The world’s major religions need a better answer to Islam.
“When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse,” Osama bin Laden said at the beginning of his talk taking credit for the 9/11 attacks.
The line launched a thousand geopolitical analyses, was quoted by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times and was pored over endlessly by experts who completely missed the point.
Osama bin Laden was not talking about great powers or nations, he was talking about Islam.
“There is only one goaL,” Bin Laden continued, the supremacy of Islam. He followed that up with a quote from a Hadith that is known to virtually every Muslim, but to all too few non-Muslims. “I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.”
The 9/11 attacks, Bin Laden went on to explain, brought many non-Muslims to convert to Islam. “Some of them said that in Holland, at one of the centers, the number of people who accepted Islam during the days that followed the operations were more than the people who accepted Islam in the last eleven years. I heard someone on Islamic radio who owns a school in America say: ‘We don’t have time to keep up with the demands of those who are asking about Islamic books to learn about Islam.’” Looking at conversion rates, there’s no doubt that he was right.
Conversions to Islam rise sharply after major Islamic terrorist attacks from 9/11 to Oct 7. This runs counter to everything we would like to believe about religion and morality, but it’s reality.
Bin Laden’s ‘Strong Horse’ wasn’t about who would win a military campaign between America and Al Qaeda, as some foreign policy experts insisted on arguing in major publications, it was about who would win the religious and cultural war between Islam and the West. Terrorist attacks were battles for the ‘hearts and minds’ of the rest of the world. 9/11 and other attacks would show the world the religious superiority of Islam by showing it was the ‘Strong Horse’.
America and its allies wasted decades trying to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of Muslims from Afghanistan to Iraq to Gaza with billions in aid and democratic elections. The West welcomed mass Muslim migration to show how generous and tolerant we were. And no matter what we did, Muslim terrorist attacks became a regular feature of our lives because we insisted that being the liberal ‘Weak Horse’ made us morally superior to the men relentlessly killing us.
A generation later, more Americans are converting to Islam and joining the ‘Strong Horse’ than Muslims are converting to the democracy and liberalism of the ‘Weak Horse’. Secularism is on the decline in the Muslim world while Hamas and Hezbollah banners are waved on Ivy League campuses. Osama bin Laden had said that the “deeds” of the 9/11 hijackers had “overshadowed all other speeches made everywhere else in the world.” Terrorism is how Islam speaks and its message is that its followers believe so strongly that Islam is the only acceptable way or life that they are willing to die and kill to force everyone else to believe it too.
Our political and religious leaders can protest up and down that killing people is not how a religion wins the battle of ideas. “When people kill in the name of religion, they are not killing in the name of their god. They are killing for their own beliefs,” an op-ed after the Chanukah massacre in Australia argued. Islam has over 1,000 years of history that says otherwise.
Osama bin Laden did not originate the concept of the weak and strong horse. Islam did not expand around the world by winning a war of ideas, but by winning wars. Being the ‘Strong Horse’ is Islam’s only real compelling contribution to international theology. Judaism and Christianity may have abandoned holy wars as backwards, but Islam has gone on fighting them.
The Islamic civilizational mission, as in the Hadith that Bin Laden quoted, is simple and straightforward. “Fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.” The ‘Strong Horse’ is not the religion with the vital moral message, but the one that has the most power. When Muslim terrorists shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ before terrorist attacks, as their prophet did before battles, they use the attack to show the supremacy of their deity.
Popes, archbishops, and rabbis may argue that it doesn’t work that way, but in a world where the presence of the Creator is hidden in His works, where believers grapple over the mysteries of theodicy, and the inner journey of the human soul is the defining paradigm, Islam cuts viciously through the Gordian Knot of faith to claim that all that matters is earthly power.
Why believe in something you can’t see, when you can see the works of Islam in every bomb blast, beheading and totalitarian state brandishing rockets and marching terror forces? There is nothing intangible about Islam. Even its 72 virgins are merely the supernatural substitutes offered to dead Jihadis for the infidel women and girls they enslaved and raped on earth.
