I haven’t blogged about the war in Iraq before because I wanted to get my thoughts together. As a preliminary note, I do believe this is a religious war, whether the United States believes so or not.
While reading and writing a review for The Crisis of Islam almost a year ago, I gained a better understanding of Islam’s view of the West.
When the Ayatollah Khomeini first referred to the United States as “The Great Satan” at the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, he wanted to invoke the image of the Seducer, the Liar of all liars. According to the Koran, Satan is “an insidious tempter who whispers in the hearts of men.” To Muslims, America is not a superpower to be feared, but a deceiver to be obliterated….
A Middle East expert, Lewis proffers that Americans are puzzled by this venomous sentiment because their general level of historical knowledge is “abysmally low.” Muslims, however, are defined by their history: who they are, where they came from, and what they perceive as God’s purpose for their lives.
“For [Osama] bin Laden, his declaration of war against the United States marks the resumption of the struggle for religious dominance of the world that began in the seventh century,” Lewis writes.
For example, to the Middle East, President Bush is just a successor in a long line of rulers — from the Byzantine emperors of Constantinople, the Holy Roman Emperors in Vienna, Queen Victoria, and other European imperialists — who are serious impediments to the divinely ordained expansion of Islam, merely delaying its inevitable conquest.
Without understanding how important history is to followers of Islam and how important it should be to Americans, the confusion will continue.
I didn’t have a blog last October when liberals and Muslims were in an uproar over Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin for saying, “We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Speaking about terrorists, Boykin also said, “I knew my God was bigger than his [a terrorist leader]. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.” Boykin said these things in a church, not a Pentagon press conference. To secularists, his remarks are the ultimate political incorrectness, for they believe there is no God or that God is a grandfather-in-the-sky who is all love, no wrath and enjoys watching his creatures frolic.
I was very angry with President Bush (but never got around to writing a column about it) for saying that Boykin didn’t speak for Americans, who think terrorists merely hijacked a “great religion.” This American doesn’t hold that opinion.
I backed up Boykin’s statements and thought the president was weak for not doing the same. But then again, I’m a private citizen and he’s the leader of the free world. The pressure to appease must be intense.
Clifford May wrote a good piece about the Boykin controversy in National Review Online:
Boykin was clearly speaking here about mass murderers such as bin Laden. If they are not evil, then there is no such thing as evil. But if they are evil, it can hardly be outrageous to describe a war against such evil as a struggle against a “spiritual enemy.” Isn’t that what evil is?
Politically correct nonsense is killing us and eroding the sovereignty of our nation. When you can’t put a name and face on evil, the face of good is equally obscured. That’s my preliminary take on the war.
More commentary about Lt. Gen. Boykin’s statements:
Should We Not Give the Devil His Due?
General Boykin — The Big Picture
Will Gen. Boykin Get Fired For Agreeing With Gen. Washington About God?
