Lakewood fills gift baskets to welcome Stryker soldiers home
April 14th, 2008 by Republican By DefaultIt’s a good way to show appreciation for what these soldiers have sacrificed. It’s a small gesture, but I’m sure it will be appreciated. They’re accepting donations at the Lakewood City Hall.
TNT has details: Lakewood seeks donations for returning Fort Lewis Stryker soldiers
As a Christian minister I am keenly aware of just how important these soldiers are in my own freedom of religion and freedom of speech as they fight radical Islamics. In case you aren’t aware, one of the tenets of Islam is dhimmitude, the Islamic policy of dealing with infidels (other religions). They are instructed to either, a) convert us to Islam, b) oppress us so that we can’t spread our religion, or c) kill us. They’ve shown their desire to come onto our soil and kill Americans, so there’s little doubt that they are a direct threat to my personal freedoms here in this country.
But thanks to our military, these soldiers included, and our constitution I am free to practice my religion, to invite others to join me and to talk about it here.
Update: Just one example of what life is like for Christians living under dhimmitude:
Compass Direct News: Claim of ‘blasphemy’ in city market leads to looting, destruction.
Nnamdi Ike, a Christian who witnessed the disturbances, told Compass in Kano that Muslim claims that a Christian painted an inscription insulting Muhammad were false.
“Christians have always been attacked on false claims of blasphemy,” Ike said. “No Christian wrote anything against Muhammad or Islam. It is all a lie. They just made this up to find a reason to attack us.”
h/t Jihad Watch
April 14th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
That is not, in fact, the meaning of dhimmitude.
Dhimmitude is a description of the status of non-Muslims in countries under Sharia law (often countries that were originally Jewish or Christian but were conquered in a jihad). Rather than insisting on conversion, dhimmitude actually allows these citizens the freedom to continue practicing their own religion, so long as they remain loyal to the government itself.
To say that it is a tenet of Islam ignores the fact that the very word, and the concepts around it, were created by a Frenchman in the 1980s not as a policy, but as a description of observations on how jihadist cultures treated other religions of the book.
Do I believe that Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and many of those that we are fighting would be happy to oppress or kill us if they couldn’t convert us? Certainly. But your statement that dhimmitude is a policy dictated by the very religion of Islam is simply inaccurate.
April 14th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Only the name ‘dhimmitude’ is from a Frenchman in 1983. The concept dates back to the 7th century AD. The Arabic word ‘dhimmi’ means ‘protected’, but is hardly a description of the way the civilizations in the conquered lands were treated. Wholesale slaughter was the norm.
The points that I listed above are accurate. Sharia is a combination of Islamic law and religious interpretations by Islamic leaders. The concept of conquering, converting, oppressing and killing is the imperialistic ideas of the Quran and is spelled out further in Sharia law. It is, as I said, a tenet of modern Islam, regardless of it’s origins.
There are no protections under Islamic law for people who practice other religions, especially Christianity and Judaism. Any radical Islamist who chooses can find an excuse to kill one of them will not likely face any repercussions.
To put it another way, your description sounds very dhimmi.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
“Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, “protected people,” are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur’an’s command that they “feel themselves subdued” (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, is part of the law that global jihadists are laboring to impose everywhere, ultimately on the entire human race.”
from:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/
April 14th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I’m familiar with the site. It’s one of my daily reads.
What you quoted is a common definition. What’s practiced is something a little different. There are many laws in Islam/Sharia that when violated are punishable by death. While people are ‘protected’ they actually have few protections from radical Muslims.
Here’s some food for thought http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020671.php
Does this sound familiar? “Behead those who insult Islam!”
Did you notice that this post was about showing gratitude to our soldiers?
Dhimmitude was a small part of an aside that I threw in to express my own gratitude. It wasn’t intended to be focus of the thread, nor was this intended to be an elaborate descriptiion of Islamic or Sharia law. If it’s something you want to discuss, I can start a post on the issue.
Please stick to the point of the post from here on. Thank you.