Martyrs in Christianity and Judaism die for their faith, while martyrs in Islam kill for theirs.
Judaism and Christianity believe in the sanctity of life, while Islam believes just as devoutly in the sanctity of taking life. To kill is to assert the power of Allah on earth and to bring the Caliphate, the Islamic kingdom of heaven on earth closer by an act almost anyone can do. Even the weakest Muslim is at least capable of being a suicide bomber to kill a few infidels.
Rather than confront this theology for what it is, most religions evade it, insisting that this is not real Islam, but the fringe beliefs of a tiny aberrant group, who are not truly acting in the name of their religion or “killing in the name of their god” but “are killing for their own beliefs.” The idea that such abstractions make any kind of difference is the ultimate ‘Weak Horse’ behavior.
Traditional Christian and Jewish martyrs who fell to Islam did not deny what it was. Their strength lay in their willingness to sacrifice their lives for their faith despite knowing what their oppressors were capable of. There are still men and women of such a caliber of faith in the rural churches of Nigeria and the Judean settlements of Israel, but much of the political and religious leadership of Christianity and Judaism make themselves the ‘Weak Horse’ not just physically, but spiritually, by denying why their own people are dying and what it is that’s killing them.
There is dignity in being a martyr, but none in attending an interfaith memorial service to our modern martyrs at which none dare name what killed the men, women and children being mourned except diffuse postmodern pathologies like ‘divisiveness’, ‘extremism’ and ‘hatred’ and the imam who groomed the killers rises to caution about the dangers of ‘Islamophobia’.
Islam’s ‘Strong Horse’ theology views the world as a battlefield, the ‘Dar al-Harb’ its religion has been sent to pacify, our ‘Weak Horse’ worldview lacks even the ability to process what it is the enemy believes, let alone to lay out an opposing doctrine that appeals to anyone except diplomats and the heads of NGOs prattling about ‘multilateralism’ and ‘international law’.
What the ‘Strong Horse’ approach lacks in morality, spirituality and humanity, it more than makes up for in operational ruthlessness. Islam isn’t winning the religious and culture war because it has good points to make, but because it’s fighting it as an actual war.
Islam intends to subjugate or destroy every major religion on earth as it has been doing for over 1,000 years. The world’s religions will need a better comeback than a ‘COEXIST’ sticker.
Jay Lykins says
Until it is realized that Islam is a political and religious entity, attempting to mirror not just Judaism and Christianity, but the religions of pre-Islamic Arabia as well as being caught up in its own eschatology, we will continue to fight“radical Islam” on its own terms.
The underlying direction of Islam, from its inception to present day has been towards world domination: one religion, that of Islam, ending with Armageddon. Islam is not a religion of peace.
That perhaps has been the big lie throughout history. One need only look at their final destination to know that Islam is a religion of JIHAD.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
My only disagreement: it’s not a religious entity. It’s
⮞ Ideological
⮞ Geopolitical
⮞ A cult
Fuse all of these, and you get islam
Tony says
Islam and its Muslims are spiritual children of the Serpent(Genesis 3:15) against America, Israel, and Non-Muslims, and Islam’s Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Enterprise, Islam’s Caliphate, and the supremacist ideology from this Antichrist Beast System are reviving for the End Times to menace Non-Muslims throughout the world. Sadly, the West’s Corrupt Leaders appear impotent to stop the deceitful, Muslim menace(Qur’an 9:5, 29, 111; 49:15, etc.).
Allah’s Islam, a CRIMINAL-TERRORIST-GANG ENTERPRISE and a MURDEROUS-DEMONIC CULT OF BELIEVERS, Terrorist Muslim Soldiers for satanic Allah, continually fund, promote, and practice ideological subversion, propaganda, bigotry, discrimination, deceit, industrial-scale slavery, human trafficking, intimidation, supremacy, segregation, hatred, incitement to violence, criminality, genocide, victimhood, censorship, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law, Sharia, and in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 5:14,35; 8:60; 9:41, 88, etc.). Islam and its Muslims are a Muslim Terrorist Organization(MTO).
