at Yorktown while the victorious Americans played Yankee Doodle. Whether it really happened matters only to finicky historians, but if it didn`t it should have; for the British, who in effect had just lost their most important colonies, the world really had turned upside down.
From that moment on, nothing would ever be the same. Although some fighting continued sporadically, a spark of liberty had been ignited in America that would not be extinguished, and the old world order had begun to pass away.
We ought to be hearing it now. The world has not only turned upside down, it`s in flames. And like that day in 1781 nothing will ever be the same. Only this time it`s not only a single nation that has seen its world upended, it`s the entire world wrong side up.
The process of upending began a long time ago, we just failed to recognize it. And in failing to recognize it we gave it impetus. It really began in the 8th century but from a modern perspective, it began in the mid-1990s when a deranged Islamacist jehadist Osama bin Laden, in the name of his revolutionary movement al Qaeda, declared war on the United States.
Bin Laden launched a series of terrorist attacks against the United States, starting with a failed attempt to target U.S. troops in Yemen in 1992, followed by the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the 1993 killing of U.S. soldiers in Somalia, the 1996 the truck bombing of the Khobar Towers Marine barracks in Saudi Arabia, the 1998 bombing of U. S. embassies in East Africa, the failed plot in 1999 to bomb millennium celebrations in Seattle, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen and finally, the 9/11 horror in /2001.
These were all acts of war.
A world war had begun, and most of the world failed to recognize it. To this day, we refuse to accept the fact that a war far wider than the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israeli/Palestinian war is under way. There are only two protagonists in this war - the West and Islamic fundamentalism, but only the Islamists recognize that fact.
In a recent column, Pat Buchanan recalled the late Hilaire Belloc foreseeing the outbreak of the war in 1938. Said the acclaimed British author ``It has always seemed to me ... probable that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years its greatest opponent.``
In the Quran Islam (it means ``submission``) demands that the entire world must submit to Sharia law which governs both the public and private lives of all Muslims and those under their domination. It is the ultimate aim of al Qaeda - the goal of the worldwide jihad and a goal the imperiled West refuses to admit exists as we go about muttering the shibboleth that Islam is a ``peaceful religion.``
One reason for the West`s failure to understand the true nature of Islamic fundamentalism is the decadent West`s inability to understand the nature of absolute, do-or-die commitment to a cause, any cause. In the Western mind, martyrdom is an outmoded concept - no cause is worth dying for. The materialist West`s serves its only deity - the self and its creature comforts.
In the eyes of Islam`s adherents the decadent Western immersion in secularist materialism is to them both an abomination and an opportunity - a weakness that can be exploited. This Western weakness blinds us to the real threat - a faith whose adherents are convinced of the rightness of their cause and who are willing to die to bring about its triumph. It a classic case of belief against non-belief. They believe in something worth dying for; we believe nothing is worth dying for. And, as it has been said ``you can`t beat something with nothing.`` Abortion ``rights`` may be a dandy political issue but nobody is willing to die to protect a woman`s right to butcher the baby in her womb.
The West`s belief in nothingness has little appeal to the idealist in all of us; we can`t recruit crusaders for our cause because we have no cause but ourselves and our material well-being, scarcely a rallying cry to those seeking something higher than themselves and a self-centered lifestyle. If the Devil wears Prago, so now do we all. It`s the vestment of the times.
Contrast that with Islam, which offers a greater goal than self-aggrandizement. It offers something to which one can be totally committed. It demands total commitment in return for a reason to live and a reason to die. And it is sweeping across the world like a raging wildfire, gathering up millions of recruits in all the four corners of the globe.
Writes Pat Buchanan `` Islamists are taking over in Somalia. They are in power in Sudan. The Muslim Brotherhood won 60 percent of the races it contested in Egypt. Hezbollah swept the board in southern Lebanon. Hamas seized power from Fatah on the West Bank and Gaza. The Shia parties who hearken to Ayatollah Sistani brushed aside our favorites, Chalabi and Iyad Allawi, in the Iraqi elections. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most admired Iranian leader since Khomeini. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is staging a comeback.
