Still Looking For A (Mythical) Moderate Muslim?

If you are looking for the elusive Muslim moderate, bubba, you're in for a long, long search. It's kind of like watching for flying whales or stalking unicorns.

As there are cultural Christians, cultural Jews there are also cultural Muslims. Like Christians or Jews, Muslims may be non-observant, or merely nominal. There may be Muslims who, like many professed Christians, are pro forma in their religious practice. Muslims who do the equivalent of Christians whose butts are in the pews for Christmas and Easter and who otherwise honor their religion far more in the breech than in the observance.

The Geek's nearest neighbor is a Christian. (Truth in blogging requires the Geek to state that the neighbor lives a half mile away over a steep ridge, but out here that's downright next door.)

The neighbor was born and raised a hardshell Baptist and is given to quoting impressively long segments of the King James Bible at the slightest provocation. While he didn't let his daughter go out on dates until after she was married, he smokes, drinks, and cusses like a Marine on steroids. His rear end has not shined a pew for decades. Last Easter Sunday found him out grubbing a new line to his septic tank.

Someday, however, the faith of his childhood may again bloom forth in full flourish of belief. He may become a genuine, authentic full-bore Christian.

That possibility does not worry the Geek at all. What's the worst that can happen if the neighbor lives by the precepts of the New Testament?

Well, he'll turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Give his wealth to the poor. Seek social justice. Strive (or at least pray) for peace. Walk meekly and humbly with his Lord.

OK. Absolute worst case, the Geek's neighbor might try to bring the Geek to Jesus. That might be tedious, but it won't be life threatening.

Now what if the Geek's neighbor were to be a Muslim? And what if the neighbor were to return to the faith of his childhood?

The Geek would be damn glad that there was a half mile of bad terrain and no road connecting his land with that of the neighbor. He would also be glad that he had clear fields of fire in the event of the neighbor walking up wearing a bulky overcoat in August.

A genuine Muslim, an authentic Muslim following the Quran, following the life of Mohammad as his guide, must, of absolute necessity and pervasive deep rooted fear of hell, be a jihadist. He must seek to confront the infidel--to pose the infidel with the stark choice of conversion or death.

Death. The ever present theme of Islam, true Islam, the creed of Mohammad. The creed of conquest, of "killing and being killed" to advance the banner of Islam over the world.

Death. The constant, repetitive message of Islamic dominated societies and groups today. The Iranian parliament seeks death as the penalty for "harming mental security in society" on the Internet or any other form of communication. (Whatever that wording might mean. The Geek admists mystification.) See, http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/July/middleeast_July44.xml&section=middleeast&col=

Death. The icon of so many sociopaths. The definition of a sociopathic entity.

Death. The anodyne for fear. The fear that permeates so much of Islam. The fear of the hell so graphically, sensuously, even lovingly described in Quran, hadith and so many Islamic sermons over so many centuries.

Death. The ultimate act of submission to divine will. Islam means and is all about submission. Submission to the deity. Submission to the will and example of Mohammad. Submission to the call of the cleric. Submission, finally to the fears implanted in childhood--the fears of judgement and punishment.

The genuine Muslim must go on jihad or, at the very, very least, support it actively and enthusiastically. His fears give him no choice. They allow him no moderation. They provide no means of compromise. No forestalling.

The genuine Muslim sees in martyrdom the end to fear. By following the injunction to "kill the unbelievers wherever you find them" (Sura 9:5), the genuine Muslim knows he will avoid punishment and gain reward. He will end his fears by dying in order to live forever without torment.

Death. This word separates the genuine Muslim from all those others who are nominal, cultural or non-observant fringe elements of Islam. The true Islam, the back-to-basics Islam is the Islam of those who call for death. Those who seek to inflict death. Those who seek self-death.

There is simply no room for "moderates."

Genuine Islam does not, cannot, seek accommodation, compromise or even peaceful coexistence with the infidel. The sociopath is blind to those options as he is to the act of creativity. Sociopaths can only destroy. They cannot create.

Looking back over the sweep of Islam's thirteen hundred years, one is struck by the paucity of creativity. And the plethora of death, destruction.

The so-called "golden age" of Islamic medicine and science was, upon close scrutiny, often based either on an idea from elsewhere such as the concept of zero as a placeholder taken from Hindu India or actually the product of a non-Muslim. The "golden age" saw little science, less literature and a complete distortion of the craft of history.

In the last thousand years or the last hundred or even the last ten, ask yourself how much science, art, literature, new creative ideas has the aggregate Muslim society brought to the human storehouse. And, of that pitifully small amount, how much was done by nominal Muslims living in totally non-Muslim countries or societies?

Fear driven sociopaths cannot, do not create. They can only destroy. They can only wreak death.

Freedom brings creativity in its wake. Freedom of inquiry and freedom of dissent bring new ideas. Freedom from the fear of hell brings a love of life. Loving life results in new ideas, new discoveries, new technologies, new systems, new every thing.

Look not for the moderate Muslim. He does not exist. Rather look for the ways in which we who have enjoyed and profited so much from freedom can liberate those in the chains of a long dead sociopath, Mohammad, the artificer of a political dogma called Islam.