It’s the Islamic State, Stupid!
I’m not trying to be disrespectful when I use Bill Clinton’s line “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” with a current twist. The original phrase was coined by a United States president and aimed at another president (George H.W. Bush).
Now, our current president has said something that deserves the same rebuttal.
On September 11, 2014, Barack Obama uttered the following words in a prime time television address:
“Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not Islamic. No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state.”
ISIL is not Islamic? ISIL is not a state? He’s wrong. Deadly wrong.
It’s the Islamic State, stupid.
Here’s why.
Politicians say a lot of things to please the masses or to put a twist on their remarks to send signals to various groups of people. But sometimes they simply say ridiculous things that are not backed up by reality.
I’ve said quite a few things in my life that are stupid–but never before millions of people who are depending on me to protect them.
That’s why President Barack Obama’s words need to be examined. He is the leader of the free world which is currently being threatened and publicly humiliated by a group of jihadists who may be more evil than the infamous Nazis.
This group is called various names: 1) ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), 2) ISIL (The Islamic State of the Levant – a larger geographic area that includes parts of Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus and southern Turkey), and 3) The Islamic State–which is their own chosen moniker.
They are a part of historic Islam, and they are
Islamic
I have chosen the words “historic Islam” carefully. They should be used in media interviews, government speeches and press releases about this subject because they are the closest to the truth.
The historical origins of Islam and their leader, Mohammed, were bloody and violent. Mohammed was essentially a robber baron who lived off the booty of stealing from the Arabian trade caravans. He committed at least twenty raids in his lifetime, personally slaughtered hundreds of people with the sword, and established a religion that was built on the premise of “convert or die.”
That is historic Islam. It is backed up by Mohammed’s “recitations” found in the Koran–which contain over 100 “war verses” that encourage good Muslims to kill infidels (all non-Muslims) to advance their religious cause.
Yes, Mr. President, at least one religion does condone the killing of innocents (infidels).
Islam.
That’s a historical fact.
They also kill other Muslims with impunity who don’t meet their demands. Sunnis and Shias have been killing each other for centuries.
I have a copy of the Koran on my desk. Everyone should get one and read it. My copy is open to two of those 100 war verses that are found in Surah 8. Here they are, and they describe what ISIS is doing:
“O you who believe! When you meet those who disbelieve marching for war, then turn not your backs to them. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
Now you know why we call it the War on Terror. That’s what Allah of the Koran says he will bring through savage beheadings and the like. Think of Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Most recently, think of British citizen David Haines.
ISIS is thoroughly Islamic–the true historical version. It’s doing what committed Muslims have always done.
(If you want to read all of the Koran’s 109 war verses, you should purchase Don Richardson’s Secrets of the Koran and turn to Appendix B for a complete listing. Richardson’s list does not include mention of war in story-telling eg. “David slew Goliath” in Surah 2:251, nor are the verses included in which Allah afflicts infidels himself–just the verse where devout Muslims do the killing.)
Yes, it is true that there are Muslims who do not practice the 100 war verses. Why? Because a lot of people who are moderately or culturally Muslim are peace-loving and non-violent folks who overlook those sections of the Koran. That’s true in every religion. People pick and choose what they feel comfortable doing.
But if you are a true believer in Islam–a radical believer (getting to the root), then you are fully justified in using horrific violence to bring the entire world under sharia law and a global caliphate.
The Koran demands it.
Thus ISIS, or the Islamic State, is perfectly Islamic.
(As this column went to press, I received an e-mail from a person doing humanitarian aid work in Iraq. The aid worker said that the town next to his had just fallen to ISIS and he was fearful for his staff (they live ten minutes away). He also said that to plant fear in the hearts of the townspeople, ISIS had started beheading children. That’s a fact from the ground.)
For some historical context, here’s a brief history of Islam’s three attempts at taking over the world through violence and force.
The first jihad started with Mohammad when his armies conquered all of Arabia. In the hundred years after his death, they subjugated most of the Middle East, North Africa and Spain. The first jihad lasted from 622 AD until 750 AD. Scores of thousands of innocent people were killed in the name of Islam.
