We witnessed yet another massacre of innocent people by Islamist terrorists in Russia, and this time it was truly horrifying. On March 22, at least 139 people were killed at the Crocus Town Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, Moscow. Although spectacular in scope, this attack was by no means an isolated incident. These types of attacks, including explosions, bullets, and knives, occur every few months.
Any sane person would ask, “Why is this happening?” What makes people do this over and over again rather than as a one-time event?
The holy period of Ramadan is a time for Muslims to celebrate their religion. And this is how they do it.
But that’s not the only thing worth noting here. The reaction of Western countries to such killings is puzzling. Mechanical condemnation of murder disappears as soon as memorial flowers and memorial teddy bears are ritually laid. The consistent reaction from establishment media and elites, surprisingly, has been not outrage at this atrocity but rather fear that the response will fuel anti-Muslim prejudice. This is not Islam, we are told. It’s just a few lunatics who have distorted their beliefs. The real danger is that the “right wing” will turn on Muslims in an orgy of Islamophobia.
That’s a really strange reaction. where did it come from?
how we see and hear the world
One of the most useful things science has taught us is that what we perceive as reality is often not real at all.we don’t see the world as it really is teeth. Instead, we view the world through the refracting glasses of experience. This is what teaches us to see the world in a certain way, to draw conclusions, and even to choose a certain ideology as the “right” one.
Our modern relativistic understanding makes this a given. The problem is that there is much more mental manipulation in the world than we realize. And some of them are truly surprising.
One of them comes from language. Children in the early stages of language acquisition can perceive all sounds used in human language, regardless of the language used by their parents. If this were not true, some human languages would not be learnable by children.
But here’s an interesting fact. What a child must learn to learn a particular language. do not have To listen. If two sounds never distinguish words in one language, children will hear them as “the same” even though they should not be treated as “the same” because words are distinct in other languages. Learn.
This is why linguists distinguish between “phonemes” and “sounds.” phoneme A class of sounds that is characteristic of a particular language and understood as such by speakers of that language. Sounds (or more accurately “speech segments”) are just that: spoken words.
So part of learning to function as a speaker is learning to ignore things that don’t fit the language you’ve learned. Don’t listen to what is actually being said. Instead, you need to perceive a psychological illusion.
It’s easy to say this is just a linguistic quirk. But that’s not the case. This is how humans work. Through experience, we build a mental construct of how the world is, and we extrapolate it when we encounter situations that don’t match our own. And eliminate those that don’t fit.we even see colors as the same thing When it’s not.
lack of understanding
Perhaps the best social example of this is religion. It is extremely rare for people to be able to follow multiple of these at the same time. Religions are more like languages spoken by monolingual people. They have learned it and probably believe it, so when they come across another religion, the only way they can interpret it is from the perspective of their own faith.
But they are completely unaware of the fact that they are dealing with a system that may be similar to their own, but is in other ways completely different.
Now consider the issue of Islamists and Islam itself. Both Christianity and Judaism had periods of murder in the past. However, modern versions of these religions have bleached much more of their tragic past.
Modern mainstream Christianity is not dominated by the Lord of hosts, but by the ideals of a forgiving and loving Christ and endless mercy. Most Western Jews belong to Reform Judaism, which places a high priority on tikkun olam (repairing or improving the world). Both religions are based on the Ten Commandments, of which the main command is “Thou shalt not kill.” These make violence unthinkable or abhorrent.
These are the only religions known to elite Westerners. They are essentially monolingual in these.
And of course, just as native speakers cannot distinguish the unique sounds of a foreign language, we cannot imagine a foreign religion that is not as pacifistic as our own. Isn’t this what all religions are? Look at how peaceful even Asian religions like Buddhism are. It is not religion that causes the atrocities of Islamist terrorists! He’s a madman! Islam is not guilty!
Unfortunately, there is abundant evidence that this is not true.
deadly holy month
Let’s think about Ramadan.
Many people would disagree that Ramadan is the most important festival of the Muslim year. This is the time when Muslims fast and pray. It’s a very sacred time for them.
This period is also the period when some of the most brutal Islamist terrorist attacks occur, and has been a hotspot for a long time. Sites that track attacks during this festival And the number of deaths is high.
Let’s think about this from a Christian or Jewish perspective. Followers of either of these two religions believe that if a group of members of the same religion decides to launch an attack every year on Easter or Yom Kippur, the attack is planned for one purpose only. , what would they say if they decided to kill as many people as possible who they call unbelievers? It’s unthinkable, right?
But Islamists do this all the time. The holy period of Ramadan is a time to celebrate their religion. And this is how they do it.
But certainly our media says that this is not a result of the Islamic faith. Islam commands us not to kill people, right? Quran 5:32 In the end it says:
That is why We have ordained to the Children of Israel that whoever takes away their life – unless it is as punishment for murder or mischief in the land – is as if he had killed all mankind. And whoever saves someone’s life will be as if he saved all of humanity.
Unfortunately, in the next section, Quran 5:33 says:
Indeed, the punishment for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and spread evil in the land is death, crucifixion, amputation of the opposite limb, or expulsion from the land.
Now it’s clear. Murder is wrong unless you are against Islam. Then it’s okay.
There is no such statement in the New Testament. And even Jews who do not accept those books reject the more militant parts of the Old Testament, as do Christians.
If Christians and Jews can reject parts of the Bible, surely Muslims can and will too.
Hmm, no. That is a non-Muslim way of thinking. Muslims cannot reject any part of the Quran. Unlike the Bible, it was literally written by God through the angel Gabriel. The best thing that can be done is to replace one clause with another, a so-called “repeal”. Western religions do not have anything like this, but in Islam it is essential. Islam is a religion created by one political leader in his lifetime and therefore contains politically expedient statements that later became useless.
But even this is of no use to those who want to absolve Islam from Islamist actions. Famously, Quran 2:256 “There should be no compulsion in religion,” he said. But this was said early in Muhammad’s career, when he was weak. When he became stronger, the recommendation passed to the board. Quran 9:5 and Quran 9:29 abolish it.
Reversing the previous clause would allow people to be forcibly converted or killed if they do not consent.
become blind to reality
Just as by learning a language we learn to interpret the sounds of other languages as if they were our own, so Western religions are similar to Islam being the same as Christianity. It teaches you to take action. But that’s not the case. Islam is completely different. And the message is clear. Unbelievers deserve the death penalty, and violence to force them into submission is acceptable.
We can only conclude that Islamists are not lunatics. Rather, they are just devout Muslims.
So why do so many people in the Western world refuse to believe this?
I assure you the answer is simple. Just as knowledge of languages blinds us to distinctions that don’t exist in our languages, our intimacy with Western religions blinds us to what Islam really is. We can only see Islam as a copy of the pacifist religion of the West. And it’s not.
