By Tom Brennan
The Caliphate is not just another terrorist organization. Here are Facts Christians should know that the media isn’t telling you, things Israel Has known for years.
Muhammad is said to have received his visions in the 7th century. He lived in Arabia and was a merchant who lived in the region of the city of Mecca. Arabia is mentioned in the Bible several times. Paul fled there after his first missionary journeys resulted in attempts on his life. He spent some time there studying and praying. Arabia of the 1st century saw a native population of transitory Bedouin nomads and a fair sized population of Jews. Later Christians were added to the mix in the 5th century. The Arabs were pagan, each group with a selection of gods and they placed representations of these idols in the Kaaba, a stone block structure in the city. Many legends were assembled around this unusual enclosure, including its being built by Adam. Muhammad was to his credit,a genuine visionary. He saw a people divided and center-less. He heard the testimonies and read the Scriptures of Jews and the Byzantine Christians and saw within them elements he knew would unify the peoples of Arabia, and ultimately the world. We know the result as Islam. The new religion struck a buried emotion and set intellects afire so that nomads “submitted” to the writings and soon swept through Arabia, the new belief unified tribes and nations and the fire and sword missionaries soon were at the entry points of Europe. After the death of Muhammad divisions appeared within the faithful as to who would succeed the prophet and how would the movement proceed. Two elements came forward: one believed that wise people would see the eventuality of Islam and accept it; the other was a militant and aggressive wing. They form the main sects today: Shiite and Sunnite. Islam saw rises and falls in its spread and national variations. Israel has been dealing with any combinations of sects, all with the same goal: Israel’s destruction.
In the late 19th and early 20 the century the goal of Pan Islam, the unification of all sects and nations that follow the Quran was moved forward but no acceptable leader appeared. Combative sects, factions and secular pressures kept the unification only a concept. That has changed today. The Caliphate is a possible means of Pan Islam.
The almost sudden rise and success of the ISIS, the group of Jihad militants who have raged from Iraq and Syria is drawing passionate adherents from the world at large. Today at least one billion persons in most nations profess a form of Islam. Today as well, modern communications and travel have enabled these persons and sects to communicate and work out common ground. The danger rests in the elements that were missing when Pan Islam was the goal. In recent years it has become fashionable in the West to compartmentalize any militant groups within Islam as “terrorists”. Even with well planned and executed attacks, governments in the USA and UK reverted to police methods to search for and try to apprehend the main perpetrators of the violent acts. Unfortunately, all this did was to give names and reputations as martyrs and role models to these persons and not directly address the chief issues.
The early spread of militant Islam was halted by deliberate and forceful resistance. Islam is a matter of faith and ideology and today’s Caliphate is the fulfillment of desires set in the hearts of followers long ago. Our Western world divides its philosophy of life into a secular and sacred. It is politically incorrect to intermingle the two. The raw and fiery Islam being moved across the Middle East by the Caliphate represents a world view that perhaps only Israel has experienced and can understand. The Caliphate is neither a political party nor group of wild eyed terrorists. They are true believers in a 7th century all or nothing at all fashion. They will not accept compromise or negotiations, but they will respect force and it will come to meeting this powerful world view with a determined resistance that will declare “go no further”.
Israel has fought its wars alone; no coalitions, no allies ever fought along side her brave IDF soldiers. Israel set itself to standing its ground and has prevailed. To confront the Caliphate, Western nations will have to do the same.
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