Back to the Future

Islamic Imperialism and Its Failures

Islam is a uniformitarian religion.  It recognises no distinctions of race, colour, ethnicity, or geography--theoretically.  In his final visit to Mecca, Muhammad uttered his "closing" address:

O people, your Lord is one and your ancestor is [also] one.  You are descended from Adam and Adam was [born] of the earth.  The noblest of you  all in the sight of Allah is the most devout.  Allah is all knowing and all wise. [Koran, Sura 49, 13]

Theoretically this made all human beings equal; it also made the community of Islam--the umma--borderless and universal.  The promise of Islam to remake the world via the universal umma could be expressed as follows:

At a stroke the past was wiped clean.  One's ethnic origin and traditional ties and relationships counted for nothing, only one's faith and piety.  The umma was not merely a novel form of socio-political communal organisation.  It was a divinely ordained brotherhood, bound together by something far stronger than blood and far wider than the Arabian Peninsula: the great equalizer between Arabs and non-Arabs, free men and freed men. [Efraim Karsh, Islamic Imperialism: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007),  p.19.]

This was a radical notion.  It was Muhammad's version of the Lord's Great Commission.  But, it had a critical difference: in the mind of Muhammad there was no distinction between temporal and religious authority or rule.  They were one and the same.

Drawing a Very Long Bow

The Caliphate Means Subjugation--Period

It's time the put a "Please explain" request to the Pope.  According to a piece in newscom.au

Pope Francis called on people to “believe in a new humanity” stronger than evil, and cautioned against concluding that one religion is more violent than others, Associated Press reported.  Speaking at World Youth Day near Krakow in Poland he prayed that God would protect the world from the “devastating wave” of terrorism.

When asked by reporters why he has never used the word Islam when denouncing terrorist attacks he said it wasn’t “right to identify Islam with violence”.  He also took a swipe at IS saying it “presents itself with its violent identity card, but it’s not Islam”.  

We sort of understand what Francis is trying to get at.  Some years ago an Australian attempted to blow up part the Islamic mosque upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  He believed that Jesus would not return until the Third Temple was built upon that site, so he wanted to hasten the rebuilding, thereby hasten His coming.  It is a very, very long stretch, however, to identify this man's peculiar doctrinal commitment with the the Christian Church and the Scripture's teaching.

It seems as though Pope Francis is taking the same view of Islam--arguing that ISIS does not faithfully or truthfully represent the Islamic religion.

No Limits To The Evil of Their Caliphate

Islamic State Stones Four Rape Victims for ‘Adultery’

Mary Chastain
BreitbartNews

Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) militants raped four women and then stoned them for adultery in Mosul, Iraq.
“The four victims were arrested earlier on [W]ednesday in a raid by ISIS jihadis,” stated Raafat Zarari, spokesman of the Nineveh Media Center. “The jihadis claimed to have captured the women while committing adultery.”

A Sharia court operated by the Islamic State sentenced the women to death.  “The four women were stoned to death on Thursday in front of a large crowd of people in central Mosul,” continued Zarari.  The sentence did not mention the men who raped the women, who, it can be assumed also committed “adultery” if they were married when the rape took place.  “The four women were most likely exposed to sexual abuse at the hands of ISIS militants before being driven out of their homes and transferred to the Sharia Court,” explained activist Abdullah al-Malla.

He added:

The statement of the Sharia Court regarding the case of those four women has avoided mentioning the men who have been involved in the alleged adultery. Apparently, the victims have been raped by ISIS jihadis and then stoned to death on charges of committing adultery.

The Islamic State has a history of stoning rape victims or anyone who allegedly commits adultery.

Islamic Parodies of the Christian Faith

Baghdadi is Not Insane

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the acknowledged Caliph of Islamic State, has taken to the airwaves once again.  One supposes the idea is to gee up the troops.  Some have suggested that it has been prompted by a number of reverses and setbacks suffered by Baghdadi in recent days.  Who knows?

