In 1946 World War II was over. After many years of bitter struggle, Europe lay in ashes. All over the vast countryside bodies lay rotting in the steaming sun. London has been bombed into rubble. Tanks lay strewn about on beaches, useless black shells, lying as monuments to a war that has claimed millions of men. Craters and fox holes dotted hillsides and bluffs, weapons lay strewn about after a war that had spanned, in some way or another, from preparation to fighting, six continents, had finally ended.
The social atmosphere of the world was tense; the Cold War was already beginning before the last of the soldiers had returned home. With the end of the Second World War, the last gasps of European Empire were fading away. As the years rolled on, nations began to give up their territories and bring their men home.
The empire phase of history was over for the moment. However, the Holy War continued. In 2001 the world was made strikingly aware of the fact that the problems were still there when 19 hijackers took control of four planes and slammed them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Immediately President George Bush declared a global war on terrorism.
It is still going on. But what has the end of all of this been? Just recently there was the bombing in Boston, which, we are told, was done by Islamic Militants. But why, is the question that must be asked, why are two world, East and West, so antithetical to each other? Although only about seven percent of Muslims, as of 2005, consider themselves Radical, all those who are not intending to blow up Americans still have an Islamic mindset. But what is the outcome of the Islamic ideal?
The countries are poor and dirty, with high mortality rates in many places and unemployment rates at staggering levels. Women are treated badly, as evidenced strikingly in places like Egypt. They have little freedom, and are essentially property, while men can have multiple wives.
Billions of dollars has been poured into these countries for their oil, but it has not changed the life of the people of the streets of Islamabad. They are still poor. This is not because of any racial or ethnic grouping.
Men such as Alhazen, a Muslim man who lived in Egypt about a thousand years ago, were quite brilliant, Alhazen did studies in optics, which were never put to use by the nations and cultures there because of the lack of initiative.
Islam must take because often it cannot make. It needed Egypt, so it took it. The nations it took it often took to survive because of either overcrowding or famine. The sad truth of their societies is that they cannot exist indefinitely because of the lack of productivity.
But for all of that failure Islam has made its way into the West. A million Muslims live in London alone, giving it the nickname Londinistan. The world, according to Wikipedia, is 23 percent Islamic.
On the other hand the Western World has prospered. From the time of Rome the west has done better. For the most part hygiene was looked upon as more useful and necessary, productivity was both encouraged and engaged in.
New instruments were made for navigation, printing presses were used for ideas, and optics, once discovered, were used.
Trade flourished and cities like Vienna were able to grow rich because of their hard work. Nations built massive amounts of wealth and prosperity through hard work and productivity. There are hardworking Muslims, and there are lazy Westerners, however, the Western ideals, built on Christianity, of “Go to the ant though sluggard, consider her ways and be wise” have always triumphed over their rivals, even when those rivals looked as if they would destroy them.
The Long and Holy War will continue, it must, because two cultures cannot last upon the earth is eternal peace. It will not always be a war of guns, but it will always be a war of ideas. How long into the future the Islamic ideal will survive we cannot tell, but we can say with certainty that either it, or the gates of Hell, will ever prevail against true Christianity.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott
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