Before his death in 2003, Garner Ted Armstrong continually wrote and commented upon events transpiring in the Middle East. Major developments in the area are of great importance to all who WATCH for the prophetic end time events that will center around Jerusalem.
As Afghanistan succumbs to the Taliban while American and Allied forces make their exit, one aspect of the country’s future is nearly certain. This article was written about the situation in Saudi Arabia when we were just beginning our engagement in Afghanistan. During the intervening 20 years many were able to live in relative freedom under the tolerant auspices of a Western-backed government. Today thousands desperately attempt to flee the country, often risking life itself. This article helps explain why.
Saudi Arabia intends holding an international conference on “Human Rights” this autumn. This is like saying the Ayatollah Khomeini will be holding a conference on women’s liberation, or that the Pope is holding a conference on “How to be a good Baptist.” According to the “Arab News,” the upcoming conference will “shed light on the Islamic approach toward human rights.”
Shortly after the vicious attacks of 9/11, George W. Bush went out of his way to invite leading Muslims to the capital; made many statements alleging that Islam is a “religion of peace.”
“Hate crimes” were committed here and there in the United States, as some Americans took out their wrath on supposedly “innocent” mosques or Islamic people.
From that time to this, any number of American Muslims have decried their “misunderstood religion,” claiming Islam does not believe in terrorism and murder; that Islam stands for “peace,” brotherhood and tranquility.
Now, one of the most repressive regimes on the planet has decided to host an international conference aimed at shedding criticism based upon militant Saudi Wahabism; the oft-repeated charges that the Saudis have looked the other way while large amounts of money have been funneled to such terrorist organizations as Hamas and the “Al-Aksa Brigade,” Yassir Arafat’s militant Palestinian group, as well as countless human rights violations.
Recent sensational publicity has also been given to the futile attempts of an American mother to rescue her children from Saudi Arabia. Recently, the “U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom” asserted that the following serious violations of religious freedom occur routinely in Saudi Arabia, and said “those Saudis and foreign contract workers who do not adhere to the Saudi government’s interpretation of Islam are subject to severe religious freedom violations.”
The violations listed included:
1. Virtually complete prohibitions on establishing non-Wahabi places of worship, the public expression of non-Wahabi religion, the wearing of non-prescribed religious dress and symbols, and the presence of identifiable clerics of any religion other than the government’s interpretation of Islam;
2. The harassment, detention, arrest, torture and subsequent deportation by government authorities of Christian foreign workers for worshiping in private – with many forced to go to great lengths to conceal private religious practice to avoid these abuses;
3. The detention, imprisonment and, in some cases, torture of Shi’a clerics and religious scholars for their religious views which differ from those of the government;
4. The offensive and discriminatory language found in Saudi government-sponsored school textbooks, sermons in mosques and articles and commentary in the media about Jews, Christians and non-Wahabi streams of Islam; and
5. Interpretation and enforcement of religious law in Saudi Arabia, which affects every aspect of women’s lives and results in serious violations of their human rights.
In spite of such repressive violations, Saudi Arabia wishes to pretend to the world that its form of Islam is truly a “religion of peace, tolerance and love,” or brotherhood.
But different people mean different things by “peace.” Your dictionary says: “PEACE: Freedom from war or strife of any kind; public quiet, order, and security; an agreement between contending parties to end war; quiet, calm; peace of mind.”
To you and me, peace means FREEDOM along with public quiet, order, and security. It means tolerance, “live and let live,” tranquility, harmony, an absence of violence, riot, disturbances and war. Germans under Hitler could depend on “public quiet, order, and security.” But they were not free; not guaranteed human rights! Peace means much more than merely an absence of war.
It means, first of all, freedom: then, the personal dignity and inalienable rights of every individual to be treated equally. It means the right to worship as we choose; to speak as we choose; to believe as we choose. It means the right to assemble without fear; it means freedom of the press, freedom of religion; freedom to exercise all those rights given to us by the founding fathers of our great, free country!
Continually, Muslims claim their religion stands for “peace.”