Allah describes Muslim women in Jenna, Allah’s Paradise, as whores of Allah in Qur’an 56:37. Also, Deceitful Allah stirs hatred against Christians until the resurrection day when Qur’an 5:14 instructs, “And some of those who say, ‘Surely we are Nasara (Christians),’ we took their covenant. So they have forgotten a part of what they were reminded of, so we have stirred up ENMITY and HATRED among them until the resurrection day. And Allah will inform them of what they were doing.” See also Qur’an 60:4; 8:55.
As taught by Allah, Muslims are supremacist terrorists for Allah with their MONEY and with their LIVES while undermining a society from within using the man-made book of lies and deceit, the Qur’an. Allah in Qur’an 49:15 states, “Surely the believers[Muslims] are only those who believed in Allah and his messenger. They do not doubt, and they performed jihad with their MONEY and their LIVES for the sake of Allah. Those are the truthful.” As evidenced by continuous Muslim attacks, Allah in Qur’an 4:101 says, “…Surely the infidels(Non-Muslims) were your clear enemies.”
ALLAH’S MUSLIMS are a greater TERROR than diabolical Allah. Allah in Qur’an 59:13 says, “You[Muslims] are a greater terror in their chests than Allah. This is because they[Jews & Christians] are people who do not understand.” Islam must be banned as illegal, and we have the legal right to defend ourselves from Muslim violence. As a result, Non-Muslims are marked for death by Islam and its Muslims. Allah in Qur’an 9:29 commands, “Engage in war with those who do not believe in Allah nor in the last day. Nor forbid what Allah and his messenger forbid, nor believe in the religion of the truth among those who have given the book until they pay the jizyah out of hand and they are subdued.”
Again, Islam is a civilization-destroying, totalitarian, and supremacist system of lies and deceit because Allah, the best deceiver, is the actual source of Muslim deceit as taught in Islam’s Qur’an. Muslims under Islam’s system of deceit are more easily controlled because their is no foundation for truth in Islam. Allah in Qur’an 3:54 says, “And they deceived, and Allah deceived. And Allah is the best deceiver.” Allah in Qur’an 8:30 says, “…And Allah is the best deceiver.” Allah in Qur’an 13:42 says, “And indeed, those before them deceived, so to Allah all the deception…”
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Speaking from a Hindu perspective, islam needs to be seen as unadulterated adharm i.e. evil. After that, all efforts should be made to combat, defeat and destroy it – by hook or crook. The template for this is not in the Bhagwat Gita, as many Hare Krishna followers seem to think (which simply explains a philosophical architecture of man & God, rather than a driving moral imperative to destroy evil), but in the larger epic, where Lord Krishna helps the righteous side, the Pandavas, defeat the evil Kauravas in the war. Despite being outnumbered, (and even by resorting to deceit, when needed,) he saw to it that the Pandavas were the only ones standing, even if in a pyrrhic war
I’ll leave it to Christians and Jews to determine what template they should adapt in combating islam. For the former, it looks like the Crusaders had the template, and for the latter, it would seem that the Maccabees did
Wellington says
+1
J. says
Converting Muslims to Christianity is the best weapon and can be done secretly, as is already happening in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and even Saudi Arabia. Islam tries to hide the fact that it faces problems with millions of apostates, but it is weakening in the Middle East and North Africa. Some Islamic clerics admit the problem and even say that, within a few decades, they may become a religion without followers.
Joe says
Yes, the only way to change a Muslim is from the inside out. At the same time, non-Muslim governments need to stop letting Muslims from taking over in the free world. The only thing that comes from mass Muslim immigration is no-go zones. Ultimately, Muslims will begin to enforce Islamic law and the free world will not be able to stop them. After they are welcomed in, trying to stop them is seen as an attack on Islam. Like cancer, it will continue to spread and will ultimately take over. We need to do everything we can to get Muslims to become disciples of Jesus Christ who will go and make more disciples, at the same time, we need to be on the defensive.
somehistory says
I disagree with the statement about Christianity and Judaism and “Holy wars” , but I’ll just quote Someone Who has never been wrong. The quote will prove the main theme of the article correct, which is important.
