Seeking Senator Black's Wisdom.
By Ghassan Kadi
4 August 2015
Senator Black is undoubtedly a good man and well-intentioned, but unfortunately, it is only a fine line that invariably separates wisdom from the lack of it.
“Let he who is without a sin cast the first stone”.
The threat of ISIS is not at all to be ignored or undermined. As a matter of fact its danger is much larger than many think; including some of those who are now posturing and pretending to be fighting it. With that said, for any criticism and philosophical attack on ISIS to be constructive and positive, it has to be based on good intentions that are backed by knowledge and wholesome antitheses. The Senator Black article seems to lack those very significant underpinning qualities.
To begin with, the “Army of Conquest” is not a threat to Western Civilization as Senator Black has put it. It is rather a threat against humanity and rationality as a whole. Reading in between the lines, it seems that Senator Black is not making this distinction because he seems to put the Western Civilization on par with humanity and wisdom. Apparently he sees them as synonyms.
Whilst Senator Black acknowledges that the US government has supported ISIS and helped create it, he conveniently ignores that one of the main recruitment drives that ISIS is capitalizing on is the unjust and unfair stand of the Western Civilization towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is ignoring that the USA and its allies have waged totally unjustified wars against Iraq and Afghanistan and left Iraq and Libya in total ruins.
There is a huge logical contradiction in his discourse. If Western Civilization fostered the rise of ISIS, as it did and as he acknowledges, then logic stipulates that the biggest threat to Western Civilization comes from within itself; not from ISIS. Rational analysis implies that the roles of each of the West and ISIS be dissected transparently without any preconceived prejudice of any sort. The evidence of prejudice is however clear in later parts of his article.
To this effect, Senator Black goes back in history to make mention of how the Ottomans pillaged and sacked Constantinople, which is a historical fact that is not to be denied. But a look at the earlier history of Constantinople is a testimony of Christian versus Christian barbarity and blood baths that went on for decades, leading up to the split of the Roman Empire and the Church into Catholicism and Orthodoxy. That same fire was rekindled not long ago in the Balkans where virtually the same dividing lines that separated the Roman Empire became battle fields again between Catholic Croatia and Orthodox Serbia.
To be fair, Senator Black is not categorically demonizing Islam and all Muslims, but he is not putting any doctrinal blame of the current tragedy on other than radical Muslims and their “interpretations”; all the way failing and bypassing what the “real interpretations” are and the actual humane value and message that they carry.
Sad but true, the rise of ISIS has given many who do not have much respect for Islam a field day for them to capitalize on, blaming most, if not all of the World’s problems and evil on Islam, without having an honest look at themselves, their archaic theology, belief systems, their history and the huge negative role that they continue to play whilst looking clean-shaved, nicely dressed and lecturing about humanity and civility.
Syria has become the place where all covert evangelists come out from their hiding.
Last but not least, Senator Black seems to also ignore or deny that the biggest number of victims of ISIS in Syria were/are Syrian Sunni Muslims. His closing paragraph seems to deliberately keep them out.
This is not about bashing Senator Black. We should be thankful of his efforts to rally up support for Syria and we are. With all due respect to him however, he should get his facts right because it does not take much to stretch information and use it as a tool to create mindsets and enough fuel for an all-out anti-Muslim vendetta. We count on his wisdom to take note of his obligations.
Refer to Senator Black's Article in WND:
http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/the-army-of-conquest-threatens-western-civilization/
By Ghassan Kadi
4 August 2015
Senator Black is undoubtedly a good man and well-intentioned, but unfortunately, it is only a fine line that invariably separates wisdom from the lack of it.
“Let he who is without a sin cast the first stone”.
The threat of ISIS is not at all to be ignored or undermined. As a matter of fact its danger is much larger than many think; including some of those who are now posturing and pretending to be fighting it. With that said, for any criticism and philosophical attack on ISIS to be constructive and positive, it has to be based on good intentions that are backed by knowledge and wholesome antitheses. The Senator Black article seems to lack those very significant underpinning qualities.
To begin with, the “Army of Conquest” is not a threat to Western Civilization as Senator Black has put it. It is rather a threat against humanity and rationality as a whole. Reading in between the lines, it seems that Senator Black is not making this distinction because he seems to put the Western Civilization on par with humanity and wisdom. Apparently he sees them as synonyms.
Whilst Senator Black acknowledges that the US government has supported ISIS and helped create it, he conveniently ignores that one of the main recruitment drives that ISIS is capitalizing on is the unjust and unfair stand of the Western Civilization towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is ignoring that the USA and its allies have waged totally unjustified wars against Iraq and Afghanistan and left Iraq and Libya in total ruins.
There is a huge logical contradiction in his discourse. If Western Civilization fostered the rise of ISIS, as it did and as he acknowledges, then logic stipulates that the biggest threat to Western Civilization comes from within itself; not from ISIS. Rational analysis implies that the roles of each of the West and ISIS be dissected transparently without any preconceived prejudice of any sort. The evidence of prejudice is however clear in later parts of his article.
To this effect, Senator Black goes back in history to make mention of how the Ottomans pillaged and sacked Constantinople, which is a historical fact that is not to be denied. But a look at the earlier history of Constantinople is a testimony of Christian versus Christian barbarity and blood baths that went on for decades, leading up to the split of the Roman Empire and the Church into Catholicism and Orthodoxy. That same fire was rekindled not long ago in the Balkans where virtually the same dividing lines that separated the Roman Empire became battle fields again between Catholic Croatia and Orthodox Serbia.
To be fair, Senator Black is not categorically demonizing Islam and all Muslims, but he is not putting any doctrinal blame of the current tragedy on other than radical Muslims and their “interpretations”; all the way failing and bypassing what the “real interpretations” are and the actual humane value and message that they carry.
Sad but true, the rise of ISIS has given many who do not have much respect for Islam a field day for them to capitalize on, blaming most, if not all of the World’s problems and evil on Islam, without having an honest look at themselves, their archaic theology, belief systems, their history and the huge negative role that they continue to play whilst looking clean-shaved, nicely dressed and lecturing about humanity and civility.
Syria has become the place where all covert evangelists come out from their hiding.
Last but not least, Senator Black seems to also ignore or deny that the biggest number of victims of ISIS in Syria were/are Syrian Sunni Muslims. His closing paragraph seems to deliberately keep them out.
This is not about bashing Senator Black. We should be thankful of his efforts to rally up support for Syria and we are. With all due respect to him however, he should get his facts right because it does not take much to stretch information and use it as a tool to create mindsets and enough fuel for an all-out anti-Muslim vendetta. We count on his wisdom to take note of his obligations.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/the-army-of-conquest-threatens-western-civilization/
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