Politics & Current Events
catsareniice1
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Isis - thoughts?
Do you think beheading will eventually happen in the states? Do you feel safe under Obama's watch? I am unsure.
Re: Isis - thoughts?
I am not sure whether or not beheading would happen in the U.S.. I want to say, "No, it could never happen." But then, Americans are humans too, prone to sin and error and heavily influenced by all sorts of ills just like any other human beings the world over. Americans are not any more moral or pure than any body else. We just hide our impurity and immorality behind cushy homes, jobs, and extreme wealth (even poor Americans living at the American poverty level are still richer than 99% of the world.).
So, I think more along the lines of nothing would surprise me anymore.
Remember that Americans were also the ones who interned Japanese and took away their rights and possessions, as well as homes, during WWII. Currently, Americans take lives of unborn children. Currently, Americans do nothing to stop a multi-billion dollar porn industry that belittles women and children. Christian Americans' rights to free speech are being taken every week. The sex-trafficking trade is alive and booming in the U.S. too. So, maybe we're a few steps away from beheadings, but it could happen.......I would never be so naïve to say, "Never here on American soil." Look at all the horrible problems we already have. Human depravity.
I puked the first time Obama was elected. I have never liked him, nor felt "safe" with him. But I also do not "feel safe" with any politician. I do not believe Obama has the best interests of this nation in mind.
This week FOX News posted an article online from a WH source stating that Obama has known about the rise of ISIS for over a year now. Every president receives a detailed DAILY briefing. The source stated that Obama is different than other former presidents because he reads his on his own whereas other presidents have had the report summarized to them. The source further stated that Obama has received "exquisite" intelligence data each day about ISIS and other militant groups. Yet, the intelligence community never received any go-ahead to strike, which they have been surprised by.
People are falling to genocide at the hands of ISIS and other extreme groups. I think the American government needs to wake up and realize that the issue between Sunni and Shite Muslims isn't going to be fixed via diplomacy. The very religious nature of these people is to fight in the name of Allah. It's at their core and has been for centuries. They are not going to "coexist." They are warring over the rightful passing of authority to Muhammad's immediate disciples. The groups disagree about who Muhammad "left in charge." They also disagree about fundamental Islamic teachings. The Islamic holy book, the Quran, teaches that honor comes from killing infidels (non-Muslims) in the name of Allah. While many who practice this religion are peaceful people, respectful people and good citizens of the world, the religion itself is based in violence. And, while horrific, it looks like ISIS and other militant groups are actually practicing this faith in its purist form.
To stop this, we'll need another crusade. Most people do not realize this, but the Crusades of centuries ago were started as a result of Muslim aggression spreading across the land and harming innocent, peaceful people. People fought against this spreading "cancer," to quote a modern day politician, but the modern day MISperception of this historical period is that it was a war of Christian aggression. This is not true. The Crusades were fought to stop ISIS-like Muslims from taking over the lands in the name of Allah and from killing infidels.
These are people that are radically influence by evil. And they need to be stopped. They will not rest until they take over everything. It's not in their nature or worldview to stop or rest. They have hate in their hearts toward anything that stands in their way. They are branding Christian homes with the Arabic letter "nun" which stands for Nazarene. Nazis branded the Jews with stars of David. They are beheading innocent children. Crucifying men and women. Yes! Modern day crucifiction.
It would not surprise me if ISIS already has people lined up in the U.S. to create some sort of war here. Our borders are wide open and have been for years.
What am I doing about it? Well, first I'm going to vote in the mid-term elections. I've prepared my home and family as best my husband and I can, to be self-reliant in the even of a national emergency, and we're praying for peace, for the leaders of the world, and that God would confuse these enemies and pour out their own wrath on their own heads.
Thank you for explaining some background. I, too, believe these violent acts may start occurring in the states. At this rate anything is possible.
May I ask what are you doing to prepare? Buying foods that don't expire, plan on staying home more in the future, buying weapons?
You wrote, "The first crusade began after Pope Urban II received a letter from the Byzantine emperor asking for help defending the Byzantine borders. Urban decided on his own to call for a crusade to retake the holy land." Yep you're correct. My question is WHY did Pope Urban II receive a letter in the FIRST PLACE?