The second major jihad started in 1071 AD. Islamic armies toppled Constantinople and spread into Europe, India, and further into Africa. The second jihad began to decline when the Muslim army was stopped on September 11th, 1683 at the gates of Vienna, Austria. (Notice the interesting date of 9-11-1683.)
Its remnants lived on until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. During the second jihad, hundreds of thousands were killed to advance the religion of Allah.
After that, there was a sixty year lull in Islamic expansion which ended when oil was found in Saudi Arabia. This launched the Wahhabiism era of the third jihad in the 1980s. Funded by petro dollars, militant Islamicists flexed their muscles once again, trying to remove Israel from Palestine and igniting a barrage of terrorism which continues to this day.
Think Osama bin Laden, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, and numerous others.
During the past thirty years, thousands more have died at the hands of jihadists and millions of people have been displaced. If those who practice historic Islam have their way in the 21st century, then millions will die and billions will be forced under global sharia law.
The big bully of the third jihad right now is ISIS–the Islamic State.
A State
President Obama spoke like a nuanced college professor when he also said that ISIS is not a state because they are not recognized by other governments or the United Nations.
Hello? Is there anybody home?
ISIS has declared themselves an Islamic state by taking over territory in Syria and Iraq that is geographically the size of Belgium. They have an organized and trained military that has grown into the thousands, control scores of cities including the Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, have a caliph (Islamic president or dictator) Ibrahim ibn Awwad ibn Ibrahim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai, more commonly known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and they are making 1-3 million dollars a day to fund their government and holy jihad through oil revenues.
It doesn’t matter what the UN thinks. It doesn’t matter whether we “recognize” them diplomatically. That’s goverment-ese gobblety-gook.
ISIS has established an Islamic STATE. They have land, leadership, military and money. No amount of nuancing can take away that fact.
One of the first rules of warfare (confronting and defeating evil) is to be able to clearly define your enemy. If you can’t define them (their motivation, strengths, geography and plans), then you can’t defeat them.
It’s time to stop being stupid in foreign affairs.
The Islamic State has declared war on the Middle East and the world. Because nuclear weapons exist and can get into the wrong hands, we do not have the luxury of saying this is a regional war, we can’t afford to have boots on the ground, or that others should take the lead.
As the world’s lone superpower, the United States must have the clarity and the will to lead a coalition of free nations that will fight tyranny just as we did during World War II. Sixty years ago we defeated Nazi Germany and imperial Japan and helped rebuild and revive both Europe and Asia.
During this new era, we must defeat historic Islam and its most recent expression–the Islamic State.
That’s the role of government–to protect people from evil.
The rest of us should pray for the Muslim world, support missionaries in those nations, and help Muslims everywhere reject the false teachings of the Koran and come into a saving relationship with one of the Koran’s leading figures–Isa (Jesus)–who is the Prince of Peace.
That’s wouldn’t be stupid–it would be wise.
It would bring salvation.
The Radical Difference Between the Biblical and Muslim Gospels
This evening President Obama gave a prime time speech on the importance of degrading and defeating ISIS–the cancerous Islamic State now fomenting in Iraq and Syria.
The president is good with words, but our success against this terror enemy will only be achieved through action–not phrases on a teleprompter.
I had planned to write a column this week called “The New Nazis”–which is an apt description of ISIS. Instead, I’d like to clarify the larger battle that is going on in the world which is a clash of ideas.
That clash really comes down to the radical difference between the Biblical and Muslim gospels.
First of all, I’m glad that The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen went on record stating the clear parallels between ISIS and Hitler’s Nazis. He writes:
“The Nazis are back — differently dressed, speaking a different language and murdering ostensibly for different reasons but actually for the same: intolerance, hatred, excitement and just because they can.”
He concludes his sobering article by declaring, “The decapitation of James Foley and the depredations of the Islamic State are evil returned, evil that can be understood only as beyond understanding. It needs to be eliminated.”
You can read the full text of “The Islamic State is Evil Returned” here.
New Gingrich has also written a good piece called “Ten Questions for Obama on ISIS” which gives a clear-thinking, statesmanlike view of what our president must consider as we face these 21st century Nazis.
