The Cost of Islamism vs. Humanity

One of the mixed benefits of a long-term interest in history is the eventual recognition of the recurring theme of the struggle of those who would increase the intrinsic value of an individual human being over the fierce objections of those who seek to continue dominating and/or subjugating them using their favorite selection from history’s lurid palate of injustice.
 
Our current conflict is no different in this respect… and as always it is borne out of the fear of the loss of power and/or the amoral hunger for it. 
 
The cult of Islamism is seeking global dominance, misusing a still stagnating system of religious belief that is based on the norms of behavior nearly millennium old to assert itself against humanity’s immutable sea of change.  The Islamist cult has a predictable array of allies who openly ally themselves in support of their pending acquisition of nuclear arms.
(http://www.washtimes.com/world/20060917-122916-5194r.htm)
 
You can see the full acceptance of those ancient norms being played out before your eyes when you watch the throat of a kidnapped slashed for benefit of the camera.  Look also to the self-flagellating pronouncements of Muslim youngsters too young to know better, whose hopelessness has been co-opted by Islamist zeal and the manipulation of the existing elite who fear losing their control that is based on the debasement of their own people. 
 
You can also observe the stagnation of morality in Islamic world’s system of routinely relegating humans to disposable chattel, fecklessly enabling the abomination of slavery to stay alive in a world still struggling to shake off those ancient bonds. (http://www.merip.org/mer/mer211/211_haddad.htm) 
 
The systematic murder and maltreatment of non-Arabic people in the Sudan is yet another in the recurrent dirge of Islamist outrages against humanity that continues to use religion as a cloak for power-hungry barbarity. 
 
Another sure sign that Islam is being routinely and purposely used as goad to violence can currently be seen in the response of the Muslim street to a public quotation of a 700 year-old text decrying Islam’s inherent violence… as if to set out to deliberately prove the validity of that ancient allegation.
(http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.aspx?cu_no=2&item_no=107948&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17)
 
The clear recognition of these combined issues made possible my accurate early warning of the Islamist’s use of kidnapping and murders as media events for the world’s television screens.  It also commends what follows.
(http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/m-n/marzullo/03/marzullo120903.htm).
 
But beyond the cult of Islamism lays an even more crucial issue and that is the acceptance of the process of growth within Islam.  This is a sea change that absolutely cannot be imposed from without, will be slow and must come from within the community of Islam itself.  There are some encouraging signs that this process has begun, though it is undoubtedly in its infancy.
(http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null)
 
As with other very basic issues of belief, we humans are innately slow to accept change.  Looking back at the Christian Reformation and the wars of religion in Europe over the past thousand years, it is possible to observe that such changes are have always been lengthy, painful and frequently bloody.  Whether the conflict is one of science based on observation over dogma or whether to increase the social value of a single human life, all cultures have suffered and will continue to suffer social strife and even open war.  That readily observable root cause of historical recurrent conflicts is one of the pandemic truths of the human condition and this speaks authoritatively as to how long it will probably take the world of Islam itself to adapt to modernity.
 
Considering our shared human history as a roadmap for future events, it is with considerable justification that the argument can be justifiably made for the near-term eradication of the cult of Islamism.  This action is as much a matter of allowing the continued social growth of a large and honorable segment of humanity as it is for welfare of the rest of humanity.  To act sooner is reduce the amount of bloodshed to as little as possible.  To expect the rapidly rising conflict to be bloodless is to expect humanity to become a wholly different species overnight… based on utter denial or simply irrationally wishful thinking.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060913/en_afp/usattackseurope_060913155404)
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401413_pf.html)
 
As one who abhors war, yet intimately understands the application of unconventional tactics and force of arms to achieve a desired goal, I know that most of us will eventually come to fully appreciate that the use of murder, terror and coercion will continue to be vigorously and globally applied by the Islamists.  It is the same situation humanity repeatedly encountered from other groups whose lodestone were also the achievement of global power unadulterated by any real concern for human suffering…  only the color scheme of its trappings have been changed.
 
Listen carefully to what the Islamists themselves say, they are quite clear and succinct in what they intend.
 
Therefore, the basic question before us is as simple as it is stark.  The non-Muslim world’s denial and dissembling only delays the time that we will be forced to squarely confront it… but at a rapidly escalating cost.
 
That question is: “Just how much suffering are we humans willing to endure to stop this latest attempt at wholesale subjugation that would return us all to the dark ages?”
 

 
Tom Marzullo is a physicist, educator and environmental specialist with experience in both Special Forces and submarine special operations.  He has provided testimony to the US Senate on a variety of issues, including Iraq.  He pioneered the first victory of Internet journalism over the conventional media in what became known as the Tailwind scandal.  He developed the early accurate strategic assessment of our current situation in Iraq.