PART ONE
Towards the end of Ramadan, (October 11th, 2007), a group of 138 Muslim clerics released a Letter which called for peace between Muslims and Christians. Jews, (my people), Hindus, Buddhists, other non-Christian denominations, secularists, and atheists were not included in this theologically-based appeal.
Already, I’m worrying. Why are they only talking to Christians? Although Jews represent less than 1% (.003%) of the world’s population, (there are perhaps 14 million of us), why not talk to Jews–since Jewish scripture is cited in the Letter; and because we are also viewed as so very powerful?
But, what’s wrong with approaching Buddhists and Hindus who number 360 million and 900 million, respectively? What about Chinese traditionalists who number 225 million, or primal-indigenous worshippers who number 190 million? Secularists and atheists number 850 million; that’s a lot of people. (Yoruba, Juche, and Sikhs number 20 million, 19 million, and 18 million, respectively.)
The reason for excluding these other groups is quite obvious–and chilling. Historically, Muslims have been taught to sue for (a temporary or a false) “peace” only when they are in the weaker, not stronger position, as a way of buying time to better prepare for a military-religious triumph.
Demographically, the only group that outmatches the Muslims is Christians. Therefore, although all the other denominations add up to one billion, thirty three million, their combined number is still smaller than the number of Muslims in the world, who number 1.2 billion. Christians number 2 billion. (I am also counting secularism and atheism as religious denominations – they often have fundamentalists among them too.)
As someone who has gone on record calling for Judao-Christian alliances with dissident, moderate, secular, and “peace” oriented Muslims and ex-Muslims, I do not think that this Letter or its signatories are serious about finding “common” ground.
I fear that the Letter’s purpose was to dis-inform and disarm uninformed Westerners who have been led to believe that their own concepts of “peace” are the same as Muslim concepts.
Indeed, The Letter has already been received very positively in the western mainstream media: the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, International Herald Tribune, the Times of London, the London Guardian, Ecumenical News International, and the BBC did not challenge the Letter’s motives or signatories or place the Letter in historical or theological context.
However, both the Times of London and the Washington Post quote Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali who noted that “the two faiths’ understanding of the oneness of God is not the same. One partner cannot dictate the terms on which dialogue must be conducted.”
Last year, I debated a number of people on Al-Hurrah about the Islamic Veil. Yvonne Ridley, a British convert to Islam, was one of the debaters. She characterized the plight of Muslims in the West as being oppressed and attacked; she said that her people’s blood was flowing in the streets of London and on the West Bank. She threatened a lawsuit in The Hague on behalf of Muslim religious freedom in the West. Knowing that people were watching this debate all over the Arab Middle East and Muslim world I politely and diplomatically appealed to those living in Saudi Arabia and on the West Bank.
I did not call for an international lawsuit on behalf of the rights of all those non-Muslim religions that are savagely persecuted in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan, and in Gaza and on the West Bank. But I pointed out that religious intolerance did not exist in the West but in the Muslim world. Rather than bring such a lawsuit, I called upon Saudi Arabia to start practicing some version of Western Judao-Christian religious tolerance.
Ridley went ballistic.
One more personal example: When I was interviewed in the London Guardian and in the Chicago Tribune (in 2006), both interviewers were very respectful and even friendly. However, when the interviews appeared, the questions suddenly contained negative critiques that were never presented to me. In one instance, a Muslim religious feminist rebutted what I was about to–but had not yet said. In another instance, the interviewer told me that “the new material had been imposed” from on high.
I doubt that Jewish, Christian, non-Christian, and secular and atheist views are this carefully preserved and protected in the Arab Muslim world.
In my view, the West is not at war with Islam: Count up the number of Muslim immigrants and mosques in the West. But Islam is certainly at war with the West. Count how few churches, temples, shrines and synagogues exist in the Arab and Muslim world and how endangered infidels are in the Islamic world.
I will have more to say about this Letter.
But for now, please read two articles to which I have linked here and here.
And send me your comments–even your votes–as to whether you believe this Letter is a genuine bid for peace or is part of a massive dis-information campaign.
My statistics about religious and atheist demographics were obtained from Buddha Net HERE.
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18 Comments
David Thomson:“Why are they only talking to Christians?”
The Muslim religious leaders seem to have learned well the manipulative tactics of Adolph Hitler. They apparently are trying to convey the message to the Christian world that their real fight is not with them—but the Jews allegedly oppressing the Palestinians and other Muslim victims. The Christians merely need to stay out of the way and nothing will happen to them. Of course, the latter fail to realize their cooperation will only, at best, give them a little extra time before the Islamic extremists turn their attention toward them.
Oct 16, 2007 - 9:25 pm Cpt Mac:We the educated people of the West understand and know exactly what the agenda of Islam is. We who have read the Qur’an, Sunna, Hadith and books on Muhammad see our countries being totally bowing to Islam and it makes us sick.