But behind the need to militarily confront evil is a gigantic war of civilizations that comes down to the teachings of two books–the Bible–the basis of Western civilization and the global explosion of faith in Jesus that is taking place all over the world (60% of it in the Southern Hemisphere)–and the Koran–the Muslim book that is revered by 1.6 billion Muslims and for some, fuels bloody jihad.
Some comparisons are in order before we look at the “Good News” message of each book.
The Bible
The Bible is the world’s most translated bestseller, read and respected by 2.2 billion people. It is is a literary masterpiece–a library of 66 books written by over forty authors covering a span of some two thousand years.
The Bible contains reliable history, beautiful poetry and story-telling, amazingly accurate prophecy, and eyewitness accounts of the coming of the Savior (Jesus). It purports to be the inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16) and as Youth With A Mission founder Loren Cunningham has written, it is The Book That Transforms Nations: How the Bible Can Change Any Country.
The Bible’s warfare references are all in the Old Testament when ancient cultures lived and died by the sword during primitive and uncivilized times. The New Testament champions the message of love as the highest virtue (1 Corinthians 13:13).
The Koran
The Koran professes to be revelations given to one man–Mohammed–in the 7th century AD. They are said to have been given over a period of either three weeks or 23 years–depending on the source.
The Koran is purportedly inspired only in its Arabic version and is not encouraged to be translated into other languages.
As a book, it contains little history, contains numerous historical errors, no memorable poetry or literature, and basically espouses one man’s rambling view of life and religion through a 7th century lens. It is composed of a series of “recitations” against Christians and Jews and how good Muslims should live their lives.
According to author Don Richardson in The Secrets of the Koran, the Koran contains 109 war verses that are just as relevant for today as they were in the Middle Ages. These verses form the backdrop of modern-day jihad or “holy war.”
Here are two more caveats.
1. Biblical followers are generally peace-loving people. However, at various times in history (notably the Crusades and the Reformation), they have resorted to violence to defend their faith. In doing so, they have gone against the teachings of the New Testament.
2. Many Muslims are peace-loving people. However, radical followers of Islam, throughout their history, have used violence and bloodshed as a primary tactic to advance their faith. Mohammed himself killed hundreds of people, participated in over forty armed battles, and lived as a religious robber baron. When Muslims kill people, they are following the one hundred warfare verses of the Koran.
Both books talk about God and what a person can do to come into a right relationship with Him.
Let’s first look at the Biblical “Gospel” (Good News).
Biblical Good News
The God of the Bible is a trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who desire such a relationship and intimacy with man that Jesus came to the earth to die for our sins to reconcile us to the Father (John 3:16). When people put their trust in his salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside them to empower them to live a life of virtue and love (2 Peter 1:2-11).
The Biblical Good News contains four simple elements.
1. The Invitation: Come. Abba Father’s call to all human beings is to come back in repentance and faith into relationship with their Creator. This gracious invitation is found all throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation (some examples are Isaiah 55:1, Matthew 11:28-30, and Revelation 22:17).
2. The Promise: Eternal Life. If we come back to God in repentance and faith, then God’s promises to live in us and with us, both in this life and the one to come. Eternal life is really “knowing Him” (John 17:3). One of my favorite verses in the Bible is John 10:10: “I have come that they might have life, life more abundantly.” God granting us a new chance at “life” is the key concept of both Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy 30:19, and John 3).
3. The Means: Die to Yourself. The way a person enters into relationship to God and eternal life is brokenness, humility, repentance from sin, and child-like trust in God’s ability to save us through Jesus’ atonement. All these words describe a death to self process that helps us grow the character of God in our lives (Luke 9:23, Mark 8:34, 35 and 1 Corinthians 15:31).
4. The Result: Really Live! When we turn from our sins and give God his rightful place in our hearts, we come into alignment with the Kingdom of God and his righteous rule of truth and love. We become children of God who will be a part of his family forever–both in this life and the next.
Now let’s look at the Koranic “Good News,” or what is required to be pleasing to Allah.
Koranic Good News
1. The Ultimatum: Submit. Islam literally means “submission to God” (Koran 3:19). It is not really an invitation, but a command for a person to do every aspect of the will of Allah.
