After the Attack in Nice, France
The following are thoughts composed on the day after the Nice, France terrorist attack on Bastille Day, July 14th, 2016.
It behooves us to resist the axiom spoken by George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
As I listened to the news this morning, reporting the remarks of world leaders to the attacks of yesterday, I was distressed at their insipid response. A reporter referred to one national leader’s response as a “bold reply.” The now well-verified and amply documented agenda of radical Islam to violently attack their enemies needs much more than a “bold reply.” They have declared war on everything they deem Dar al-Kharb, the House of War; in which dwell all who are not a part of their particular brand of jihadist Islam, including non-Muslims and moderate Muslims. It’s time the civil governments the jihadis deem Dar al-Khard officially declared war on them and did much more than send “strong words” at them.
In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul says it is the duty of civil governments to use the power of the sword to punish evil. The doctrine of a just war has long been a subject in Christendom. A defensive war is a just use of force. Since Radical Islamists have both declared war on the West and are vigorously persecuting it, Western nations must reply in kind.
The man who drove a truck through the pedestrian-filled streets of Nice yesterday, killing (at this count) eighty people, wasn’t going to be “reasoned with.” His religious ideology drove him to do what he did. It wasn’t a lack of employment, discomfiture at cultural tensions, or that women in France cannot wear a veil that drove him. His brand of religion thinks killing “infidels” glorifies Allah. THAT’S why he did it.
And his peers will continue to carry out such attacks until they are systematically hunted down and stopped. No amount of well-wishing by liberals and Pollyannaish politicians will change that.
It’s time to cease the “strong replies” limited to words and DO something about ending the threat of Radical Islam.
Winston Churchill read an English translation of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf in 1933. Hitler made his vision of the new Germany crystal clear in its pages. Churchill took Hitler at his word and began to warn his fellow Brits of the emerging Nazi regime. But the England of that time was weary of conflict following the trauma of The Great War and didn’t want to believe another war was looming. They went for the soothing words of politicians who announced “peace in our time.” Churchill’s warning only earned him the animosity of his peers and the British public.
Churchill was quietly removed from political sight and marginalized by the press. But he stayed his course and kept warning about the Nazi threat. In a speech to the House of Commons in May of 1935 when Hitler was moving to annex Austria as the first step in his strategy to conquer all Europe, Churchill said . . .
Still he was ignored. And he was ignored when Germany annexed the Sudeten from Czechoslovakia. But when the Germans blitzkrieged their way across Poland, Britain finally woke up and realized what Churchill had been warning about for years was all true. The Nazis were evil and would never be appeased. The Brits deposed their pacifist politicians and elevated Churchill to lead them.
Did you know Churchill likened Mein Kampf to the Koran? On page fifty 50 of his work The Gathering Storm (1948) Churchill referred to Mein Kampf as “The new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.”
The power of this warning lies in its reversal. Churchill saw in Hitler’s tome but an echo of a prior evil located in the Koran. If the Nazis were an evil danger that had to be met with equal force and a determination to utterly quash it, how much more the ideology promoted & encouraged by the Koran?
Until Western leaders realize modern jihadists are simply living out a radical obedience to their religion and that they won’t stop because they CAN’T and be faithful to Allah, we’re doomed to more attacks like what happened yesterday in Nice, France.
As Christians, we ought to pray & work for the conversion of all people, including jihadists. But the God ordained duty of civil government is to protect its citizens.
It behooves us to resist the axiom spoken by George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
As I listened to the news this morning, reporting the remarks of world leaders to the attacks of yesterday, I was distressed at their insipid response. A reporter referred to one national leader’s response as a “bold reply.” The now well-verified and amply documented agenda of radical Islam to violently attack their enemies needs much more than a “bold reply.” They have declared war on everything they deem Dar al-Kharb, the House of War; in which dwell all who are not a part of their particular brand of jihadist Islam, including non-Muslims and moderate Muslims. It’s time the civil governments the jihadis deem Dar al-Khard officially declared war on them and did much more than send “strong words” at them.
In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul says it is the duty of civil governments to use the power of the sword to punish evil. The doctrine of a just war has long been a subject in Christendom. A defensive war is a just use of force. Since Radical Islamists have both declared war on the West and are vigorously persecuting it, Western nations must reply in kind.
The man who drove a truck through the pedestrian-filled streets of Nice yesterday, killing (at this count) eighty people, wasn’t going to be “reasoned with.” His religious ideology drove him to do what he did. It wasn’t a lack of employment, discomfiture at cultural tensions, or that women in France cannot wear a veil that drove him. His brand of religion thinks killing “infidels” glorifies Allah. THAT’S why he did it.
And his peers will continue to carry out such attacks until they are systematically hunted down and stopped. No amount of well-wishing by liberals and Pollyannaish politicians will change that.
It’s time to cease the “strong replies” limited to words and DO something about ending the threat of Radical Islam.
Winston Churchill read an English translation of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf in 1933. Hitler made his vision of the new Germany crystal clear in its pages. Churchill took Hitler at his word and began to warn his fellow Brits of the emerging Nazi regime. But the England of that time was weary of conflict following the trauma of The Great War and didn’t want to believe another war was looming. They went for the soothing words of politicians who announced “peace in our time.” Churchill’s warning only earned him the animosity of his peers and the British public.
Churchill was quietly removed from political sight and marginalized by the press. But he stayed his course and kept warning about the Nazi threat. In a speech to the House of Commons in May of 1935 when Hitler was moving to annex Austria as the first step in his strategy to conquer all Europe, Churchill said . . .
When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong–these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.
Still he was ignored. And he was ignored when Germany annexed the Sudeten from Czechoslovakia. But when the Germans blitzkrieged their way across Poland, Britain finally woke up and realized what Churchill had been warning about for years was all true. The Nazis were evil and would never be appeased. The Brits deposed their pacifist politicians and elevated Churchill to lead them.
Did you know Churchill likened Mein Kampf to the Koran? On page fifty 50 of his work The Gathering Storm (1948) Churchill referred to Mein Kampf as “The new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.”
The power of this warning lies in its reversal. Churchill saw in Hitler’s tome but an echo of a prior evil located in the Koran. If the Nazis were an evil danger that had to be met with equal force and a determination to utterly quash it, how much more the ideology promoted & encouraged by the Koran?
Until Western leaders realize modern jihadists are simply living out a radical obedience to their religion and that they won’t stop because they CAN’T and be faithful to Allah, we’re doomed to more attacks like what happened yesterday in Nice, France.
As Christians, we ought to pray & work for the conversion of all people, including jihadists. But the God ordained duty of civil government is to protect its citizens.
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