United We Shall Stand, Divided We Fall.

By Ali Sina    

I am often reminded that in our fight against terrorism we should not just single out Islam and that other religions and especially Judaism and Christianity are also guilty of tremendous crimes especially in the past.  

A secular friend of mine wrote: “Through Imperialistic colonial wars the good, civilized, loving Judeo-Christians killed and robbed millions upon millions of Asian people, African people and Native American people.  Even today, in the twenty-first (21st) century, the Judeo-Christians are still engaged in regional wars and actively killing and stealing from the very same victims.”  

These colonial genocides and wars have formed a very strong ideology of revenge, which is fueling the fire of terrorism.  

It was not Muslim Nations but rather European nations, the good civilized loving Judeo-Christians who used biological weapons, (germ warfare) on the Native Americans, killing millions of them.”  

He went on to enumerate the list of all the atrocities perpetrated by the Judeo-Christian nations, such as the use of chemical weapons in World War I, and the killing of tens of millions of people in World War II, and the atomic bombs in Japan , etc. etc. My friend then concluded: "My point is that the three (3) Adam & Eve based religions are equally corrupt and destructive.  We cannot keep the one religion which started this and try to get rid of the third one. The exclusion of Islam and the inclusion of Judaism and Christianity will cause horrifying religious wars.”  

I do not argue that all the nations of the world have blood on their hands. (Although I would argue that in most cases that he mentions religion has not been the motive). But why stop at the Judeo-Christians? Didn’t the Japanese massacre millions of the Chinese? Didn’t the Chinese massacre millions of their own and subdue the Tibetans? Didn’t the Mongols wreak havoc in the entire Asian continent and most of Europe ? Didn’t the Persians raid and loot India? Didn’t the Turks murder a million and a half Armenians? Are the Africans not guilty of genocide among themselves? Didn’t the Incas and the Aztecs practice genocide? Show me one nation that can claim her ancestors never committed atrocities! The sad truth is that we are a murderous species. After all we are apes. There is an animal beneath our skin. But unlike our furry cousins, we are endowed with a superior intellect. Intellect is only a tool. It is an extremely powerful tool. Empowered with that tool the human animal becomes lethal, the most dangerous animal in the world.  

If the intellect is a tool, the ideologies are the pretexts. We use ideologies and beliefs to create imaginary barriers between ourselves and once convinced of the illusion of division, we fall on each other, and spill each other’s blood.  

My friend is absolutely right. We are all guilty. But let us not be confused. History is important. We must learn our lessons from the history, but we must not live in the history. Each age has its own problems. The past is past. The nations that were in war with each other during the WWII are now allies. Those who fought those wars are now dead. We have our own lives to live and our own problems to solve.  

Today there is a great danger threatening the world. It is not colonialism, communism, capitalism, Christianity, Judaism or materialism. You may disagree with some or all of them, even so none of them poses any threat to mankind and the peace of the world today. The world is far from perfect. There is much to be done and we’ll have centuries to deal with our problems and solve them. We may also never agree with each other on everything. And who knows, may be this is good.   

But first things first! Before you try to right all the wrongs of the world and convince everyone that your way is the best way remember that we are in danger of extinction. Today the Word is threatened by Islam. Watch the news. Every day the proponents of this so called religion are killing innocent people everywhere in the world. They are not going to stop until they kill us all or subdue us. This is the real present-day danger that mankind is facing. It does not come from Christianity, Judaism or any other ideology, it comes from Islam. We must put aside all the things that we perceive as problem and solve the problem of Islam now. If a patient is affected by a myriad of diseases, the doctor would not try to cure her from all her ailments at once, but rather he would focus on the one that is more life threatening first.  

There is much to be done in the world but first you have to make sure you stay alive. Now we are under attack. We are in a state of emergency. This enemy does not ask you whether you are Christian, Jew, Hindu or Atheist. The enemy is killing all of us indiscriminately. They even kill our children cold-bloodedly and cheerfully while praising their demon god.   