2. The Promise: Eternal Lust (Men Only). From the very beginning, Mohammed encouraged his fighters to die for the faith, promising them that death by jhad would guarantee them Paradise (jannah) which included exclusive access to seventy virgins (houris) who would satisfy their sexual appetites forever (E.g. Koran 56:22, 78:33 and Hadith 2687).
3. The Means: Death to Infidels. Though Islam encourages death to earthly appetites and passions (such as fasting furing Ramadan), the greatest reward is reserved for those who kill infidels (any non-Muslim) to advance Muslim dominance in the world (umma). Koranic examples: 9:123 – “Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you,” and 47:4 – “When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly.”
4. The Result: Many Die. When radical Muslims take the Koran at its word, you get the 9-11 disaster of thousands dying, or the recent beheadings of American journalists by ISIS.
As you can see, the Biblical and Koranic Gospels are extremely different:
- The God of the Bible invites people to come, live, die to sin, and really live.
- The God of the Koran demands that people submit, lust, murder others, and force the world under sharia law.
Which message do you think is really Good News?
I sincerely hope in the coming months that we as individuals and nations understand the radical difference between the Biblical and Muslim gospels.
Only one is true–and is worth believing and living for.
Forty Years Ago in August: Time for Another POTUS to Resign?
I was in England on August 8, 1974 when Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign while in office. It was a stunning demise for a formidable politician who served as vice president, lost the 1960 presidential race to JFK, then rose from the ashes to be elected POTUS in 1968 and re-elected in 1972.
The bottom fell out when he was caught at the helm of a minor political break-in that became known as Watergate–and then lied about it. Years of malaise, including the inept presidency of Jimmy Carter, followed in his wake.
I’ve been thinking for six long years about the failing presidency of Barack Obama. As jihadists be-head an American journalist, Russia subtly invades Ukraine, racial riots explode in Missouri, the US economy subsists on life support, and the national debt nears 18 trillion dollars–while President Obama vacations and plays golf–I’m wondering if another US president should resign for the good of the nation.
Two prominent women–one a secular progressive and the other a conservative–beat me to the punch this week.
Here are their sobering words for all of us to consider.
I rarely read Maureen Dowd because she is a fixture of the secular progressive left and almost always on the wrong side of issues. But she is a noted columnist for the New York Times who recently chose to part company with her once beloved president.
Her blistering attack on President Obama’s leadership is called “The Golf Address” published in the NY Times on October 23. It is brilliant in its allegory, yet tragic in its comparison of Abraham Lincoln’s courageous leadership 150 years ago and the current occupant of the White House.
The most famous speech in American history was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered during the perilous days of the Civil War. It contains only 272 eloquent words spoken with noble character, passion and burden.
It would be worth your while to take less than one minute and read it here.
Dowd compares Lincoln’s sobering masterpiece to the actions of Barack Obama, who, after lamenting the hideous death of journalist Jim Foley, took all of ten minutes to return to his vacation and get back to the golf course. Minutes later he was photographed smiling and fist-pumping a golfing buddy.
This is not just bad optics. It is a failure of presidential leadership of historic proportions.
Ms. Dowd agrees.
“The Golf Address” – by Barack Obama
As seen through the eyes of Maureen Dowd
“FORE! Score? And seven trillion rounds ago, our forecaddies brought forth on this continent a new playground, conceived by Robert Trent Jones, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal when it comes to spending as much time on the links as possible — even when it seems totally inappropriate, like moments after making a solemn statement condemning the grisly murder of a 40-year-old American journalist beheaded by ISIL.”
“I know reporters didn’t get a chance to ask questions, but I had to bounce. I had a 1 p.m. tee time at Vineyard Golf Club with Alonzo Mourning and a part-owner of the Boston Celtics. Hillary and I agreed when we partied with Vernon Jordan up here, hanging out with celebrities and rich folks is fun.”
“Now we are engaged in a great civil divide in Ferguson, which does not even have a golf course, and that’s why I had a “logistical” issue with going there. We are testing whether that community, or any community so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure when the nation’s leader wants nothing more than to sink a birdie putt.”