He could have added that Islam is becoming the dominant religion in all of Africa. According to islamawareness.net in Algeria its 32 million Muslims constitute 99 percent of the population. Zaire has 15 Million Muslims (25% of Population) , Egypt 71 Million Muslims (94% of Population), Liberia .07 Million Muslims (20% of Population), Mali 10.5 Million Muslims (90% of Population), Morocco 1.5 Million Muslims (99% of Population), Niger 10 Million Muslims (85% of Population), Nigeria 67 Million Muslims (50% of Population), Rwanda 1.28 Million Muslims (16% of Population), Senegal 10.4 Million Muslims (94% of Population), Somalia 9 Million Muslims (99% of Population), Sudan 26.6 million Muslims (70% of the population),South Africa 1 Million Muslims (2.5% of Population) and Sudan 26.6 Million Muslims (70% of Population).
It is the fastest growing religion in the world.
Pat Buchanan explains: ``The idea for which our many of our adversaries fight is a compelling one. They believe there is but one God, Allah, that Muhammad is his prophet, that Islam, or submission to the Quran, is the only path to paradise and that a Godly society should be governed according to the Sharia, the law of Islam. Having tried other ways and failed, they are coming home to Islam. This has all happened in the last year. And where are we winning?
``What idea do we have to offer?`` Pat asks. ``Americans believe that freedom comports with human dignity, that only a democratic and free-market system can ensure the good life for all, as it has done in the West and is doing in Asia. ``
To a mind seeking goals higher than the alleged good life, that barely suffices.
Writes Pat Buchanan ``What America needs to understand is something unusual for us: From Morocco to Pakistan, we are no longer seen by the majority as the good guys`` and he asks ``If Islamic rule is an idea taking hold among the Islamic masses, how does even the best army on earth stop it? Do we not need a new policy?``
A conflict that began in the 8th century and has flared up from time to time over the centuries has been re-ignited, and the enemy is out in full force all over a world turned upside down.
If you listen carefully you might even hear the lyrics, penned in 1647:
If buttercups buzz`d after the bee,
If boats were on land, churches on sea,
If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows,
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse,
If the mamas sold their babies
To the gypsies for half a crown;
If summer were spring and the other way round,
Then all the world would be upside down.
To which I`ll add ``if losers won, and winners lost.``
Tempori Parendum
(Crusader`s Motto: ``We must move with the times``)
Kehtaa> hai tujhh ko dushman-i deeN ghaibaana kyaa``
Aatish!
tr:italics emended words
Listen! just Listen how your story is being told in the world
What the ill-wishers of your creed say behind your back``
It always pays to know the enemy mind.
THE WORLD
TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
By: Phil Brennan
There was a mid-17th century nonsensical ditty ``The World Turned Upside Down`` that some believe was played by the British as they marched out to surrender at Yorktown while the victorious Americans played Yankee Doodle. Whether it really happened matters only to finicky historians, but if it didn`t it should have; for the British, who in effect had just lost their most important colonies, the world really had turned upside down.
From that moment on, nothing would ever be the same. Although some fighting continued sporadically, a spark of liberty had been ignited in America that would not be extinguished, and the old world order had begun to pass away.
We ought to be hearing it now. The world has not only turned upside down, it`s in flames. And like that day in 1781 nothing will ever be the same. Only this time it`s not only a single nation that has seen its world upended, it`s the entire world wrong side up.
The process of upending began a long time ago, we just failed to recognize it. And in failing to recognize it we gave it impetus. It really began in the 8th century but from a modern perspective, it began in the mid-1990s when a deranged Islamacist jehadist Osama bin Laden, in the name of his revolutionary movement al Qaeda, declared war on the United States.
Bin Laden launched a series of terrorist attacks against the United States, starting with a failed attempt to target U.S. troops in Yemen in 1992, followed by the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the 1993 killing of U.S. soldiers in Somalia, the 1996 the truck bombing of the Khobar Towers Marine barracks in Saudi Arabia, the 1998 bombing of U. S. embassies in East Africa, the failed plot in 1999 to bomb millennium celebrations in Seattle, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen and finally, the 9/11 horror in /2001.
These were all acts of war.
A world war had begun, and most of the world failed to recognize it. To this day, we refuse to accept the fact that a war far wider than the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israeli/Palestinian war is under way. There are only two protagonists in this war - the West and Islamic fundamentalism, but only the Islamists recognize that fact.