The Guardian summarised his address as follows:

Islamic State has released a new message purportedly from its reclusive leader, claiming his self-styled caliphate is doing well despite an unprecedented alliance against it.  In the 24-minute audio posted Saturday, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi says airstrikes by the international coalition only increase Isis’s determination and resolve. He also mocks a recently announced Saudi-led Islamic alliance against terrorism and warns Israel “we are getting closer to you every day”. He says Israeli Jews “will hide behind trees and stones” from Isis.

Al-Baghdadi urges Muslims worldwide to join the fight, saying it is their Islamic duty to rise up everywhere.

We are always interested in the West's reaction to Baghdadi.  In any war, the adage "know your enemy" is not just apt, but strategically imperative.   The secular West struggles with Baghdadi.  He is a religious man.  This puts him in the West's lexicon perilously close to feeble mindedness at best; insanity, at worst.

ISIS has faced a number of military reversals in recent weeks; its shock troops are said to be shocked, dispirited, and thinking of a white Christmas back home.  But Baghdadi is not worried.  Nor does he wish his followers to be in a flap.

In a desperate call for support the terrorist leader admitted that Western and Russian airstrikes have had a “calamitous” toll on ISIS, but brushed off the death and mutilation of thousands of its fighters as a “blessing from Allah” which are simply part of a “pre-destined ordeal”.

He also bizarrely welcomed the recent widespread desertion amongst ISIS ranks, branding deserters “hypocrites and agents” and insisting that the numbers of fighters abandoning the jihadis every day is actually making the group stronger.  The unhinged message, which was circulated amongst jihadi fighters online, is the latest evidence that the increasingly fragile hate group is falling apart amid reports it is desperately short of both fighters and weapons.

He paints the seemingly impending collapse of the terrorist group as a "battle of all the infidels against all the Muslims", adding that "each time that the number of nations against us grows, so too does the certainty of the help of Allah and the fact that we are on the right path".  He says: “O Muslims, the current battle is not a simple crusade, but a war of all the nations of the infidel nations against the Islamic State. It has never happened in the history of our people that the world has gathered in a single battle like the one taking place today." [The Express]

These statements and claims are not the ramblings of the insane.  They are rather the ramblings of someone mistaken, even deluded.  But perfectly understandable and consistent, when seen in the lights of Baghdadi and the Caliphatistas.  They believe they are living in the end times.  They believe that the more they suffer reversals and hardships, the closer will be the Advent of Allah, the great unveiling, whereby Allah will come to their aid to vanquish their enemies.

If you believe in such an eschatology, Baghdadi's response is perfectly understandable.  All his provocations of ethnic cleansing, terrorist attacks, mass rapes--all of it has been an attempt to put fear into the hearts of his enemies.  All of it has been to subdue the infidels and make them submit to the pure will of Allah.  He believes that the reversals of fortune meted out by the infidels against him will arouse Allah to come to his aid.

Such beliefs are a Satanic parody on the Christian belief that the more we suffer for Christ, the closer God is to us.  

Between Delusion and Reality . . .

Falls The Shadow

These days one can mount a reasonable argument that the nation-state is eroding, and may well disappear for the foreseeable future.

Islamic theology does not recognise the nation state, but thinks instead of a world-wide theocratic caliphate to which all men will be subject.  This world-view is aptly demonstrated by the evolution of the name of the latest caliphate:  ISIS ("the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria"), then ISIL ("the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and the now preferred moniker--IS ("Islamic State")--thereby underscoring its universal global claims, not a state with territorial or national boundaries.

The same end goal is seen in the ideology operating within the corridors and confabulations of the UN. National identities are downgraded in favour of One United Nation ruling the entire world. Globalism.  It is a core component of UN ideology that nation states ought to be overtaken by global government, funded by taxes levied upon all human beings and all human activity on the planet.  Only a universal government will be effective in combating alleged global problems, such as a warming climate, disease, poverty, etc. etc. we are increasingly told.  The doctrine of internationalist statism espouses the belief that all human problems can ultimately be solved by global government.

