Sunday, 11 August 2013

THE MUSLIM MENACE

                                                      THE MUSLIM MENACE
     My computer screen is presenting an increasing number of frightening essays, warning of the dire
threats of Muslim migrations into our Western societies with their proliferation of mosques, Sharia Law,
subversion of human rights, and terrorism with the aim of ultimate Islamic control. Not a great deal
different from the rise of Christianity after Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313, but Christianity
has now lost most of its ability to create large-scale aggression in its name, necessitating other excuses.
Muslims in Palestine can still give us a long list of cruel current excesses by followers of Judaism but that
lacks the same publicity.
     Islam, established about 400 years after Christianity, has yet to have its Reformation so does have its
dangers, but to whom? Most battle-killed Christians were killed by other Christians who have created
3,400 distinct religious variants. Most Muslims are killed by other Muslims. Islam has 3 major streams
with 26 variants and are still their own worst enemy. How significant a threat are they to us? A forerunner
of alarmists, Winston Churchill in 1899 decried how Islam paralyses society. He was right. Islam today
cannot unite militarily. And for them, terror weapons like carrier groups, stealth bombers, or drones,
remain not affordable, so they have perfected cheaper terror weapons like suicide bombers and threats that
force us to curtail liberties, restrict travel, close embassies, and harm economies. It is a continuation of
the ‘Many’ being brainwashed and controlled by the ‘Few’ who go by many names: Extremists, priests,
ayatollahs, shamans, politicians, CEOs.
     Humans, are born (drafted?) into a cruel and uncaring world where, in order to survive, most living
things have to eat other living things. It is a world that has always been over-populated, necessitating
competition for available arable land, water, food, preferred climate, and shelter, and the ability to evolve
and organize to meet the challenges. Although humans have made astounding advances, no life form, to
our knowledge, has evolved the ability to understand who, when, how, what and why we all are.
Muslim science was the world’s best under the Abbasid dynasty, 750-1258 AD, that united most of the
Mediterranean. Today with 20% of world population Muslims generate 5% of its science. Our agnostic
Western scientists tell us that all life is one and that cells at the quantum level with a watery medium
communicate with, and influence, other cells even at long distances. Thousands of experiments prove
them right.
     Most humans, always bewildered, have needed myths to cling to. For some 25 thousands years, for
which we have artifacts, we know we worshipped female gods. Animism, still practiced by 40% of the
world, is even older. For us Westerners, Abraham and his small group from Ur (Iraq) changed all this
when they wandered, at their god’s call, south to infiltrate and eventually control in Canaan an Israeli
Semitic tribe forcing them to vilify their female gods and accept Yaweh, a god of war and vengeance. Our
once-supreme god, Ashtoreth, became Eve on whom we can blame our present predicament. This led to
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam with female gods having nearly all retired by 500 A.D. Abraham is very
roughly dated to about 2000 BC. Divine intervention allowed his wife, Sarah, to give birth at age 99 and
for him to live at least 175 years. The Torah, Bible, and Ou’ran were all written by selected humans
claiming divine inspiration. Nature’s lesson that Force Begets Force has never been learned by any of
them.
     Today, Christianity is in decline while Islam is growing. Why, I fail to fathom. The percentages of
Muslims in selected countries are: Canada 3.2 (5% in Toronto), USA 2.1, France 1.0, Germany 3.2, Israel
14.1, Palestine 98, Italy 1.5, Mexico 0.1, Sweden 1.7, Turkey 98.3, UK 4.8. Iran, 99% Muslim, has one
of the lowest mosque-attendance records. Hardly the united thousands-strong barbarian armies that
destroyed Rome. Muslim Immigrants tend to congregate in run-down, cheaper areas, and have more
children to worsen the poverty. Did not other immigrants experience similar conditions, especially the
Irish, Jews, Catholics, Italians, Portugese, African, and Asian groups? By the third generation they had
acquired the appearance, pronunciation, and education to drift away and join the mainstream while the
ethnic issue passed to a new group. There are encouraging signs of Muslims doing the same, The 6,000
Indian Muslims who had settled in Uganda only to be kicked out in 1972 by Idi Amin and accepted by
Canada have become model, and highly productive, loyal citizens. Most Muslims now live in crowded
Africa and Asia. High bloodletting persists in too many of these Islamic countries.
     What to do about it? First off, we North Americans need to realize that we are already over-populated.
Sure, we have lots of empty space but only 5% of Canada and 19% of the USA is arable and climatic
change is playing havoc with much of that. Geography has permitted us to evolve a high standard of living
accompanied by a falling birthrate, so, perhaps, we do need a steady, but limited, stream of immigrants
who should have to pass courses explaining our culture and human -rights concerns. We can afford to be
selective. The main remedy to threats lies in the home countries. We do have a good record of
humanitarian and educational work in poor countries to improve their lives but it lacks co-ordination,
collective funding, and protection of local pride. We also have a good record of exploiting their resources
causing much of their resentment towards us.
     We have no shortages of greater threats: climate change bringing fires, floods, droughts, and
environmental damages, growing rich-poor gaps, dysfunctional government, 1,360 armed US radical
militias, greed of individuals and corporations failing to accept their fair share of taxes and contributions
to the nation’s welfare, and so on and on. Can Muslim immigrants match these threats?
     Yes, there has been a large increase in the number of mosques in western countries, 80% run by
extremists and too many financed by Saudi Arabia. Only 19% of these mosques have no texts promoting
violence, but mosque attendance is only one third of our low Christian church attendance. It would appear
most Muslims avoid extremists. After a year in Western countries the Muslim birthrate has fallen to just
over 3 per woman, approaching our rate of just under 2. In Canada the attempt by some Muslims to have
Sharia Law made legal for Muslims was shot down by Muslim community groups.
     If the extremist fraction of Muslim immigrants become more that a minor problem they are much easier
to deal with than the major problems to which we are giving much too little attention

