The Islamic World Needs New Leadership

There are supposed to be about 1.2 billion Muslims around the world. I have seen polls which suggest varying amounts of support among them for Osama bin Laden (OBL) and al Qaeda (AQ). I imagine a lot of them are "on the fence".

The question that the AQ supporters and the Muslims on the fence should ask themselves is, "Are we better off today than we were on September 10, 2001?".

While I am still reading "Imperial Hubris" by Michael Scheuer (along with several other books), I must admit that I agree with almost everything he has written. However, I think he goes a bit overboard in "understanding" OBL and AQ. Of course, we need to understand our enemy. But I come from the school of thought which says you kill him first, then later, at your leisure, try to understand what motivated the guy.

Nevertheless, I have to think that OBL must be second-guessing himself by now. Does he really think there is any way for him to win this war? Are Muslims better off today? I don't think so. There are a lot more people (several billions) who are not Muslim, and many of us now have a very low opinion of Islam, post 9/11.

(As an agnostic, I think all the major religions are nonsense, but they do vary in how much hatred they spawn today, and no religion has "clean hands". (The Inquisition was not very nice.)

The world of humans is very tribal and violent. One would hope that along with all the nonsense about paradise, "God" (definitions vary, as well as whose side "He" is on), angels and devils, at least religion would bring some peace to man's bloody history, but then one would be mistaken.

Sure, there are peaceful Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims. But not nearly enough.)

The only way to turn this around, before it gets any worse for Muslims, is for the "Islamic nation" to replace OBL as its leader. Otherwise, OBL may get his hands on a WMD and kill a great number of Americans. That would lead to a "world war" of America against the "Islamic nation", and that would look a lot different than the so-called wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (which really aren't wars, but stupid "nation-building").

It is not my job, or America's, to tell Muslims who to "select" as the next leader. (In fact, "selection" is not the right term, but the idea is, Muslims need a new leader, and it is up to Muslims to find him or her.) OBL talks about paradise and dignity, but delivers blood. He gets fame, but Muslims get pain.

As for Israel, Muslims need to accept it. Israel is also not going away. Instead of supporting OBL and AQ, Muslims should support real anti-poverty programs and education, and allow Palestinians to live anywhere in the "Islamic nation", not segregated into ghetto-like refugee camps.

The world is just a tiny spec of dust in a vast universe. There are something like (10 to the power 22) stars just like our sun. Does anyone really think they know "God"? What is the probability that "God" talks to mere Earthly humans, versus the probability that some mentally ill people are merely experiencing auditory hallucinations? We can only guess at such questions; not one of us actually "knows" the whole truth.

When the "Islamic nation" matures, it will discover a small truth that some of us are already privy to: we humans start out all the same, and none of us is special: we are equally all just insignificant specks of dust in a vast, incomprehensible universe, and that is why we invent religions.

But back to the world as it is. Messy. Painful. Full of strife. Tribal. Angry. The so-called Islamic Nation can never defeat the United States of America. The sooner it realizes this, the sooner it will choose a new leader. Until then, there will be just more pain and humiliation.