This Needed To Be Said Long Ago …

This needed to be said long ago …

I dig Islamic history.

And I’m not a diversity pusher. Nor a globalist. I’m no liberal or progressive. And I believe America is the finest place on the planet.

But I still dig Islamic stuff. And Japanese stuff. And Dutch stuff. And Spanish stuff.

The stuff I admire is not what’s under scrutiny here … today … with these slaughtering medievalists.

I’m talking about historical moments that were dazzlingly … like repairing mathematical mistakes made by the great Greeks. Correcting their astronomical stuff, too. Their genius in recognizing the viral aspects of certain diseases … and creating hospitals with specific wards to combat infections.

They preserved classical achievements just when Rome was falling apart … and the Dark Ages dimmed all of Europe.

They absorbed and then embraced Indian knowledge. How do you think we acquired the concept of zero? And the practice of inoculations? And Arabic numbers?

Some of the heaviest brains of all time were Islamic … look ’em up … they were real Pointdexters … smart … real smart.

They made innovations in military technologies and strategies. And armaments. They were sailing geniuses … and trading marvels.

Europeans hocked their castle designs and changed the landscape of western Europe … and these magnificent structures gave Hollywood a film setting that would serve them as no other.

And they made astounding lifestyle adjustments from the nomadic circumstances to the urban situation. Not an easy cultural feat. And they did it over night.

Their architecture rivaled Rome … and China … and Japan … and Cambodia …and central Mexico. They could build as well as any other on the planet … and as beautifully as any other on earth. The dome was their particular specialty … marveled still for its beauty and longevity.

Their art is stunning in detail … a riot of colors and intricacies … saturated with mind-boggling designs. Few ever decorated structures like this culture.

They perfected the garden technology of running water and self-spouting fountains … and cured the need for outdoor lights at night. They owned gravity and made it their servant. They lit up the evening sky for the first time in European history.

Their literature is sexy, funny, and adventurous.

And they are ultra-romantics. That’s right. And they have their fair share of Cyranos.

Their love stuff … think poems and letters and journals … by men! … is stunning … as are the tales of hot-stuff love affairs … and an unreal devotion to ladies. To the women they adored.

And they are terribly funny. And their characters carpet the literary world. Ali Baba? Sinbad the Sailor? Then there’s the Arabian Nights? Everyone knows about these tales. At least they should.

Their taste in jewelry? Exquisite. Textiles? Made Europeans look like t-shirt hawkers. They were sophisticated before Europe could spell the word.

Trade? The best of the best … capitalist entrepreneurs would have loved these guys. Talk about building monopolies! Why do you think Columbus sailed west to get to the east? ‘Cause these guys had trade all to themselves … and Euros paid through their noses for their spices and products and slaves and agricultural items … like your coffee. And other spices.

Even the Pope placed orders for their textile works.

Pssst … they did NOT slaughter everyone … not even close.

They didn’t know how to run the cities they conquered … and they were smart enough to know it.

They let the administrators live … and prosper … and the cities flourished … but with a new Islamic imprint. Just as the Romans and the Incas did.

Hold your breath and look at some of their cities … look at Cordoba … and get stunned. They knew peace made them more prosperous than war. They were not blood drinking fools.

How about those Crusades?

Do you really think those Europeans were in it for Jesus? That this was a sacred endeavor? Ever investigate some of those knights in shining armor? Not very noble nobles.

The Pope? Pious? Not.

He was a real estate magnate and a trade baron … and he wanted this territory back ….and his control of trade back .

And he offered heaven … just like the Muslims … for anyone who would go and fight and slaughter … and maybe give up their own lives. Not for 72 virgins … just lots of heaven. Yup. Heaven was for sale, too.

Christian soldiers slaughtered innocent folks in those Crusades. Muslims did, too. But some Islamics were very noble … and even respected for their displays of bravery and civility and nobleness. Check out Saladin … and how he treated the defeated. And how he was admired by Richard the Lion-Hearted. Few Europeans ever acted like him.

I’m no sympathizer. I’m just fair. These are historical facts … and I’m not into white-washing.

