Can We Fight Ideas With Guns?

Another Muslim, another terrorist saga, more innocent lives lost. What else is
new?

Those of us who know Islam are not surprised. So far there have been
over 14,300 incidents of terrorism worldwide, perpetrated by the followers of
The Religion of Peace. This is about five terrorist attacks per day. But it
only accounts for acts of terror that have been reported in the media. The
actual number is a lot more. Most acts of violence are perpetrated against
non-Muslims and apostates in Islamic countries. Many of them are not reported
at all.

Massacre of innocent people by a devout Muslim should not shock anyone. What is shocking is how the politically correct media is handling this news. The only questions that are asked are whether Major Nidal Malik Hasan was under stress or whether other soldiers hurt his religious sensitivities. They are even saying the store that sold him the guns legally is under investigation. Everyone and
everything seems to be responsible, except his religion that taught him to hate
and kill the infidels.

How can a doctor become so stressed by hearing about the trauma his patients went through to go into a killing rampage and kill them? Since when the post traumatic
stress disorder of patients can be transmitted to their doctor? I am not sure
whether the media thinks the public is stupid or that they are stupid
themselves. This crime has Islam written all over it.

Considering the staggering number of terrorist attacks perpetrated by the followers of The Religion of Peace, is it far fetch to assume that Islam may have had something to do with this crime, particularly when the guy shouts allahu akabar while shooting at his colleagues.

People who knew Hasan say he was angry about America’s involvement in Iraq and in
Afghanistan. This is another clue that the shooting was religiously motivated.
Most Muslims believe that America’s war against terrorism is a war against
Islam. They are right. If you fight jihad you are fighting against Islam.

To understand Muslims it is imperative to understand Muhammad. Muslims emulate Muhammad. All these terrorist attacks do not happen because Muslims misinterpret their religion. They commit these crimes because it is required from them. They
are doing what their prophet did. Jihad is the highest form of worship in
Islam. What they do is insane, but the source of this insanity is Islam.

The wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq are not the cause of Islamic terrorism. The 9/11, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the 1983 suicide bombing of an American
Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed 241 American military personnel happened
before the war of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq and Afghanistan are excuses. Islam is a religion of hate. It needs hate to keep the faith of its followers alive. To foment hate, you need to give people an
excuse.

To understand what makes Muslims terrorist we have to understand Muhammad. Muhammad was not a prophet of God. Like Jim Jones, Shoko Asahara, David Koresh and Joseph Koni, he was a cult leader. Cult leaders need enemies to keep their flock together. They implant in them the concept of us versus them. The believers are given an
identity that sets them apart from the rest of the world. That is why Muslims
see themselves as an entity apart from others.

Cults build an imaginary, and even a physical wall around their followers. All the above cult leaders kept their devotees in a compound - cut off from the outside
world. Muhammad used Medina as his compound and admonished his followers of
having any contact with their non believing relatives. Even though today
Muslims are over a billion, the cultic spirit that Muhammad instilled in them
is alive.

Cultists are taught to hate the outsiders so that they can remain loyal to the
cult. Hate is a powerful binding force. Sigmund Freud wrote, “It is always
possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as
there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their
aggressiveness”

This is how all the fascistic ideologies like communism and Nazism operate, and this is the essence of the brotherhood among Muslims. The glue that binds the believers to their faith and to each other is hate - the hatred of the outsiders, the
unbelievers, the detractors and the perceived enemy.

Muslims are divided in thousands of sects. They shed each other’s blood at every
opportunity. But they are united in their hatred of non-Muslims and
particularly the Jews. It is this hatred that brings these mortal enemies
together.

Why the Jews?
Because Muhammad needed enemies and the Jews of Medina were easy targets.
Muslims have inherited their prophet's hatred for the Jews and will keep it
alive until, what they believe to be the Last Day, when stones will call them,
“Oh slave of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.”

Why America? America makes a formidable enemy. Jews are too few for
Muslims to feel victimized by them. After all for every Jew there are over a
hundred Muslims. But America is a superpower. It is much easier to pretend that you are being victimized by a superpower than by a tiny country like Israel.
Also if you convince yourself that America is controlled by the Jews, you have
a potent icon to hate.

Arousing the sense of victimhood by a formidable enemy makes your followers hate him and strengthens their allegiance to you. This is normal. When a country is attacked, its citizens become more patriotic and rally around their leader. Having a superpower as a perceived enemy can unite the divided Muslims of all the
warring sects and increase their devotion to Islam. So to hate America is
essential for the survival of Islam. The Islamic regime in Iran knows this.
They know that if the Iranians stop hating America their regime will be
toppled, and that is exactly what is happening.

Now, how do you make someone hate another person so intensely that they would kill
themselves in order to kill him? There are Muslims who live in Philippines,Indonesia or in Pakistan who have never seen a Jew. Nonetheless, they harbor a burning hatred toward them. How can you make one hate so much?

You dehumanize them and you demonize them.

In three places, the Quran calls the Jews monkeys and pigs. Muhammad said, God
transformed them into these animals because they broke the law of Sabbath. They
are portrayed as transgressors against God who are despised by Him. They are dehumanized and demonized.

There are also many verses that depict Jews as deceitful and evil creatures. (Q. 5:64,4:155, 4:160-161, 2:91, 5:13, 9:29, etc)

With all these despiteful and demeaning comments that Muslims believe are the verbatim words of God, how can they ever accept Jews as equals and make peace with
them? If Jews have been dehumanized and demonized by God himself,how can a Muslim have a different opinion?

