ABOUT ISLAM #1 “GOD IS GREAT!”

During the last week it is being heavily discussed whether or not the suicide bombers in Israel are freedom fighters or terrorists. To me it is very interesting that is possible to discuss this even if the arguments to call them freedom fighters are coming from large Muslim countries, of course, which at the moment hold a conference in Kuala Lumpur. This discussion however reveals in a few words the crux of the matter: Peace is the essence of Islam! The Mullahs claim this but is it really true? Are we in reality today close to consisting of two religious worlds the Christians, The Hindus and the Buddhists as one group and the Islam as another?

The many sad events over the last decades represent for certain solid reasons wondering in which direction the two different worlds are moving, on the one side the increased demand for improved democracy in all Western countries and the relaxed atmosphere it brings along and then the fact that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, a religion not respecting democracy. I can hardly eye any Islamic State governed by democratic rules.

In Africa alone 5 major countries are Islamic with a total of 192 million persons. None of these countries is a democracy. On top you may add some small countries as well. Also in these countries we find corruption all over as in many other Islamic countries.

In my home country, Denmark, the government now talks about closing down 25% of our churches since they are not being used too much anymore. The religion as a strong base for moral and ethics is slowly losing ground apart from some Catholic countries. In the name of democracy we open our doors to all religions and allow them to establish their own churches including Mosques in which they preach against us, reference to my previous article about Bin Laden. Are we being ignoramus all of us? Do we really close our own churches and allow the Muslims to build a Mosque from which they can continue to preach against the Danish and other democratic societies?

After September 11th we have learned that many mosques in other countries served as an information center for Bin Laden even showing his video clips. From same mosques he recruited soldiers for his cause.

I have had the privileges to work in Islamic countries for a total of 6 years, which presented an excellent opportunity to get to understand some Islam and for the last 7 years I have lived in a part of the world, where the Islamic dominance is great.

So I have in all modesty some practical experience to support my sometimes rather strong viewpoints about Islam, which still to me represents the most dangerous religion in the world, the most corrupt and ambiguous as well.

Among the neighboring countries close to Thailand we have Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world and Malaysia, both countries having tremendous problems even if very different. Indonesia is close to bankruptcy after the previous presidential family has robbed the country for billions of USD and at the same time the local TV stations showed the president and his sons praying to Allah 5 times a day. His daughter cannot pray so she had more time to steal monies from her fellow countrymen and the last amount paid into her Swiss Bank account before she was stopped was a modest sum of 150 Million USD coming from one transaction only in connection with the construction of a large Power Plant, controlled by her company. Allah is great.

Malaysia is not a democracy but a dictatorship ruled by a man, who is in complete control and most likely one of the richest in the world. Rumors have it his money comes from corruption and it is interesting to notice that his country welcomes funds from other Heads of States, being funds stolen from the respective countries and they include corruption funds as well of course. When you see the Malaysian TV here in Thailand, you see the Malaysian (Islamic) President dressed in his Muslim outfit and talking about the Islam in strong terms praising its many virtues. I have been very often to this country and once you know somebody there over a period of time, the truth about the real Malaysia surfaces, not the advertising shown here on all major TV stations: Malaysia, truly Asia. That is very close to being an insult to the true Asian countries.

At the same time the President, Dr. M. advocates for freedom and democracy his police are cracking down on anybody who dares to contradict him and they are jailed without proper legal hearings and can rot in jail, he could not care less. On some of the Malaysian Islands, Bin Laden has some of his soldiers being trained. Yes Allah is great.

A few nights ago I saw a feature documenting that in Pakistan (where I worked for 2 years) they still kill women, who are suspected of committing adultery, they stone them to death, and a man can have his wife killed for any other reason as well and he will not get accused and escapes persecution. The Pakistani President was interviewed and asked his opinion about this tradition and he supported it with a big laugh. In Muslim countries women have no rights; they are not even considered animals that are the law. Bush supports this President. Allah is great.

According to Anthony Weston’s A Rulebook for Arguments, my statements above are most likely too personal/sentimental and that is of course not a good base for trying to understand why Allah is so great, so I have tried to look into some more facts about Islam.

More than 1.3 billion persons are Muslims and the amount of believers increase by a rate making Islam the fastest growing religion in the world. 80% of the “fans” are outside the Arab world the major part of these 80% live in the States. Even if Christianity is still the largest religion in the world with some 2 billion supporters my view is that soon that status will change due to the high birthrate among Muslims plus a high amount of conversions.

When looking at some historic facts about Islam, which is 1400 years old it seems that a crucial year for this religion is 1606 in which the Ottoman Empire started to break up. The Persians put a lot of pressure on the eastern front of this empire, so it was forced to relax the pressure on the west front meaning a peace treaty with Austria. I refer to the so-called Sitvatorok Treaty. This was the first time the Turks had to deal with a Western power and based on Western conditions since prior to that all agreements were made in Istanbul and 100% based on Islamic conditions. Nobody at that time would have the foresight to imagine the amount of consequences this Treaty would lead to.