From the Book of Matthew, chapter 7.
“13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
This is what we are seeing with the growth of the filth from satan. All who follow him, will get what lies at the end of the ‘broad road.’.
True and False Prophets
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
William Swiggart says
The fact of history is, the expansion of Islam didn’t begin to recede until. the Crusades took the fight to the enemy.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Actually, the Crusades, for all the denunciation that they had to endure, was a very temporary, almost ephemeral series in history – lasted only 2 centuries. And the only crusades of note were the first and third crusades. Everything from the fourth onwards was futile, and there was that “children’s crusade” – that resulted in its participants getting captured and enslaved
The retreat of islam in Europe happened at the 2 ends. The first one was when Ferdinand & Isabella joined forces to expel the Moors from Iberia completely, and capture Grenada and Cordoba among others, driving the Moors back to Morocco. The other was when the Ottoman empire started crumbling in the 19th century, courtesy the various Balkan revolts by the Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians et al, all backed up by the Russians. Those 2 series of events are when the expansion of islam started to recede – in Europe
gravenimage says
Even though Islam took back the Levant, I do think that this fighting back set Islam back in Europe–along with the Battle of Lepanto and the defense at the gates of Vienna. And Islam lost Spain and Portugal.
rubiconcrest says
History shows us that there are few solutions to the Islam problem.
Spainish Model
– Explusion of Morres 100 years post Reconquista.
Chinese Model
– Mass Detention and “Re-Education”
-Surveillance and Digital Control
-Cultural and Religious Assimilation
-Forced Labor and Economic Integration
-Propaganda and International Diplomacy
United States
-Ban Muslim Brotherhood, monitor extremists/jihadists hoping to catch them before they act … but ignore all the other aspects of civilizational jihad, believing that the Constitution has no remedy, and we must wring our hands and hope for the best.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
4. Burmese model
⮞ Attack all muslims in the regions in Rakhine province where they were running an insurrection
⮞ Expel them all from the country and refuse to take them back, no matter what incentives or threats are levelled against them. Just don’t care where they go: they just can’t be in Burma
⮞ Have a political consensus on this issue, if nothing else
IMO, that’s the best solution, better than even the Spanish one
Walter Sieruk says
Something far better than the general and vague idea of any religion being used to counter Islam is the specific way of using the to expose the doctrinal errors and falsehoods of Islam
Therefore, it should be made clear that the way for a person to discover the truth concerning the nature of Jesus is found in the Bible verse Isaiah 8:20. This instructs “To the law of the testimony. If they do not speak according to the word, it is because there is no light in them.” [N.K.J.V.]
In other words, if a prophet or a religious teacher has teaching that are in contradiction to the Word, the Bible, then that prophet teachers or teacher who is a false prophet or false teachers because he teaches false doctrines. The Muslim clerics, as the imam and mullahs, teach and speak doctrines about God from the Qur ‘an .
As the Qur’ an in 112 teaches “He is God alone: God is the eternal begetteth not…” Likewise, this religious book which is the entire foundation of and for Islam further teaches in 19:35. “It is not befitting to God that He should beget a son.” In great contrast the Bible teaches in John 1:14. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory , the glory of the only begotten of the Father ,full of grace and truth.” Likewise John 3:16 teaches “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… Then just a little further in verse 18 it is written about Jesus Who is “the only begotten Son of God. “ Other places in the Bible further teach that Jesus is the Son of God as in Matthew 16:15:16. Luke 1:35. John 3:36. First John 4:14. 15. 5:14,15.
Moreover to be even more clear the Bible teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, Who is God the Father. As found in Matthew 3:16,17. First John 2:22,23. 4:14,15. Of course , it ,very much, needs to made even more specific . The Bible teaches that Jesus is also God the Son. As seen in Hebrew 1:8 and First John 5:20.
