Friday, November 6, 2009

WHEN RELIGIOUS FANATICISM EXPRESSES ITSELF

Just as expected following the attack of a lone gunman on innocent military and civilian personnel in Fort Hood, where thirty were wounded, some seriously, and thirteen murdered in cold blood, some having returned from war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, only to be killed on of all places; American soil; just as expected, we are now hearing from the press that this was "a lone nut job" that religion did not factor in this attack. Muslim leaders have gone out of their way to claim that Islam had nothing to do with these acts of terror, and even the president of the United States has asked for people not to be fast to draw conclusions.

On Fox News, Geraldo Rivera, the maverick left of center commentator, came out Saturday night using his skills as an attorney making comparisons comparing this killing with others committed by non-Muslims in efforts to make this killing and those others synonymous; in order to make the claim that religion - in this case - radical Islam in its most extreme form of expression - had no part in this killing. It was painful to watch this intelligent man, go out of his way to bend and twist his argument in order to divorce the assailant's religious beliefs as having played any part in his murderous rampage. It was painful because not is Geraldo an attorney, but he is a world class news commentator who has traveled and reported from almost every corner of the planet. Yet, for this one moment, it seemed as though he laid aside his intellect, and his good judgment, and an attorney's ability to view a case from every angle possible, and spin and morph the argument to fit a politically correct bias of his own choosing, supporting a premise that has no root in reality. His claim on its surface is so absurd that it begs to be dismissed and ignored altogether. It is an insult to our intelligence, because it a painful bending of selective points in order to posit a politically correct point of view.

If Geraldo and the others wished to defend Muslims against reprisals, it would have been better had he not tried to inject Islam into the discussion and denying it had any part in the affair. It really is an insult to my intelligence to hear this man willfully choose to bend his story in order to placate a religion for what would appear to be a defence of other Muslims. As mentioned above, it is so patently absurd that it does not deserve a rebuttal, yet for the sake of truth and fairness, it must be answered if only to be corrected, because justice demands it.

The very premise that religion - to be exact - Islam taken to its most extreme form of expression, had not played a role in this attack; is on its surface patently incorrect. For Geraldo on his show (Geraldo at Large) and others in the alphabet soup media to claim that it isn't because others who were non-Muslims "flipped out," and went on a murderous rampage themselves; is ludicrous; because unlike those other "non-Muslim" attacks, this one was made as the assailant shouted "Allah O Akbar!" god is great! in Arabic, the "rebel yell" of not just Islamists, but of all Muslims. Whatever motivated those other "non-Muslims" to go on their murderous rampages, this attack was motivated by fanatical religious hatred compelling a conflict of loyalties in a person to murder in the name of that religion. Way what one will about this man's mental, psychological, and emotional state of mind; at its very core this was a religious attack by a Muslim driven by conflicted loyalties to choose Islam and the murder of those whom he perceived to be its enemies.

To strengthen this is the assailant's own words where he is quoted as having declared that it was the right and duty of "all Muslims" to kill the enemies of Islam. The assailant considered the United States war in Iraq and Afghanistan a war against Islam, and as such believed it was his duty to take action against it, and action he did take. Though he was a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, his misguided perception - no doubt fed by Jihadists, and Islamist Imams he heard, impelled him to take action against all enemies of Islam. In his judgment, America is fighting a war against Islam and against Muslims, and the time had come for him to decide whose side he was to be on. Thus far, and until the day of the incident, he had worn the uniform of the Army of the United States of America. It was time now for him to don the robes of a true follower of the prophet, and as reported by neighbors, days before the incident, he had begun to dress the part while not on duty.

Although he had taken an oath to protect and defend the United States, its Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic; his loyalty to his religion, triggered in him a clash of loyalties. When pressed to service - that is, to be deployed to a Muslim land, he considered this new responsibility so onerous to his religious sympathies, that although his MOS was not to engage in battle but to counsel; his judgment became so impaired by his fanatical hatred for "the enemies of Islam" that he was compelled to express this as he did on that fateful and tragic day.

His jihad resulted in the massacre of Fort Hood, the disruption of families, the death of innocents, and the premature and needless permanent separation of loved ones who had just returned from war with their families.

The media is so politically correct it is sickening. Because of its political correctness, it has lost the capacity to call evil what it is, and to identify its source correctly - religious fanaticism expressed in murderous hatred in the most extreme expression of the Muslim faith - of Islam. To claim that it is anything but this, is to deny the obvious. It is not an indictment of all Muslims worldwide, but an indictment of a religion - Islam - taken to its most extreme form of expression and manifestation in murderous religious hatred. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (US Army Ret.), make a most cogent case that this was indeed an act of Islamist terror (http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fort_hood_xjP9yGrJN7gl7zdsJ31vnJ). But allow US if you will to examine exactly what we can learn from this, and what we must do to not only avoid it, but to ever keep it from happening again. In order to do this, we must look beyond the confines of religious prejudice, and go into the very heart of what was the root cause of this man's pathology that drove him, and has driven others to similar acts against their fellow human beings.

The events of Fort Hood, Texas brings some very important lessons for US to take to heart. The tragic carnage which took place at Fort Hood is only the latest in a long history of religious hatred driven by a fanaticism that has plagued the human race since the dawn of time.

