July 4: What are we fighting for - Extreme lesson in contrasts!

Those who regard the Iraq war, in particular, and the war against Islamo-fascism, in general, with an attitude to "get out of Iraq" and/or "just leave the Islamists alone...and they'll go away" need to take heed of what is written in this post!

1. Equality of rights before the law: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." — Declaration of Independence

Now contrast our Declaration of Independence with this:

"Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution...Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash....Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim…then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain...Again, the penalties of a non-Muslim guilty of fornication with a Muslim woman are augmented because, in addition to the crime against morality, social duty and religion, he has committed sacrilege, in that he has disgraced a Muslim and thereby cast scorn upon the Muslims in general, and so must be executed....Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them." — Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, F. J. Goulding, translator, London, 1970.

2. Governments deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..." — Declaration of Independence

Again, contrast the above with this:

Non-Muslims have "absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines." If they do, "the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life." — Syed Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami

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7/5/07 Add-on

A Must Read Post!

Independence Day: The Reality Is Greater And Perhaps More Relevant Than The Myth

Excerpt:

The various maneuverings and many votes, New York abstained at end, were conducted in secret for fear of violent reprisals by the crown against a, theoretically speaking, now suddenly American Congress. Some might want to think on that as peoples and politicians in a still struggling and somewhat divided Iraq continue to risk their lives four years out. Because America was not free on July 4th, 1776. That took another seven years of brutal, deadly war, a war that had actually begun in 1775. Reference

The Congress reworked the text of the Declaration until a little after eleven o'clock, July 4, when the twelve colonies voted for adoption and released a copy signed only by John Hancock, President of the Congress, to the printers. (The New York delegation abstained from both votes.) Philadelphia celebrated the Declaration with public readings and bonfires on July 8. Not until August 2 would a fair printing be signed by the members of the Congress, but even that was kept secret to protect the members from British reprisals.

Point being, we do not celebrate freedom won on July 4th, only freedom proclaimed. We celebrate a beginning, an ideal, today: freedom desired, certainly not yet achieved. And for that desire, of approximately 217,000 serving, 6,188 were wounded and 4,435 died* before America was ever truly free at all, except of course perhaps where it mattered most, in the deep and resounding thump of the American patriot's heart.

And that same ideal beats strongly in the hearts of American patriots today, many, no doubt, currently serving in Iraq. And there it beats in time with the murmured heart of what might one day be a new freedom, a new nation, no longer subject to the cruel tyranny of its past: a new nation of new patriots hopefully equipped to secure the cause of freedom in its portion of the world one day soon without so much of our now necessary help.

If you are true to this day, this July 4th, a day of freedom's beginning with it's difficult end still seven long costly years off and at the time completely unknown, if you say you are true to it, yet can advocate abandoning the weaker but just as freedom longing heart we fight alongside of in Iraq, then, I'm sorry, you are no patriot of freedom at all, my friend. At least, certainly not the kind of patriot we salute today when we celebrate only the day we realized what we wanted and steeled ourselves for the long battle that lie ahead to get it, whatever the cost. I simply cannot believe any genuine patriot of freedom would deny millions of people even the slimmest of opportunities to live under the tremendous gift so many of our forefathers died to give us, the citizens of what has become the boldest and most inspiring and beautiful nation ever known to man: the United States Of America.

Very well said!