This secular globalist ideology constantly undermines national governments in favour of international uber-government.

Seven Easy Steps

The Islamic Caliphate

In 2005, Jordanian journalist and researcher, Fouad Hussen published a piece entitled al-Zarqawi - al-Qaida's Second Generation. A synopsis of his book was published in Der Spiegel in August 2005.  The introduction to the synopsis read:

There must be something particularly trustworthy about the Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein. After all, he has managed to get some of the the most sought after terrorists to open up to him. Maybe it helped that they spent time together in prison many years ago -- when Hussein was a political prisoner he successfully negotiated for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to be released from solitary confinement. Or is it because of the honest and direct way in which he puts his ideas onto paper?

Fouad Hussein had spent time with key terrorist figures, including al-Zarqawi, who has now been killed by a US drone strike.  Prison conversations amongst prison comrades are often truthful.  What is there to lose?  In any event, Hussein has outlined the "Seven Steps" set out by the idealogues of an Islamic Caliphate to take over the world.  Back in 2005, it may have sounded wacky stuff to Western ears.  Now, maybe, not so much.  (Remember, as you read below, this was published in Der Spiegel in 2005; the resemblances to what is now unfolding in Iraq and Syria are striking.  Back in 2005, it must have seemed pretentious and boastful--which the Der Spiegel article reflects.)

Letter From Iraq (About the Caliphate's Pogrom)

Canon Andrew White (Frrme.org)

‘They’re So Evil’

Pastor Serving in Iraq Says Islamic State’s Murderous Rampage Like Nothing ‘Seen Since the Days of the Holocaust’

Aug. 26, 2014 
Billy Hallowell
TheBlaze

Canon Andrew White, vicar of St. George’s Anglican church in Baghdad, and his organization, the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, have been on the front lines of helping displaced Iraqis survive in the midst of the Islamic State’s violent assault on the region.

White recently told TheBlaze that the conditions on the ground in Iraq are “absolutely horrendous,” noting that 250,000 Christians have been displaced from their homes in Mosul, Nineveh and other locations; this figure, he said, doesn’t include Yazidis, another minority group.
“They are sheltering in the north and the mountains. They have nothing,” White said. “They have lost their homes, they have lost their future. We are providing them with as much food as we can, as much help as we can.”

White, who continues to speak out about the plight of Christians and Yazidis in the region, said that the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation, a group he founded and runs, has staff on the ground in northern Iraq working to ensure people have what they need to survive.

As of Friday, he said his organization, which has 150 total staff members, including doctors, dentists and relief workers, had raised about a half million pounds (approximately $828,540) toward these efforts — money that had predominately come from British churches.

They’re so evil. You cannot talk to them. You cannot win them over,” he said. “That is a terrible thing. How do we cope in this horrendous situation? How do we move forward?”

White went on to describe what the Islamic State — a group known for its violent and murderous tendencies — has done to Iraqi minorities aside from pushing them out of their homes.

White said that there’s no reasoning with the Islamic State, describing its members as “evil.”  “You cannot deal with these people. They’re so evil. You cannot talk to them. You cannot win them over,” he said. “That is a terrible thing. How do we cope in this horrendous situation? How do we move forward?”

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow (About Breaking Their Teeth)

Like a Fist

Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

August 11, 2014

 

As Iraq continues to spiral toward chaos, and is doing so in the Facebook era, the one thing we should want to avoid is directionless or aimless outrage. Anger under such circumstances is certainly appropriate and necessary, but like a fist, it needs somewhere to land. I am writing primarily about the treatment of Christians there by ISIS, but of course that cannot be at all separated from a host of other issues and circumstances. Let me start with the more important, and finish with a few related observations.

1. There truly are evil men in the world, and this is what imprecatory psalms were made for. This is why we have them. There are men who will grin for the camera over the prospect of beheading Christian children, and our response to them should be to pray the words of God back to Him.

“Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord” (Ps. 58:6).

“Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: Seek out his wickedness till thou find none” (Ps. 10:15).