Our enemy sees all of us as one, faceless, worthless entity. They kill all of us equally. It would be foolish if we continued fighting among each other over our petty differences. Our world is under siege from Islam, and that involves all nations, cultures and religions.

Those who insist that the war against terrorism must incorporate others are playing in the hands of the enemy. I said we should not live in the history. But we shall be doomed if we do not study history and learn from it.  

The reason Muhammad beat the mighty Arab tribes and subdued them one after the other, is because these tribes were not united. Muhammad played them against each other. Some he bribed, some he promised booty, some he offered protection and others were given false assurances of immunity for signing peace treaties. The big tribe of Banu Tamim for example, were not Muslims. But many of them accompanied Muhammad in his expedition against the Quraish and the Hawazin for the lust of the booty alone. Muhammad duped them. In Mecca there was no looting. This was after all his own city and these were his own people and he was most magnanimous towards them. But a fortnight later he attacked the Hawazin, and captured an immense wealth of booty, in livestock and property. However he gave all the proceeds of that loot to the dignitaries of Mecca  to “soften their hearts” and win their support. Those who fought for him in these wars received nothing. One man from B. Tamim complained, Muhammad became outraged and Omar drew his sword to behead the uppity protester. Soon after that Muhammad demanded the B. Tamim to pay tithes or face destruction. By then, the B. Tamim could no more resist the emerging despot, because thanks to their stupidity, he had become too strong for them to beat and could crush them without mercy.   

When Muhammad besieged the Jews of Bani Qainuqa, there were other Jewish tribes living in or around Medina. But they did not come to the help of the B. Qainuqa because they had a long standing dislike of each other. Muhammad banished the B. Qainuqa, then he went after the Bani Nadir, banished them and confiscated their possessions then he went after the  Bani Quraiza, massacred them all and enslaved their wives and children.  

While the tribes of Arabia were holding themselves aloof from each other and prided themselves over their linage and nobility, the barbarian Muslims took all of them by surprise. While some of them were being raided, looted and their women raped, the others stood by watching or signed treaties with Muhammad just to save their own skin and did not intervene. This allowed Muhammad to subdue his weaker opponents first and then he broke all his treaties and declared war on everyone.  

Islam owes its success to the division among its enemies. The Persian and Roman Empires both were defeated by a bunch of desert-dwelling barbarians, only because they weakened each other with continuous and senseless wars.   

Today, it would be foolish to become complacent because of our superior technology and power. The Roman Empire and the Persian Empire were far more superior to the barbarians of Arabia. They were both defeated because they became complacent of their superiority.  

The danger of Islam taking over the world through terrorism is very real. People succumb under duress. As the Muslims say, ‘They [the infidels] will grow tired of fighting us and will give in, and then we shall become their masters.’    

Good examples are the Spain and the Philippines who gave in to the demands of the terrorists and withdrew their troops from Iraq after the terrorists threatened to behead a few of their citizens.  

Ask any psychologist; there is only a limit to the hardship that we humans can endure. The more civilized we are, the more vulnerable we are, and that is because we are excessively pampered. Remember that it took only four or five terrorists, armed with nothing but box cutters, to highjack a plane with hundreds of passengers. They could easily have been subdued, but they weren’t. The civilized civilians are not combat-ready and hence there lies their vulnerability. We eventually succumb under pressure. And with each retreat, the enemy becomes emboldened and will increase the pressure.  

I urge you to understand the gravity of the situation. Do not look at your fellow human as your enemy, unless they are Islamists and Islamic supporters. Now we are all under attack. Now is the time to put aside all the finger pointing and join hands to confront our common enemy. Do not become an unwitting tool in the hands of the terrorists. 

My friend is concerned that the exclusion of Islam and the inclusion of Judaism and Christianity will cause horrifying religious wars. Why should it? This war is not about religion. This war is about survival. We are fighting for our own lives. We don’t give a damn that Islam is false and the stupidest belief. We are fighting Islam because it is dangerous. 

United we shall stand, divide we fall.