Sarkozy of France certainly is taking the threat of the “Enemies Within” seriously. He is getting rid of them all those there illegally are being deported, and there are millions of them, proving a country most certainly can rid itself of illegals. He is also giving thousands of dollars to those there legally to encourage them to go back to their countries. He has openly supported Israel and called Israel a friend to France. If only the president of America would show such courage at home.
All of us in America who have served in this war know farewell it will take another attack for the American people to wake-up. We are absolutely loosing our culture on a daily basis and giving into the needs and demands of Muslims even paying for their footbaths and prayer rooms with tax payer dollars. But then why should they attack us, they are all over our country and now even looking to eventually having a Muslim run for president. They are in every level of our government, they are Mayors, Govenors, Senators, Congressmen. They are in our Secret Service our military it is insane. America is in grave peril as is the rest of the world.
There are millions of us who smell the camel dung and want our countries to wake-up before we are buried in it.
Oct 17, 2007 - 8:42 am Mike Woodman:A very good article. As you say, the West is not at war with Islam but Islam is certainly at war with the West. Conflict and domination are written into Islam’s genetic code. It’s like a computer virus that always runs the same way whichever host it enters. The results are always basically the same: intolerance of other beliefs; intolerance of other cultures; divisiveness and fractiousness on a colossal scale (which ultimately paves the way for tyranny because that’s the only form of government which prevents the splintering of society where Islam is present); repression of sceptical thought (because questioning is too dangerous for the edifice of violence and lies that Islam consists of).
Oct 17, 2007 - 1:40 pm Jim:Facing these truths requires courage because the implications are simply awful. That may explain why many in the West just can’t bring themselves to do it. This peace charade will be very welcome to these people. It will enable them to believe for a little longer that ‘we all basically want the same thing and if we would just stop defending ourselves, the jihadis would stop attacking us’ (the backward logic is intentional).
A very good article. Keep up the good work.
Oct 17, 2007 - 4:29 pm Fern Sidman:“Last year, I debated a number of people on Al-Hurrah about the Islamic Veil. Yvonne Ridley, a British convert to Islam, was one of the debaters. She characterized the plight of Muslims in the West as being oppressed and attacked; she said that her people’s blood was flowing in the streets of London and on the West Bank.”
Really??? When was the last time you heard about Muslims being murdered in London or on the “West Bank” just because they were Muslim. Muslims often posit themselves as the victims of oppression because they are cognizant of the fact that their propaganda machine, a/k/a the media has accorded them special rights status by coining the phrase, “Islamophobia”. That catch all phrase appears to give them license to assert all kinds of baseless accusations in an attempt to garner sympathy from the left-liberal camp.
Indeed, the West is not at war with Islam, but Islam is obviously at war with the West. Their hateful anti-Western diatribes can be heard on a daily basis in their mosques, which by the way, are located in the very countries they accuse of racial profiling, and worse even murder. Their view of peace is quite simple: The West must accomodate us, our mosques, our lifestyle, accord us all privileges that other citizens of that said country enjoy, while we continue to ban Westerners, their houses of worship, their lifestyles in our said countries. Could one possibly conclude that their is an inherent disparity here?
Oct 17, 2007 - 6:36 pm KenD:You are absolutely right about this letter and the Muslim history of negotiating when in a weaker position. If you read between the lines of this letter it’s message is obvious what it means.
Submit or Die
Oct 17, 2007 - 8:12 pm On the Right:Let Them Become More Tolerant
White Christmas in Mecca? Not
Oct 17, 2007 - 8:40 pm On the Right:Likely. Why do Muslims keep pretending that the rest of
the world has to become more tolerant of them when they are so
intolerant of others?
Let Them Become More Tolerant
A White Christmas in Mecca? Not
Oct 17, 2007 - 8:43 pm Dar Al Harb:Likely. Why do Muslims keep pretending that the rest of
the world has to become more tolerant of them when they are so
intolerant of others? …
It’s pretty simple. What Islam and muslims say they do,they don’t.
What they say they don’t do,they do.
What they accuse you of doing to them,they are doing to you.
Islam has NO credibility to start with. Taqiyya is thier every breath.
This Letter is an attempt at Hudna,or a one sided truce.Everything to do with Islam is a one way street.
I have been blogging for SIX years now about Islam and have constantly asked the same question.
Why is it that the “moderate muslims” or “True Muslims” (whatever the politicaly correct term for Muslims not at war with us is)do nothing but protect the “few extremists”,or the “Not True Muslims.”
Muslims don’t protest or riot over these “hijackers” insulting and defiling Islam.
Oct 17, 2007 - 10:00 pm Sue Freed:Muslims distinguish between “people of the book” and others, so it does not surprise me Buddhists and other were ignored. They are barely a step above animals in the Muslim ethic. However, pointedly ignoring Jews and appealing only to Christians, when supposedly all three worship the same God, is a chilling attempt to divide Christians and Jews, so that the Jews can be blamed for all world troubles and wars, because hey, the Christians and Muslims only want peace, right?