But to Muslims, “peace” does not mean the same thing it means to you and me. To them “peace” means “submission.” Islam means “submission.” But submission to WHAT? Submission to WHOM? Why, to their version of God, whom they call “Allah,” and to their revered “prophet,” Muhammad, as well as his modern-day representatives. The true meaning of “peace” among adherents to Islam is SURRENDER! Since they claim their imams stand for Allah, in the same way the pope is revered by Catholics, a convert to Islam must wholly SURRENDER to the imam and the mosque. Therefore, according to the basic tenets of Islam, the kind of peace you and I yearn for is IMPOSSIBLE with Christians, Jews, or believers in ANY religion other than Islam.
Muslims call their areas “Dar-ul-Islam,” meaning “the house of submission,” which occurs only when one “surrenders” to their version of Allah and Muhammad!
Outside of Islam there is no “peace.” Instead, Islam seeks to bring all other “Infidels” (non-believers in Muhammad) into their “Dar-ul-Islam.” An unspoken sixth tenet of Islam is their avowed determination to bring the entire world under Islamic rule; to destroy all other religions; to kill those who resist.
Down through history, this has been done more often by war and the edge of the sword than by patient missionary work. Of course, they will be quick to claim that “the people of the book” (as they call Christians and Jews) must be given an opportunity to submit; to “convert.”
Then, if they reject such opportunity, they are to be killed.
Not surprisingly, large numbers of African-Americans in America’s prison systems are being “converted” to Islam. The soldier who took an Islamic name, and who “fragged” (threw fragmentation grenades) his own officers is an Islamic convert, who, instead of asking to be exempted from fighting his “brother Muslims” on Islamic soil, resorted to a violent terrorist act against his own brother soldiers, killing and maiming unsuspecting victims while they slept!
At some point in time, he may have read some of the following verses from the Islamic “Holy” Koran:
“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, [even if they are] of the People of the Books [Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizya [a tax] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”
“If anyone desires a religion other than Islam [submission to Allah], never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in the ranks of those who have lost.
“8:39: And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah altogether and everywhere.
“4:89: They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level [with them]. So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn renegades, seize them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them,”
“22:19-22: These two antagonists dispute with each other about their Lord: But those who deny [their Lord], for them will be cut out a garment of Fire: over their heads will be poured out boiling water. With it will be scalded what is within their bodies, as well as [their] skins. In addition there will be maces of iron [to punish] them. Every time they wish to get away therefrom, from anguish, they will be forced back therein, and [it will be said], “Taste ye the Penalty of Burning!”
“47:4: If you meet those who are infidels or non-believers, you cut their heads off and tie things around their necks, start a war and God will give victory and those who will die in the war fighting God will not forget their acts.”
Just how or why one is called upon to “tie things around their necks” after having cut off their heads is a bit puzzling, but such are the shrieking, illogical diatribes found in the Koran.
The reason why there will BE NO PEACE in the Middle East is the simple fact of the existence of the State of Israel! Deep down inside, the entire Islamic world HATES the Jews; wants them annihilated; wants the state of Israel utterly destroyed!
No matter how many “roadmaps,” or “cease fires,” or “truces,” or “pull backs” occur, vicious, die-hard, militant Islamic terrorists will continue to do all they can to murder Jews.
When one sees our government making conciliatory advances toward such repressive regimes as Saudi Arabia, one must realize they are witnessing pure political expediency; geo-politics; the ongoing “game” of international relations.
The facts are simple: We need Saudi oil. We need Saudi cooperation in order to maintain ostensible stability in the region. We need to pretend Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait are our “friends” as we tackle such tough problems as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Our government knows full well that militant Wahabism could eventually overthrow the Saudi government in the same way that militant Islam overthrew the Shah of Iran, and therefore plays the game of supporting the Saudi regime.
Do not be surprised if all the good words and lofty platitudes which will be spoken in Saudi Arabia about “human rights” are hailed as wonderful, positive steps by the UN and the liberal media. Deep down, they all know better.
No matter how loudly or how long Muslims proclaim their religion to be a religion of “peace,” such a claim is a blatant lie. Anyone reading the Koran knows better.
