Tuesday, November 17, 2015

'Apocalyptic Islam' Ignored By Western Leaders





Western Leaders Ignore “Apocalyptic Islam” At Their Peril




Despite years of warnings by intelligence agencies that radicalized Muslims would eventually emerge from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq to launch bloody attacks in the West, Europe has been blindsided by one of the most brutal terrorist atrocities in recent memory.
The coordinated attacks by three teams of ISIS terrorists in Paris on Friday sent shockwaves far beyond France, with the massacre of at least 129 people reigniting the debate around immigration after it was revealed that at least two of the attackers entered Europe posing as “refugees.”
The attacks also fueled debate over how to end the Syrian civil war, as well as over ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, the latter of which has seen several successes over the past few weeks.


But glaringly absent from the discussions are any serious attempts to understand the ideological motivations of the Muslim extremists, several of them French citizens, who carried out the worse terror attacks in France in a generation – including the first-ever suicide bombings on French soil.



That, says best-selling author Joel Rosenberg, is the reason such acts of terror are bound to repeat themselves.

Joel spoke to me prior to the attacks at the recent Jerusalem Leaders Policy Summit, and voiced concern that by failing to grapple with the apocalyptic ideology behind actors such as ISIS, Western states would never be able to decisively defeat them.


“At the core of it, American leaders are refusing to deal with the theology and eschatology of our enemy,” he said. “Not every Muslim is a terrorist, not every Muslim is a threat, not every Muslim is a problem – in fact the vast majority are not.
“The question is, the ones who are – what do they want? What do they say they want? What motivates them?”

The current US administration is particularly hesitant to label the threat as it is.

“Obama refuses to even acknowledge radical Islam. Come on – really? At this stage in the 21st century you’re not even ready to acknowledge the ideology that is motivating these folks? That’s a problem.”


But beyond the relatively wide umbrella of “radical Islam” Rosenberg warns of a far deadlier threat.




He argues that the hyper-messianic ideologies shared by both sides of the Shia-Sunni jihadist coin are unprecedented in the history of modern western civilization.
“Apocalyptic Islam is motivated by the idea that the end of days has come, that the Mahdi [Muslim messiah – ed.] is coming at any moment to establish a global Islamic kingdom or Caliphate, and that the way to hasten his coming is to annihilate two countries: Israel the ‘Little Satan,’ and America the ‘Big Satan,'” he explained, describing the messianic beliefs shared by both ISIS and the “Twelver Shia” sect which figures prominently among Iran’s leadership.

“But the western political class doesn’t want to even deal with the theological ideas that are driving the radical Islamists – let alone to explain the end of times theologies of two ‘nation states’,” he continued, referring to Iran and ISIS’s self-declared “Islamic State,” which encompasses huge swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

“Never in history have we had one, much less than two states, whose leaders are trying to force the end of the world,” Rosenberg noted.

While Jews and Christians also have their own beliefs in the “end of times” or the messianic age, the difference is that “we don’t believe we have to commit a genocide to bring about the end of times.”


While some strategic and doctrinal differences do clearly exist between Iran and ISIS – who are themselves mortal enemies – Rosenberg emphasized that the fundamental threat was essentially the same.

“Shia apocalypticism and Sunni apocalypticism are similar. Both believe the messiah is coming soon, that his kingdom is coming, they need to change their behavior to accelerate his coming… but the eschatology and strategies are different.

“ISIS’s strategy is to commit genocide today, because the goal is to build the caliphate, to force the hand of the messiah to come.

“Iran is not trying to build a caliphate today. They’re building the infrastructure to build nuclear weapons. Why? Because while ISIS wants to commit genocide today Iran wants to commit genocide tomorrow. The point is: don’t launch until you’re ready. Rather than kill thousands in one day, Iran wants to eventually kill millions.”


He disagreed with assessments shared by some experts that the Iranian regime, while extreme, ultimately functions as a rational actor, insisting their words, beliefs and actions only led to one conclusion.
“When you look a the messages of annihilation they are saying… when you look at the infrastructure they’re building and when you look at the eschatology, these roads converge.
“They’re not interested in negotiating something together with us – they’re taking a gift,” he said of the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers. “You’re giving us two paths to a nuclear bomb: if we cheat, or if we don’t cheat? OK we’ll take it!”
“For these guys killing is at the center of what they’re doing. When you bear that in mind making concessions isn’t just a mistake or misguided – it’s insane.”









The coral reefs on which China is building airstrips are “not just a bunch of rocks, ”but the transit point for about half of the world’s maritime containerized cargo,” Michael Green, vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Monday.
Speaking as part of a panel discussion on China’s growing maritime influence at the Washington, D.C., think-tank, he added those reclamation projects allow Beijing to “maintain a constant presence” with a growing number of aircraft and ships that “you have to deal with . . . in U.S. planning and [are] intimidating smaller states,” such as the Philippines and Vietnam.
Like Russia in Ukraine and with its neighbors and Iran in the Middle East, China was establishing “a gray zone of coercion,” Green added, designed to “shake the credibility of the U.S. commitment” to the Pacific among its allies and partners.
The Chinese now “are in the assessment phase” of what the transit of the U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG-82) in the Spratlys in the South China Sea means, particularly in light of the United States’ signaling it intends to conduct freedom of navigation operations there twice a quarter, Christopher Johnson, Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS, said.

Johnson noted the 15-year buildup in China’s maritime and air forces with its doubling of the defense budget every five years has covered everything from aircraft carriers, submarines, a large coast guard to electronic warfare and improved intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.


3 comments:

Peter said...

The Muslim messiah sounds suspiciously like the Biblical Antichrist. And 1/3 of the earth's population would almost instantly accept this leader? And the secular West just continues to appease Islam and practically rolls out the red carpet. Sounds like a recipe for danger.

Turkey wants to join the EU and Merckel is likely to allow it. Scott, could we go 50/50 if that happens? ;)

GG2013 said...

Psalm 95:6

Shout Aloud to the Rock of Our Salvation!

…5The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. 6Come, let us worship and bow
down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the
sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice,…

Cross References

Philippians 2:10
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

2 Samuel 12:20
Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the
house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and
he ate.

2 Chronicles 6:13
Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the
center of the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread
out his hands toward heaven.

Psalm 96:9
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

Psalm 99:5
Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.

Psalm 99:9
Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

Psalm 100:3
Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Psalm 149:2
Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King.

Isaiah 17:7
In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

Daniel 6:10
Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows
opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as
he had done before.

Hosea 8:14
Israel has forgotten their Maker and built palaces; Judah has fortified many towns. But I will send fire on their cities that
will consume their fortresses."

Treasury of Scripture
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker

Scott said...

There isn't a remote chance Turkey gets in the EU - especially now. Once again, you are trying to take current events and fit them into prophecy - that isn't how it works