To the 12 Students Who Are “Willing”:

A commentator on my last post, speaking for “12 students” of Christianity, didn’t leave a name. But I’m hoping those students epitomize many students of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in their willingness to listen to what all the Prophets tell us about God!

To be sure, I realize that those “12” are probably more unique than typical of “believers.” But I’m sort of hoping the students are young! Lately, I find myself “wishing” for youth to hear me, because, too often when I speak of a nuclear war and its winter aftermath to “older people,” especially my fellow “seniors,” they don’t want to even think of the war that could be coming. Youth must be more realistic — and even the “middle-aged,” since they know it could really happen to them. We “seniors” like to believe we won’t be here to endure it!

In truth, every single one of us urgently needs an understanding of the Muslim “fanatics” and the “Holy War” they believe they must wage against we “infidels,” as the extremists describe everyone who does not embrace their faith. But the word, "Islam," means “submission to God,” and in one way or another, billions of people try to lovingly ”submit” to Him, regardless of the Name they use for Him and their particular religion. So, I’ll keep on dreaming that the young, the “in between,” and even the old will not be afraid to learn about God from all the Prophets. We have nothing to lose by trying to improve our understanding, except a little of our time, which, after all, isn’t ours to keep anyway!

To Begin With, We Must Choose our Weapons

In the beginning, there was the World Trade Center horror. Then came the war in Afghanistan. During that war, some Muslim “fanatics” left a message for everyone, everywhere, on a blackboard in a school where they had trained. They warned us: “We will continue our jihad until the end of the world.”

If you are wise, you will believe they mean what they said! Phrases in the Koran tell us that someday everyone in the world will be a “Muslim.” The word “Muslim” means “one who submits” to God’s Will. Therefore, Muhammad’s words in the Koran can simply mean that someday everyone in the world will believe in and submit to the Lord God of Abraham. But, to the “fanatical” sect of Muslims, it means that everyone in the world will worship God exactly as they do. Today, that rapidly growing sect honestly believes it is their God-given duty to establish an “Islamic world.” To do so, they must cleanse the earth of infidels. They define “infidels” as everyone who does not worship God as they do, which includes Jews, Christians, and even some of their fellow Muslims.

Because the fanatics sincerely believe that God is “with them” in their “Holy War” to convert or destroy His “enemies,” they will use whatever weapons are needed to accomplish their goal. Therefore, they WILL use nuclear weapons, when they are ready and able, even if those weapons would ultimately destroy the world as we have known it. After all, destruction of today’s world, one way or another, is their “sacred goal.”

So, the rest of the world’s population now has to “choose their weapons!” We can try to kill an ever-increasing horde of religious fanatics, scattered throughout the world, by using the conventional tactics and weapons of war, in the hope we can destroy enough of them to end their threat BEFORE they acquire the nuclear weapons they are willing to use. But, killing fanatics who are sincerely eager to die in “God’s cause” will definitely breed more fanatics seeking to become martyrs.

Or, we can fight them with nuclear weapons, wherever we can find them, before they can retaliate in kind, while hoping we don’t destroy the world in our frantic effort to keep them from doing it.

OR, the world can answer their thinking with new, improved ideas!
In my next post, we’ll begin to examine the “new, improved” thinking that could actually persuade the fanatics to rethink their own beliefs!

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