Tell the truth: There are Islamic terrorists
Will lying about people's motivations change their behavior? If I decide that global warming needs to be stopped so urgently that I blow up every car factory in the free world, will I be tamed if you label me a "climate crusader" rather than an eco-terrorist? Surely not; the reasoning is faulty, the strategy foolish and the result a moral muddle.
If a person deliberately terrorizes (catch the lexical connection?) in the name of a faith, then he or she is a terrorist whose faith should be implicated in that label. Yes, there are Jewish terrorists and there are Christian terrorists. At the moment, the most severe terrorist threat to peaceable relations in the world comes from neither faith. We do peace loving Muslims no honor by refusing to properly label their violent brethren. There are Islamic terrorists. We know this. To say otherwise is a cowardly evasion.
To use the words 'Islamic terrorists' no more indicts all Muslims than to say that there is teenage drug use indicts all teenagers. Is there disproportionate drug use among teens? Indeed. Are there specific sociological reasons that can offer a partial explanation? Undoubtedly. Is it nonetheless a phenomenon that needs to be labeled, understood and combated? Certainly. Now read back, with still more urgency, those same questions with the Islamic terrorist in mind.
To arrive at a name for something does not mean you understand it. We can call someone an Islamic terrorist and still know little of the person's psychology, or world view, or the shaping forces of his life. But surely to call something by its proper name is a first step in understanding; we have known that since Socrates insisted thousands of years ago that the protagonists in any argument define their terms. So here goes: someone who targets innocent people in the name of Islam is an Islamic terrorist. Next question.
By
David Wolpe
|
July 12, 2010; 4:02 PM ET
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Posted by: 5amefa91 | July 17, 2010 11:02 PM
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............ `\; . ; . . . .. . ; /.\ . . . ~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~
............. .`\; . . . . .; . ;| . .\ . "Give U.S. Liberty
............... ; . . '' ' ; . . . . . ./ . O'Give US Death"
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.......... :---------------------- '# # # |. . . .O' YaHaBeBe"
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.. Credits To "jj" http://onwapo.com
Posted by: faith-on-space-ship-earth | July 17, 2010 4:45 PM
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""B i N --- L A D E N --- I S --- D E A D!""
I'll tell you this, JJ: He's dead, whether or not he's still breathing.
What he's become is something apart from his humanity: he probably couldn't change that if he tried.
Unable to change: Sounds pretty dead to me.
Posted by: APaganplace | July 17, 2010 10:53 AM
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I think one problem with Christians and the like defining people as 'Islamic Terrorists' is not that whether or not that's *true:* it's that the idea is *used* to say, 'They do this, not us.'
The old, 'We're not gay-bashing, war-mongering, witch-hunting, hate-pushing people-hurting, hate-breeding people: that's someone else. Anyone who is Islamic!'
The old basher's thing, 'You'd get worse in Saudi Arabia' (somehow denying what they themselves are doing, while claiming that though it's bad, someone else would be worse, so it's OK....)
If you have two or more 'sides' doing this, nothing can be *fixed,* is the problem.
You see it here constantly: 'We aren't doing bad, they are.' (As though that was how the world worked.)
Some don't *want* to hear that terrorists are fringe criminals, however theocratically-motivated and justified: they want to say 'Whatever my religion does is good, and whatever theirs does is bad,' and absolve themselves of facing facts and reality.
Among those are that, a) No, the religions you push are not proof against atrocity, often far from it, and that b) Yes, the world cannot be controlled by some abstract idea of converting everyone to yours.
These religions who think this way don't become peaceful when they eliminate or push away all others: they *divide* and continue the hate against subgroups.
It's the wrong way.
Yes, religion is most certainly involved: it's the all-or-nothing absolutist thinking that is really the problem.
Cause, c) Sometimes people can and will hurt you, for the very purposes of being bullies. The rest of us, well,we only have each other. There are ways.
