Killer Muslims?

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”  — Voltaire

Is Islam a religion of peace or a religion of submission?

It does not matter. No sects, cultures, ideologies or religions ACT. Only individuals act and of their own free will. To attribute blame to a religion or some independent, disembodied, ethereal force is to, at least to a degree, absolve the killer.

Now, of course the recent bout of violence in Paris is about religion in that the perpetrators declared their inspiration and motives before and after they pulled the triggers. More to the point, their motives were based upon a set of beliefs, and whether one refers to those beliefs as moderate or radical Islam, nihilism or extra-religious fanaticism is neither germane nor probative. The essence of Islam, and every religion, is the rejection of reason in favor of a mystical faith in some unknowable, not disprovable set of what are referred to as beliefs, a la how you once imagined Santa and the Tooth Fairy. When one rejects reason as the basis of one’s ethical decisions, when one mistakes mysticism for a moral code, there is no limit to the fanatical results that will ensue.

Religions, all of them, are about living by the light of beliefs or faith, devoid of reason. Religion, then, is an affront to humanity, because it rejects man’s sine qua non, the conclusions of his rational mind. Our life, our existence is axiomatic. It is, indeed, inexplicable, but it is not some baffling mystery to be pondered endlessly. It IS, and it’s self-evident, but only to each living, breathing, thinking, sovereign individual. It follows that the sustanence and preservation of each human life is the primary moral good, and that end is accomplished only as a result of each individual’s acts when guided by rational thought, not set in sensibilities and wishful thinking, not driven by empathy or antipathy.

The killings were not an attack on satirists’ cartoons or even the freedom of the press, notwithstanding the earnest pronouncements of self-important journalists. The gunmen did not take away their victims’ colored pencils and paper. No, they took their very lives, and had none of the 12 dead ever drawn a single cartoon, other bodies would be in the morgue. A Muslim police officer was shot in the head at point-blank range. An unknown, likely even unpublished janitor was assassinated. Had he blasphemed Muhammed or threatened a single Muslim, Jew, Hindu or Christian? No. Once he lived and now he doesn’t, solely because other men concluded he must die, because he was near people offensive to the killers’ religious sensitivities.

Freedom of religion, indeed. Take your pick:

“Convert or die.” 

“Covert or burn in hell.”

To the unconverted, the victim, seems to me that the only difference is timing.

So, isn’t it really freedom or religion. Think for yourself. We’ve all heard “guns don’t kill people, . . .” Moreover, neither do religions, ideas, cults, or groups. The unhinged and irrational kill, after they have abandoned reason as their moral compass. And the terror will continue until it is met with overwhelming force, instead of more prayers, security measures and NSA breaches into your email and cell phone accounts. Forcible self defense is the only rational, reasonable response to deadly force whether the gunman dons a turban, a mitre, a yarmulke, a hoodie or a baseball cap.

Pretty simple: If life is worth fighting for, let’s. If not, they win and let’s hand out the white flags and prayer rugs.