Dj Vu: Muslim extremist evils should sound familiar

by
Choctaw Doc

Say What?!?!

Few reading this, I dare say, have any qualms about seeing religious extremists who believe
they please the Almighty by dealing with nonbelievers, sinners, so-called apostates and
"infidels" with intolerance and especially cruelty and butchery, contained and even eradicated
(Mandated when an armed response is the lesser of 2 evils -- kill or else have more innocents
killed).
At the moment (October 2014) a coalition of nations including many predominately Muslin ones
are involved in rolling back the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL) whose atrocities and wanton evil are
regularly showcased and discussed on TV and in newspapers, not to mention web, blog and
social media outlets galore worldwide.
In the midst of all this most justifiable righteous indignation with extremist violence and
monstrous wickedness, there is also a growing hostility towards Muslims in countries throughout
the world in which peaceful, law-abiding ones are not only suspected of being sympathetic to
Islamic extremists like IS/ISIS/ISIL but are thought to be fellow travelers, even members of
planted "sleeper cells" who lurk in the shadows awaiting conditions to favor their popping out
and engaging in terrorism.
And, even though Muslims including scholars have come out and denounced the extremist evil
of IS including their cherry-picking of the Quran to support their beliefs and actions (Examples:
Here & here), this is oftentimes ignored or eclipsed by our all-too-human in-group/out-group
sentiments (wiring?) which in many instances has given rise to xenophobia and then paranoia.
There is something both ironic and paradoxical in the fact that many who decry the intolerance
and acts of cruelty championed by extremists began to treat anyone or anything that "smacks of
the enemy" with intolerance and cruelty (ranging from subtle ostracism to physical violence).

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It is also tempting to filter out contrary evidence within the Islamic world and conclude that
IS/ISIS/ISIL actually reflects the heart and soul of Muslim beliefs and heartfelt convictions. It
doesn't help that stories and accounts come out of how many Muslims actually do believe that
certain Islamic extremist groups, often dominated by clerics, are an antidote for deviating from a
literal interpretation of the Quran or "creeping liberalism". This sort of thing is naturally seized
upon by those who argue that Muslims who bomb, shoot, crucify, bury alive, behead and
otherwise dispatch "infidels" in bestial ways represent the real Islamic McCoy. Here is one of
many posted articles on the Web that take this position (This one claims that the Oklahoma
Muslim
who
beheaded
an
ex-coworker
represents
the
"real
Islam"):
http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/oklahoma-beheader-represents-real-islam/
If this doesn't should familiar, you've either forgotten your high school history lessons or slept
through them. How so? At one time the Christian world, especially many of its leaders both
religious and secular, sanctioned draconian measures against "infidels" which included torture,
imprisonment, exile and cruel executions. What did these "defenders of the faith" base their
actions on? They certainly didn't need to make up scriptural justification for this sort of thing.
The Bible provided them abundant material that when taken literally and narrowly applied,
sometimes out-of-context and sometimes not, justified the cruelest imaginable treatment and
horrific execution of gays, occultists, nonbelievers, heterodox believers (heretics), infidels (nonChristians) and more. Click to read a rundown of such verses.
Historic examples? Thankfully, a chap by the name of Mark Humphrys saved me having to dig
out all the applicable historic incidents and practices and such, as he researched, organized and
posted this to http://markhumphrys.com/christianity.killings.html (Readers are also encouraged
to peruse what's posted at http://www.heretication.info/_heretics.html).
Of course, most modern (Western) Christian believers and organizations including churches
and denominations would never entertain taking verses such as Leviticus 20:10 as (ahem)
gospel and acting on them: If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man
and the woman must be put to death (Albeit some especially aggrieved wives or husbands
might wish this was the law of the land)
But ask yourself: What stopped the waves of church-sanctioned persecution, torture and cruel
execution of heretics and those declared apostates, sinners or such who would not repent or
otherwise bend their knee to those who held their lives in-the-balance? History reveals no
sudden turnabout. However, over time a number of shifts and changes occurred that gradually
undermined and eroded intolerance and forced conformity to orthodoxy: Among these, the
church lost secular power and influence while Biblical literalism and militant, extremist Christian
policies and actions lost steam as more moderate views gradually eclipsed them (And these
because to a great extent religious scholars and others critically examined archaic beliefs and
practices and even the scriptures themselves in light of contrary or mitigating factual evidence
and reasoning).

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This is viewpoint is reflected in comments made by Southern Baptist Theological seminary

faculty member Dr. Timothy Paul Jones to the Baptist Press which were incorporated in a July
2014 article titled "Why Christians killed and why Muslim violence continues" by David Roach:
"Christians used to kill with some frequency over matters of doctrine. There was the Spanish
Inquisition, Calvin's Geneva, England's notorious Bloody Mary, the drowning of Anabaptists, the
Crusades and more."
Dr. Jones, the author of "Christian History Made Easy", also stated that "it was the intermingling
of church authority and civil authority that made it possible for persons who claimed to be
Christians to have the state execute others who also professed Christ."
But,...and this is a big but.....this shift was not without acrimonious debates, calls for a return to
"that old time religion" (i.e., a church with secular power that punished heretics and others), fist
fights and open warfare, and worse, in various quarters at various times.
Now ask yourself: Does all that's happening in the Middle East -- the theocratic Islamic
governments who rely on oppression and cruelty and public executions to hold the pot lid down
on dissent, the pitched battles (literal and figurative) between proponents of a Muslim religious
worldview that is exclusivist literalist, and radically fundamentalist and those who champion the
opposite, etc. -- represent the kind of "Future Shock" cultural, social and religious clashes and
upheavals that arose from and signaled the transition from a Europe that was ruled by clerics
and which burned heretics to one of nations largely democratic and essentially tolerant? (But
not without periodic lapses into darkness when conditions favored the eclipse of reason and
tolerance by fear, hatred and bigotry). I tend to think so.
The question of whether such a complete transition will occur may not be one of if but when. But
at what cost to the Muslim world and Israel, the EU, America, and other countries before the
dust settles?
Beyond containing militant/radical Muslim extremists, there are other variables at play that could
up the ante and the "dust" that gets kicked up before it settles to the ground. Assume for a
moment that those who warn that Iran is dead set on building nuclear weapons -- something
underscored by alarming developments such as this -- are right and they do. What happens if a
major offensive is launched by one or more Arab countries against Israel and Iran joins this? If
so, it is not inconceivable that Russia, which has longstanding ties to Iran (not to mention
Assad's Syria), might seize the opportunity to support such military adventurism. This would
surely result in America rightfully jumping into the fray to help Israel repel this armed assault and
intended invasion. Bingo, WWIII or, if not something this dire, surely a major regional
conflagration that will come awfully close to unleashing it.
A major war in the Middle East, too, seems less a matter of if but when. Certainly a great many
Jewish and Christian believers view this as inevitable based on prophecies in the books of
Daniel and Ezekiel (Among others). Read my blog entry on this by clicking this link.
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However, whether a great war hits the Middle East in the near future, later on or not at all, we
can all expect a lot of craziness and bloodshed not only there but in Europe, the US, Canada,
and elsewhere before the Muslim world breaks free of the forces of extremism, oppression and
such.
Our challenge here in the US lies not just encouraging and waiting out the hoped for transition
among Muslim countries, but also in preventing terrorist acts by Islamic extremists and their
sympathizers in our midst, while at the same time avoiding letting their occasional successes
drive us into the arms of authoritarian solutions...or worse.

Additional/supplemental reading penned by "yours truly"

Dark times and the allure of evil
How do you kill 12 million people? Evil then and now: Recognizing & containing it

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