Islam and Christianity regard the teachings of Jesus as prophetic, and all three monotheistic religions regard the Decalogue as presented to Moses as basic Law. The basic premise of Jesus is that we must love God above all things and love each other as we love ourselves. And a primary commandment of the Decalogue is that we shall not kill. Included in killing is that we shall not kill ourselves, i.e., suicide. The Koran specifically bans murder and suicide. This brings up the question of martyrdom through suicide. If we believe in God and love him above all things including ourselves and our lives then it is regarded as martyrdom to surrender our life in defense of our belief. Jews and Christians have always venerated martyrs as saints who have surrendered their life, rather than deny their religion. Islam teaches also that martyrs go directly to Paradise. There is a question though as to what is martyrdom? Modern Islam, as is true in all major religions, has many factions. Some factions regard martyrdom in a very limited sense while other factions regard almost every form of death as martyrdom, as long as the faith is kept. Suicide bombing is regarded as martyrdom by the latter, but considered sinful by the former. The leaders of the latter, labeled as radical extremists by the former and by other adversaries, preach the glory of martyrdom; the immediate entrance into Paradise for suicide bombings. They are able to recruit and motivate young faithful Muslims to this cause. Ideally it is required that their candidates be especially religious and faithful in order to accept this concept. But grievances with events in the Middle East with respect to Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan, also yield willing candidates who may not even care about Allah; but want revenge. The non-Muslim world hasn’t figured out how to treat the problem. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and hopefully only a small faction is extremists. But it has been clearly demonstrated that this faction has the ways and means to create complete havoc. And, although the majority may not be extremists, an unknown larger faction probably sympathizes with their basic objectives or grievances. The countries that are predominantly Muslim include extremely oil-rich nations, and it is very clear that this wealth adds to the potency of the movement. A major part of the Western world's dilemma is the dependence on these oil-rich nations for their entire economy, as well as for strategic security. It is very clear that if the oil flow would be shut off the west would have an even more extreme economic disaster and the armies of the West would very shortly be ground to a halt. One Jihad grievance is the Western exploitation of the oil-rich countries. Many regard the Gulf War and the Iraq war, as nothing but battles for oil. Another part of the Western world's dilemma is the Arab-Israeli situation. The Western world has backed Zionism since World War I, but especially after World War II, and this resulted in the creation of the nation of Israel on land that once was part of King David's empire. This grievance is that Jews hadn't occupied this land for 2000 years during which this land was occupied mainly by Palestinian Arabs. Although it was never controlled by a Palestinian government, it was controlled for centuries by Muslims until the Ottoman Turks lost control after they took the wrong side in World War I. The creation of Israel displaced Palestinians. The current Jihad against the west, whether called terrorism, insurgency, guerrilla warfare, or whatever, is clearly a worldwide war no matter how small the individual actions are. The Jihad leaders think that they must fix things for God. To defend God's kingdom on earth they need to kill unbelievers, infidels, and sinners, subjugate "people of “The Book”" and establish Islamic governance of the world. And, although the United States is currently the world's greatest power, it has been seen that it can be hit and hit hard and that traditional military weapons are somewhat ineffective. The response to date to coordinate intelligence sources in order to search for, attack and destroy the enemies’ leadership, training bases and clandestine cells wherever they can be found has been vital to security since 9/11. (But, attacking Iraq as part of a legitimate response to 9/11 was clearly ridiculous.) To avoid losing this war it won’t be enough to just kill terrorists, there are fundamentals which must be addressed: -The U.S. must win over the majority of religiously devout Moslems. Right now the nation appears to the world to have lost its moral compass. Policies of justice and peace based on love of God and all his people and the reeling in of excesses and immoral conduct would remove or reduce some basic alienation factors. - The U.S. must restore its credibility with allies and others as honest brokers, especially in Arab-Israeli negotiations. - The U.S. must resort to negotiations conducted in a fair and open manner more than to weapons. - The U.S. must curtail the worldwide proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. - The U.S. must eliminate dependence on imported oil by aggressive alternate energy and conservation of energy projects. This book presents: an overview of Islam, which reveals its high moral standards as well as its warring history; a review of holy wars over three millennium showing that there is nothing new because people don't change and power is always abused, and; strategies to not lose this war. Peace is extremely elusive but no war is holy. God does not need to be protected.
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