To dehumanize and demonize your victim you have to lie. You have to deceive your followers so they become convinced that they are being victimized. Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizers in America and the biggest influence in the thinking of Barack Obama said, “You must do whatever will achieve the desired ends.” In his book Rules for Radicals, Rule No. 12 say, "Pick the target, freeze
it, personalize it and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the
target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster
than institutions.” (Remember what the media did to Palin? It was all in the
script.)

Muhammad was in agreement with Alinsky. He said, “War is deception.” He even said that Allah is the greatest deceiver. (Q. 3:54).

So to achieve your goal you twist the facts, present fiction as truth and with libel and calumny you vilify your victims. After you have robbed them from their humanity and have demonized them, it will be easy to make your believers hate them.

Islam, like all ideologies that rely on hate, such as fascism, communism and Nazism, has institutionalized the deception. Muslims actively fabricate and promote lies. They commit the terror and immediately start deceiving the public and pretend that they are just as shocked as their victims and deeply regret and denounce the senseless act.

shahzada,

there are a few practical steps that the educated pakis can do.

The ilks of romair and zeemax on the chowk have written extensively about types of jihadis, the sectarian jihadis, the kashmir jihadis, the afghan jihadis and the like indicating that they are all politically motivated, fighting against the oppression of muslims.

I have all along ,maintained that jihadis are general purpose killers who seek death over life, and as such what the paki army is doing is the right thing, deliver shehdad at their door steps. The link up of all the jihadis now in pakistan and the coordinated bomb blasts is the proof of my assertion that jihadis are general purpose killers nd they will kill any one that their religious leader point out.

Now the basic question, can one kill an idea, yes, just kill the jihadis and their supporters. The actual suicide bomber may be poor, but the ones who provide the support and infrastructure to carry out the attacks are the ones to be eliminated.

Death of an idea by military action, do not look farther than srilanka and the ltte.

Dear Laddu, I do respect your views and your knowledge of human psychology. It is true fear and guilt being very potent motivational forces are generally associated with religion. Your thesis is rooted in religious psychology but is not applicable to the Muslim psychology; Is lam is a different kettle of fish when it comes to religions. Islam has little place for guilt as the only motivation stemming from sin. The history of Islam points out a different problem. Fear is also less powerful when it comes to inspiring Muslims to action. Let me explain why. The Arab ethos is imbued with individualism, freedom and racial pride. There is little room for fear and sinful remorse. Islam is against a permanent sinful remorse because as s Muslim you have a choice to go up to God and say sorry". And that washes off all your sins. You do not need blood of the son of God to cleanse you of your sins. Allah (the Muslim word for God) always keeps the door to forgiveness (Tauba in Arabic) open at all times, even if you have been a sinner all your life. You can always turn a new leaf in your spiritual life. Question: then what motivates Muslims to bloodshed, if it is neither sin nor fear? Answer: Islam is a religion of action not of worship. It teaches its followers to oppose and resist evil or injustice first with hands, then with words or at least in thoughts. As the supreme aim of Islam in this world is to establish an egalitarian and just society which is a political dimension of Islam, its followers can always be actuated on action using this principle of justice. Injustice and oppression is viewed as an antithesis to Islam by Muslims and when this injustice and oppression is believed to be directed against fellow Muslims, it becomes very easy to manipulate their deep-seated idealism of political justice. This, if anything, is the force that motivates suicide bombers in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They call themselves ad Fidayeen which means those who are sacrificing themselves. And they believe that they can sacrifice their life, family and worldly goods to achieve the highest ideal of justice and freedom for the Muslim Community (Ummah). It is in this context that I believe that they are motivated by a universal responsibility for establishing on earth an order which is just and egalitarian. Islam does not bear Muslims down with the idea of an original sin, it gives them unbounded freedom and confidence by telling them that Man is God's Viceregent on Earth. It is from this position that they view their sense of responsibility. There is nothing essentially wrong with this Muslim political idealism. The problem is with the means and tools of achieving this ideal. Í do not support violence and terrorism as tools for achieving this ideal of political justice. And Islam does not advocate violence for bringing your ideals across to others.I think those who are involved in these activities are misguided and are acting under a distorted interpretation of Jihad (Endeavour) in Islam. For a fuller understanding of this thesis, it is important to study the history of political resistance in Islam briefly touched upon by Karen Armstrong's book A Short History of Islam.

cognitive dissonance between the Arabic world view of Mohammad and the non-arabic world views is the cause of suicidal distress amongst modern day muslims.

Muslims live in a constant state of cognitive dissonance. Their Islamic mind is incapable of coping with the freedoms of the modern world. They are torn apart by two opposing forces. On one hand there is freedom, which they find irresistibly seductive and at the same time sinful and immoral. On the other hand there is the fear of hell. In this tug-of-war, fear always wins. Fear is a lot more powerful than the desire to be free, especially if that freedom is regarded as wicked and sinful. Freedom will never wean Muslims from Islam. They respond to fear. This makes them withdraw into their protective shell, and become more and more extremist.

They sin, they feel guilty, and to overcome their guilt they become jihadis. This, in a nutshell, is the reason for the revival of jihad. Muslims have suddenly come in contact with the modern western world and they are not equipped for it. They are fascinated by it, while at the same time they fear it, believe it leads them to hell, and they want to destroy it. It is under this light that we must understand Muslims. Only then can we understand what drives them to terrorism. Islamic terrorists are not troubled or insane. They are normal people. The only thing troubling about them is that they believe in a religion which holds them hostage to fear, controls their thoughts and actions, and glorifies murder as the highest form of devotion.