Posted by: APaganplace | July 17, 2010 10:50 AM
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B R E A K I N G -- N E W S:
BEHOLD: A Great "Fruedian Slip Of Genuine Prophecy" leaching out subliminally by direct MEME Genetic-Transcription Predictions in Holyi Telepathy!
Bin Ladens Son, 29 year old OMAR, said, "My dad is on the Earth but I don't know where. He's still alive. If that sort of person dies, you could never make it a secret. The world changes if he dies"
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B i N --- L A D E N --- I S --- D E A D!
B I N --- L A D E N --- I S --- D E A D!
B I N --- L A D E N --- I S --- D E A D!
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[WE}i Told YE SO! When Will Ye Start Believing?
WE "APOCALYPTIC-ON"s r NOt PRE-Apocalyptic-OFF's!
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D i N G --- D O N G, -- E A R T H' S
S A T A N i C --- V E R S U S
L O V E R ---IS --- D E A D!
___
.. Credit To "JJ" .. @ .. http://onwapo.com/
Posted by: faith-on-space-ship-earth | July 15, 2010 11:21 AM
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Charity and the giving of advice should always start at home. Why doesn't David Wolpe who holds himself out as a subject matter expert on terrorism should point his analysis in the direction of those who he holds dear. Why doesn't he examine terrorism as practiced by those who founded and currently steer the ship of state that is Israel? He has over one hundred years of secular zionist activity to bleed dry and pick clean. That should be enough to satisfy him.
Posted by: safiyah111 | July 14, 2010 3:23 PM
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US forces do that but anyone who cannot tell the difference between that and diliberately targeting non combatants suffers from willful myopia.
Posted by: edbyronadams
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Sometimes, you have to consider that it is not all about the US and its forces one has in mind and is talking about.
I am referencing to experiences of various Asian government troops in their pursuit of designated terrorists and secessionists in their own countries.
More deaths of civilians and destructions of property, lives and livelihoods are caused by government troops than any terrorists or secessionists groups for the the simple fact that government troops have more arms, better weapons and planes too to rain bombs on land.
Terrorists do "smart targetting" of places and populations, while the government troop response is sometime "carpet bombing" of neighboorhoods, regions, and populace.
No one really report extensively on government troop atrocities among civilians in rooting out and eliminating terrorists and secessionists. For governments have the power to ban third party independent observers and journalists in designated areas of conflicts.
Posted by: Jihadist | July 14, 2010 2:12 PM
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"kill innocents (as bystanders, as collateral damage, as friendly fire)"
US forces do that but anyone who cannot tell the difference between that and diliberately targeting non combatants suffers from willful myopia.
Posted by: edbyronadams | July 14, 2010 12:54 PM
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So here goes: someone who targets innocent people in the name of Islam is an Islamic terrorist. Next question.
- David Wolpe
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Nahhhh....
We are no easily swayed as some by those who use Islam to murder in the name of Islam, in calling themselves Muslim, or that what they do is Islamic.
What do you call someone who detain people without trial, kill innocents (as bystanders, as collateral damage, as friendly fire) in the quest for freedom and democracy, for public order, for peace and security?
Posted by: Jihadist | July 14, 2010 11:15 AM
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All 'PELEG' Eberu Worshiping Nations Shall Fear their Biofinite & Carbon-Based 'HOLYi-NO-MON/WOM! WHEREFORE:
Hear YE/YO, Hear YO/YE; O' WAHHABi & AYATOLLAH Ummah on S.pace-S.hip Earth: Behold: Since the Tables of Future-Bound & Space-Forth has come'th, TODAY
Al ISLAMi's Ummah (Islami World Community) must finally ask the Question: WHY
W H Y -- D O E S -- T H E --
W O R L D -- H A T E -- U S [Islami's].?
Note: IT is No-Longer a YAHUDi Question? Nor is this-Prophecy a KAFIRi Question.!