In conclusion ,with the above instruction of the way to find doctrinal truth in Isaiah 8:20 and in the light of the Bible verse provided it may be clearly seen, by all those who are willing to see, that Islam is in terrible doctrinal error and it is therefore a false religion, Proverbs 14:12. John 14:6.
Walter Sieruk says
The Wisdom of the teachings of Jesus may, very much, apply to this subject countering the advancement of Islam in the West , with its violent and deadly terrorism . Therefore, when viewing Islam as a tree and the many of its brutal cruel violence of death inflecting Islamic terror/murder entities,as ISIS, al Qaeda Hamas , Hezbollah and so forth .
To this the Wisdom of Jesus does very much apply. For Jesus taught, “You do know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bears forth good fruit; but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” After saying, this Jesus told them what He told them when He said “By their fruit you will know them.” Matthew 7:16, 17, 18,.20. [N.K.J.V.]
In conclusion, Islam is a corrupt tree and also a false religion, Proverbs 14:12. John 14:6. First John 2:22,23. 4:14,15. 5:12,13,20.
Walter Sieruk says
Many false religions, including Islam, deny that Jesus is God. In spite of that denial the Bible clearly reveals that Jesus is God. As found in John 1 ;1-5. 20:28. Romans 9:5.
Furthermore, by comparing John 5:22 with Romans 14:12. a person can see the Jesus is God. Second Peter 1:.1. First John 5:20.Likewise by comparing the Old and New Testament books together that Jesus is God may be discovered , As by comparing Psalm 89:8,9 with Matthew 8:23-27. Also in comparing Isaiah 46:22,23 with Philippians 2: 5-11 shows Jesus to be God.
The Bible instructs that the way for a person to discover if a doctrine or teaching is true or false to compare it to what is already written in the scripture. So if that teaching or doctrine is in contradiction what is in the Word of God, the Bible then that doctrine or teaching is false.
As Isaiah 8:20 reads “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” [N.K.J.V.]
Walter Sieruk says
The subject of great importance is that Jesus is God and therefore Islam is in major Biblical doctrinal error concerning nature of Jesus and is therefore a false religion.
In the Old Testament of Isaiah in 45:22,23.” starting at the second sentence it reads ” I am God and there is no other…That to Me every knee shall bow . Every tongue shall taken an oath. He shall say ‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength…” [N.K.J.V.]
Moving on to the New Testament and comparing those above Isaiah verse with Philippians 2:10,11 the reader is informed that “That at the name of Jesus every shall bow , of those in heaven and of those on the under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory God the Father.”
So in those Old Testament reveal that to God “every knee shall bow..” and likewise those New Testament verses reveal that to Jesus “every knee shall bow…” This clearly shows that Jesus is God.
In Psalm 89:8,9. it reads “O Lord of host, Who is mighty like you , O Lord ? … You rule the raging of the sea ; when it’s waves rise you still them.” In Matthew 8:23-27 a terrible sea storm occurred and then rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great clam. So the men marveled, saying ‘Who can this be , that even the winds and the sea obey him. ” By comparing what happened with those verses from that just quoted Psalm, the answer to the question asked by the disciples of Jesus is that He is God.
Furthermore the Bible in First Kings 8:39 teaches that “Only God Knows that thoughts of men” in the Gospel of Mark 2: 8 reveals that Jesus knows the thoughts of men.”
In conclusion the Bible does reveal to that Jesus is God and that exposes Islam’s false teaching about Jesus and therefore Islam is a false religion of demonic darkness.
As Isaiah 8:20 reads ” To the law and to the Testimony ! If they do not speak according to the word, it is because there is no light in them.”
