Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Mark Durie on Islam's Crisis of Apostasy by Marilyn Stern
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
The Turkish capture of Constantinople, 1453
HT RoP : Mark Durie, Middle East Forum Writing Fellow, and Senior Research
Fellow of the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam, spoke to
participants in a July 25 Middle East Forum Webinar (video) about the crisis of faith in Islam as disillusioned Muslims leave the religion.
Islamism makes utopian promises which repeatedly have failed. Coming against the background of several centuries of Muslim humiliation, this results in increasing discontent. One symptom are the growing numbers of Muslims becoming agnostics, atheists, or converting to other faiths, especially Christianity. What does this mean for the future of Islam?
"If you want to understand a religion, you need to understand what it
says about the human condition ... the rewards it offers, the promises
it makes," Durie explained. "Islam's view of humanity is that human
persons are basically weak and easily led astray, and [that] the
solution to this problem is divine guidance, which is imposed by ... all
the institutions of society and the state keeping people on the right
path."
Islam's promise is "success" in this life as well as the next.
Indeed, the Islamic call to prayer contains the words "come to success" (hayya ala al-falah).
The Quran is all about winners and losers, teaching that Allah sent
Muhammad "the religion of truth," that Muslims have a divine destiny to
command others, and that Islam will dominate other religions.
