Muslims, Christians, and the State-god
Michael Bray
25 Oct. 2001
Below is an article by Daniel Pipes (Washington Times, 25 October, 2001) regarding the popularity of bin Laden in the Muslim world. It is no fringe of the Islamic world which enthuses over his deeds. A great plurality if not the majority of Muslims despise what they regard to be the false Triune God of the Christian faith.
We, a formerly Christian country – statutorily speaking – have drifted down a course of self-destruction which is evidenced in many ways. The most obvious is our decades-old toleration of childslaughter and more recent toleration of sodomy. Less egregious evidence is our recognition of false religions. From religions come legal systems. As we have departed from our religious and legal foundations and embraced a God-less and philosophically positivist basis for our legal system, we have abandoned the assumption that law can be grounded in divinely revealed Truth. And in so doing all religions are to be tolerated but none are to be submitted to as the basis for law and justice. In place of such a law-giving religion, the state (viz. the federal government) is installed.
The new State-god is very tolerant of other religions, all religions (within reason – no practicing Aztecs or other cannibals, please). But these religions must confine themselves to the practice of talking and singing to themselves in their temples. No justice (from the unilateral perspective of any religion); no jihads will be allowed. And no interference with population-control programs (which are working just fine under the rubric “family planning”). The ruthless butchering of the innocent is a necessary “freedom” which must be not only afforded to but urged upon the people in the name of reason, responsibility, and controlled growth.
Koran-oriented Muslims, like Bible-oriented Christians, affirm that justice is defined by divine revelation. In terms of law and justice, they run closer to each other than to the law of the 21st century State-god of the U.S. Were the battle for legal foundations between such Muslims and Christians, a federation of states might be imaginable in which, say, a sovereign Muslim state of Maryland might cut the hands off their thieves, while the Christian state of Virginia would abolish its jails require two-fold restitution from its thieves.
Perhaps the current infusion of Muslims into the United States will invigorate sleeping churches to vie for Truth and Justice in their beloved country. In the end, one of these three major Law systems will prevail. We have already seen the State-god system fail in the U.S.S.R after a short 70-year experiment. And dismayed communist sympathizers in Congress and academia are still mourning, wondering what else there is.
We recommend a sober look at our own national history and a return to the Christian legal foundations of the colonies – whether as sovereign Tenth Amendment united states or as the singular United States.
TERRIFYING ENTHUSIASM
Daniel Pipes
Published 10/25/2001 in the Washington Times
Ask Westerners about Osama bin Laden and you’ll hear how marginal he is. American specialists on Islam tell us hat “Osama bin Laden is to Islam like Timothy McVeigh is to Christianity” (according to Mark Juergensmeyer of the University of California). Karen Armstrong, author of a best-selling book about Islam, reports that the “vast majority of Muslims are horrified by the atrocity of Sept. 11.” President George W. Bush says bin Laden represents a “fringe form of Islamic extremism rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics.”
Evidence from the Muslim world suggests otherwise. With the exception of one government-staged anti-bin Laden demonstration in Pakistan and very few prominent Islamic scholars, hardly anyone publicly denounces him. The only Islamic scholar in Egypt who unreservedly condemns the Sept. 11 suicide operations admits he is completely isolated. American officials are still waiting for Muslim politicians to speak up. “It’d be nice if some leaders came out and said that the idea the U.S. is targeting Islam is absurd,” notes one U.S. diplomat.
They do not because the Muslim world is bursting with adulation for the Saudi militant. “Long live bin Laden” shouted 5,000 demonstrators in the southern Philippines. In Pakistan, bin Laden’s face sells merchandise and massive street rallies leave two persons dead. Ten thousand march in the capitals of Bangladesh and Indonesia. In northern Nigeria, bin Laden has (according to Reuters) “achieved iconic status” and his partisans set off religious riots leading to 200 deaths. Pro-bin Laden demonstrations took place even in Mecca, where overt political activism is unheard of.
Everywhere, The Washington Post reports, Muslims cheer bin Laden on “with almost a single voice.” The Internet buzzes with odes to him as a man “of solid faith and power of will.” A Saudi explains that “Osama is a very, very, very, very good Muslim.” A Kenyan adds: “Every Muslim is Osama bin Laden.” “Osama is not an individual, but a name of a holy war,” reads a banner in Kashmir. In perhaps the most extravagant statement, one Pakistani declared that “bin Laden is Islam. He represents Islam.” In France, Muslim youths chant bin Laden’s name as they throw rocks at non-Muslims.
Palestinians are especially enamored. According to Hussam Khadir, a member of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Party, “bin Laden today is the most popular figure in the West Bank and Gaza, second only to Arafat.” A 10-year-old girl announces that she loves him like a father. Nor is she alone. “Everybody loves Osama bin Laden at this time. He is the most righteous man in the whole world,” declares a Palestinian woman. A Palestinian Authority policeman calls him “the greatest man in the world our Messiah” even as he (reluctantly) disperses students who march in solidarity with the Saudi.
Survey research helps understand these sentiments. In the Palestinian Authority, a Bir Zeit poll found that 26 percent of Palestinians consider the Sept. 11 attacks consistent with Islamic law. In Pakistan, a Gallup found a nearly identical 24 percent reaching this conclusion. Even those who consider the attacks on Sept. 11 an act of terrorism (64 percent of both Palestinians and Pakistanis) show respect for these as acts of political defiance and technical prowess. “Of course we’re upset that so many died in New York. But at the same time, we’re in awe of what happened,” said a young Cairene woman.
An online survey of Indonesians found 50 percent seeing bin Laden as a “justice fighter” and 35 percent a terrorist. More broadly, I estimate that bin Laden enjoys the emotional support of half the Muslim world.
That America’s politicians and experts on Islam insist on seeing bin Laden as an isolated McVeigh-like figure is worrisome; they miss the danger that bin Laden’s militant Islam poses to existing governments — perhaps their greatest challenge of recent times. Their fear of him goes far to explain why the authorities so heavily discourage pro-bin Laden sentiments (forbidding posters of him, arresting militant Islamic leaders, blocking street gatherings, closing schools and universities, patrolling streets with loaded machine guns and even shooting demonstrators).
The wide and deep Muslim enthusiasm for bin Laden is an extremely important development that needs to be understood, not ignored.
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum, a think-tank based in
Philadelphia.
Islam and Century 21 American Liberalism Our Muslim Friends and the Law of God
Comments are currently closed.