Our psalter has this second example rendered as “O God, come down and break their evil arms.” In the face of the kind of evil that is abroad in the world, evangelical Christians need to stop filling up their worship services with sentimentalist treacle, and worship biblically in a very dark world. We are confronted with a great and growing evil, and we are discovering that we do not have the liturgical vocabulary to respond appropriately at all. When we sing or pray the psalms, all of them, there are two consequences that should be mentioned. One, we are praying in the will of God, and He hears such prayers. Second, we discover that praying and singing biblically transforms us. This really is the need of the hour.

Letter From the UK (Mocking Caliphatites)

Hey Guys, the Caliphate Has Been Declared! 

It's Time to Go Join It!

By Raheem Kassam  

30 Jun 2014, 6:25 AM PDT

Breitbart London

Islamists! Hear ye, hear ye! The Caliphate has been declared!

Rejoice amongst yourselves! Celebrate with champagne sparkling water, women loads of other blokes, and a great deal of glee confusion. Come on! It's time to go! Hey guys, the Caliphate has been declared! You've been banging on about this moment for ages now. Book your flights! You can now all finally live in the splendour squalor which you have long-imagined and campaigned for!

ISIS, those brave warriors for freedom, have said that the 'Islamic State' is now in full force. Don't you understand?

Wait... what do you mean you don't want to go?

Come on Anjem, come on Hamza, come on Jamal ...Jordan!? It is time to live under the Shariah! I'll even book your flights for you!

No? You don't want to go to an extremely dangerous region, you say?

New World Dawning

The Pretensions and Absurdities of the Latest Caliphate

The ISIS Islamic fighters have declared a Caliphate.  It stretches (ostensibly) from Syria across to Iraq.  It has proclaimed a Caliph--the ruler of the Caliphate--one Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The last Caliphate ended just on one hundred years ago when the Ottoman Empire fell.  What is the significance of this development?  In the immediate, very little.  But it does serve to underscore a number of realities.  Firstly, a definition of the Caliphate is required.  According to Wikipedia:

A caliphate (in Arabic: خلافة‎ khilāfa, meaning "succession") is an Islamic state led by a supreme religious and political leader known as a caliph – i.e. "successor" – to Muhammad. The succession of Muslim empires that have existed in the Muslim world are usually described as "caliphates". Conceptually, a caliphate represents a sovereign polity (state) of the entire Muslim faithful (the Ummah, i.e. a sovereign nation state) ruled by a single caliph under the Constitution of Medina and Islamic law (sharia)

In Islamic doctrine and teaching, the caliphate is a sovereign state representing the entire Islamic population in the world.  In principle, the caliphate is a global government.  When it comes to its full expression, the Caliphate will be a global empire, into which all the nations and peoples of the world will have been subsumed, by conquest or surrender.

In historical terms, no such caliphate has existed; instead there have been assertions of a caliphate, but like the most recent manifestation in Iraq, they have represented little more than pretentious claims.  A caliphate in theory can command the loyalty and devotion of all Muslims everywhere, since it is a state representing the entire Muslim faithful, being ruled over by the successor to Muhammad.  Thus, not to submit and be loyal would represent rebellion against Muhammad and Allah.

It is obvious already that claims and assertions consistent with the ideology of the Caliphate are being made.

Explaining Isis

Deadly Miasma on the Volga, the Potomac, and the Tigris

When Slate published a carefully reasoned piece on Global Warming recently it was panned and lampooned by everyone in the US whose brain was in gear before their mouth engaged.  The vastly erudite thesis offered by the writer was that Isis and the civil wars in Iraq were caused by global warming. 

To prove the point that idiocy is itself global and not restricted to national borders, the piece was subsequently reproduced in New Zealand's leading national daily, the NZ Herald.  The piece, by Eric Holthaus was entitled, Is Climate Change Destabilizing Iraq? and the answer was an in the affirmative.  On first reading, one is easily duped into thinking that the article was very clever satire.  But no, the author wants to be read without a scintilla of satire.  Here is the thesis: