Spirit and Truth Ministries
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ISLAMIC HYPOCRISY
Don Hawley
February 10, 2002
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One of the main reasons many Muslims around the world give for
hating America has to do with our culture, particularly our obsession with
sex. As a Christian I'm not completely pleased with our culture either, and
we do seem to be a sex-obsessed nation.
However, I believe these Muslim finger pointers need to examine
their own culture as well. I lived for nearly six years in the second largest
Muslim nation in the world, Pakistan. I observed that as soon as a young girl
reached about age 12, then a majority of Muslim families hid her in a burkha
for life. Most Muslim women were kept at home, and if they did go out they
had to be covered from head to foot. Was that a case of extreme purity on the
part of the Muslim men? If so, then why did they enjoy sexually
oriented magazines and movies? It would seem they weren't against women and
sex, they just didn't want the women in their own family to be visible.
I remember taking my wife to see the national football finals
in Pakistan. As was usually the case, there were practically no women in
attendance, all men. Our seat in the bleachers was about ten rows up, and
most of the game the men in the rows in front of us spent their time looking
back at my wife rather than observing the athletes. Once again, they
obviously had left their own wives at home so that no one would see them, but
they had no compunction about staring at mine.
Some would say, "But when you were in Pakistan a very liberal
Muslim government was in place." True, but even in the most puritanical
Muslim societies, such as Iran and the Taliban, the men still seem to be heavy
into sex. That is nothing new; the latest issue of Newsweek (Oct.
15) is very valuable in understanding Islam and our present condition. One
article points out:
"On the night before they went out on a suicide mission to
kill someone, the Assassins, the 12th-century cult of holy-warrior hit men,
were given a taste of the Paradise that awaited. They smoked hashish (the
word assassin derives from hashashin, users of hashish) and read in
the Quran about the sensual rewards of martyrdom:
"'Spend eternity in gardens of tranquility. Youths of
never-ending bloom will pass around to them decanters, beakers full of
sparkling wine . . .
"And such fruits as they fancy,
Bird meats as they relish.
And companions with big beautiful eyes
Like pearls within their shells . . ."
In our own century, things haven't changed that much. Mohamed
Atta, one of the men who piloted a plane into a World Trade Tower, almost
missed his plane in Boston. He did manage to leave his luggage behind, and in
it investigators found his assassins' manual. It contained a strange mixture
of hygiene for homicide and exhortation for prayer. In it he wrote that the
coming day would be "the day, God willing, you spend with the women of
Paradise."
With three other of the killer pilots (a more accurate term
than suicide pilots), along with two other terrorists still alive, Atta
visited Las Vegas for a planning session. Two of them, Nawaf Alhazmi and
Khalid Almihdhar, visited the Dancers and Cheetah strip clubs while in Vegas.
Newsweek also reports, "This summer a second wave of
hijackers slipped into the United States. These men were the muscle: their
job would be to slit the throats of passengers and stab flight attendants
(shouting 'Allahu Akbar'--God is great!--as they 'slaughtered the animals,' as
their instructions put it)." A neighbor reported that the apartment shared
by the hijackers in Paterson had no TV, no stereo, no furniture, except for
three smallish mattresses on the floor for as many as six men. "Nobody ever
saw them at mosques," said the city's mayor, Marty Barnes. "But they liked
the go-go clubs."
In America it is legal for anyone above a certain age to attend
strip clubs, but that hardly qualifies them to preach to others about their
lack of purity.
One popular belief is that each Islamic male in heaven will
have 70 mansions, each containing 70 palaces. In each palace will be 70 beds,
and on each bed 70 beautiful perpetual virgins to cater to their every whim.
It is promised that Allah will give them enough superhuman strength to respond
to all those women. What is certain is that the Islamic suicide bombers, most
of them young and uneducated, are urged on to their mission by such heavenly
visions.
When I have a moment I want to study about Islamic women and
heaven. I assume that if they are faithful they get to go there, but from
what I glean to date they will still be very much second class citizens.
I'm sure some will accuse me of wrongly stirring emotions, but
I'm a bit weary with Islamic voices telling me how degraded my country is
compared to their own. Are many Americans obsessed with sex? Yes. Are many
Islamic men obsessed with sex? Yes. The American obsession just seems to be
more out in the open.