Dealing with Madmen

It is instructive to read the transcript of Osama bin Laden’s video message to America and his fellow Muslims in early September. He got what he wanted, lots of media coverage here and, presumably, around the world. Is it not strange that someone who heads no government, does not engage in diplomatic relations with nations, and must hide out in a remote area to evade capture and death commands such attention?

Stranger still are the things he had to say in a rambling statement. Strange to modern ears is the grandiosity of his manner of speaking. It is, from beginning to end, fretted with constant references to Allah, but his god is far more like the God of the Old Testament Bible, fearsome against the enemies of those who worship him, demanding of those who do, and, only much later, one transformed into a God of love and forgiveness.

To put it in other terms, Islam entered a long period of decline after being repulsed in Europe following a period of conquest that took them across North Africa and up into Spain, and east into India, lasting from 630 to 1683 C.E. After that, Islam would retreat to utter stagnation while the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the Western embrace of science and expansion imparted values that the modern world has fought wars to protect and preserve.

Now, however, led by Osama bin Laden, Islam is seeking domination once again. It cannot help itself because it is a religion that demands its followers make war on all unbelievers, conquer and enslave them, and disbelief can be easily attributed to other Muslims as well. The result has been some of the most horrific killing of people the world has seen since World War II. Terror in the name of Allah.

“People of America: I shall be speaking to you on important topics which concern you, so lend me your ears.” Bin Laden thinks that, after 9/11, “many of America’s policies have come under the influence of the Mujahideen (holy warriors), and that is by the grace of Allah, the Most High.” However, the reality is that among those policies was the reversal of the longtime acceptance of Middle Eastern dictatorships and their refusal to adopt modern standards of justice, education, the liberation of women, the separation of church and state, and other practices we associate with the barbarity and backwardness of Islam.

The abandonment of those policies sent our soldiers and those of our allies against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the flight of bin Laden and al Qaeda’s inner circle to refuge in the frontier region of Pakistan, and the much debated invasion of Iraq to rid it of Saddam Hussein, a pathological murderer, his two vile sons, and much of his coterie who, when not raping and killing Iraqis, waged war against Iran and Kuwait, thus constantly threatening to destabilize the region.

That is change on a scale that only America could undertake and, if we are patient, it will bring about a safer world for everyone.

In the beginning, America was widely criticized, but new governments in France and Germany are just two nations that have realized how great the threat of militant Islam is. Around the world, including nations where Islam is the dominant faith, the defenestration of Muslim lunatics is the order of the day.

Meanwhile, bin Laden sounded more like Lenin than Mohammed. In his videotaped diatribe, he attributed the troubles of the world to “globalization”, the growth of corporations whose purpose it is “to drive you away from the true religion.” Islam, in his view, is at war with Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Disney, and all the others listed on the boards of the New York, London, and other stock exchanges.

“However, there are two solutions for stopping it,” said bin Laden. “The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you. This is our duty and our brothers are carrying it out, and I ask Allah to grant them resolve and victory. And the second is from your side. It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interests of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations.”

We must, said bin Laden, “liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles and attrition of the capitalist system.” And the way to do this is “total obedience (must be) to the orders and prohibitions of Allah alone in all aspects of life.”

Oh, that’s the answer. We must all become Muslims and we must all obey Osama bin Laden. “Don’t be turned away from Islam by the terrible situation of the Muslims today, for our rulers in general abandoned Islam many decades ago…” So, the Saudi Royal Family and the others ruling other Gulf nations are not true Muslims and bin Laden is.

Bin Laden! Bin Laden! Bin Laden!

The world we in the West are being offered is one where decapitation, the severing of hands, the sequestration and stoning of women, the holding of slaves, and the requirement to pray facing Mecca five times daily will become your way of life.

“The true religion is a mercy for people in their lives, filling their hearts with serenity and calm,” said bin Laden.

Islam may look and even sound like a religion, but it is a tribal warrior cult born of a seventh century culture of banditry, the sharing of loot, the enslavement of people, and the taxation of those who would not convert.

It does not encourage knowing anything more than can be found in the Koran. Not a single word of this book can be changed. Nothing about Islam is subject to change. It is the enemy of any progress toward a world of people at peace with one another. It worships death.

Bin Laden is a madman. He gathers to his cause others who embrace his madness. His movement is a cancer that must be removed from the world. Failing that, modern civilization will be enslaved by the totalitarian horror of Islam. Allah is Big Brother.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com. His latest book, “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, is published by Merril Press.

© Alan Caruba, September 2007

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