The answer is that he received a letter because Byzantine Emperor Alexius I made a special appeal to Urban for help! HELP! I would like to draw your attention to the word "defending." A country or people in defense is a non-aggressive state of being. My question is why were they in a defensive posture in the first place?
Here's the answer: The Seljuk Turks (Muslims) had TAKEN CONTROL of Jerusalem, yes, centuries earlier, and barred all other people from the city and were threatening the Byzantine borders AKA someone else's land.The Christians frequently made pilgrimages to the birthplace of their religion (Jerusalem), but when the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem, Christians and Jews were barred and killed.
While I agree that aspects of the Crusades got out of control (what war doesn't have this problem?), and the political powers that be at the time used this time in history to their benefit (so shocking because that never happens in modern day), the tipping point of the Crusades was indeed Emperor Alexius I's letter to the Pope asking him for support and an allied relationship against a common threat/enemy.
We need to understand the worldview of the jihadist Muslim whether from centuries ago or in these "modern" days...they do not respond to diplomacy when the hand extended comes from a people group they believe to be evil and workers of the Devil. They respond with violence, aggression, and extreme hatred.
Please read this historical data and quotes from the Quran as well as Islamic Apologists...
"Few Westerners know that the Muslims launched their own Crusades outside of Arabia two years after Muhammad’s death of a fever in AD 632. The first part of this article answers three questions about the early Muslim Crusades. In this article, the word Crusade (derived from the Latin word for "cross") means a holy war or jihad. It is used as a counterweight to the constant Muslim accusation that only the Europeans launched a crusade. Muslims seem to forget that they had their own, for several centuries before the Europeans launched theirs as a defense against the Islamic expansion.
1. Who or what inspired the Islamic Crusades?
It may surprise the reader that Muhammad was the first to launch a Crusade.
In October to December 630, after the conquest of Mecca in January 630, Muhammad launches a Crusade to Tabuk, a city in the north of Saudi Arabia today, but in the seventh century it was under the control of northern tribes. "Crusade" is the right word, because early Muslim sources say the army had 30,000 men and 10,000 horsemen and because Muhammad did so under the banner of Islam. On his way north, Muhammad extracts (or extorts) "agreements"—without provocation—from smaller Christian Arab tribes to pay the jizyah tax, instead of being attacked and killed (a jizya tax is exacted from non-Muslims for the "privilege" of living under Islam; see Sura 9:29). They also had the option to convert, but most do not and agree, rather, to pay the tax. Once the Muslims reach Tabuk, however, the Byzantine army fails to materialize. Muhammad the prophet had believed a false rumor. So Muhammad and his large army return home.
So it is Muhammad himself who inspired the first generations of Muslims to carry out his Crusades.
2. Besides following Muhammad, why else did the Muslims launch their Crusades out of Arabia in the first place?
In a complicated Crusade that lasted several centuries before the European Crusades, it is difficult to come up with a grand single theory as to what launched these Crusades. Because of this difficulty, we let three scholars and two eyewitness participants analyze the motives of the early Islamic Crusades.
Muslim apologists like Sayyid Qutb assert that Islam’s mission is to correct the injustices of the world. What he has in mind is that if Islam does not control a society, then injustice dominates it, ipso facto. But if Islam dominates it, then justice rules it (In the Shade of the Qur’an, vol. 7, pp. 8-15). Islam is expansionist and must conquer the whole world to express Allah’s perfect will on this planet, so Qutb and other Muslims believe. But this is ambiguous at best. Over the centuries until now, Islam does not represent justice. People, especially women, are oppressed in Islamic lands—for reasons beyond bad rulers like Saddam Hussein. The essence of Islam, which Qutb correctly describes elsewhere (e.g. pp. 147-50), is to control the details of society, but sharia (Islamic law) sometimes becomes excessive. Excess is never just. Nonetheless, Qutb describes Islam as politically and militarily expansionist from the very beginning, and in this he is right.
Karen Armstrong, a former nun and well-spoken, prolific author and apologist for Islam, comes up short of a satisfactory justification for the Muslim Crusades:
Once [Abu Bakr] crushed the rebellion [against Islamic rule within Arabia], Abu Bakr may well have decided to alleviate internal tensions by employing the unruly energies within the ummah [Muslim community] against external foes. Whatever the case, in 633 Muslim armies began a new series of campaigns in Persia, Syria and Iraq. (Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, New York: Ballantine, 1997, p. 226).
