If they steal a sheep, shoot the sheep!

Abdul Rahman decided to become a Christian. Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem except that he lives in Afghanistan. Worse he was a Muslim and it's illegal for a Muslim to convert to Christianity in his particular community. I think the fanatic element of Islamic faith consider it sheep-stealing! Except their solution is to shoot the sheep!

Now Christians can donate food, clothing and medical care to Muslims when earthquakes destroy their cities. We can donate them Stinger missiles with which to drive off the Russian invader. We can drive out an evil government and give them the right to vote. We can pour aid money into the place like it was water. But if one of them decides to become one of us, their law says that person must die.

Worse, 70% of the Afghanies (if you believe the media - and I don't) also support murdering Abdul, though his only crime is changing his religion. You have to wonder what are these people are thinking?

1. Are they thinking Allah needs major help holding on to his followers?
2. Are they thinking this sort of thing will convince the United States of their good intentions toward us? (Does anybody really think these guys won't be harboring any more of those nasty old terrorists while publicly displaying their hatred of our religion!)
3. Are they thinking, "We better nip this in the bud right now before we don't have anyone left to go on jihad!"
4. Or are they just not thinking. Are they so used to letting the mullahs do all the thinking for them that they just parrot the party line (which seems to be "Death to everyone who is not us!"?

If that's the case, no wonder they need to hold the threat of death over their own people's heads as a penalty for leaving the Muslim faith. What else is going to hold them in the "true" faith but fear.

Islamic culture is held up as an example of intellectual vigor by pundits, historians and all those "apologists-for-every-other-culture-but-American". Well, it looks to me like somewhere along the way these smart-Bobs would have figured out that the worst way to keep folks in your religion is to point a gun at their heads and say, "Stay!"

I predict that the Mullahs' worst fears are about to be confirmed. I predict that as the children of Islam come into increasing contact with the freedom that flourishes in Christian cultures, many will take a look about them and decide that the ways of their fathers are wrong. When that happens many eyes will open and Arabs will come to see that the mullahs are what they are--power hungry greedy old geezers that believe it is their inalienable right to lord it over their fellow humans. When that happens, there will be a rush away from Islam that will terrify those hideous old men. Unless Islamic leaders find a way to embrace some of the positive aspects of their faith and separate religion from politics, I fear Islam will soon destroy itself from within.

Terrorism is no more about the faith of Islam than the Crusades were about Christian missionary work. The Crusades were about politics and power and were inspired by a lot of corrupt old men in castles who wanted to burn off the energy of the young knights and warlords so they could sit in their castles and molest the servant girls and tax the peasants without having to worry about the young bucks starting a civil war or something. It had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with holding on to power.

That's what's happening in Iraq and other Islamic countries right now. The old geesers are trying to hold on to power by getting the young potential troublemakers to blow themselves up for Allah. If the people ever do turn on them, they've shown the capacity for unthinkable violence. That's why you don't want the terrorist leaders to be anywhere near nuclear weapons when the whole rotten mess tumbles down around their ears. They'll use them if they can and they won't care about the consequences. After all, Christians are only fit to be killed to these power hungry warlords and who cares what Mohammed said about tolerance for "people of the book". After all, it's not about religion or even about faith. It's about holding on to power!

Which is a stupid reason to fight a war just as it has always been. It's too bad there are still young fools who will fight for an unjust cause - and I'm not talking about the coalition soldiers who brought down Saddam either! I'm talking about the ones who are merrily blowing themselves and their neighbors up over what is essentially a centuries old quibble over who was the rightful Caliph after Mohammed died hundreds of years ago and (big surprise) over who has the authority now.

It's Catholics & Protestants blowing each other up in Ireland. It's Romans feeding Christians to the lions at the Coliseum; Jesuits hunting down and slaughtering Waldensian Protestants; Phillistines attacking Jews; Puritans burning witches; dogs chasing cats! Dig down underneath all sectarian violence and you're going to find a bunch of old geesers clinging to power with their gnarly old fingers for all they are worth and pouring out the blood of young men like water uselessly!

It's also bureacrats and transit providers shutting out nonprofits, advocacy groups, private providers and civic leaders from the planning process for fear of what they might suggest as a solution to the problem!. Anytime you get an entrenched group like that in power, you have to figure out how to flood the trenches and get them out of in the open. They never go willingly and NEVER invite you into the trenches for a chat.

Too bad. Changing things for the better shouldn't have to be that hard!

Just one man's opinion...

Tom King