We are told that US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim, had become increasingly distraught because he was being deployed to Iraq, where he would be required to fight against Al Qaeda and other Islamists, which he could not bring himself to do. Because he could not bring himself to commit to his mission because he believed that even in his capacity as a psychologist for the US Army he would be required to possibly debrief and interrogate Muslims, he felt increasingly conflicted within himself about his mission, and committed the unspeakable: he committed murder. even when such a fanaticism was compelled by an expression of protest against killing; as twisted as this may seem to the rest of US.

This events of Fort Hood brings US to another almost forgotten story of a young Israeli's struggle to recover from wounds inflicted on him by a bomb that was delivered to his house as a Purim Present a year ago, and the shocking discovery that the "gift" which exploded and ripped his body to shreds had been sent by a fellow Israeli Jew driven by religious hatred because Ami and his family are Messianic Israelis.

It is the story of a family's pain, a young man's faith, and the heartwarming gestures of support and prayers of Israelis from every corner of the country sent to this young man and his family for his and their recovery; especially that they heal from the deep wounds of the heart something like this can inflict on a human soul; because Israelis above all others, have learned firsthand that this kind of wound takes longer to heal.

Like Fort Hood, what happened to young Ami is something one expects from an enemy, but when it is done by someone from within your community; from the last place anyone would anticipate such a horrendous act as coming; it serves a bitter lesson of how fanaticism in any form impairs good judgment, the potential such fanaticism has for grave danger to the peace of any community.

A religious fanatic felt justified to commit such an act because he believed he was doing it in the name of G-d. One incident happened in Fort Hood Texas, and this other incident happened in Israel. One incident took place between one American against his fellow Americans. The other one in Israel happened to a Jew from a fellow Jew. But, we see the same thing occur every day around the world. Demonic hatred fuels the religious wars being fought in the name of Allah between Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, several nations on the African Continent, and other parts of the world.

Such religious bigotry is what fuels the Anti-missionaries as well within the Jewish communities of the world, because what happened to this young Israeli happened as a result of another Israeli who was compelled by his religious convictions that what he was doing he was doing as a mitzvah (good deed) to his god, as twisted as this may seem to be to the rest of US.

Religious hatred filled a man's heart and drove him on a rampage against his fellow Americans; and religious hatred filled another man's heart, driving him to lose his judgment and attempt to murder a fellow Jew in the name of the god he believes he serves. But history is replete with such acts in the name of G-d. The pogroms of Eastern Europe; the European Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the religious wars of Europe between Catholics and Protestants; the Moor's conquest of Spain, Muslims on Muslims; right down to the present day.

Yesterday's massacre of a lone gunman in Texas is perhaps the latest act of senseless carnage because the assailant had filled his heart with so much hate, and had become so despondent due to this religious hatred that he committed an act against fellow Americans who did not expect for this to happen in of all places, an American fort inside the continental United States.

We are seeing a lot of the wrong type of religious expression, misguided as it is, and such expression, when taken to its most extreme form of manifestation, murders innocent human life.

Whether the religion is Islam, Christianity, or Judaism, or any other; if anyone's heart is filled with hatred towards one's fellow human being, and one allows this hatred to take expression through action against someone else in the name of his god; then such a person is not serving G-d.

Religious expression which manifests itself in hatred is not built upon G-d's foundation, because it is not based upon G-d's love, but on religious hatred and man's bigotry, because we also find where it says the following:

The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1John 2:9-11

And Messiah has added another commandment to those who are His followers where He says: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. This is I command you, that you love one another."

(John 13:34-35, 15:12-13, 17).

Perhaps the greatest commandment is the following one: "AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR G-D WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT,", (Deuteronomy 6:5), but there is another commandment which that we are all told to follow, and that is the following one: "YOU SHALL NOT TAKE VENGEANCE, NOR BEAR ANY GRUDGE AGAINST THE SONS OF YOUR PEOPLE, BUT YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF: I AM THE LORD."

(Leviticus 19:18)

An ancient Rabbi and Tanna whose writings never made it to the Talmud, writes:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked , does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...

1Corinthians 13:1-8a

Expositing Torah life, the same ancient rabbi and Tanna admonishes elsewhere:

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the Law.

Romans 13:8-10

The prophet Malachi posits the question to everyone who claims to love G-d and keep His commandments, and yet harbors enmity towards his fellow man:

"DO WE NOT ALL HAVE ONE FATHER? HAS NOT ONE GOD CREATED US? WHY DO WE DEAL TREACHEROUSLY EACH AGAINST HIS BROTHER SO AS TO PROFANE THE COVENANT OF OUR FATHERS?"

How can we sum all of this up? If the best expression of your love for G-d is to hate your fellow man, then It is not the G-d of the Scriptures whom you are serving, because He has commanded US - that is, you and me and everyone else - to love our fellow man whom we can see ; who like you and me and everyone else, is made in the image of the Lord whom we cannot see. Just as it says:

If someone says, "I love G-d," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love G-d whom he has not seen

1John 4:20

You love G-d? Then keep His commandments by loving Him first and foremost, then loving your neighbor as yourself, and also loving especially your brother as He has loved you. Anything else that comes short of this is sin because it comes short of the commandment to love, and it is a commandment.

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