The key words "may well have decided" indicate doubt about the trigger, and "alleviate internal tensions" and "employing unruly energies" are hardly sufficient to justify the Islamic Crusades. Also, she notes that the "external foes" to Islam in Arabia in 633 are the Persians and the Byzantines, but they are too exhausted after years of fighting each other to pose a serious threat to Islam. Therefore, it moved into a "power vacuum," unprovoked (Armstrong p. 227). She simply does not know with certainty why Muslims marched northward out of Arabia.
Fred M. Donner, the dean of historians specializing in the early Islamic conquests, cites three large factors for the Islamic Crusades. First, the ideological message of Islam itself triggered the Muslim ruling elite simply to follow Muhammad and his conquests; Islam had a divinely ordained mission to conquer in the name of Allah. (The Early Islamic Conquests, Princeton UP, 1981, p. 270). The second factor is economic. The ruling elite "wanted to expand the political boundaries of the new state in order to secure even more fully than before the trans-Arab commerce they had plied for a century or more" (p. 270). The final factor is political control. The rulers wanted to maintain their top place in the new political hierarchy by having aggressive Arab tribes migrate into newly conquered territories (p. 271).
However replete these three factors are with ideas, we do not need to explore them further except to note that they have nothing to do with just wars of self-defense. Early Islam was merely being aggressive without sufficient provocation from the surrounding Byzantine and Persian Empires.
Khalid al-Walid (d. 642), a bloodthirsty but superior commander of the Muslim armies at the time, also answers the question as to why the Muslims stormed out of Arabia, in his terms of surrender set down to the governor of al-Hirah, a city along the Euphrates River in Iraq. He is sent to call people to Islam or pay a "protection" tax for the "privilege" of living under Islamic rule (read: not to be attacked again) as dhimmis or second-class citizens. Says Khalid:
"I call you to God and to Islam. If you respond to the call, you are Muslims: You obtain the benefits they enjoy and take up the responsibilities they bear. If you refuse, then [you must pay] the jizyah. If you refuse the jizyah, I will bring against you tribes of people who are more eager for death than you are for life. We will fight you until God decides between us and you." (Tabari, The Challenge to the Empires, trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship, NY: SUNYP, 1993, vol. 11, p. 4; Arabic page 2017)
Thus, according to Khalid religion is early Islam’s primary motive (though not the only one) of conquering people, so Donner is right about his first factor.
Khalid also says that if some do not convert or pay the tax, then they must fight an army that loves death as other people love life. This clause inspires Osama bin Laden and Palestinian terrorists today, who blow themselves up along with innocent civilians because the bombers love death more than the Christians and Jews love life. Osama bin Ladin issues a lengthy fatwa against Zionist-Crusaders (Jews and Christians) and concludes about his jihadists: "These youths love death as you love life." In 2000, Azzam al-Tamimi, PhD in Political Theory and head of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London, in his article "Hizbullah’s Gift to Palestine," also draws inspiration from those words in early Islam.
But material benefit must be included in this not-so-holy call, as Donner notes. When Khalid perceived that his Muslim Crusaders desired to return to Arabia, he pointed out how luscious the land of the Persians was:
"Do you not regard [your] food like a dusty gulch? By God, if struggle for God’s sake and calling [people] to God were not required of us, and there were no consideration except our livelihood, the wise opinion would [still] have been to strike this countryside until we possess it" ... (Tabari 11:20 / 2031)
At the time of this "motivational" speech, the Empire of Persia included Iraq, and this is where Khalid is warring. Besides his religious goal of Islamicizing its inhabitants by warfare, Khalid’s goal is to "possess" the land.
