A Question Of Faith – Religion In The 21st Century
A Weekly Column On Religion in the Modern World.
Welcome to Inquisitr.Com‘s new column on Religious Affairs. Every week, Wolff Bachner, Inquisitr’s Political and Religious Commentator, will be presenting a new article about Religion in the news.
We are all living in a unique period of human history, where, perhaps for the first time, many millions are questioning their faith and even abandoning their belief in G*d.
Conflict between the faithful and those who do not believe, is growing more and more extreme, both in rhetoric and violent actions. Conflict between government and Orthodox Religious authority is also on the rise.
These conflicts have the potential to affect each and every one of us and alter our way of life.
The Murder Of Innocents
While there has been near, universal condemnation of the murders of four Jews and three Muslim, French soldiers in Toulouse, France, there has been little, if any, acknowledgement of the real motivations behind the killings. Once again, everyone, from the local police and politicians to world leaders, has, with few exceptions, placed the blame on another, “lone wolf” gunman. There has been almost no attempt to understand the philosophy behind the killings. Once again, we hear the killer proclaimed to be a “angry, solitary madman” while those who should know better, proceed to blindly ignore the the truth.
How many more children need to be gunned down or have their throats cut in their sleep before Western Leaders will finally open their minds and admit that there is an organized political and religious philosophy behind these killings? How many more Muslims will have to die because they are accused of being collaborators with infidels or because they aren’t judged to be devout enough for their killers?
There is a sickness in our world that is trying to destroy everything that modern society has built. How many times do we need to see innocent Jewish people shot, stabbed, blown up, decapitated, kidnapped and tortured before we realize there is more going on than just sick, violent individuals who have nothing in common? When will we take them at their own words, when one after the other, the killers proclaim they are killing Jews because they believe in Jihad and in their own sick interpretation of Islam? These inhuman butchers truly believe they are doing what Allah wants them to do.
In the words of renowned Jerusalem Post Editor, Caroline Glick, “Time after time, Merah and his ilk throughout the Western world show us who they are and what they want. And time after time, the Western elites, and even much of the Jewish leadership, turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to their cries of murder and calls for the destruction of Western civilization.”
These same killers call for the destruction of the West, the murder of Jews and the murder of any Muslim who dares to live in harmony with Western Culture. One after the other, they demand that all Muslims follow their violent, supremacist, Islamist version of the Qur’an or die at their hands. Yet, our leaders seem to be unwilling to ask the important questions? Who are these people, what connects them, who teaches them and, importantly, who pays their way? Are we really supposed to believe that there is no common philosophy and that there are no leaders who inspire these killers to their violence? How is one unemployed murderer after the other able to finance travel to remote foreign destinations, feed and house themselves for years while doing nothing to earn an income and purchase expensive, illegal armaments and explosives? Where did they learn to make their bombs and where did they learn to so efficiently plan their heinous acts?
Even more frightening is the depth of denial to which Western Society has sunk. Take, for example, the kidnapping, torture and murder of French Jew, Ilan Halimi, in 2006. Ilan was kidnapped by a gang of Muslim youths called “the Gang of Barbarians”. They held him captive for 20 days days, during which time they tortured their victim by cutting away his flesh and burning him over 80% of his body. They did this while calling his family on the phone and reciting verses from the Qur’an while Ilan screamed in agony in the background. After 20 days, the killers abandoned Halmi, naked and dying, near a railroad track, where he was finally found by the police. Ilan died en route to the hospital. In the trial that followed, the accused told the court they committed their crimes because they knew Jews had money and that they hated Jews. Yet, French authorities waited weeks before they finally gave in to public pressure and officially called the murder a hate crime against a Jew.
There is a purpose behind these killings that goes beyond the mere acts of homicidal lunatics. These acts are intended to intimidate and frighten the masses and they are also intended to inspire millions. As Caroline Glick so clearly says, “The exhibitionism common to all the men’s behavior makes it obvious that that their attacks were not the random actions of isolated crazy people or lone extremists. All of these killers were certain that they were part of a global movement that seeks the annihilation of the Jews, the subjugation of the Western world and the supremacy of jihadist Islam. And they were convinced that their actions served the interests of this movement and that they would be viewed as heroes by millions of their fellow Muslims for their killing of innocents.”
Sadly, Muslims as a whole, are also victims of these outrageous acts. There are many millions of Muslims who want no part of the madness and violence of Islamist extremism and they too are paying a price. More Muslims have died at the hands of Jihadists than any other group. The Islamists judge any Muslim who does not support their violent agenda to be a traitor to Islam and a hypocrite who is worthy of death. Look at all the thousands of Muslims who have been blown to bits, even in Mosques, in Iraq and Afghanistan, for not following the philosophy of the Taliban and al-Qaeda and you will see that Muslim suffering is extreme.
What makes this so disturbing is that our leaders have learned nothing from human history. This is not the first nor even the tenth time, that humanity has suffered at the hands of a violent philosophy that misuses it’s religious teachings to do great harm to the innocents of the world. It is not the first time nor even the tenth time, that Jews have been singled out for death at the hands of a religious or political philosophy that calls for the death of every Jew on earth. What is makes Islamists so unique that they are being willfully ignored. Are we really so dependent on the Middle East for Oil that we are willing to give the violent Islamists a free pass, so as not to upset the flow of “Black Gold” to the gas guzzling nations of the West?
Clearly, there is a violent Jihadist sect of Islam that is at war with the rest of humanity. They are the Mongol horde of the 21st century and if we continue to ignore their existence, everyone on this planet may eventually pay a price. Imagine what might happen if a Mohamed Merah was to get his hands on a dirty bomb. What will it take before our leaders wake up to the fact that violent Islamists are at war with the West, that they are organized and well funded and that they mean what they say? Do we really need a million dead from radiation and Paris to be uninhabitable for 90 years, before we wake up to the fact that there is much more going on than a few emotionally disturbed killers running loose? It is time for some soul searching and honesty on the part of World Leaders and the media that supports them. Radical Islam is real and if we continue to ignore it, more innocents will be murdered. More innocent Jews and innocent Muslims will die and more parents will bury their children.