If the message was sincere — those who worship the same God should seek peace — Jews would have been included.
Even so, the writers cannot help but remind the Christians that their very faith is based upon untruth (thus the Koranic quote about God having no partners). To them, Christians responding to this in a positive way are now admitting they were in error about Christ. That’s the first step in converting them, isn’t it?
With that in mind, the letter becomes an invitation to accept the Islamic view of God as the correct one. It is traditional among muslims to give an enemy a chance to convert willingly before attacking him as an infidel. To my eye, that’s what this letter is, and as such it is a truly chilling and revealing message of Muslim intent. If their invitation is not accepted, then they have the right to attack any Christians for their oppression of Muslims in their countries, which Muslim scholars have clarified in interviews includes any act which prevents the practice of Sharia. In short, if you are a Muslim who is not living under Sharia, you are oppressed, and your oppression can rightfully be avenged.
Hence, the message of this letter is:
Hi, Christians. Surely we can get along once the Jews are out of the picture, and they are a lost cause anyway, don’t you think? We both worship the same God, and if we sit down and talk rationally about it I’m sure you will come to realize our prophet’ messag from Him was the real thing, and Christ’s was not. Meanwhile we don’t want any reason to attack you, so please don’t defend the rights of Muslim women in your countries or limit the expansion of Mosques, or the teaching of extremism, because all those things are sacred rights of Muslims, and we’d have to hurt you. In which case it would be your fault, not ours. And maybe the jews.
Oct 17, 2007 - 10:53 pm XP:This is not a sincere letter of peace. As has been stated, it is a call to conversion and a stall for time. The Jihad will re-emerge when they feel stronger.
It does contain two interesting revelations. One, an acknowledgement that islam and Christianity are at war (in their view). And, two, an indirect inference that allah is NOT God (or G-d).
The claim that Christians and muslims worship the same god is as false as their appeal for peace.
Oct 17, 2007 - 11:39 pm Robert Dietrich:My vote? That islam is totally wiped off the face of the Earth. There will NEVER be peace so long as islam exists.
Oct 18, 2007 - 12:05 am Benson:If you believe the comments here are bigoted attempts to incite hatred (or if you merely doubt their accuracy), please Google the terms “taqiyya” and “kitman.”
I would like to add something to the statement that Muslims consider Buddhists “barely a step above animals.” It’s true, and there’s a nasty little detail to consider. Buddhism is idolatry, in the Muslim view. And the Koran is very clear: “Idolatry is worse than carnage.” Buddhists, simply by being Buddhists, commit a capital offense. No dhimmitude for them! If they refuse to convert to Islam, after being executed as the deity commands, they will suffer excruciating torture through eternity; their advantage over dogs is that they can become Muslims, while canines cannot.
Oct 18, 2007 - 12:21 am dirk:No doubt y`re right, I was already surprised by the term muslims one third and christians one fifth, while infidels outnumbers the muslims by a billion people.
Oct 18, 2007 - 4:23 am john mcdonald:The muslim position is clear as published by Arabnews, they only care about the position of muslims when going to the HRC(human rights)in Copenhagen 23-26 okt.
Of course you are right the muslim world is playing this game by a different set of rules - truth , honesty, fairness etc which we in the west try to adhere to are not part of their vocabulary.
Oct 18, 2007 - 8:21 am Mike Walsh:Unless we realize this they will continue to play us as this letter certainly does - the letter is basically a threat - it says submit to us or face the violent consequences - but look at the reaction on the behalf of the western church leaders - they just don’t, or don’t want to understand the true nature of the Islamic world. In some ways I can even understand them as to face the true nature of the beast is a truely terrifying thing.
I do not think the letter is part of any ‘campaign’–massive
or miniscule– and from their perspective it may even
be a genuine bid for peace. In other words, I think
they are sincere, which is the tragedy. Such
represent the best face of Islam, as you may find in
safe sinecures in more advanced countries:
self-deluded, impervious to irony, ignorant of
history, morally obtuse. But nice. Presumably some
of them are personally very nice indeed, but they are
utterly incapable of anything approaching genuine
dialog. For any point they can make regarding the
shortcomings of the West –and I can make all kinds–
is overwhelmed by the vast shadow cast by Islam in
practice, everywhere it holds sway. But I am
preaching to the choir.
BTW, I like your blog.
Regards,
Mike Walsh
Oct 18, 2007 - 8:48 am richard:Muslim should be acknowledged for their contributions in the past, as an example bloodiest genocide of hindus by the so called islamic invaders from persia.
Oct 20, 2007 - 8:22 am Don Goss:Knowing what we know about Islam, Muslims, the Koran, and how Islam teaches its for of “community outreach,” how in the hell could any Christian, Jew, or other trust a Muslim at all, ever? These people do never have and never will want to live peacefully with us. Anyone who thinks they do is blind to reality and simply doesn’t understand the nature of Islam.
Oct 20, 2007 - 11:04 pm