Like Pope Urban II in 1095 exhorting the Medieval Crusaders to war against the Muslim "infidels" for the first time, in response to Muslim aggression that had been going on for centuries. Abu Bakr gives his own speech in 634, exhorting Muslims to war against the "infidels," though he is not as long-winded as the Pope. From his short sermon Abu Bakr says:
... Indeed, the reward in God’s book for jihad in God’s path is something for which a Muslim should love to be singled out, by which God saved [people] from humiliation, and through which He has bestowed nobility in this world and the next. (Tabari 11:80 / 2083-84)
Thus, the Caliph repeats the Quran’s trade of this life for the next, in an economic bargain and in the context of jihad (cf. Suras 4:74; 9:111 and 61:10-13). This offer of martyrdom, agreeing with Donner’s first factor, religious motivation, is enough to get young Muslims to sign up for and to launch their Crusades out of Arabia in the seventh century."
So, PP could it be that the Jews, Christians and other people groups in the Middle East and Eastern Europe were tired and afraid of the Muslim aggressors? If your lands and way of life were under attack and siege for a few centuries, how would you feel? If you got a letter in the mail asking for help against a common enemy to restore some peaceful way of life to your country, would you go help?
You think that because Christian soldiers got out of control and killed innocent people in the Crusades when they marched on Jerusalem means that I support the same sort of action by the U.S. military and her allies against innocent civilian Muslims? I'm not sure where a logical thinker can make that leap of the imagination. Do you hear me encouraging that we go murder kids and mommies and the elderly? WHen I state a crusade is needed. I don't mean a "Crusade" with a capital "C." I mean we need to ally with our international friends and wipe out this evil before it harms more people. Kids are being beheaded in the name of Allah and men and women are being crucified! Thousands are displaced and have lost everything short of their lives. 15 Muslim men from the Minneapolis area where I live went to fight WITH ISIS. In the recent weeks, we know that 1 from here was killed and we just learned that prior to leaving he worked at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, at a Delta Air Lines ground work subsidiary, and had legal access to aircraft, ramp, and tarmac. I'm not making this stuff up! Holy cow! Also, 11 jets are missing from Libya!!!
On the contrary, I am advocating that we wipe out this cancer that is spreading. Specifically, that's ISIS and other terror groups like it. Maybe you've had your head buried, but Biden wants to bring ISIS to the Gates of Hell. Sec. of State John Kerry wants to stop this spread. My rhetoric is in no way out of line or inflammatory AND best of all it's based in historical FACT.
Your history lesson (while correct just not the whole story) and the follow OMG and lovely "stupid" pics don't intimidate me. Seriously, they don't. I've given this topic much thought and research and I feel totally comfortable sitting where I am. Thanks for writing, though.
Timeline:
The Timeline
630 Two years before Muhammad’s death of a fever, he launches the Tabuk Crusades, in which he led 30,000 jihadists against the Byzantine Christians. He had heard a report that a huge army had amassed to attack Arabia, but the report turned out to be a false rumor. The Byzantine army never materialized. He turned around and went home, but not before extracting "agreements" from northern tribes. They could enjoy the "privilege" of living under Islamic "protection" (read: not be attacked by Islam), if they paid a tax.
This tax sets the stage for Muhammad’s and the later Caliphs’ policies. If the attacked city or region did not want to convert to Islam, then they paid a jizya tax. If they converted, then they paid a zakat tax. Either way, money flowed back to the Islamic treasury in Arabia or to the local Muslim governor.
632-634 Under the Caliphate of Abu Bakr the Muslim Crusaders reconquer and sometimes conquer for the first time the polytheists of Arabia. These Arab polytheists had to convert to Islam or die. They did not have the choice of remaining in their faith and paying a tax. Islam does not allow for religious freedom.
633 The Muslim Crusaders, led by Khalid al-Walid, a superior but bloodthirsty military commander, whom Muhammad nicknamed the Sword of Allah for his ferocity in battle (Tabari, 8:158 / 1616-17), conquer the city of Ullays along the Euphrates River (in today’s Iraq). Khalid captures and beheads so many that a nearby canal, into which the blood flowed, was called Blood Canal (Tabari 11:24 / 2034-35).
