{"article":{"id":13435,"heading":"The New Islamic Empire","author":"Gary Larrabee","created":"2001-12-08 09:51:15","modified":"2005-08-15 00:48:05","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:48:05","article":"

The New Islamic Empire

By Ronald L. Dart

They are people of the desert. To the western eye, they appear backward, undeveloped, fanatical, even bizarre. Yet they are the remnants of one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. And they are destined to effect your life more directly than you can ever imagine.

They are the peoples of Islam. There are 800 million Moslems in North Africa, the Middle East, Middle Asia, the far east and the rest of the world. The followers of Mohammed are five million strong in the United States, and by now, there may be 100 million Moslems in the Soviet Union.

Drop by your local bookstore and browse the current affairs section. Here you should find something on all the major issues that face our nation in the twentieth century.

Well, nearly all. In my bookstore, I found nothing dealing with Islam or the Arab peoples. Perhaps it is of small moment to Americans that Moslem fanatics held 48 diplomats hostage and nearly wrecked the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Maybe the two major oil shocks of the seventies that brought our economy to its knees have faded from our memory. Was it just a bad dream, or were we all lined up around the block for a tank of gasoline not long ago? Wasn't it because of an Arab oil embargo? And what were our armies doing in Iraq during Desert Storm?

Islam is an Arabic religion, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are in Saudi Arabia. As an accident of fate, or as a result of divine providence, Saudi Arabia sits on roughly one fourth of the world's oil reserves and supplies about 18 percent of the free world's oil.

When we add the rest of the Arab world, plus Iran and Iraq, North Africa, and the oil producing Islamic nations of the far east, it is plain that the followers of the Prophet have a stranglehold on the most strategic commodity in the world. When they can agree on policy, they can bring the world economy to its knees. When OPEC decides it will be so, even a powerful nation with its own oil reserves can end up with shortages of heating oil, lines at the gas pumps, and raging inflation.

Ask any American. Well, ask any American in his thirties.

It seems strange, in a nation that has already experienced two severe \"oil shocks\" at the hands of Islam, that we know so little about these people, their religion, where they come from, and where they are going. We look upon them as backward, illiterate, inept, \"camel drivers,\" and hold them in contempt. We have no idea what drives them because we know little or nothing of their history. Many assume there is little history to know.

How wrong they are.