In a recent column, Pat Buchanan recalled the late Hilaire Belloc foreseeing the outbreak of the war in 1938. Said the acclaimed British author ``It has always seemed to me ... probable that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years its greatest opponent.``
In the Quran Islam (it means ``submission``) demands that the entire world must submit to Sharia law which governs both the public and private lives of all Muslims and those under their domination. It is the ultimate aim of al Qaeda - the goal of the worldwide jihad and a goal the imperiled West refuses to admit exists as we go about muttering the shibboleth that Islam is a ``peaceful religion.``
One reason for the West`s failure to understand the true nature of Islamic fundamentalism is the decadent West`s inability to understand the nature of absolute, do-or-die commitment to a cause, any cause. In the Western mind, martyrdom is an outmoded concept - no cause is worth dying for. The materialist West`s serves its only deity - the self and its creature comforts.
In the eyes of Islam`s adherents the decadent Western immersion in secularist materialism is to them both an abomination and an opportunity - a weakness that can be exploited. This Western weakness blinds us to the real threat - a faith whose adherents are convinced of the rightness of their cause and who are willing to die to bring about its triumph. It a classic case of belief against non-belief. They believe in something worth dying for; we believe nothing is worth dying for. And, as it has been said ``you can`t beat something with nothing.`` Abortion ``rights`` may be a dandy political issue but nobody is willing to die to protect a woman`s right to butcher the baby in her womb.
The West`s belief in nothingness has little appeal to the idealist in all of us; we can`t recruit crusaders for our cause because we have no cause but ourselves and our material well-being, scarcely a rallying cry to those seeking something higher than themselves and a self-centered lifestyle. If the Devil wears Prago, so now do we all. It`s the vestment of the times.
Contrast that with Islam, which offers a greater goal than self-aggrandizement. It offers something to which one can be totally committed. It demands total commitment in return for a reason to live and a reason to die. And it is sweeping across the world like a raging wildfire, gathering up millions of recruits in all the four corners of the globe.
Writes Pat Buchanan `` Islamists are taking over in Somalia. They are in power in Sudan. The Muslim Brotherhood won 60 percent of the races it contested in Egypt. Hezbollah swept the board in southern Lebanon. Hamas seized power from Fatah on the West Bank and Gaza. The Shia parties who hearken to Ayatollah Sistani brushed aside our favorites, Chalabi and Iyad Allawi, in the Iraqi elections. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most admired Iranian leader since Khomeini. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is staging a comeback.
He could have added that Islam is becoming the dominant religion in all of Africa. According to islamawareness.net in Algeria its 32 million Muslims constitute 99 percent of the population. Zaire has 15 Million Muslims (25% of Population) , Egypt 71 Million Muslims (94% of Population), Liberia .07 Million Muslims (20% of Population), Mali 10.5 Million Muslims (90% of Population), Morocco 1.5 Million Muslims (99% of Population), Niger 10 Million Muslims (85% of Population), Nigeria 67 Million Muslims (50% of Population), Rwanda 1.28 Million Muslims (16% of Population), Senegal 10.4 Million Muslims (94% of Population), Somalia 9 Million Muslims (99% of Population), Sudan 26.6 million Muslims (70% of the population),South Africa 1 Million Muslims (2.5% of Population) and Sudan 26.6 Million Muslims (70% of Population).
It is the fastest growing religion in the world.
Pat Buchanan explains: ``The idea for which our many of our adversaries fight is a compelling one. They believe there is but one God, Allah, that Muhammad is his prophet, that Islam, or submission to the Quran, is the only path to paradise and that a Godly society should be governed according to the Sharia, the law of Islam. Having tried other ways and failed, they are coming home to Islam. This has all happened in the last year. And where are we winning?
``What idea do we have to offer?`` Pat asks. ``Americans believe that freedom comports with human dignity, that only a democratic and free-market system can ensure the good life for all, as it has done in the West and is doing in Asia. ``
To a mind seeking goals higher than the alleged good life, that barely suffices.
Writes Pat Buchanan ``What America needs to understand is something unusual for us: From Morocco to Pakistan, we are no longer seen by the majority as the good guys`` and he asks ``If Islamic rule is an idea taking hold among the Islamic masses, how does even the best army on earth stop it? Do we not need a new policy?``
A conflict that began in the 8th century and has flared up from time to time over the centuries has been re-ignited, and the enemy is out in full force all over a world turned upside down.
If you listen carefully you might even hear the lyrics, penned in 1647:
If buttercups buzz`d after the bee,
If boats were on land, churches on sea,
If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows,
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse,
If the mamas sold their babies
To the gypsies for half a crown;
If summer were spring and the other way round,
Then all the world would be upside down.
