Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Land of Confusion
Last Friday, during an interview with Pat Campbell of WFLA-AM in Orlanda, Florida, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo suggested threatenting to "take out" the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.The Congressman said he was just brainstorming, and that the "ultimate threat" might need to be met with an "ultimate response."
I saw Rep. Tancredo defend his statements on a television program last night. His rationale is that if Muslims believe that the U.S. would actually blow up holy cities, then the Muslim population would stamp out terrorism.
How much sense does that really make?
So, if the U.S. threatened to blow up Nazareth, would that deter people like Eric Rudolph from committing terrorism?
Would threatening to blow up Bethlehem deter people like James Charles Kopp from committing terrorism?
How about the Ku Klux Klan, do you threatening to blow up Jerusalem would have stopped them from murdering people and terrorism, or just angered Christians around the world?
There are about 1.2 BILLION Muslims on the planet. If 1.2 BILLION people were connected to terrorism I doubt we'd all be alive today.
I am a Muslim. I have never met anyone ever in my life who even remotely considered the actions of groups like Al-Qaeda "okay" or justified in the name of Islam.
From my own travels to Egypt and Ghana, to the Pakistani driver I had the other day, the killing of innocent people is haram.
What is so troubling about the Rep. Tancredo's statements is the logic and thinking behind them. If this is the mentality that is expected to stop terrorism and bring peace, then we're all doomed.
Seriously.
The battle we find ourselves engaged in is not one of Muslims vs. Christians, or Islam versus the West. But if the U.S. were to threaten blowing up Mecca and Medina- and actually do it- we would be locked in a holy war, and I fear the worst in humanity would make itself known.
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Excellet post Talib! I don't know if you had this Genesis song in mind with your title, but it's dead on the money:
I must've dreamed a thousand dreams
Been haunted by a million screams
I can hear the marching feet
They're moving into the street.
Now did you read the news today
They say the danger's gone away
But I can see the fire's still alight
Burning into the night.
Too many men
Too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Can't you see, this is a land of confusion.
This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.
Superman where are you now
Everything's gone wrong somehow
The men of steel, men of power
Are losing control by the hour.
This is the time
This is the place
So we look for the future
But there's not much love to go round
Tell me why, this is a land of confusion.
This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.
I remember long ago....
When the sun was shining....
The stars were bright
All through the night
And the sound of your laughter
As I held you tight
So long ago....
I won't be coming home tonight
My generation will put it right
We're not just making promises
That we know, we'll never keep.
Too many men
Too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Can't you see, this is a land of confusion.
This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth fighting for.
This is the world we live in
And these are the names we're given
Stand up and let's start showing
Just where our lives are going to.
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At the end of the video Ronald Reagan rolls over in bed and inadvertantly launches America into a nuclear holocaust...
Yeah I linked the lyrics in the post title.
Oh Superman, where are you now?