634 At the Battle of Yarmuk in Syria the Muslim Crusaders defeat the Byzantines. Today Osama bin Laden draws inspiration from the defeat, and especially from an anecdote about Khalid al-Walid. In Khalid’s day an unnamed Muslim remarks: "The Romans are so numerous and the Muslims so few." To this Khalid retorts: "How few are the Romans, and how many the Muslims! Armies become numerous only with victory and few only with defeat, not by the number of men. By God, I would love it . . . if the enemy were twice as many" (Tabari, 11:94 / 2095). Osama bin Laden quotes Khalid and says that his fighters love death more than we in the West love life. This philosophy of death probably comes from a verse like Sura 2:96. Muhammad assesses the Jews: "[Prophet], you are sure to find them [the Jews] clinging to life more eagerly than any other people, even polytheists" (MAS Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an, Oxford UP, 2004; first insertion in brackets is Haleem’s; the second mine).
634-644 The Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab, who is regarded as particularly brutal.
635 Muslim Crusaders besiege and conquer of Damascus.
636 Muslim Crusaders defeat Byzantines decisively at Battle of Yarmuk.
637 Muslim Crusaders conquer Iraq at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah (some date it in 635 or 636).
638 Muslim Crusaders conquer and annex Jerusalem, taking it from the Byzantines.
638-650 Muslim Crusaders conquer Iran, except along Caspian Sea.
639-642 Muslim Crusaders conquer Egypt.
641 Muslim Crusaders control Syria and Palestine.
643-707 Muslim Crusaders conquer North Africa.
644 Caliph Umar is assassinated by a Persian prisoner of war; Uthman ibn Affan is elected third Caliph, who is regarded by many Muslims as gentler than Umar.
644-650 Muslim Crusaders conquer Cyprus, Tripoli in North Africa, and establish Islamic rule in Iran, Afghanistan, and Sind.
656 Caliph Uthman is assassinated by disgruntled Muslim soldiers; Ali ibn Abi Talib, son-in-law and cousin to Muhammad, who married the prophet’s daughter Fatima through his first wife Khadija, is set up as Caliph.
656 Battle of the Camel, in which Aisha, Muhammad’s wife, leads a rebellion against Ali for not avenging Uthman’s assassination. Ali’s partisans win.
657 Battle of Siffin between Ali and Muslim governor of Jerusalem, arbitration goes against Ali
661 Murder of Ali by an extremist; Ali’s supporters acclaim his son Hasan as next Caliph, but he comes to an agreement with Muawiyyah I and retires to Medina.
661-680 the Caliphate of Muawiyyah I. He founds Umayyid dynasty and moves capital from Medina to Damascus
673-678 Arabs besiege Constantinople, capital of Byzantine Empire
680 Massacre of Hussein (Muhammad’s grandson), his family, and his supporters in Karbala, Iraq.
691 Dome of the Rock is completed in Jerusalem, only six decades after Muhammad’s death.
705 Abd al-Malik restores Umayyad rule.
710-713 Muslim Crusaders conquer the lower Indus Valley.
711-713 Muslim Crusaders conquer Spain and impose the kingdom of Andalus.
719 Cordova, Spain, becomes seat of Arab governorship.
732 The Muslim Crusaders are stopped at the Battle of Poitiers; that is, Franks (France) halt Arab advance.
749 The Abbasids conquer Kufah and overthrow Umayyids.
756 Foundation of Umayyid emirate in Cordova, Spain, setting up an independent kingdom from Abbasids.
762 Foundation of Baghdad
785 Foundation of the Great Mosque of Cordova
789 Rise of Idrisid emirs (Muslim Crusaders) in Morocco; foundation of Fez; Christoforos, a Muslim who converted to Christianity, is executed.
800 Autonomous Aghlabid dynasty (Muslim Crusaders) in Tunisia.
807 Caliph Harun al-Rashid orders the destruction of non-Muslim prayer houses and of the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem.
809 Aghlabids (Muslim Crusaders) conquer Sardinia, Italy.
813 Christians in Palestine are attacked; many flee the country.
831 Muslim Crusaders capture of Palermo, Italy; raids in Southern Italy.
850 Caliph al-Matawakkil orders the destruction of non-Muslim houses of prayer.
855 Revolt of the Christians of Hims (Syria)
837-901 Aghlabids (Muslim Crusaders) conquer Sicily, raid Corsica, Italy, France.
869-883 Revolt of black slaves in Iraq
909 Rise of the Fatimid Caliphate in Tunisia; these Muslim Crusaders occupy Sicily, Sardinia.
928-969 Byzantine military revival, they retake old territories, such as Cyprus (964) and Tarsus (969).
