So how the hell did this ever get past the editors at Salon?
As they rampage and behead their way through Syria and Iraq, ISIS fighters know they have the Koran on their side – a book they believe to be inerrant and immutable, the final Word of God, and not at all “malleable.” Their holy book backs up jihad, suicide attacks (“martyrdom”), beheadings, even taking captive women as sex slaves. This is not surprising; after all, the prophet Muhammad was a warrior who spread Islam by the sword in a dark, turbulent time in history. (Christianity’s propagation had, in contrast, much to do with the Roman emperor Constantine’s fourth-century conversion and subsequent decriminalization of the faith.)
Moreover, the razor-happy butchers of little girls’ clitorises and labia majora, the righteous wife-beaters, the stoners of adulterers, the shariah clerics denying women’s petitions for divorce from abusive husbands and awarding sons twice the inheritance allowed for daughters, all act with sanction from Islamic holy writ. It matters not a whit to the bloodied and battered victims of such savagery which lines from the Hadith or what verses from the Koran ordain the violence and injustice perpetrated against them, but one thing they do know: texts and belief in them have real-life consequences. And we should never forget that ISIS henchmen and executioners explicitly cite their faith in Islam as their motive.
To be sure, writer Jeffrey Tayler couches his critique (which focuses on Islamist apologist Reza Aslan) in the usual “look at the violence in the Bible” rhetoric, and in a general defense of atheism. Still, it’s quite remarkable for Salon to be catching up with what conservatives have been saying for more than a decade.
Who are you and what have you done with the actual Salon staff?
(Hat tip: Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, who notes “Has Bill Maher made it safe for Leftists to admit that there is a problem with how jihadis and supremacists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and oppression?”)
Tags: Islam, Jeffrey Tayler, Jihad, Media Watch, Reza Aslan, Robert Spencer, Salon
This is like discovering a species of dinosaur, long thought extinct, still alive. You almost want to intervene on its behalf, to save it from extinction … without making it dependent on your influence.
I suspect Bill Maher does deserve credit, for pointing out the naked emperor. I also suspect Barry Soetoro deserves credit, for making it painfully obvious how utterly stupid it is to believe and to make policy in the way the Left has for so long.
On the subject of encouragement … I wonder what can be done to get other Liberals on the bandwagon? Part of me wants them to just continue being wrong, but the trouble is too many of their followers still don’t realize it. Hell, if we let them continue being wrong … that’s what we’ve been doing anyway, and it hasn’t led to improvement …