I received this in an email from American Congress For Truth. It's an interesting read.
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The commentary below is circulating on the internet and provides an excellent historical context for us to view the current rising tide of militant Islam. Let us not forget George Santayanas remarkable insight: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
A German's point of view on Islam.
A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.
'Very few people were true Nazis 'he said,' but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'
We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.
It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the 'peaceful majority', the 'silent majority', is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.
And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:
Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun. Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands world wide, read this -think about it - and send it on.
I read the Diary of Anne Frank a few years ago. Very interesting read, but the thing that stood out to me was how insidious the Nazi's were in their control of Jews. It started so slowly that even the Jews didn't complain about the tightening of the rope. Reminded me of that story about the frog in the hot water.
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It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.
"Although the message of this email may be true, that is, that radicals tend to lead any extreme movement, my question is what is the purpose of this email? Are they asking us to fight the majority of peaceful muslims? To outlaw Islam because of a few corrupt individuals? If the message is for peaceful muslims to stand up and be heard than this message is being sent to the wrong people. I'm inclined to think that this email would inspire enmity towards peaceful muslims and therefore further the hate cycle"
The point, I think, of knowing who really runs Islam is that you know to watch out for what Islamic nations and terrorist groups can do. For instance, we shouldn't have special rules making it easy for Saudis to get visas to the US. We should instead subject them to extra scrutiny. Not because most muslims are bad. They aren't. But because the bad ones control the group. It was the same problem with Nazi Germany. Partly because most Germans were good people Britain just tried to appease Hitler, instead of dealing with him as an enemy.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
