Benedict XVI Correct for a Change

Based on the behavior of Muslims around the world, the pope’s use of a Byzantine Emperor’s assessment of Islam was correct. By quoting a statement by a virtual contemporary of The Prophet Pope Benedict struck a nerve. Today it was announced that a Roman Catholic Nun had been murdered by Muslims in revenge for the statement. The emperor apparently said that by converting non-Muslims by the sword Mohammed had launched a religion that encouraged inhumane behavior, brutal, and inimical to civilized life.

The reaction in the Muslim world is completely predictable. In these pages it has been said time after time that if one is not a Muslims and refuses to become one, then one’s death is not only justified but is compulsory. Muslims must kill any infidel they come across. This applies to “moderate” or “radical” Muslims. There is not a dimes worth of difference between them. Essentially a moderate Muslim is also an infidel. The Quran is very clear on this matter. Convert or Die. A living infidel is an insult to Allah, even though Allah is the creator of all. Actually that attitude is an insult to Allah and by definition any religion that purports to think for God is blasphemous.

Islam developed as a reaction to what Mohammed considered a debauched Arab society. His values were basically middle class, in the vein of American Fundamentalist middle class nut jobs. Religion should be a way of developing the spiritual side of humanity, helping them make peace with the ultimate outcome of life: death. Some religions have dogma that defines it; others opt for belief in striving for the best of humanity. Corruption of religion comes when priests, mullahs, imams, preachers, etc, take charge. Then it becomes a simple case of one group dominating another.

The Roman Catholic Church took a lesson from the organization of the Roman Empire and improved the model. Today’s corporations a generally based on this model as are military and to a lesser degree political parties. The hierarchy demands obeisance from the bottom up. It is human nature to dominate, one reason why communism will never truly work, and when attempts to dominate are resisted the simple way out is usually taken. Kill one’s enemies quickly and thoroughly.

The Roman Catholic Church, and the Protestant Christians later, could have qualified for the same criticism that Benedict offered of Islam. The normal human impulse to live and prosper finally undid organized Christianity in Europe; it will eventually do so in the United States and elsewhere. Islam will meet the same fate and become an artifact.

Prosperity is the downfall of religion that controls. This is the reason that cults strictly control the information available to their slaves. They also control access to money or any other things that might lead the “faithful” astray. Once that Muslim world in general enjoys prosperity and the opportunity for individual fulfillment the power of the Ayatollahs, Imams, and religious police will fade.

Benedict was correct in his use of the quotation but the timing could have been left to another Pope who was analyzing the past.