Unfortunately, there IS a "professional left", just as there is a "professional right". Just as many of "the masses" blindly follow Rush, Glenn, FauxNews, et al, so some on the left blindly follow anything that is "left" without regard for whether or not it is factually correct.
The specific Christian Crusades with the aim of regaining control of the "Holy Land" from Islam, were a series of military campaigns (mostly) sanctioned by the Catholic Church, which took place over a period of nearly 200 years from around 1095 to around 1291. There were other Crusades, some with the general aim of "compel them to come in", a "by any means necessary" approach to attempts to fulfill The Great Commission of Matthew 28:16-20. Although there may be some element of this mindset still in some of the military campaigns the West wages, it is certainly no longer overt and seems to have taken a seat far in the back behind the controlling of land, oil and other resources.
Most modern 'moderate' Christians have evolved into a much more touchy-feely, new-agey variation of Christianity; most tend to point out the love of Jesus, and ignore most of the Old Testament. Relatively few take seriously the commandments in Leviticus and Deuteronomy about all kinds of things being "abominations" and killing basically anyone who does not toe the line.
Islam has not changed. It CANNOT change. It is a gross and potentially fatal error to equate Islam with Christianity, Judaism, and other religions. Islam is NOT a religion. Islam is a life. For most Western Christians, their religion is about going to church on Sunday, hearing sermons and choirs and maybe tithing, a little Bible reading, and then religion is put aside for the most part for the rest of the week, while people go about normal Western life.
In Islam, religion is merely one part; legal parts, political parts, cultural parts, educational parts also make up the life of Islam. It is impossible for a true believer in Islam to "put it aside" for a while. Islam IS life, all of it, every waking instant, and every behavior, every thought, every action of any kind is considered in the light of Islam. The notion of separation of church and state, if it existed at all, would be blasphemy punishable by death. Anyone who is in a war and is not aware that they are in a war is doomed to fail and die. Islam has been in a war with the rest of the world since Muhammad wrote the Q'uran. I doubt there will ever be a time when Islam is not at war with the rest of the world. There is zero intent in Islam to live peaceably with other religions, other cultures, certainly not with NO religion.
When NYC Mayor Bloomberg (and now Obama also) speaks of freedom of speech and freedom of worship and treats the building of a mosque as equivalent to building a church or synagogue, he shows complete ignorance of what Islam is all about. Governor Paterson of New York offered assistance to the proponents of the NYC mosque, if they would agree to move it further away from Ground Zero, in a show of understanding and toleration. Islam has no interest in understanding and toleration. This was their response. The intent of Islam, as it has been from day one, is to carry our their version of The Great Commission, which means that every human on the planet will be forced to claim to be a Muslim, or pay the Jizya or die. There are no other choices in Islam. In this sense ONLY is Islam a "religion of peace".
Throughout history there have been those who would conquer the world and be a god and rule over all. Hitler and the Nazis tried it, but his thousand year Reich was squashed within a decade. Islam is at least as dangerous, probably moreso and as an ideology has virtually infinite patience, lasting century after century. And in very large numbers in some parts of the world, always with the goal of encompassing and ruling the rest of it. There are still Nazis, of course, but their numbers are so few as not to constitute much of a threat. On the other hand, when Islam has well over a billion in numbers - nearly a fifth of the world's population - and growing daily, not to mention acquiring nuclear weapons, the world is in grave danger. How do you think WWII would have ended if Hitler had gotten nukes before we did?
Islam is not a race and people who oppose it are not racist because they oppose it. Sharia Law is a hellish nightmare of torture and death, especially for women, a literal modern version of laws akin to those of the Old Testament. In Islamic countries, you DO see dead people hanging from nooses because they were allegedly gay, or because they were allegedly adulterers. You DO see women stoned to death for the crime of having been raped. You DO see people, including children, with various hands, arms, feet and legs having been chopped off with a sword for petty crimes. You know this is true, you have seen it on television yourself. Read the tale of the Scorpion and the Frog. I assure, in all serious, Islam IS the scorpion. Do you really want to be the frog in the name of "tolerance"?
Hat tip to Catherine for finding and posting some of these videos on her blog, as well as links to the Middle East Media Research Institute and Creeping Sharia. But she is dead wrong about Obama having been born or ever being a Muslim.
Enjoy your Haraam while you can, infidel.
TRB
Terrific blog! You are most definitely a friend of reason!
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