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muhammad was a terrorist muhammad was a pedophile
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Date Posted: 00:01:00 05/31/04 Mon
Islamic Imperialism
One of the most common complaints made in the Muslim world is that of American or Western "imperialism". The pervasiveness of American culture, attitudes, and ideas has allowed our way of life to penetrate even behind the Iron Crescent. Cell phones, McDonalds, and a host of other Western innovations are now commonplace in cities all across the Middle East, and it is even reported that the most popular American television show in many Muslim countries is Baywatch. But with this technology and culture have come other influences alien to traditional Muslim civilisation, influences such as women's rights, religious and political freedom, and Western-style secularism. These influences often lead to charges of "imperialism" from traditionalist Muslim religious leaders, because they threaten to alter the way of life in many nations. This phenomenon, coupled with the disparity of wealth between the West and the Muslim world, makes it very easy and tempting for leaders in Muslim nations to incite and play upon envy, fear, and anger among their populations at large. As a result, "imperialism" has grown to become a dominant lens through which the Muslim world views its relationship with the West. Every woe is to be blamed on the infidel Westerners (especially the Americans) because they are richer, and they support Israel, and they are Christian (supposedly), etc. etc. ad nauseum.
But what about Muslim imperialism? While Western imperialism in the Middle East is now pretty much a figment of the imaginations of mullahs living a hundred years in the past, Muslim imperialism still thrives today, just as it has since Islam's inception. As was seen earlier, Islam was and is a religion spread primarily by the sword. The world according to Islam is divided into two regions: Dar es-Salaam and Dar al-Harb, the house of peace and submission to Islam, and the house of war, respectively. Islam is a religion and a culture built upon imperialism and expansionism.
Islamic culture is basically the imposition of 7th century Arabian culture onto a whole host of conquered peoples all across the Middle East and elsewhere. Looking across the Muslim world, one finds nations and ethnicities which did NOT adopt Islam of their own volition, but instead did so because of conquest and force. The Persians were not originally a Muslim people, but were conquered by Islam. Neither were the Berbers, Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Syrians, or Black Africans who were forcibly converted. In fact, the Arabs were not originally Muslims, of course, until the first Arab conquerors and their successors spread Islam to them by the sword. Hence, the religion of nearly a billion people in the world was brought to their ancestors by the force of arms. Further, as was noted earlier, the laws of the shari'a are little more than transplantation of various Arabian customs and traditions dating from the time of the Arab takeovers of Syro-Palestine and Persia, coupled with the indigenous (and still barbaric by modern standards) laws present in the Hellenistic East at the time of the Arab Empire's rise. The veil, the burkha, and other facial coverings for women stem from this Arabian society. So do the Islamic attitudes toward women which virtually require women to be accompanied by male relatives when in public (common in many Middle Eastern countries), prevent them from driving (Saudi Arabia and others), and keep them from receiving an equal share of inheritance (Quranic law, but comes from Arab culture in the 7th century). The execution of laws and punishment of criminals is also distinctly Arabian in methodology. The cutting off of hands for theft, execution for many seemingly minor crimes, etc. stem from the harsh life of desert nomads where force had to prevail to keep the rowdier elements in line and to preserve individual property.
The advancement of Islamic imperialism led to the invasions of Europe by the Moors, and later the Turks. India also suffered the brunt of Muslim invasions from the west, and was controlled by Muslim Moghuls for several centuries, a fact for which many Indians to this day are STILL bitter. Islam reached to the Russian steppes at the height of its expansion before being driven back by the Slavs. The Muslim enclaves in Bosnia and Albania are reminders to this day of Muslim Turkish imperialism in the Balkans, these being Slavic Europeans who converted to Islam because of persecution, force, and the persuasion of being free from paying the religion tax imposed on non-Muslims. In terms of brutality and outright violence, Islamic imperialism ranks right up there with the Spanish conquest of the Americas and the Japanese conquest of China and Korea in the 20th century.
This imperialism is still going on today. Islam is still trying to conquer new territory and bring it into Dar es-Salaam, whether by sword or by money. Muslim radicals regularly terror bomb targets in Indian Kashmir in an effort to force the Indians out and unite that region with Pakistan. Muslims in Nigeria are imposing shari'a law in many northern states in that country, in violation of Nigerian law, and impose this on the many non-Muslims in those states. Muslim fanatics are operating a guerilla war in the Philippines, with the stated aim of setting up a Muslim state in Mindanao. Monetary bounties are offered to people in South Africa for conversions to Islam. Even in the West, Muslim leaders have at various times stated their aim of bringing Europe and America into the fold of Dar es-Salaam, and much Muslim literature emphasises the eventual conquest of the West (and the rest of the world) for Islam. An example is the prediction by Maududi,
"The powers that are today aligned with the anti-Islam camp will break away one by one and merge in the camp of Islam. And the time will come when communism will be under stress for its survival in Moscow itself; and capitalist democracy will be in a desperate plight to defend itself in Washington and New York even. Materialistic atheism will find its position untenable even in the universities of London and Paris. Racialism and Nationalism will find no devotees even among the Brahmins and the Germans. And the present epoch will be commemorated in history as an eye-wash that the adherents of such a universal and world-conquering power as Islam had been reduced to the folly of trembling in the face of sticks and ropes when they held the staff of Moses (the Divine Wand) under their arm." 23
Daniel Pipes, a noted expert in the areas of Middle Eastern politics, culture, and the Islamic religion, has written recently on this topic, giving numerous examples of how even "moderate" Islamic groups in America, such as the various Muslim Student Associations and the American Muslim Council, identify with the ultimate goal of "Islamising" the United States of America.24 He discusses the various ways which Muslims in America are often expected to follow in reaching this goal, non-violently due to the extremely small percentage of the American population which Muslims currently make up. These include encouraging immigration to the United States from Muslim nations, encouraging acceptance of and the spreading of information about Islamic practices and religion, and silencing dissenters against Islam through legal action. All are becoming, disturbingly, more commonplace in America
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