Janus-Faceted
Where did it all start, the fanaticization of Islam? Where other world religions tempered themselves understanding that they had a need to reflect the modern world we all live in, far from the temper of the time in which they evolved, and applied an enlightened reasoning to their faith-based ideologies of humankind's approach to God, only Islam has done otherwise.With those religions other than Islam, the sternly demanding, indomitable face of humankind's spiritual adviser was softened to appeal to the better nature inherent in the race.
Interpretation of biblical scriptures, of the holy writings of various religions became more careful of historical claims which rationality could not support as science and revelations of the Universe that surrounds us and the nature of all things of the natural world were encountered and understood.
Religious interpretation of God-sent missions to humankind shifted to reflect a new rationality as well as spiritual needs. But not within Islam. Whose beneficent, gentle, and loving spirit revealed to the faithful was overlaid with a densely interwoven demand on the daily lives of its adherents to obedience of the strictures placed upon their lives.
And to remit daily, hourly, by the very minute and second unto Allah pledges of their unswerving, submissive devotion. In the process utterly eschewing any commerce or social intercourse with competing devotions.
From the crucible of this new religion clad in steel replacing the previous gossamer-slight-yet-firm devotion with its militant undertones, sprang a new interpretation of jihad, making it incumbent upon all believers to pledge and play Islamist fanaticism. Its name was Wahhabism, and its leading exemplars came from the House of Saud. Whose ascetic and worshipful commitment to Islamism was fuelled by disdain of all contenders.
Saudi Arabia was alerted to the riches in its desert sands by enterprising French and British and American surveyors, geologists and energy corporations set up to do business with it. Its immense petroleum-based resources have ensured that the kingdom has become wealthy beyond reckoning. And the wealthy royal house, while living austerely and piously, sent its scions to the West for enlightened educations.
Not that enlightened that they would casually dismiss Wahhabism, but comfortable with the Western code of social justice and liberty they would not themselves proffer to their own, while holding Western mores and values in utter contempt. Despite which, the Western-educated princelings, fabulously enriched by sales of oil to the West, comport themselves in a manner unheard of in Saudi Arabia, while living in or visiting the West.
The Saudi social and political elite are urbane, sophisticated and religiously conceited, even as they claim to be devoted to their version of Islam. Their devotion so overwhelming that they fund Wahhabist-style madrasses to educate the masses of Muslim youth, everywhere in the world's ummah; a vast network of Muslims living abroad. From these madrasses come mind-sets entirely devoted to the concept of Islam triumphing over all adversaries.
The adversities recognized as working against Islamist triumphalism are seen as forces hostile to Islam; primarily Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism. The world of the Christian infidels, of the Jewish antagonists, though connected through the acknowledged initiator of monotheism, Abraham, are felt to be antagonistic to Islam, which proclaims itself the true final inheritor of the divine religion resulting from the original vision of Abraham.
And which a nomadic desert people became thoroughly integrated with through the stringent and militantly determined efforts of a merchant-philosopher-turned-evangelist-fighter named Muhammad whose vaunted role as the final Prophet in the evolution of monotheistic religion is today venerated by Islam. The Prophet Muhammad set out on a mission of militarist conquest on behalf of Islam, creating an immense and powerful religious dynasty.
In its vision of a final ascendancy, where other religions are subservient to Islam, a fiercely determined sub-set of Wahhabist devotees have assembled themselves as warriors of Allah, intrepidly involved in seeing to the destruction of all opposition to the advance of Islam as the world's sole supervising religious order. Saudi Arabian oil income derived from sales to the West fuels the global jihad.
Labels: Conflict, Islam, Middle East, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, March 19, 2011
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