A Time for Righteous Wrath

The expression of anger by President Obama directed against Donald Trump’s criticism of the President’s continued defense of and denial that radical Islam is the inspirational source of Islamic terrorism was a display of passionate petulance. We could only hope such anger will ever be directed against those who kill in the name of Islam, regardless of whether or not Obama will ever acknowledge the connection. Already, with the bloodstained floors of a Florida nightclub barely dry, the President and apologists for radical Islam are seeking scapegoats to explain another atrocity committed in the name of “the religion of peace.”

Every time I hear that description of the most violent religion on the planet my anger is barely constrained. How, do I ask, do you think Islam was propagated to the world? Do you really believe Islamic, sandal-clad missionaries wandered from village to village, propagating a message of love, peace and reconciliation with God?

The latter is an accurate description of first through third century Christianity (but not Islam) when the church was in its purest form. Most of the time Christian missionaries were severely persecuted, imprisoned, fined, whipped or killed, yet they persisted. A breakthrough occurred during the plague of Justinian in which the people of Rome fled from a devastating plague, likely Bubonic Plague or the “Black Death.” This plague was so severe that husbands and wives abandoned their plague-stricken spouse or children to their fate, fleeing the city for their life. One group stayed behind and tended to the critically ill: the Christians. The impact of their charity towards strangers, especially strangers that recently persecuted them, changed attitudes towards the “Christian sect” overnight amongst the Roman people.

This is the contrast between the two great faiths of Christianity and Islam. Islam was spread by war and terror, by the most extreme forms of violence against any and all irrespective of age or sex until Christianized communities throughout the Middle East and North Africa were virtually annihilated. The message of the Prophet of Islam was simple, “convert or die.” The most radical form of Islam is re-conquering the region using 7^th Century tactics. Moderate Muslims have no place in the new ISIS Caliphate which is “purifying” the faith as ISIS dictates.

We saw a forerunner in Afghanistan’s Taliban which banned all music, movies, most books except the Koran, denied women access to medical care (male doctors are prohibited from treating women) and female doctors were prohibited from holding jobs or practicing medicine. ISIS should be so liberal. Last week, taking a page from the Saudi Arabian religious police, ISIS burned 19 young Yazidi women at the stake for refusing to have sex with ISIS soldiers. Similarly, two years prior the Saudi religious police blocked exits of a burning school to keep girls from escaping the fire: they didn’t have their burkas on to hide their feminine forms. The police deemed it better young women die a horrible death than local men’s be tempted by the sight of an uncovered female. ISIS is doing this throughout “the House of Islam” and eventually the world.

The King of Jordan and Egypt’s president both recognize this and have pleaded for help from Obama in their fight against Islamic extremists such as ISIS. Thus far, Obama has ignored their pleas for help and wages an ineffective war against ISIS with pin-prick drone strikes. ISIS and its internet-propaganda machine could be destroyed utterly within a few months with an effective military campaign using massive military force such as used in Desert Storm in 1991. The 4^th largest army in the world was defeated by American arms in just 100 hours. The second Iraq War defeated Baathist Iraq in three weeks of combat; ISIS is dug in and will take longer but with Jordanian and Egyptian help could be crushed in a few months. Thousands will die, no doubt, but thousands are dying now and will continue to die until the scourge of ISIS is obliterated along with their caliphate. ISIS has displaced millions of people, murdered and tortured tens of thousands and inspires domestic terrorism in Europe, Asia, Africa and now America. Like cancer, their evil theology and medieval tactics of enslavement and savagery towards any in opposition continues to migrate across oceans and international borders. What occurred in Florida this week will happen again and again and again until America wakes up and confronts evil with righteous wrath.

To those indifferent I refer you to Proverbs 24: 10-12 “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength? Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?” If we continue to do nothing, get used to Florida, it’s just the beginning.

By Al Fonzi, RPSLO Chairman

First published in the Atascadero News on 17 June 2016