To which I`ll add ``if losers won, and winners lost.``
Tempori Parendum
(Crusader`s Motto: ``We must move with the times``)
#588 Posted by zeemax on July 19, 2006 3:12:19 am
#587 by harish_hyd
It doesn`t have to be a coherent or organised or unified response. Quite on the contrary it has to be just the opposite ... like the japanese water torture ... drip ... drip ...
It takes a single ant to crawl up an elephant`s snout and feast on its brain, and the elephant is down on its knees ..................
It doesn`t have to be a coherent or organised or unified response. Quite on the contrary it has to be just the opposite ... like the japanese water torture ... drip ... drip ...
It takes a single ant to crawl up an elephant`s snout and feast on its brain, and the elephant is down on its knees ..................
#587 Posted by harish_hyd on July 19, 2006 1:56:27 am
#586 by zeemax
But the battle is a bigger one now ... not restricted to camels & cadillacs ...
Whatever it is, the fact is that the US is not going to lose this war if not for its military might, for the sheer inability of its enemies to forge a coherent and organized response big enough to hurt the US.
But the battle is a bigger one now ... not restricted to camels & cadillacs ...
Whatever it is, the fact is that the US is not going to lose this war if not for its military might, for the sheer inability of its enemies to forge a coherent and organized response big enough to hurt the US.
#586 Posted by zeemax on July 19, 2006 12:53:58 am
#585 by harish_hyd
They did exactly this in 1973 when US was scared it could be riding camels while the Aye-Rabs would be riding cadillacs. So they picked off all the leaders one by one!
But the battle is a bigger one now ... not restricted to camels & cadillacs ...
They did exactly this in 1973 when US was scared it could be riding camels while the Aye-Rabs would be riding cadillacs. So they picked off all the leaders one by one!
But the battle is a bigger one now ... not restricted to camels & cadillacs ...
#590 Posted by wiseguyin on July 19, 2006 7:53:25 am
True to their jaat ... IMs were involved in the mumbai blasts ...
LeT planned 11/7, Mahim boys executed it
Request to muslims - pls rape the sekulars in india first, the next time you guys decide to have a Direct Action Day.
LeT planned 11/7, Mahim boys executed it
Request to muslims - pls rape the sekulars in india first, the next time you guys decide to have a Direct Action Day.
#585 Posted by harish_hyd on July 18, 2006 11:37:44 pm
#584 by zeemax
In fact we are grateful to US for McDonald, KFC, Pizza Hut and Brittney Spears!
The feeling is mutual. Sitting as they are upon the oil wells, a smarter race (the Jews for instance, or even the lowly banias) could make life difficult for everyone if they choose (and had the brains) to do so.
In fact we are grateful to US for McDonald, KFC, Pizza Hut and Brittney Spears!
The feeling is mutual. Sitting as they are upon the oil wells, a smarter race (the Jews for instance, or even the lowly banias) could make life difficult for everyone if they choose (and had the brains) to do so.
#584 Posted by zeemax on July 18, 2006 11:25:00 pm
#581 by harish_hyd
Not at all. In fact we are grateful to US for McDonald, KFC, Pizza Hut and Brittney Spears!
Not at all. In fact we are grateful to US for McDonald, KFC, Pizza Hut and Brittney Spears!
#583 Posted by zeemax on July 18, 2006 11:21:56 pm
#572/#574 by Urstruly
So the conclusion is that as the Islamic resistance movements adopted to the targeted assassinations strategy by forming a cellular structure, the objective is now to turn those cellular leaderships against each other.
Excellent analysis. I agree. That explains a lot of imponderables.
The following excerpt from one of my posts re Iraq on the other board is relevant:
........on several previous occasions, attacks on Shia/Sunni shrines and funeral processions etc had elicited statements of solidarity from both communities` leaders who went to great lengths to dispel any notions of a civil war. Even the attack on the Imam Mehdi Golden shrine did not provoke a civil war when americans were constantly talking about one in the media, which prompted Moqtada al-Sadr to remark ``My friends, whether we`re having a civil war or not, kindly stay out of it.``
The truth is US cannot exit Iraq unless and until there`s a civil war there. Otherwise they`ll just be replacing Saddam with a coalition of hardline Islamists, both Shia and Sunni.
So the conclusion is that as the Islamic resistance movements adopted to the targeted assassinations strategy by forming a cellular structure, the objective is now to turn those cellular leaderships against each other.