THE ISHMAELITES











































































































































































\n","contact":"gary_larrabee@yahoo.com","link":"http:\/\/www.ourchurch.com\/view\/?pageID=58541","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Unlike Christianity, Islam is concerned with seeking to regulate, not only man's relationship with God (through his conscience), but human relationships in society as well. Therefore, there can be not only an Islamic \"church\" but also Islamic law, and an Islamic state. The dual religious and social character of Islam sees itself as commissioned by God to bring its own value system to the world through the jihad.","numcomment":3,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/12\/the_new_is.txt","filesize":"23.3 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/12\/13435.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":13436,"heading":"Empire and religion","article":"It's interesting that the author of this piece chooses \r\nto focus on the supposed queer \"otherness\" of Moslems. \r\nNotwithstanding the lip-service paid to \"Islamic \r\ncontributions to civilization,\" we should take note of a \r\nnumber of contradictory things about his rhetorical \r\ntactics. \r\n\r\nFor one thing, the imputation of \"inscrutability\" is a \r\nshopworn tactic of Western imperialism, which has been \r\nused over and over again to justify every sort of bullying \r\nand atrocity against \"brown people\" for the sake of the \r\nenrichment of European elites since Columbus. \r\n\r\nFor another, the author himself betrays his own religiously \r\nmotivated biases, spending more time on the supposed \r\nBiblical roots of \"the Arabs\" than on anything so \r\ncontemporary as the \"energy crisis\" and OPEC. \r\n\r\nSo much for European exceptionalism or the uniquely \r\ntheocratic tendencies of Moslem countries. Does the \r\nauthor really forget that Europe launched the Crusades and \r\nprosecuted them for hundreds of years, precisely to conquer \r\n\"the infidels\" (principally Moslems) and convert the world \r\nto Christianity by force of arms? \r\n\r\nAnother peculiarity that betrays the narrowly European \r\nand pro-imperialist outlook of the author is his strange \r\ninsistence on the nefarious \"control\" exercised by \r\n\"Arabs\" over oil. Supposedly, we are to believe that \r\nthis constitutes a unique threat to the well-meaning and \r\ninnocent West. But, curiously, the control of a handful of \r\n(mainly US-based) megacorporations, principally from the \r\nauto, oil, petrochemical, and allied industrial complexes \r\nover most of the world's economy poses no such threat. \r\nNor does the author detect any threat in the control of \r\nthe most powerful means of persuasion in human history, the \r\nworld's electronic and print media, by another interlocking \r\ngroup of six megacorporations. \r\n\r\nNo, instead of locating a threat to the world's peace \r\nand equanimity in the fantastic accumulation of wealth \r\nand power by a handful of the world's richest countries, \r\ncorporations, and individuals, it seems all the threats \r\nto our safety and comfort come from \"the East,\" the \r\nperfect bogeyman -- far away, armed, fanatical, ideal \r\nbait-and-switch to justify the continued building and use \r\nof the most dangerous and destructive armaments in human \r\nhistory, for the protection of the richest, greediest, \r\nand most destructive ruling class in human history. \r\n\r\nEspecially noteworthy is the classic propaganda tactic \r\nwhich forms the premise of the entire piece, the threat \r\nof an \"Islamic empire,\" noted in the title. Curiously, \r\nthe author notes the fractious nature of inter-Arab and \r\nMiddle East politics which would seem to discount the \r\nlikelihood of such a threat emerging. Nonetheless, the \r\nfear of this admitted fantasy motivates him to write the \r\npiece, whereas the painfully obvious historical and ongoing \r\nREALITY of Western imperialism never enters the picture. \r\n\r\nInterestingly also, notwithstanding the author's argument \r\nfor the uniquely theocratic nature of Islamic countries, \r\nit so happens that, of all the Western countries, the \r\nleading one in wealth and power is also by far the most \r\npious -- the US. US leaders, unique among the leaders of \r\nWestern nations, routinely publicly evoke God to justify \r\nand sanctify their political actions. This is also \r\nconvenient. George Jr.'s reference to a \"Crusade\" may \r\nhave been halfwitted bumbling as is generally supposed, \r\nbut the fact of religious or quasireligious influences \r\non US regimes, is increasingly a reality. Anyone doubting \r\nthis should read up a little on the Reverend Billy Graham \r\nand his close ties with top-ranking rightwing US political \r\nleaders. \r\n\r\nSociohistorians of contemporary American culture have noted \r\nthe increasing influence of traditional and historically \r\nright-leaning religious groups in the US, coinciding with \r\nthe shrinkage of the public sphere in the latter half of \r\nthe 20th century. These trends are closely related to the \r\nrapid spread of suburban sprawl development patterns, and \r\nthe resulting breakdown of both rural and urban community \r\nlife. Into the void of social atomization and alienation \r\ncreated by a homogenized, automobile-centric, sterile \r\nnationalized megacorporate culture, religion has stepped, \r\nto provide the \"grounding\" that has been ground out of \r\nthe ordinary lives of people under latterday American \r\nhypercapitalism. \r\n\r\nHistorically, religious revivalism has been seen as a \r\nthreat to elites. \"Ye cannot worship God and mammon both\" \r\ngoes the refrain. Ever since Christ drove the moneychangers \r\nfrom the temple, temporal rulers have had to devise \r\nmeans of coopting and neutralizing popular religious \r\nzeal. Nowhere has this cooptation and assimilation to elite \r\nprerogatives been as successful as the US. The rise \r\nof establishment-friendly religious cults has a long \r\nhistorical development in the country, but has enjoyed \r\nparticular success here since the Reagan Administration. \r\n\r\nToday, groups such as the Christian Coalition openly rally \r\ntheir members in support for causes such as \"free trade\" \r\nand tax cuts for the country's wealthiest individuals \r\nand corporations, causes that would seem distant from the \r\nconcerns and motivations of traditional faiths. However, \r\ntrue to their Puritan roots, leaders of these sects see \r\nno irony in this, nor in the fact that the causes they \r\nchampion in many cases are directly contrary and harmful \r\nto the personal wellbeing and self-interest of most of \r\ntheir members. Indeed, therein lies at least part of the \r\nideological secret of the success of recent rightwing \r\nUS regimes.\r\n","author":"Guy Berliner","parent_id":13435,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-12-08 11:48:10","modified":"2001-12-08 12:01:01","fileurl":""},{"id":13437,"heading":"WRONG!","article":"I disagree with the first two words, \"Unlike Christianity\".\r\nChristianity and other religions do seek to regulate society\r\nin general. That is mainly what they do. Alan Watts, a\r\nwriter on religion and a former episcopal priest, called\r\nthe christian church \"a sexual regulation society\".\r\n\r\n","author":"Marc","parent_id":13435,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-12-08 16:19:54","modified":"2001-12-08 17:00:01","fileurl":""},{"id":13439,"heading":"eat your 'shrooms and shut up","article":"Islam uses physical sanction, ,American Christianity uses psychological sanction and then denies the fact that social ills like mass murder being rampant, suicide( teens especially), psychological disruptions etcetcetc, alcohol and grug use...might have anything to do with the perversion of life energy (christian teachings). The known enemy at least gets conformity. Our denial gets chaos.\r\n\r\nPuritans, particularly'methodism', a particularly interesting form of elitism, where wealth , prosperity and position in the world are proof of the favor of god! is contrary to the injunctions of christ himself. but then christianity is mostly contrary to christ. that's what mohamut was a corrective of. an additional social event to correct the perversion of an idea in the hands of mankind. (this does not require a god to make it happen) Well, they all failed. We will never make it to a type one civilization.\r\n\r\nSocial darwinism, anglo men perverted by life killing religious indoctrination are the basis of our 'capitalism' which is much like drug use, satanism and other debaucheries. Some transcend , some, most don't. The same analysis willl hold true for the board room as in the gutter. \r\n\r\nI find the whole thing interesting in that islam ,cristianity and judaism come from the same tradition. ITs like a big family fight. And it ignores every religion from the east of the caucasus mountains, and the far east.\r\n\r\nAs Hoffman so poigniantly explained. all three are MYCOPHOBIC religions. They repudiate the OLD RELIGION.\r\n\r\nThings will be better when they pass from memory and we return to what worked so well, for so many millenia. ","author":"a3m","parent_id":13435,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-12-08 18:53:24","modified":"2001-12-08 19:20:56","fileurl":""}]}