I feel rather like an entomologist studying dung beetles, but the idea (previous entry) that Jewish women are fair game for conquering Muslims can be viewed from another angle. Some of what Muslims are up to in the Middle East today seems to involve a regression to preMuslim (and preChristian) practices. Is two examples enough to prove a trend? If so, consider these two:
1. In ancient times, victorious pagan armies routinely slaughtered all the men they captured and enslaved the women and children, using the women as sex slaves. The mullah's exhortation would not be out of place in the Iliad, whose plot begins with a quarrel over a captive woman. In fact, there is at least one Homeric passage in which a Greek leader urges his troops into battle by promising that if they can sack Troy they will soon be sleeping with the wives of the Trojans they have killed. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the passage at the moment. But you weren't really going to look it up, were you?
2. It's a bit of a stretch, but the willingness of Palestinian parents to send their children out to be killed reminds me of the ancient Philistine and Phoenician practice of sacrificing babies to Baal. I haven't read the Koran, but I'm fairly sure that a true Muslim would, or should, find such pagan behavior abhorrent.
Like many of the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, modern Muslims seem to do a lot of things for their religion that are actually against their religion.
Tangential Postscript: I wish I had a copy of a cartoon I saw a few years ago. Two scientists in labcoats are looking into microscopes. One says to the other: "The one thing I don't like about studying dung beetles is their shit-eating little grins." If we can just get Muslim readers to laugh at jokes like this, the battle for western civilization will be half-won.
Posted by Dr. Weevil at April 28, 2002 10:48 PM