Muhammad Replaces Marx

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=35 BGCOLOR="#000099" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Muhammad Replaces Marx</B></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=445 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> "The 9/11 Commission report pointedly criticizes the idea of a generic threat from terrorism. "The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific," the commission writes. "It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism" (Virginia Postrel, <I>Economics and Islam</I>, nytimes.com, August 12, 2004).</div> <bR> <div> "The revival of religion will not merely be a revival of Islam, but Islam will come to define the terms of conflict between North and South. Islam is the religion of Europe's southern border. It is the world religion that historically has posed the gravest threat to the Judeo-Christian tradition... Islam is the faith of those who control the world's wealth... Whoever controls oil has a grip on the prosperity of the industrial West. Notwithstanding the fact that oil is declining in importance along with raw materials as a factor in economic growth, it remains the lifeblood of modern economies... Taken together, these facts suggest that <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>the North-South conflict will come to be seen in terms of the religious difference</B><B>s</B><B> between Islam and the largely Christian North</B></FONT>" (James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg, <I>The Great Reckoning</I>, p.226).</div> <bR> <div> "Militant Islam has strikingly much in common with fascism and communism" - (quote, from book review of <I>Militant Islam Reaches America</I>, at www.danielpipes.org).</div> <bR> <div> "... we need Egypt to play the role that it played in Arab politics in the 19th and early 20th centuries - the role that history assigned it and for which it has no replacement: to lead the Arab-Muslim world into modernity with an ideological message that is rooted in Arab and Muslim tradition but is progressive, pluralistic and democratic [wishful Eurocentric aspiration? see Genesis 16:11-12]. That is the most important thing Egypt can do for us, and that is precisely what it has not been doing for decades now. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Egypt is the center of gravity of the Arab world. It has the biggest middle class, the best-educated population and the people with the most potential</B></FONT>. Egypt should be the Taiwan of the Mediterranean..." <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#003300" FACE="Verdana" > (</FONT>Thomas L. Friedman, <I>The Land of Denial,</I> nytimes.com, June 5, 2002).</div> <bR> <div> "Today's Arab world possesses no leader with the charisma of Nasser, who in the 1950s and 1960s seemed capable of reaching across borders to electrify the masses" (The Economist, <I>At the gates of Baghdad</I>, April 5, 2003, p.11).</div> <bR> <div> "The world is nearing its end... an intensification of the persecution of Muslims. This, in turn, presages the arrival of<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#6600CC" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Imam Mahdi, an inspirational leader </B></FONT>who<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#6600CC" FACE="Verdana" ><B>will rally Islam, as Doomsday and the Final Judgment approach</B></FONT>"<B> </B>(Jonathan Guthrie, <I>A quiet resistance</I>, ft.com, November 2, 2001).</div> <bR> <div> "Islam is not a messianic religion and has no room for a saviour-messiah. Nevertheless, there gradually developed - probably under Christian influence - the notion of an eschatological restorer of the faith, identified as a descendant of the Prophet or as the returning '<U>I</U>s<U>a</U> (<I>i.e., </I>Jesus). He is usually referred to as <I>madhi</I>, i.e., the "[divinely] guided one." After the appearance of 'Is<U>a</U>, the last judgment will begin: the good will enter paradise; the evil will fall into hell. Heaven and hell possess various goals and steps of recompense for good and evil. The time before the end is viewed pessimistically: God himself will abandon the godless world. Ka'bah (the great pilgrimage sanctuary of the Muslim world) will vanish, the copies of the Qur'<U>a</U>n will become empty paper, and its words will disappear from memory. Then the end will draw near.