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The Koran was written by Mohammed about 1,400 years ago. Actually, Mohammed was illiterate, so he dictated it to a scribe. Whatever. Then Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto and other works around 150 years ago. Recent events in Israel, and the responses to them by various groups, have gotten me thinking about both of these books.
Followers of Marx killed over 100 million people just in the 1900s. How many people have been raped, tortured, and killed by followers of Mohammed over the past 1,400 years? It’s hard to imagine. I really have no idea, but it’s millions and millions. And they’re not done, as Israelis will attest.
I find it fascinating that two books have caused so much destruction, misery, and death over such a long period of time. That’s amazing. I also find it fascinating that the followers of these two very different books instinctively support one another, even if they disagree with one another about a lot of very important things. When Muslims raped, tortured, kidnapped, and killed thousands of Israeli men, women, and children in their homes last week, Marxists and other leftists around the world defended the Muslims. That’s fascinating.
There are other interesting parallels, as well. Both Marxists and Muslims are famous for killing outsiders and fighting wars to gain land and resources, and to expand the sphere of influence of their ideas. But they also kill lots and lots of their own people, sometimes for no obvious reason. Countries run by Marxists and countries run by Muslims both tend to be poor, violent, and absolutely incapable of scientific or social progress. Muslims and Marxists both tend to view anyone who offers a dissenting viewpoint as hate-filled evil-doers who must be destroyed, rather than people of good will who seek discussion and debate.
And again, if you read both books back to back, they would seem to have very, very little in common with one another.
But they clearly have something in common. We need to figure out what that something is.
To kill a weed, you must pull it out by its roots.
And this is a weed that has caused incalculable destruction, misery, and death over a very long period of time. And it continues to do so to this day.
This is important. We need to find the roots.
Discussion (20)
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Both unite religion and the secular state. The words of Marx or Lenin or Mao in Communist countries stands in for religion.
Interesting to me is that in WW2, Muslims in the Middle Wast overwhelmingly supported the Nazis. The Grand Mufti visited Hitler in 1941 and declared that they shared the same enemies, Jews, British and Communists. And in 1948 the USSR heartily supported the creation of Israel. Have things changed.
Also reversed have been the fortunes of the Islamic world. 900 years ago, science and architecture and literature flourished in the Islamic world which was wealthy and urbane. In the West, illiteracy was common and if people could read the only book they had ever seen let alone read was the Bible. Today it’s completely reversed.
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You’re correct, of course, but in fairness, hasn’t a great deal of violence also been committed in the name of the Bible? I’m thinking, for example, of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Inquisition, the Crusades, the French Wars of Religion, and even to some extent the violence against Jews during the Second World War. Any time adherents of a doctrine or dogma need to force-feed it on others, there’s likely going to be violence and cruelty. The difference, of course, is that many passages in the Bible counsel followers to “love thy neighbor,” even if that counsel has too often been ignored, while too many other doctrines openly encourage adherents to “kill thy neighbor.”
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Both books are demonic, in the literal sense. Nuff said.
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Ideas are where real power resides. And words are the best way we have to investigate, understand, and spread ideas.
Totalitarians, whether Muslim or Commie, understand this. They fear outsider words and ideas above all else.
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Hey, you should read the book of Joshua!
They don't report a death toll, generally. It is in a smaller area, so I don't think that the total approached those of the Muslims or the Marxists.
On the other hand, they did slaughter entire towns, every man, woman and child, and list them proudly! They'd either impale or hang the king on a pole until the end of the day, then throw him near the destroyed city and raise a big mound of rocks as a memorial. The hanging part reminded me of what the partisans did to Mussolini in Italy.
If you jump forward to 1 Samuel, you'll even find that slaughtering all of the inhabitants but one is not enough. Saul lost the favor of God because he didn't kill the enemy king, and didn't slaughter all of the livestock too.
We don't have a good count for Saul, either, though we know that Saul killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands.
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