The sick medievalists running around slaughtering folks today … with bombs and planes and swords … they’re faux Islamics. They’re crazies.

They’ve fouled the culture and contorted their own history… and put it on their sleeves. They’ve injected fear into everyone … mostly other Islamics.

They have might because they sell fright. Like Attila. Or Genghis Khan or Adolph Hitler. They’re just like the Aztecs. And the British. And the Khmer Rouge.

They’re a scourge … like the Catholic Inquisition low-lifes who tortured everyone who exhaled. And the Japanese of the Second World War who made savagery an art. Just another batch of really bad guys, doing really bad things … for really bad reasons.

ISIS is a collection of very foul humans who are mostly manipulated just as others have been manipulated in the past. It is discouraging and scary and stunning how this can happen … but history tells us it happens all too often.

EVERY society has dreadful moments they would like to scrub from their history. Falling off balance and doing unimaginable things … like Muslims and Germans and the Dutch and the Spanish … and … and … and us. America. Yes. Even us.

Ever look closely at the Romans we adore? They didn’t hide much of their gruesome and grisly behavior. Amazing sickos … sexual slobs. That Coliseum? A hell-hole of terror. Their military decorum? Inhumane.

And we glorify them.

And they’re not alone. Check out the Russians … the Chinese … the Cambodians … the Indians. How about those Aztecs? And the Mayas? These are very unpretty crowds that have been overly waxed by one-eyed historians.

Inspect closely the histories of Portugal and Spain and the French. And don’t ever leave out Belgium. Their infamy should live for all of ever. Same with the British. And the French. The horrors they visited on Africa … and elsewhere … would keep you awake for the rest of your lives.

But they’re not in the news any longer. These dreadful folks are … and they have commanded the attention of the entire world because their techniques are so brutal and the speed of news so swift.

And the news-benders … those who twist the news and shape our perceptions … are never careful with their generalizations. They broad-brush uncarefully

So … all of Islamic history is erased. Obliterated. Vanquished. Because there are these morons scurrying about doing awful things we capture on video and replay until we, too, are convinced that every Islamic is at the ready for a beheading. Or a rampage. Or some other crime against humanity.

This current crowd of moral misfits … ISIS … are the ones the world SHOULD slaughter. And not give it a second thought.

They are Islamic cancers … Islamic destroyers … Islamic low-lifes. They claim Islamic superiority because they need that … ‘cause nothing else works for their horror. They try to legitimatize themselves with an identity they’ll never own.

Leave the religion out of this. It’s being used and abused for illegitimate reasons … just like the Pope did way back when.

But I do think this … that the ordinary Islamics around the world wish these animals would just vanish … so they can mix it up with other fine folks on planet Earth … and not be looked at as time bombs. Literally.

These are the things kids should be learning in schools about the Islamic culture.

Should they know about the religion? Yes. Some. As historical information. Like we teach Shinto … or Taoism … or Judaism …. or Hinduism … or Sikhism … or Catholicism … or Confucianism. That’s called education. Learning. Rounding out the mind.

We need to know about the other folks who live in our world. And they need to know about us, too.

But some among us take it all too far … because that’s what they do. They are the warpers. The people in important positions … like teachers … who abuse their roles … and exhibit stunningly bad judgements involving our children.

Hijab Day? C’mon … at this moment in time? Where’s the goddamn common sense?

Too many educators haven’t visited the real world in way too long. They see their schools and classrooms as forums for political leanings. They are propagandists. And their imbalance does more harm than good.

This isn’t the moment to force-feed folks stuff about Islam or Muslims. This is their very bad moment. It will not always be like this.

Those camera-mugging Muslims parading around with four foot swords … in 21st century T-shirts …. tooling around the desert in just-washed Toyotas … should not be poster-boys for Islam any more than the Ku Klux Klan should be spokespeople for America

Don’t lose your balance.

In twenty years the world might be terrorized by Bolivians … or the climate wackos … or the savage Swiss. History is a crooked story.

For lots of Islamics, this is their bad moment. And we’re sharing it.

Their bad luck. Our bad luck, too.

Denis Ian