A few days back, as al Shabaab--an offshoot of al Qaeda—was carrying out the Westgate Mall terror attack and torture fest in Nairobi,* Daniel Greenfield pointed out that Islam, as practiced since its inception, has all the attributes of a gang.
Islam may have become a religion, but it began as a code. Like the Pirate Code
or the Thieves Law of Russia, it was a set of rules that allowed a select group
of bandits to choose leaders, plan attacks and divide the loot.
The code invested their actions with meaning, it kept order in their ranks and
allowed the members to believe that dying for the gang was more than a martial
ethos, but also contained a spiritual element. Similar attempts to invest gang
life with spirituality can be found in the tattoos, rap songs and graffiti
memorials of every street gang in America.
…
After over a thousand years, after
its own empires and conquests stretching around the world, after endless
religious schools, reform movements, theological debates and splinter groups,
Islam is not able to leave its gang roots behind. It is still at its core a
gang religion. That is why it appeals so well to convicts who recognize that
they are interacting with something far more ancient than Kingism.
That is also why Islam, like most street gangs, degenerates so readily into
internecine violence. No matter how much its devotees dream of conquering the
decadent West and planting the black flag of Islam everywhere, they can't help
turning their guns on each other, because gangs are naturally primed to fight
amongst themselves. The gang code never suffices to settle disputes among men
who live by violence. They may fight to impose Islamic law on the world, but
they can't live by it.
…
If Islam stands for anything, it's killing non-Muslims. Islam can't really
think far beyond that. Its mindset is that of a dime store Alexander who
doesn't want to even think about the prospect of not having any more lands to
conquer, towns to sack, women to rape, homes to rob and libraries to torch.
Interesting, this observation. It has long been known that Islam has high conversion levels in American prisons among black men and, increasingly, other men. The fact is, however, that such men—often members of street and prison gangs—are merely accepting the protection of an older and stronger gang when they convert.
Even after all of the violence we’ve seen perpetrated by various factions of Islam in the name of their deity and their prophet, it was difficult to reduce an ideology which had always held the status of ‘belief’ or ‘religion’ to mere ‘gang.’ But, all it took was for someone, like Mr. Greenfield, to point out the obvious.
And, as is so with other gangs, Islam’s adherents don’t like it when you call them out. They like it even less when you fight back—as Kenya did; the terror attack was a result.
These gangs live to injure, kill and most of all, strike fear; but, remember, they are not our main adversary. The powers and principalities ruling in spiritual wickedness--about which Paul speaks in his letter to the Ephesians--are.
The various gangs, small and large, new and old, are merely servants.
*My family members in Nairobi are fine.
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