Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 November 2003 — Page 3

November 19. 2003 IN 3

Our printer accidentally replaced page NA T 5 with page IND 5 in last week's (Nov. 12) Indiana edition. As a result, Part II of Rabbi Podet's article “The Enemy Behind the Mask" did not appear. We are reprinting this page for our Indiana readers. Part III of Rabbi Podet's article can be found in this issue on page NAT 5.

The Art of Observation The enemy behind the mask - Part II

By RABBI ALLEN H. PODET The Jews, since the time of the Roman military oppression and occupation, were not able to bring about on earth a Kingdom of God, a living community functioning un-

establishing the Kingdom of God, as the Islamists understand and interpret it, on earth. In every place possible. Right now, bimherah beyamenu, or as soon as possible. Islamism sees the triumphal spread of Islam as a kulturkampf, truth replacing error, God triumphing over the devil, right defeating wrong, true religion replacing the error of unbelief. Islamism is a political movement, and not averse to the employment of violence in the service of God and truth and right.

dialogue with Islam at all, but nothing less than an idealistic and dedicated political movement which considers itself at war - basically a spiritual conflict, but one with physical consequences - with what we consider secular, tolerant, liberal, Western civilization. That same Western culture, considered by Islamists to be immoral, erroneous, depraved, whorish, without values, and seen as nothing less than a creation of the living devil, is not to be compromised with.

der God's law (as interpreted and explained by the religious authorities, of course). The Christians, too, born out of a series of compromises with the Roman imperial state, began to think of the kingdom of God as being not here, where Rome ruled, but in the next life: "Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar." "My kingdom is not of this world." Islam is different. Islam, born in the desert, a child of isolation and aloneness, was from its earliest days a majority religion, never compelled to face the same compromises and adjustments as the Jews and the Christians. Islamic leaders who wanted to enact the laws of God as the laws of the state found nothing to stop or impede them. Thus the tradition arose that the laws of Allah and the polity of the state are not separate at all but are and should be one and the same. And where they are not - Indonesia, say, or Pakistan, or even France - then the laws of the state must be brought into conformity with the laws of God, as truth must prevail over error. This political agenda is no longer Islam. This is already something else, namely, Islamism: the political ambition to spread Islam, by any acceptable means possible, as widely as possible. (Acceptable to whom? is a question that we will leave aside for the moment.) Islamism, in short, aims at

Islamism, in short, aims at establishing the Kingdom of God, as the Islamists understand and interpret it, on earth. In every place possible. Right now, bimherah beyamenu, or as soon as possible. Islamism sees the triumphal spread of Islam as a kulturkampf, truth replacing error, God triumphing over the devil, right defeating wrong, true religion replacing the error of unbelief. Islamism is a political movement, and not averse to the employment of violence in the service of God and truth and right.

A great many Muslims have no use for Islamism. Many, perhaps most, consider it actually inimical to Islam. They see Islamism as a movement of excesses and wild, destructive actions wrongly committed in the name of God. They stand appalled when Islamists willingly employ terror, even suicide bombers, against what Islamists consider the enemies of Allah. These Muslims are the clear majority, and the Islamists are a small minority. But it does not take a majority of Islamists to have a devastating effect. The City of New York could be brought to its knees by a mere 50 or 100 dedicated Islamist idealists - heroic, appropriately guided and indoctrinated martyrs prepared to die for their vision of Allah's will. What is at issue, in other words, is not an inter-religious

but rather it is to be replaced by the law of God: replaced peacefully if possible, but replaced in any case. In this belief Islamism differs from Islam, because Islam is not a political movement and seeks no such replacement, seeks no such political dominance or control of others. Islam is, for the overwhelming majority of all Muslims, perfectly capable of and desirous of living in peace and harmony with non-Muslims. Islamism, however, is not. There is a certain romantic element associated with Islamism. It appeals to a certain adolescent heroic streak; it can offer a certain noble, heroic, and romantic death in a great cause, a death which will imbue a life with profound and transcendent meaning, which will confer immortality of a Continued on page 8

Michelle’s Moments

/ thought that was her name

By MICHELLE GUSSOW A few columns ago 1 discussed my general experience with the "secret language of grownups," otherwise known as Yiddish. I commented on the

fact that I was totally oblivious

to the fact that the few and far between words used by my parents were not English. It was a puzzlement to me that the other kids at school had no idea about what I was saying. Obviously, in some ways neither did I. A tale from my childhood demonstrates this quite effectively. Growing up, every spring, at least until about my fifth grade year, we would make the obligatory trek to Cleveland to visit the grandparents. From very early on these visits included a side trip to a very Continued on page 8

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