Friday, 9 August 2013

THE FIELD

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              I have just finished another book on the incredibly-complex quantum world and still do not understand it, but then I admit I do not understand the macro world either.  I do wonder if Dolphins and Bacteria discuss the same complaints.   In our human world the hardest people to accept change are scientists who have spent decades pursuing lines of thought and evolving answers they are loathe to discard.  So, Lynne McTaggart, an investigative reporter and author of several books does have her skeptics and detractors, but I found her book, “The Field”, fascinating as it amplifies many deep feelings I have had throughout a long life.
     But, do consider the book just a beginning in our quest, at least ever since we became “Homo sapiens”, to understand who, what, where, how, and why we are.  As a combat veteran, my most lingering post dramatic stress disorder is a worrisome conviction that all life is one and that what I do to others I am doing to myself. This fear outweighed the fear of enormous attention from flak and fighters during 17 bombing and mining operations before being shot down and assigned to 800 days in what became my Alma Mater, Stalag Luft III.
     Lynne McTaggart describes the Zero Point Field, an immense sea at the quantum level of nothingness near absolute zero that is empty, yet full of energy, quite sufficient for all human needs if we learn to tap into it - and having the capacity to store everything that has ever happened.  She goes on to explain the work over the past 40 years of hundreds of small groups of scientists around the world who are, with stringent controls to exclude unwanted influences, finding new powers that life forms have and how they can influence events well above what chance alone achieves.   Among the new avenues and findings of research are: (1) Cells can communicate with and influence other cells, that correct Darwinian evolution by adding cellular choice,  (2) Vibes, good and bad, are real and can influence health, behaviour, and events with the more numerous and united participants are increasing the effects, so mass prayers or thoughts do work more than chance allows, (3) There are more truths in aboriginal beliefs than we care to admit, (4) Consciousness is separate from our bodies, (5) Our current brains, incredible as they might be, are incapable of understanding quantum physics in spite of the fact they are capable of using it in many fields, (6) All living things interact with each other and with the environment, and (7) living things include atoms, molecules, clouds, seas, rocks as well as you and me.
     Lynne cannot tell me, can you?, that when I die and my remains mingle again with the Zero Point Field,  do they ever reassemble themselves into other life forms and how enduring is my consciousness?  Will it be there to decide whether I want to be a salamander or a better human?
     Humans have made immense strides in understanding Life and our Universe(s).  Let us not be content with just using our brains to survive from day to day in our present format in our present world.  There remains so much unused brain power that you and I can extend our powers to probe its depths so, perhaps, one or both of us can contribute another breakthrough in understanding.
     Bon Voyage.