Re-Naming God
Well, most certainly, in this Topsy-turfy world we all now inhabit some chirpy individual bethought herself of a solution toward solving the suspicion and enmity at times evinced between adherents of various religions. In particular those three religions named the Abrahamic trio; those that were born of the holy scriptures identified as the Old Testament. Judaism, its offshoot Christianity and the last-born of this uneasy family, Islam.The solution? Simple, really. Re-name God. Scrap Yahweh or Jehovah or Holy Father and name God instead Allah. The name, it was ventured, has such a charming ring to it. And cannot we see Christians scrambling all over one another, wildly encouraging Protestants of every division and Roman Catholics in theirs to happily adopt the name of Allah with which to grace their vision of He on high. And Jews? Hanging from the balconies in wild rapture.
Muslims, on the other hand, appear to be receptive to this bright new idea in encouraging greater understanding and amity between religious groups by going-along-to-get-along. The suggestion is as it should be. Bowing to the nature of Islam and its firm appraisal of itself as the one true and only path to God's heavenly door, the salvation of humanity. Did I forget to mention the suggestion emanated from Great Britain?
That very place where it was recently reported that Muhammad is now the second-most popular name given to babies, hard on the heels of the first most popular and soon to overtake it. It is, perhaps, inevitable? Why chafe under the misery of considering what is to come, after all? Why not pre-empt the anguish and just accept the inevitability of it all?
In the same spirit, with perhaps a touch of caustic irony came another recommendation through the publication Time Out London, recommending the efficacy of London's transition toward the total acceptance, for all, of Islam, with a concomitant altering of laws and customs to reflect that Islamification.
Oh certainly there might be the occasional protest, from, for example, the Anglican Church and just incidentally the numerous Hindus and Sikhs among others who inhabit that city, but good gracious, changes are always difficult. It is in the nature of human beings to be resistant to change, to cling desperately to that which is familiar, which has proved itself to be tried-and-true.
The author of the item, one Michael Hodges, did offer some sterling observations such as that the constant kneeling and assumption of the prone position in obeisance to Allah, the show of complete submission as required, might forestall the onset of osteoporosis, halt the ongoing epidemic of obesity, and reverse the impending vacancies in church attendance so lamented by the pious.
And mightn't this embrace of Islam create an atmosphere of calm and serenity, of belonging and satisfaction within the population? Islamists do claim, after all, that the embrace of Islam leads to pacification, equality and respect: "Under Islam all ethnicities are equal. Once you have submitted to Allah you are a Muslim - it doesn't matter what colour you are. End of story."
End of story indeed. Acceptance equals capitulation, leads to submission and concludes with a life in abeyance, then one utterly subsumed. On the other hand, the politically correct and the left-liberal intellectuals have churned these types of overtures so thoroughly in their barrel of life-affirming tricks to bring them into total alignment with the perceived underdog that it makes sense.
It's an almost-irresistible recommendation. No longer would there be imams fulminating against the profanity and purposeless of the Western lifestyle. The obscenity of modern life would be enfolded into another purpose, relegated to the hellfires that deserve them. And any dissenting individuals thrown into that raging furnace with their godless ideology. Madrassas would no longer need to preach the virtues of jihad.
Bloodthirstily raging jihadists would no longer plot to bomb popular and well-populated dens of iniquity. Their purpose collapsed, so would the worldwide movement to violent jihad. The world would be safe, no longer threatened by devoted jihadist terrorists, for we will have succumbed to the allure of safety and security in Islam; become devoted and devout Muslims.
Mind, we have seen the face of modern Islam and while it seeks inclusiveness, indeed the opportunity to foist Islam universally upon a reluctant world by any and all means, we have also observed that it is not fundamentally tolerant in nature, but aggressive, demanding, repressive, oppressive.
Witness Iraq and Sudan, the sacrifice of moderate Muslims to the demands of fundamentalist Muslims.
But hey, this is the real world and you just can't have everything. In any event, we've been complacent for long enough about our place in this world, we of other religions and of none. We'll become accustomed to restraints on public expression, the endangerment of women's rights, the constraints on gender interaction, the education of children.
We'll learn to adjust to Sharia law, to the loss of a secular judiciary, to a dictated sense of public decorum, the demands of daily prayer and abstinence from alcohol, decadent music and dance and theatre. We'll become accustomed to thinking, breathing, living and hearing Islam before all else. Nature abhors a vacuum and theism will rush into our empty souls.
Too much has been made of free speech and human rights, in any event. Right?
Labels: Political Realities, Religion
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 25, 2007
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