“We are met on a great field of that battle, not Augusta, not Pebble Beach, not Bethpage Black, not Burning Tree, but Farm Neck Golf Club in Martha’s Vineyard, which we can’t get enough of — me, Alonzo, Ray Allen and Marvin Nicholson, my trip director and favorite golfing partner who has played 134 rounds and counting with me.”
“We have to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for my presidency, if I keep swinging from behind.”
“Yet it is altogether fitting and proper that I should get to play as much golf as I want, despite all the lame jokes about how golf is turning into ‘a real handicap’ for my presidency and how I have to ‘stay the course’ with ISIL. I’ve heard all the carping that I should be in the Situation Room droning and plinking the bad folks.”
“I know some people think I should go to Ferguson. Don’t they understand that I’ve delegated the Martin Luther King Jr. thing to Eric Holder? Plus, Valerie Jarrett and Al Sharpton have it under control.”
“I know it doesn’t look good to have pictures of me grinning in a golf cart juxtaposed with ones of James Foley’s parents crying, and a distraught David Cameron rushing back from his vacation after only one day, and the Pentagon news conference with Chuck Hagel and General Dempsey on the failed mission to rescue the hostages in Syria.”
“We’re stuck in the rough, going to war all over again in Iraq and maybe striking Syria, too. Every time Chuck says ISIL is ‘beyond anything we’ve ever seen,’ I sprout seven more gray hairs. But my cool golf caps cover them. If only I could just play through the rest of my presidency.”
“ISIL brutally killing hostages because we won’t pay ransoms, rumbles of coups with our puppets in Iraq and Afghanistan, the racial caldron in Ferguson, the Ebola outbreak, the Putin freakout — there’s enough awful stuff going on to give anyone the yips.”
“So how can you blame me for wanting to unwind on the course or for five hours at dinner with my former assistant chef? He’s a great organic cook, and he’s got a gluten-free backyard putting green.”
“But, in a larger sense, we can dedicate, we can consecrate, we can hallow this ground where I can get away from my wife, my mother-in-law, Uncle Joe, Congress and all the other hazards in my life.”
“The brave foursomes, living and dead, who struggled here in the sand, in the trees, in the water, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or subtract a few strokes to improve our score. Bill Clinton was Mr. Mulligan, and he is twice at popular as I am.”
“The world will little note, nor long remember, what we shot here, or why I haven’t invited a bunch of tiresome congressmen to tee it up. I’m trying to relax, guys. So I’d much rather stay in the bunker with my usual bros. Why don’t you play 18 with Mitch McConnell? And John Boehner is a lot better than me, so I don’t want to play with him.”
“It is for us, the duffers, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who played here have thus far so nobly advanced to get young folks to stop spurning a game they find slow and boring.”
“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us of getting rid of our slice on the public’s dime — that from this honored green we take increased devotion to that cause for which Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy gave their last full measure of devotion — and divots.”
“We here highly resolve that these golfing greats shall not have competed in vain, especially poor Tiger, and that this nation, under par, shall have a new birth of freedom to play the game that I have become unnaturally obsessed with, and that golf of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
“So help me Golf.”
Then there is conservative former judge and current Fox host Jeanine Pirro who worked as a district attorney for 30 years in New York. She is possibly the most fearless commentator on television. Here’s what she said on “Justice” barely one day after the Maureen Dowd massacre.
Please watch her “Opening Remarks” here.
I’ve got nothing personally against President Obama. On the positive side he’s charismatic, a good speaker, a powerful fund-raiser, a family man and probably an excellent community organizer.
But he’s not up to the task or image of president of the United States. Why? Because his worldview doesn’t fit reality, he’s an ideologue who seems incapable of change, he appears detached and distracted by golf, fund-raising and his celebrity status, he lacks real leadership skills and competency–and all-in-all, he’s out of his league.
This August he could do the wisest and most humble act of his life and step down as president–for his own good and that of the nation. At least Joe Biden is older and has some experience in foreign policy. He could be a caretaker until 2016–maybe even a decent one like Harry Truman.
Then we need to elect a president with faith, courage, executive experience and leadership skills like Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan.
And never vote for a “jayvee” for POTUS ever again.