God's Warriors

Rumsfeld 'Bible texts' criticised. Ex-US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is reported to have allowed Bible verses to be put on his briefings during the Iraq War. Rumsfeld has been accused of using quotes from the Bible in his briefings to George W Bush during the Iraq War.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/8056207.stm

and

Israeli Soldiers Say Army Rabbis Framed Gaza as Religious War. Rabbis affiliated with the Israeli army urged troops heading into Gaza to reclaim what they said was God-given land and "get rid of the gentiles" - effectively turning the 22-day Israeli intervention into a religious war, according to the testimony of a soldier who fought in Gaza.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/v-print/story/64518.html

Anyone on the Spirituality Forum have any qualms about these revelations?

Does it have any impact on anyone's attitude towards Jihad?

Originally posted by FMF
Rumsfeld 'Bible texts' criticised. Ex-US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is reported to have allowed Bible verses to be put on his briefings during the Iraq War. Rumsfeld has been accused of using quotes from the Bible in his briefings to George W Bush during the Iraq War.[/b]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/8056207.stm

and

Israeli Soldiers ut these revelations?

Does it have any impact on anyone's attitude towards Jihad?

whats new FMF?

In a Time magazine essay entitled “Religious Wars—A Bloody Zeal,” senior writer Lance Morrow stated: “Men who have fought in the name of religion and journalists who have observed them detect an eerie difference from more conventional warfare—a note of retribution and atonement, a zealotry that exists outside time and immediate circumstances, an implacability that is directed from within. . . . The paradox of religion at war remains shocking.”

Is it too be imagined therefore that it gives Jihad any more credence, i think not, for it seems to me they are they are both one and the same.

Originally posted by FMF
[b]Rumsfeld 'Bible texts' criticised. Ex-US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is reported to have allowed Bible verses to be put on his briefings during the Iraq War. Rumsfeld has been accused of using quotes from the Bible in his briefings to George W Bush during the Iraq War.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/8056207.stm

and

Israeli Soldiers ut these revelations?

Does it have any impact on anyone's attitude towards Jihad?

But I thought it was common knowledge that the US was in Iraq on a holy jihad against Islam. Isn't that why we are there? If not, why did we do it? 😛

Originally posted by whodey
But I thought it was common knowledge that the US was in Iraq on a holy jihad against Islam. Isn't that why we are there? If not, why did we do it? 😛

what was your oil doing under their sand?

Originally posted by whodey
But I thought it was common knowledge that the US was in Iraq on a holy jihad against Islam. Isn't that why we are there? If not, why did we do it? 😛

OP's like this are aimed at the likes of you, whodey. It's a shame when you brush them off with weak gags. Do you never question yourself? Do you never take stock? Can all inconvenient things simply be swatted away with unfunny swipes that only other whodeys "get"?

Perhaps the moderateness of Islam practiced in Southeast Asia stems from the lack of "God's Warriors."

V. S. Naipaul wrote concerning Southeast Asia and Islam:

"It was from India or the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent that religion went to Southeast Asia. Hinduism and Buddhism went first. They quickened the great civilizations of Cambodia and Java, whos monuments -- Angkor, Borobudur -- are among the wonders of the world. These Indian religions, we are told, were spread not by armies or colonists, but by merchants and priests. And that was the kind of Indian traveller who, after Islam had come to the subcontinent, began in the fourteenth or fifteenth century to take Islam to Indonesia and Malaysia.

"Islam went to Southest Asia as another religion of India. There was no Arab invasion, as in Sind; no systematic slaughter of the local warrior caste, no planting of Arab military colonies, no sharing out of loot, no sending back of treasure and slaves to a caliph in Iraq or Syria; no tribute, no taxes on unbelievers. There was no calamity, no overnight abrogation of a settled world order. Islam spread as an idea -- a Prophet, a divine revelation, heaven and hell, a divinely sanctioned code -- and mingled with other ideas."

Forget for a minute the religious implications of these quotes. Do you know what was on the cover page of the briefs before the bible quotes? Jokes! All this shows is that the people around Bush knew that he was a childish and willful idiot that could easily be manipulated by pretty pictures and platitudes. You can bet your life that Cheney or Rumsfeld's briefings didn't have cover pages like that.

As for the US being on an actual crusade - let's say that some of us have read the founder's documents and we well grasp what is happening to our country. If they frog march Bush and Cheney off to jail we may yet have a little republic. If not, I despair of what will become of us and our children.

Originally posted by whodey
But I thought it was common knowledge that the US was in Iraq on a holy jihad against Islam. Isn't that why we are there? If not, why did we do it? 😛

I do believe that one of the major facets of the war in Iraq is indeed a "holy war" -- but it's not really aimed at Islam. It's more a case of wanting the spread the "gospel" of democracy and freedom to all those nations that are in the grips of authoritarian regimes - whether they be secular (like Saddam) or religious (like Taliban). And there's also a desire to eliminate all groups that explicitly seek to attack the US or its interests.

But "brute force" is a poor way of spreading democracy - and efforts to weed out all the terrorists is like playing a game of "whack-a-mole" against "the hydra".

I think one of the major things that drives terrorism is a fear of "the West" -- many fear that if people are given the choice, the great majority will abandon Islam in favor of "Western" faiths and culture -- these fears need to be addressed and discussed at length.

Originally posted by FMF
OP's like this are aimed at the likes of you, whodey. It's a shame when you brush them off with weak gags. Do you never question yourself? Do you never take stock? Can all inconvenient things simply be swatted away with unfunny swipes that only other whodeys "get"?

Wait one quesiton at a time, I can't keep up. 😠

What do you expect me to do? Do you expect me to run to the defense of Rumsfeld and Bush in all that they have done? Is that my Christian duty because they are Christian or at least may claim to be? Do you really think I am that daft?

Would you like me to expound on how I see the Bush legacy in Iraq?

Originally posted by Melanerpes
I do believe that one of the major facets of the war in Iraq is indeed a "holy war" -- but it's not really aimed at Islam. It's more a case of wanting the spread the "gospel" of democracy and freedom to all those nations that are in the grips of authoritarian regimes - whether they be secular (like Saddam) or religious (like Taliban). And there's also a d ...[text shortened]... faiths and culture -- these fears need to be addressed and discussed at length.

Indeed. We all follow a gospel of some kind don't we?

who has the courage to set themselves on fire in the midst of impending doom?

Originally posted by FMF
[b]Rumsfeld 'Bible texts' criticised. Ex-US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is reported to have allowed Bible verses to be put on his briefings during the Iraq War. Rumsfeld has been accused of using quotes from the Bible in his briefings to George W Bush during the Iraq War.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/8056207.stm

and

Israeli Soldiers ...[text shortened]... ut these revelations?

Does it have any impact on anyone's attitude towards Jihad?

To paraphrase, ignorant is as ignorant does.