Werner Herzog Quotes

Burke did not mean that it was a war between Protestants and Catholics. In his time religious war was considered the most terrible of wars because there were virtually non-negotiable principles involved and the passions were so great. The emotional fervor of the French after the French Revolution was extreme in that they were bringing freedom to Europe.

This Sura of the Koran warns the faithful that the non-Muslims of the world have as a major objective the Conversion of Muslims. While this was and has been the case in times past starting even before the Crusades, many Christians felt it as an obligation to either convert the Muslims or to kill them. In modern times there have been Christian missionaries who have had an objective of converting Muslims, but no Christian government has had that as a policy for a long time now. But most Muslims are told this is so today and the Koran warned of this. The result is that many Muslims—particularly those who have not had much contact with other religions—believe that because of this, they will be forever fighting heretics like Christians. For this reason, Islam’s future is under attack.

This sura is one of the quotations that causes major anxiety on the part of the Israelis. If the Arabs ever win a major battle and invade Israel, they are instructed to kill the Israelis who in the view of the Arabs “turned them out” of Palestine. Not doing so would produce “tumult and oppression” which, in contrast to most religions, are considered to be worse calamities than slaughter of human beings. A little later in the sura, the Prophet tells the faithful that the infidels need not be killed if they cease to oppose Islam.

The Papacy was at one of it’s lowest points. Two men, Clement and Urban, both claimed the Papacy and each had raised an army to fight the other. Each was promising indulgences to those who would fight, and in a modality similar to the Muslim terrorists of the 21st century, the soldiers were promised ascendancy to Heaven if they fell in battle for such a holy cause. The armies of the popes marched under the cross as their banner, and Wycliffe found that obscene and actually wrote a treatise saying so. See {618087}.

In the early stages of Islam, Muhammad had hoped to convert the Jews and others on the Arabian Peninsula. When they refused to be converted, he warred against them usually killing the men, and taking the women and children as slaves. The result was that non-believing tribes were “cleansed” from the Arabian Peninsula. The Muslims at the time preferred children as slaves. For then they could convert the children against their will. Adults in Islam must accept Islam in order to convert. Children are regarded as having no such maturity of decision making and therefore opposition to conversion may be ignored and they may be forced. Critics of Islam and those who argue that Islam is at odds with all other religions point to this quotation. They claim that it is the only religion whose founder and fundamental scriptures demand war against others for no other reason than that they believe in a different religion. The Catholic Church during the Crusades and the Inquisition had a similar philosophy as did Christian missionaries colonizing Africa later. One difference is that most Christians today repudiate the doctrine as against the true spirit and teachings of Christ and view it as historical error, while very few modern Muslims repudiate this quotation of the Prophet.

of the Central Intelligence Agency fomented Iranian Revolution. At the request of the British MI6 intelligence service, the CIA implemented a “spontaneous” coup d’etat to overthrow the popularly elected Iranian President Mohammad Mosaddegh. One of the reasons this is a very important quotation is that it shows an interesting aspect if jihad—Islamic Holy War. One of the many tactics the CIA used was to bribe key Islamic Imams and other religious officials to declare a jihad against Mosaddegh—to tell the people that it was their Islamic duty to get rid of Mosaddegh who was a threat to Islam and the word of God. The quote illustrates that most of the Western powers who wanted to achieve a political objective would play this jihad religious card—one that was much easier to start than to control. When Eisenhower urged using the jihad tactic, he did not imagine that jihad would be used against the United States for the 9-11 attack and the Iraq and Iran wars. See {637008} and {637007}.