Walter Sieruk says
Those Muslim migrants who have entered the different nations of Europe and commit many sex crimes and engage in riots, along with arson and vandalism that are part of those riots. As well as murderous actions of Islamic terrorism. Such deadly jihad affront reveals the jihad minded Islamic contempt .dishonor and reproach towards the people of the Netherlands as well as Muslim malice toward the people of all other Western nations who were kind yet foolish enough to allow them, those Muslim migrants to enter, invade, their home countries of Europe in the first place. This type of situation is reflected in the Bible .Which reads “When the wicked comes, contempt comes also; with dishonor comes reproach.” Proverbs 18:3. [N.K.J.]
Furthermore, those jihadist Muslims with their Islamic way of thinking by their well thought Islamic schemes for the action of involvement in their violent and sheath jihad for the advancement of Islam in the many different Western nations. Those sly scheming jihadists are, somewhat, of a reminder of the information reveled in the Bible in Proverbs 15:26. In which the reader is informed that even “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord…”
rubiconcrest says
The answer to putting the genie back in the bottle is going to be multifaceted. I don’t disagree with your Walter. You make valid points for the anti-Islam polemics. I favor the following.
Since Islam alone owns the lesser jihad and honor killing, we in the West will have to charge them for the damage they are causing. The monitoring, arresting, jailing, life, health and disability insurance for those killed and injured and deportation etc…
So, taking a page from the Trump playbook, I’d say tariff them until they end the teaching of the lesser Jihad in mosques and until honor killing is Haram.
Every non-Muslim country is charged. All 56 Muslim nations get the same amount, as they are considered all equally responsible. If a Palestinian state exists in the future, tariff them as well.
Hit them in the pocketbook. That is something they will understand. All nations equally, big or small, rich or poor, so the oil rich ones can’t just shake it off as the cost of jihad.
rubiconcrest says
Or course this does not solve the bigger problem, Sharia, demographic and civilizational jihad. For that, we need to consider a Muslim head tax. Islam claims Muslims are better and want to dominate and not assimilate.
Perhaps many will choose to apostatize from Islam. It is important that the USA recognized and have strict laws against institutional and familiar religious coercion, since it is such a problem with Islam. This is why tariffs for honor killings is a high priority.
tgusa says
Strong horse Western men do not need a religion (or for the most part anything else) to unite them. The Western strong horses are out there but they are grazing in the pasture and watching what is going on around them. When the Western strong horses have had enough I wouldn’t want to be the enemy. Muslims are killing all around the world but strong horse Western men are behaving peaceful. That can change in an instant and the enemy better look out because bad things are coming their way.
I heard a comment from a US soldier that was readying for the WWII D-Day Normandy invasion of Nazi occupied France. We are not here to liberate anything. We are here to turn everything upside down.
Ray Graf says
You are right on everything
We are unaware of the shuttles of our lack of vigilance how Islam is taking over
OLD GUY says
Islam is a tool being used by evil men for political power. All non-muslim/islamic nations should STOP recognizing islam as a religion and recognizes it for what it is. A savage dictatorship style of rule being run by greedy evil men not God or Allah.
Joan says
So well put, Daniel. Thank you.
RightStuff1944 says
It boggles my mind that so many people don’t understand what the civilized world is up against!
Joe says
This is seen being lived out in France. What is the answer? The police forces would rather let the enemy win than to start a war with the enemy.
gravenimage says
The Religion of the Strong Horse
“When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse,” Osama bin Laden said at the beginning of his talk taking credit for the 9/11 attacks.
……………………………………………………………….
The thing is that there is really little that is strong in the ugly creed of Islam, If we were not foolishly importing so many Jihadi Muslims this would not even be much of a n issue, Sure, you would have to be wary when passing by the horn of Africa and similar Islamic places, but Islam would *not* be an existential threat to our civilized societies (save for Israel, which is in a *very* ‘bad neighborhood’)..
This takes a combination of Islamic savagery (a given) and Western foolishness and weakness–a very recent phenomenon. This was not even a serious threat just a quarter century ago.
9/11 *should* have been a wake-up call–but for many in the West, it was just taken as a call to surrender. This need not have happened.