Islamic nationalism is the root cause of violence and warfare

The "Nation of Islam" is the root cause of war. The very fact that a ‘religion’ can contest ‘waters’ or ‘land’ is a root cause of war. For example: The Catholic Church does not defend ANY land nor water ANYWHERE in the world. No such thing exists as ‘occupied Catholic land’. Nor does any ‘Catholic waters’ or ‘Christian waters or land’ exist. Governments have professional armies and navies to defend the areas where they are responsible. This is a very important part of the reason why Israel is considered by many Muslims to be sitting on ‘occupied’ land. The blockade that Israel has implemented is considered to be a violation of ‘Muslim waters’. Historically, wars are fought over issues such as these. Another place where Islam contests the modern governments’ authority is in taxation and conscription.

Modern governments do not tax Muslims for living in their area of authority. Any payment made by Muslims cannot exempt them from military service. Taxation and conscription are functions of the modern national government. NO ‘religion’ should be able to wield this authority. Another area where Islam is in conflict is enforcement of its laws.

The Catholic Church cannot enforce its prohibition on abortion. (I am personally against abortion, but this is beside the point) Islamic law is the mechanism for the enforcement of ‘religious’ law. Another issue of this type is the penalty for leaving Islam is death. Actually, this is one of the fundamental flaws in Islam. This is one of the primary reasons why Sunni and Shiite have been unable to reconcile their differences. NO religion should have the ability to enforce this ‘law’, nor should any followers be allowed to get away with killing those who seek an alternative religious belief. Yet this is still an important ‘law’ within the Islamic world.

I cannot see why anyone would need to discuss the subject of beating your wife. Yet the Islamic world has a large disagreement on this issue. Apparently, many within the Islamic world interpret a phase in the Koran as allowing men to physically strike their wives. Far more agreement exists with the concept that a man may take his wife against her will. Makes sense that if you could rape your wife, (We in the West define rape as sex without the woman’s consent) that you would be allowed to ‘soften’ her up first.

No person is to be stoned to death. The Koran specifies that the rocks can’t be large enough to kill with one blow, yet not qualify to be a pebble. This type of penalty has to go the way of the guillotine.

To top all of this off (And I have left out plenty of repulsive issues) NO ‘religion’ should be able to field an armed force to enforce its laws. These terrorist groups have one thing in common. They seek to implement Islamic law. These terrorist groups are literally the army of Islam. Jihad - Historically, the most common interpretation has been ARMED struggle for the advancement and defense of Muslim POWER. Want to start a war? Let’s have religion field armies like they did back in the Middle Ages.

In the 40 years of my study of warfare, I cannot think of ANY armed conflict where I was able to identify a list of reasons for the cause of the violence in anything like the numbers presented here. Please note that this list is NOT complete. I would also like to point out that ‘extremists’ within the Islamic world are NOT the only Muslims who believe in these concepts. A sizeable minority if not a majority of Muslims worldwide believes in at least some of these concepts. All it takes is one or two good issues to cause a war. (Example: The US Civil War issues were slavery and states rights) Islam contains far more that its fair share.

I consider the vast majority of Muslims to be ‘good’ people. A basic problem here is that like the good southerners who defended the evil of slavery and the way of life that revolved around that ‘peculiar’ institution, the ‘good’ Muslims will also defend these concepts with their lives. And like the good southerners, they will not change their beliefs without open warfare. Like the war to end slavery within the United States, this is a war that MUST be fought. As the constant Arab-Israeli wars have demonstrated, attempting to persuade them to change on their own will result in failure and open warfare. In other words, even though we do not want to, we may have to kill many of these ‘good’ Muslims before this war is over. Just like the good Germans and good Japanese in 1944. It does not matter if they are ‘good people’. Nor will it matter if they are ‘moderates’.