</div> <bR> <div> "In Sunn<U>i</U> (traditional) Isl<U>a</U>m the whole subject is one of folklore rather than of dogmatic theology, though <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#006600" FACE="Verdana" ><B>a</B><B>ll </B><B>orthodox Muslims believe in the coming of a final restorer of the faith. In times of crisis and of political or religious ferment, mahdistic expectations have increased and have given rise to many self-styled </B><I><B>mahdi</B></I><B>s</B></FONT>, the best known of all being Mu<U>h</U>ammad A<U>h</U>mad, the Mahd<U>i</U> of Sudan, who raised a revolt against the Egyptian administration in 1881 and after several spectacular victories established the mahdist state that existed until defeated by the English military leader Kitchener at Omdurman (Sudan) in 1898..." (Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Eschatology").</div> <bR> <div> "<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF6600" FACE="Verdana" ><B>You are enjoined to make war against the infidels</B></FONT> even though this may be displease you: for you may well be displeased by that which is to your good, as it may be that you like a thing which instead is harmful to you: but God knoweth and you know not" (Sura 2:216, <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF6600" FACE="Verdana" ><I><B>Koran</B></I></FONT>).</div> <bR> <div> "Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-'Arifi, Imam of the mosque of King Fahd Defense Academy, discussed the coming Muslim conquest of the Vatican. Citing a Hadith in an article posted on the Kalemat website in 2002, he stated: "... We will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it. Yes, the Christians, who carve crosses on the breasts of the Muslims ... will yet pay us the Jiziya [poll tax paid by non-Muslims under Muslim rule], in humiliation, or they will convert to Islam..."" (Steven Stalinsky, <I>The Next Pope and Islamic Prophecy</I>, frontpagemag.com, April 14, 2005).</div> <bR> <div> "<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>At the time of the end the king of the South </B></FONT><B>[North and East Africa]</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B> will engage him in battle, and the king of the North </B></FONT><B>[Europe]</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B> will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships</B></FONT>. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall... He will extend his power over many countries; <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Egypt will not escape</B></FONT>" (Daniel 11:40-41, NIV of the Bible).</div> <bR> <div> <B>PERSPECTIVE</B></div> <bR> <div> "[The former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ruled] like a Tikriti sheik, and even within his clan the rivalries [were] ferocious. The Ibrahim branch of his family [battled] the Al-Majid branch, and disputes among his wives (he [was] believed to have three) [had] resulted in murders" (Nicholas D. Kristof, <I>An Iraqi Man of Letters</I>, nytimes.com, October 8, 2002).</div> <bR> <div> And the Angel of the Lord said to her,</div> <div> "Now you have conceived and shall bear a son;</div> <div> you shall call him Ishmael...</div> <div> He shall be a wild ass of a man,</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >with </FONT><B>h</B><B>is hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >;</FONT></div> <div> and he shall live at odds with all his kin" (Genesis 16:11-12, NRSV).</div> <bR> <div> "It calls to mind the Arab saying: <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>M</B><B>e against my brother, my brother and I against our cousin, the family against the world</B></FONT>" (Miriam Cosic, <I>What's it all about?</I>, WEA, Feb13-14, 1999, Mag, p.33).</div> <bR> <div> "... despite the fact that roughly one in three Dearborn residents is of Arab origin, most of the Arab-American [mayoral] candidates had dropped out by mid-January. Poll numbers showed that none of them could win.</div> <bR> <div> "<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Internal rivalries echoing those that beset the Arab world</B></FONT>, along with the general electorate's lingering unease about Muslims, combined to derail what many here had hoped would be the chance to prove that Arab-Americans had arrived politically - at least in Dearborn, their unofficial capital in this country" (Neil, Macfquhar, <B>In Arab Capital of U.S</B><B>.</B><B>,</B><B> Ethnic Divide Remains</B>, nytimes.com, January 23, 2007).</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Muhammad Replaces Marx">Top of Page </A>       <A HREF="id53_manufacturing_and_trade.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News, Current Events and the Future"> </A><A HREF="id53_manufacturing_and_trade.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News, Current Events and the Future">News and Current Events Page</A>          <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Future Watch">Home Page</A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>