In order to fully comprehend what is happening in Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Middle East, let us begin with the Crusades.
How do we explain the Crusades to post-modern society?
That is when Europeans were asked by the Byzantine Empire to defend Christendom from Arabic Muslims, who were "liberating" the Middle East from oppression of Christian "heretics" by the religious orthodoxy and their state collaborators.
This moment in history is and was a clash between religions: Islam versus Christianity.
Yet the actual result of the First Crusades was the establishment of Christian kingdoms run by minor European nobles who lusted for the glory of an imperial dynasty.
Both sides of this conflict in the Middle East did so for the noble cause called "the Glory of God." For sometimes religion is used to distract us from the fact that both sides were in it for fame and fortune.
Please keep that in mind when you hear about the Islamic State being bombed by the US.
It is a religious war for the jihadis. It is not just a terrorist crisis. Rather, it is a moral crisis, a war between decadent secularism and holy Islamism. The irony is, the jihadis may be viewed as a corrupt people operating outside of mainstream Islam.
These jihadis are not really "good' Muslims, but fervent religious fanatics who may be worse than Westboro Baptists hating gays.
It's a holy war for these Jihadis.
In a way, it is no different from the religious right have been co-opted by the GOP in America, the Christian democrats running Germany, and even Vladimir Putin's ties to the Russian Orthodox Church with his ban on homosexuality in Russia.
Ah, those silly end-of-days fanatics need to rein in ushering in the end of the world!
Originally posted August 20, 2014 at 4:30 PM PDT
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