937 The Ikhshid, a particularly harsh Muslim ruler, writes to Emperor Romanus, boasting of his control over the holy places.
937 The Church of the Resurrection (known as Church of Holy Sepulcher in Latin West) is burned down by Muslims; more churches in Jerusalem are attacked .
960 Conversion of Qarakhanid Turks to Islam
966 Anti-Christian riots in Jerusalem
969 Fatimids (Muslim Crusaders) conquer Egypt and found Cairo.
c. 970 Seljuks enter conquered Islamic territories from the East.
973 Israel and southern Syria are again conquered by the Fatimids.
1003 First persecutions by al-Hakim; the Church of St. Mark in Fustat, Egypt, is destroyed.
1009 Destruction of the Church of the Resurrection by al-Hakim (see 937)
1012 Beginning of al-Hakim’s oppressive decrees against Jews and Christians
1015 Earthquake in Palestine; the dome of the Dome of the Rock collapses.
1031 Collapse of Umayyid Caliphate and establishment of 15 minor independent dynasties throughout Muslim Andalus
1048 Reconstruction of the Church of the Resurrection completed
1050 Creation of Almoravid (Muslim Crusaders) movement in Mauretania; Almoravids (also known as Murabitun) are coalition of western Saharan Berbers; followers of Islam, focusing on the Quran, the hadith, and Maliki law.
1055 Seljuk Prince Tughrul enters Baghdad, consolidation of the Seljuk Sultanate.
1055 Confiscation of property of Church of the Resurrection
1071 Battle of Manzikert, Seljuk Turks (Muslim Crusaders) defeat Byzantines and occupy much of Anatolia.
1071 Turks (Muslim Crusaders) invade Palestine.
1073 Conquest of Jerusalem by Turks (Muslim Crusaders)
1075 Seljuks (Muslim Crusaders) capture Nicea (Iznik) and make it their capital in Anatolia.
1076 Almoravids (Muslim Crusaders) (see 1050) conquer western Ghana.
1085 Toledo is taken back by Christian armies.
1086 Almoravids (Muslim Crusaders) (see 1050) send help to Andalus, Battle of Zallaca.
1090-1091 Almoravids (Muslim Crusaders) occupy all of Andalus except Saragossa and Balearic Islands.
1094 Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus I asks western Christendom for help against Seljuk invasions of his territory; Seljuks are Muslim Turkish family of eastern origins; see 970.
1095 Pope Urban II preaches first Crusade; they capture Jerusalem in 1099"
Here's the time line PRIOR to the Christian Pope's involvement. Muslim Crusaders, had taken over and controlled all of the Middle East, northern Africa, southern Europe and other places FIRST before the Pope got his letter from the Byzantine Emperor asking for help. The Muslim crusaders controlled and had taken over much of the known world at that time. Millions of square miles of land! Still there is this modern day refusal to accept the fact that the Christian Crusades were a response to Muslim aggression.
Also, I bolded your paragraph above, but in Islam, what would be their federal as well as lower levels of local government, and the religion of Islam are not separated as they are here in Western countries. They are one and the same. There is no division between church and state in this religion. You said, "Because founding an empire does not equal a crusade." For radical Muslims, founding an empire IS synonymous with a crusade. The religious authority and the state authority are the same thing to them.
When Westerners today go in to an area bringing democracy they/we are bringing solely a form of government. The faiths or religions of the area are encouraged to be included with and along-side the new government. When Crusading Muslims of old and ISIS or ISIS-like Muslims go into an area or country and take it over, their form of government is Islam. And, the religion is Islam.
We need to be free to call evil, evil and good, good.
Christian Crusaders from centuries past who killed innocent, non-warring, non-threatening people just because they were non-Christians committed acts of evil. Period. There is no justification...this behavior is not in line with the Christian faith.
What is in line with the Christian faith is not being a bystander while innocent lives taken at the hands of evil-doers is occurring. Centuries ago, while Christian Crusaders did commit atrocities, as I mentioned above, the overall objective was to push back a violent aggressor that had spread.
