Who’s Calling Whom “The Devil”?

 

        From The Denver Post, “Hijackers aimed for heaven”, Sunday, September 23, 2001, Page 20A:

 

“Islamic fundamentalists share the view of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalists that Western societies have become decadent….Fundamentalists want a return to a time when they believe society was purer and free of moral decay….The Islamic terrorists…don’t want Islam tainted with the idea of individual rights….Islamic fundamentalists…oppose democracy because it promotes the separation of state and religion….”

 

Yes, our world is imperfect.  There is evil and corruption in our society.  So when was human society ever absolutely free of “moral decay”?  When was the time that no evil, corruption or decadence existed among humans?

 

  • The Great Flood?
  • Sodom and Gomorrah?
  • The Temple of the Pharisees?

 

Was it just before Adam bit into the Apple from the Tree of Knowledge - when “human society” consisted of but a sole man and his mate?   How can we return to a “society” that has never truly existed? 

 

What this fundamentalist viewpoint overlooks is that we can’t return the sins of the world back to Pandora’s Box:

 

“I’m sorry, can we have a refund on this Apple, please? 

Yes, we’d like to return it, if you don’t mind - this

‘knowledge of good and evil’ stuff, I don’t think we’re

ready to handle it yet.  No?  Then how about if we

replace it with a fresh, shiny new Apple: you know,

one that hasn’t been bitten into yet...?

 

We now have on our hands a nihilistic zealot with too much money, who thinks if he can just eradicate the progressive, Western governments and cultures, and replace them with his own despotic global theocracy, that the world will be better?  That’s his pious, uncorrupted vision of Islam?  Subjugate and demean the remaining human population of the planet? 

 

He’s succeeded in assembling a worldwide cult-network of pathological fanatics to match his own perverted views, while simultaneously defiling the very name of the faith he claims to save: by associating cold-blooded murder with the purification and rejuvenation of Islam? 

 

That’s his Holy Crusade?  His Righteous Jihad?

 

  • Replace the Medieval “Church of England” with the “Caliphates of bin Laden”? 
  • Replace the free-thinking peoples of God with the suppressed, programmed automatons of Talibanism?
  • If he wants to forego the trappings of modernity, he’s welcome to, as have the Amish - but they don’t resort to violence against those who hold differing views - they don’t see ideas as a threat.

 

Shun us, if it pleases you - but attack us?  For being different from you?  No true man of God would ever commit, or even remotely even consider endorsing such actions.

  

So who’s truly the “Great Satan” – perhaps a serpent in Wahhabi Muslim attire?

 

Robert E. Székely

4 October 2001