--- [TODAY is 2010]:
O' Dear dear 'PROPHET', Hir Albert Einstein {pbuh et al}. O' How Happy Albert {pbuh} will be today on this Prophetic [Islami] International Question. No Longer a Yahudi (Ju) Question of the 1930's! O' How Happy our Prophet {pbuh} is now, even though HE is in PURGATORY, waiting For the Great Holyi-Reversal of TEMPerature [aka TiME]; among the Greats like Osiris; Zues, Moses, Jesus, Vyasa, Gautama, Smith, Muhammad & Co.
Again: WHY DOES THE NONE-iSLAMi-UMMAH Now Dislike The ISLAMi-UMMAH?
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Hark; Allah, G-D, Isgvara & by manymany Names via Holyi TiME [TEMPerature] is on the KAFiR's Side; NOt Islami Alone!!
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P R O P H E C Y: Al ISLAMi Ummah's CHILDREN, Especially The Jealous ARABOUS's Kids; Will be Drinking PETRO/OIL + Swimming in the Stuff Soon soon very soon. Al Islami Ummah Will Destroy Each the Other; Until SATAN within the Islami Ummah, is Totally Destroyed. 250+ Million Islami's will die in vain. And Their "A L L A H" (Not our Kafir "G - D) will Hath Awakened in Anger against Islami Ummah's WAHHABI & AYATOLLAHi Infidel Islami Leaderships & such infidel Islami Followers!"
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Behold; Death to [not only Islami Ummah] "P-E-L-E-G" EBERu Abrahamic Theocracy & Monarchy People/Nations Is Near!
Note: It is NOt too late for the Islami-Ummah to prevent their self Caused, self dealt, self made up & coming Calamity [Death of Islams Theocracy, includes Monarchy. And also Kafir Theocracy & monarchy's].
Remember: The "Religion Of Everything, Before The Science Of Everything" is HERE.
"IT" (not a HE nor a SHE), aka 'SOURCE-1' of the "Yj - O - K - T -A -N" EBERU Race [aka APOCALYPTic-ON's, Not Offs]
The End of the ages of the Peleg 'KORAN's, the 'TORAH/CHUMASH', The BiBLE, the GEETA, the KANGYUR, the 'bkoMORMON' et al wannabe's, is Near.
Behold: The "ULTRA-PARATESTAMENT" of [O.ne U.niversal R.eligion] NEW SONG or MiZAN (the Balance); As Prophecied & Given US via The Great "MELCHIZEDEK" thus Reversing the Peleg-ian "WAR-BLESSINGS" & Now Replaced with the "PEACE-BLESSiNGS". A Prophecy Who's Time is Bred, Born & MADE IN AMERICA (NOt Israel, NOt Mecca, NOt Tibet, Not Rome, Not Delhi etc..).
Posted by: faith-on-space-ship-earth | July 14, 2010 9:52 AM
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Random acts of violence against civilians are the acts of tribal weakness. Since they cannot lead to power, they are merely spoilers for those who do reside under the control of another regime. Islam is demonstrably weak since any area in which they are a majority produces societies that have little to offer the arts, the sciences or material progress. It must be infuriating to the believers who think they have a handle on the ultimate mystic truth when the manifestation on earth is third rate. That is why we have Islamic terror.
Alas, they apparently have ample justification for religious violence in their sacred texts and subsequent history as well.
Posted by: edbyronadams | July 14, 2010 8:42 AM
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David Wolpe,
Yours is a very politically correct reasoning but you are very mistaken and uninformed about Islam. Truly, yours is a mindset that will help the Islamization of America. Before you communicate these false notions I ask you sir to please, please, please do some honest research about Islam before you start defending something clearly you know little or nothing about.
Please start here by reading this informative book excerpt from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat
http://docstalk.blogspot.com/2008/03/islam-is-not-religion-nor-is-it-cult-it_16.html
Another good site for info, click on Islam 101
www.jihadwatch.org
A very informative site as well
http://islam-watch.org/
Posted by: nightvigil | July 13, 2010 12:10 PM
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What should we call terrorists? Think. Think. How about terrorists?