Muslims Unite In Prayers Against Al-Qaeda

PHILIPS: The Game of Tag and 'He Started It'
Jul 16, 2005
By M. Phillips

This won't sit well with anyone who sees terrorism as inherently evil and the battle against it as unquestionably good, but there's a startling string of similarities between the motivations and even the methods of Islamic terrorists and those of the neoconservative hawks who orchestrated America's war in Iraq.
American leaders believe the global spread of democracy is essential to peace. Islamic terrorists believe peace and harmony come only with life under fundamental Muslim doctrine. Each sees the other as dangerously wrong and a grave threat, both to its way of life and to world order. Each believes it stands upon the moral high ground, that God is on its side and that the other is evil. America had no more earthly authority to invade Iraq, beyond its self-bestowed right to do so, than terrorists had in blowing up London buses and trains.

Both are so driven to export and foist their world visions onto other nations that they're willing to kill innocent people to achieve, as each side sees it, a greater good. Each side relies on emotionally charged rhetoric and propaganda to convince its public that its cause is just and noble. Terrorist leaders tell Muslims that Western culture and capitalism are the devil's work, that the "infidels" want to control their land and oil. President Bush tells Americans terrorists are "cold-blooded killers" who "hate our freedoms."

Christian Rapturists who see this as a holy war believe they will reach higher, everlasting spiritual planes upon death. So do suicide bombers. American leaders foster a "they started it" argument, that 9/11 provoked the invasion of Iraq. Terrorists cite support for Israel, the World Bank and other Western entrees into the Middle East to say "No, they started it." Both point to the blood on each other's hands and tell their publics "See?"

Many call the invasion of Iraq an "illegal war." American leaders label terrorists "illegal combatants" in that war. Should the leaders of either side ever be captured by the opposition, they will be prosecuted in courts of foregone conclusions and put to death for crimes against humanity. Many believe terrorists exist only to wreak violence.

But if terrorists believed they could more effectively rid their societies of Western influence through nonviolence, they would do so. President Bush has said as much about his own rationale for invading Iraq - if Saddam Hussein would have resigned his dictatorship and fled into exile, opening Iraq to democracy, America wouldn't have invaded.With neither scenario plausible, rather than curtail its goals, each side resorts to violence to see its worldview to fruition.

Regardless which side "started it," the bombings in London prove America can't "finish it" through military might. As it is, people too easily paint this war in black and white (and, invariably, as their own side in white). Our very peace, and peace of mind, depends on stepping outside one's nationalist, religious and ideological perspectives to paint both sides the same color. Without the convenient borders separating good from evil, we're left with two distinct, sincere, flawed, incompatible systems - capitalist-fueled democracy and Islamic fundamentalism.

They come into conflict only when one encroaches on the other's perceived territory, geographical or otherwise. America can best neutralize terrorism through its own behavior. With a foreign policy divested of arrogance and sense of divine right, America would drop the notions of establishing military bases in the Middle East, leveraging poorer nations through forced economic reforms and imposing democracies on sovereign nations. Yes, this is exactly what terrorists want, but if that route leads to a true and deep peace, is that too much to ask? America can continue doing business with the Middle East without injecting itself into the Middle East. Middle Eastern nations and their citizens would struggle and succeed on their own terms toward social, political and religious equilibrium, and the gasoline fueling Islamic terrorism toward the West would evaporate. Until then, in this game of tag, neither is good nor evil. We are both simply "it," and much the deader for it.

M. Phillips is the pseudonym for a writer on the staff of a daily newspaper in Minnesota's Twin Cities. Email him at [email protected].

Bismillah,

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/ 20050717/ts_nm/iraq_dc_183

This link talks of a father who could only find his son's head after the fuel tanker explosion in Musayyib.  It also has al-Qaeda's request that Muslims all over the world pray for them and their victory.

We might not have money or power, but we can pray for al-Qaeda's destruction, demise, and that they all burn in hell.  Let's let them know how much we hate them and that our Loving, Generous Lord will send them to hell forever for their evil ways.