700 years prior to 1606 the Islamic world represented what was considered the true civilization and a base for religious tolerance and this picture changed completely turning same Islamic countries into poverty and political nonsense. This development formed a splendid base for a complete change of power a chance utilized by many fanatics.

In his book “What went wrong?” Bernard Lewis describes in many details about the true effects of the Western culture, which over a period of more than300 years (from 1606 and onwards) on the Islamic countries. Lewis claims that we are being victims of our own culture and I tend to agree with him. Lewis is a historian from Princeton University. The Muslim nations “imported” our Western ideas regardless of their character believing they represented better values, but the fact is that a major part of the Muslims remained poor and totally powerless. Their own government, often backed by Western countries, became corrupt and repressive.

We know from Christianity as well that when poor and without influence you turn your eyes to religion in order to find comfort and support and you thus allow the priests or Mullahs a tremendous power over you. One should also consider that in most Islamic countries a major part of the population is illiterates, the Mullahs, who have a free hand to build or destroy, easily seduce them. The latter scenario we saw in Afghanistan where the Taliban during their period set this country back by 50 years.

The increased Western influence was not accepted by all and especially was not welcomed by what we later called fundamentalist movements. They became actually very strong which was clearly seen in Iran in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown by a well know Ayatollah heavily supported by The Muslim Brotherhood and later we have seen the Taliban in Afghanistan. These groups are today the real enemy plus the supporters of same of course that being an Islamic State or any individual person.

If not before we all know by now that a major part of the Islamic States represent regimes which do not respect human rights and for certain not have in mind to accept any kind of democracy or modern ideas.

The basics are simple to learn for outsiders looking at Islam. Islam means 100% submission to God (Allah in Arabic). The inspiration for the Koran came from all the wisdom from the prophet Muhammad, who passed on his views to his followers, who then wrote them down and they all formed the Koran, which consists of 114 suras (chapters) and they represent interesting reading.

Unfortunately like in any other religion some verses can be taken out from a context, then “translated” or transformed by the fundamentalists into dangerous messages the worst ones we have seen many times now since the September attack.

These days we see the suicide bombers killing innocent people, fighting for freedom and killing innocents but they themselves go straight to heaven, how far can these fanatics get by their own translation and perception of the Koran?

Looking at the future trends can scare me. Being the fastest growing religion in the world at the same time that our beliefs in religion are being reduced, the final result will be that the amount of fanatics (fundamentalists) will increase and the question is how do we handle this? Which methods to use?

The terror actions will continue, one way or the other, somewhere at all times, because the peace, the liberal countries is seeking is not acceptable to the fanatics and we cannot accept their terms. This is best seen in the conflict or war between Israel and Palestine, the present state of affairs having lasted for more than 10 years by now.

How many times did we see American Presidents or other top state executives claim, that NOW we are a close to an ever lasting peace treaty between these two enemies? In almost every news-transmissions on the TV for the last year, except for September and the later Afghanistan clean up, we see and hear about this conflict to the point you get tired. The truth of this matter is that nobody is really interested in a peace, like they were not interested in peace in Northern Ireland for close to 700 years.

Israel gets a heavy support from the States from American Jews and they get (buy) weapons from the USA as well and the American weapon industry does not complaint about that. Palestine gets a tremendous amount of financial support. From the Arabic countries alone they get 50 million USD per month, they get voluntarily financial contributions from almost all other countries, including Denmark plus weapons from Iraq.

The previous Secretary of State James A. Baker, III has written a very interesting book, published in 1995 titled The Politics of Diplomacy. He too of course has been on numerous trips to the Middle East in order to assist in getting close to a peaceful situation among all these different countries. In one of these meetings with the King of Saudi, the King told Baker that he would like the USA to serve as a catalyst for peace helping to get a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but that the main headache in the region, the crux of all the problems, is the Palestinian-Israeli case. This gives Saddam and others like Quaddafi material on which to promote themselves. This must be solved. That meeting was in 1991 and the problem is still not solved.

Is the answer war? To declare war on all terrorists? Mr. Bush thinks so and just to make sure he is well covered he has already told the world that the next potential targets would be Iraq and then maybe North Korea. Israel will handle Palestine, while Bush remains passive, a role that suites him well but most likely only momentarily, he needs to act.

Or is the answer for Bush to stop the support of Israel, because this support angers the Muslim world in general terms but especially the fanatics? Would it ease the pressure if the sanctions against Iraq were stopped because Sadam Hussein and his top people are not harmed, the poor population is hit and they are Muslim brothers?

Is the West facing a situation where the Coca Cola culture has no real value anymore and the major reason that a lot of Christians convert to Islam? Islam represents according to many all the old virtues, the ones we seem to have lost. So the same Allah, who is great, supports the good Muslims and also the fanatics, who are killing innocent persons in his name? The Christians did the same a long time ago, so we cannot really oppose to this can we?

Right now we, the Western world support the warlike scenarios, but do we realize that we only create an increased amount of hostility?

There is no simple answer to these questions, so most likely Bob Dylan was right when he sang that the answers are blowing in the wind?

Ole Casthoej

Chonburi Thailand April 2002

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