Excellent analysis. I agree. That explains a lot of imponderables.
The following excerpt from one of my posts re Iraq on the other board is relevant:
........on several previous occasions, attacks on Shia/Sunni shrines and funeral processions etc had elicited statements of solidarity from both communities` leaders who went to great lengths to dispel any notions of a civil war. Even the attack on the Imam Mehdi Golden shrine did not provoke a civil war when americans were constantly talking about one in the media, which prompted Moqtada al-Sadr to remark ``My friends, whether we`re having a civil war or not, kindly stay out of it.``
The truth is US cannot exit Iraq unless and until there`s a civil war there. Otherwise they`ll just be replacing Saddam with a coalition of hardline Islamists, both Shia and Sunni.
#582 Posted by AlephNull on July 18, 2006 10:58:24 pm
Harish:
I looked at the gentleman’s website in addition to his interactor pages. To clarify – I’ve every reason to believe that he’s a very nice old gentleman, completely well-meaning, utterly benign. He may not be of a particularly skeptical bent of mind, however – that is the only sense in which I hoped he was not typical of educated Muslims.
I looked at the gentleman’s website in addition to his interactor pages. To clarify – I’ve every reason to believe that he’s a very nice old gentleman, completely well-meaning, utterly benign. He may not be of a particularly skeptical bent of mind, however – that is the only sense in which I hoped he was not typical of educated Muslims.
#589 Posted by number on July 19, 2006 5:34:41 am
Re: # 582 by AlephNull
Thanks for the post mortem on me before death. The results are encouraging. I like the
word OLD. Thanks for calling me a gentleman. Now I can interact without fear.
Thanks for the post mortem on me before death. The results are encouraging. I like the
word OLD. Thanks for calling me a gentleman. Now I can interact without fear.
#581 Posted by harish_hyd on July 18, 2006 10:47:00 pm
#563 by zeemax
I know US is trying to bring peace to us and we are trying to bring peace to the US. It`s only who can deliver MORE peace. :-)
All we hear is whining and more whining from the Muslim world about American injustices. Just a look at Paki newspapers and not a day passes by without the US being blamed for some misery that Muslims are facing.
I know US is trying to bring peace to us and we are trying to bring peace to the US. It`s only who can deliver MORE peace. :-)
All we hear is whining and more whining from the Muslim world about American injustices. Just a look at Paki newspapers and not a day passes by without the US being blamed for some misery that Muslims are facing.
#580 Posted by harish_hyd on July 18, 2006 10:43:10 pm
#575 by AlephNull
At any rate, please take a good look at his interactor page and in particular at his long series of ilog entries on ‘Islam and Arithmetic’. Highly instructive.
Indeed!
At any rate, please take a good look at his interactor page and in particular at his long series of ilog entries on ‘Islam and Arithmetic’. Highly instructive.
Indeed!
#591 Posted by number on July 19, 2006 8:23:09 am
Re: # 580 by harish_hyd
INDEED!
Beautiful word
Thank you
INDEED!
Beautiful word
Thank you
#579 Posted by harish_hyd on July 18, 2006 10:41:44 pm
#570 by number
I am stating the facts. If you do not like them, it is too bad. Truth does not need defence.
What is truth for you may not be the same for someone else. You say ``those who disregard Allah`s message will be punished on the day of judgment``. I say ``Allah who?`` I hope you get the drift.
I am stating the facts. If you do not like them, it is too bad. Truth does not need defence.
What is truth for you may not be the same for someone else. You say ``those who disregard Allah`s message will be punished on the day of judgment``. I say ``Allah who?`` I hope you get the drift.
#592 Posted by number on July 19, 2006 9:16:23 am
Re: # 579 by harish_hyd
Truth for one may not be truth for someone else. I agree.
Your question: Allah (swt) who?
Answer: The one who has created the universe, you and me.
Truth for one may not be truth for someone else. I agree.
Your question: Allah (swt) who?
Answer: The one who has created the universe, you and me.
#593 Posted by wiseguyin on July 19, 2006 9:37:31 am
Re: # 592
> Your question: Allah (swt) who?
> Answer: The one who has created the universe, you and me.
Wrong anser. This calls for negative marking.
> Your question: Allah (swt) who?
> Answer: The one who has created the universe, you and me.
Wrong anser. This calls for negative marking.
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