Under your line of logic, because some Allied Forces in WWII committed atrocities in battle, WWII should never have been fought in the first place even though Nazism was spreading and millions were being slaughtered in death camps and in streets. This is the same as saying, "Well, if we cannot do it perfectly, we best not do it at all." No military campaign in history to root out evil has ever been perfect. It's war for crying out loud! Should people wanting to preserve life and live peacefully just not do anything because some amongst them might make grave and brutle mistakes?
I feel ashamed that my Christian Brothers from centuries ago took lives in the manner in which they did. This is simply not adherent to Christ-like behavior. I am sad that they left such a poor example marring history.
I also believe strongly that it's acceptable to call evil what it is. It's important to push back and displace evil as well. And, if violence is needed, because reasonable options are exhausted and do not work, then so be it.
Words do have meaning...cru·sade
When I speak of one for today, I mean reference #1. And, I mean eliminate ISIS and other terror groups, not a whole religion of peaceful civilians.
I understand that you who come out of the woodwork dislike me and my political and social views. Fine. I'm okay with that. And, I'm okay with you too on a "personal level" because I'm sure outside of TN you are perfectly reasonable, kind, generous people.
I think there is enough historical and present evidence to support the fact that decisive action against ISIS is needed. I've made my case and I rest. If you choose to consider the whole historical picture and then make a decision, I'd like that very much. But if you want to go off the "traditional, text book" assessment of history because that's what the Western minds say to you and you accept their authority without question, obviously, I can't stop you.
I will leave you with these thoughts:
"Character is like a tree and reputation like shadow. The shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing." - Abraham Lincoln.
"Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, not can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits." - Matthew 7:17-20.
Decide whether you're looking at the tree or the shadow. Then decide, looking at the tree, whether or not it bears fruit.
pla·gia·rism
noun \ˈplā-jə-ˌri-zəm also -jē-ə-\: the act of using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to that person
OMG THE HOLY BOOK IS TELLING IT'S PEOPLE TO KILL ALL THE THINGS! THE WHOLE RELIGION MUST BE TAINTED!
The Big Sky Country Welcomes Us Home!
Opps sorry! I got lost in thought and missed that. Good catch. Thanks for helping me! It wasn't my intent to leave it off.
The scripture from Matthew I quoted is from the English Standard Version translation of the Holy Bible and is red letter text, so Jesus spoke it.
The definition of "crusade" I used is from the Bing.com dictionary.
The historical timeline I relied on for my post comes from Answering-Islam.org.
Why don't you tell me what I think? Did I mention Obama at all here aside from my original response to the OP?
If you read my post at all, you will note that a "crusade" does not have to be a religious matter. Rather it is also a "concerted effort: a vigorous concerted action to promote or eliminate something" (Bing.com dictionary). The Ice Bucket Challenge was a crusade for against ALS and/or for ALS research depending on how you want to see it. Please understand that the word "crusade," has more meanings than a religious one.
Also, I'm not sure how you can make the logical leap, with my use here and in my PP, of the word-use "crusade," of me thinking a U.S./allied foreign policy for dealing with ISIS has to do with Christianity/Bible. The only reference to the U.S and Christianity together I have made was my quote of scripture from Matthew along with a quote from President Abraham Lincoln. That was not a rally for action, but a focal point that we all need to look at "trees" and then consider their fruits AKA words and actions.
I think your OP says most of it. Yes, I concede that later you step back and say crusade is not always religious, but you didn't use "crusade" to mean a government response to ISIS through congressional approval of a foreign policy and intervention. You went on to define a the crusades based on Muslim aggression. You distinctly say that diplomacy from the US will not cure the Shiite/Suni issues and call for aggression.
I mean the OP about beheading in the US and Obama not making people feel safe due to ISIS' actions was wacko to begin with, but you did call for a crusade and then go on to history-lesson us into thinking that crusades were not only an appropriate response, but a good one, to Muslim aggression and that we need to respond more like that. I did take the leap that you aren't saying that Christian Americans are the ones to suit up and go start the crusade on ISIS and that you are assuming that leaders of the US, like the puke-inducing Obama you mention, would be the ones you are praying for to start the crusades. I didn't even have to bend my knees much to make that leap.
The Big Sky Country Welcomes Us Home!
Oh please. Don't play cute and act like you were just calling for the "end ISIS ice bucket challenge." You were obviously calling for some sort of violent religious crusade like the complete nutjob that you are.