“And what’s the concern there, Captain?”
“Indonesia — by population, the largest Muslim country in the world. That may be his first target. If so, we’ve got to stop him before he gets within four thousand miles — the range of his D-5 missiles. That doesn’t leave us much time.”
The Texas’s navigator was carefully studying an undersea chart of the Pacific Ocean. “Captain, a four-thousand mile arc from Indonesia would put them right along a line running north-northeast from New Zealand to American Samoa. That’s pretty much directly along the Tonga and Kermandec Trenches.”
“Very well,” replied Captain Sewell. “That’s our line in the sand. If the Louisiana crosses that line or makes any strange moves in that area, we’re putting her down.”
Chapter 39
“So we’re slightly behind schedule. Shall I order the helm to increase speed?” asked Pappy.
“No need,” George responded. “By my calculations, we’ll make up the deficit within a day at our current speed.”
The Louisiana had run for a day and a half in the Pacific, and the captain and XO had just finished a review of their current state. Leona was carefully taking notes of the conversation for the ship’s log. In the more relaxed and casual atmosphere of the captain’s cabin, Pappy ventured, “You know, it’s a real shame world affairs have led to this.”
“Would you like me to leave now, Captain?” asked Leona.
“No, no. Stick around for a few minutes.” Then, addressing Pappy, George continued, “It certainly is. It’s the old ‘man’s inhumanity to man.’ You would think that as the stakes got higher, we would have learned we had to change our ways.”
“I guess it isn’t going to happen — not voluntarily at any rate.”
“Well hopefully,” said the captain, “we’ll provide the incentive people need.”
“I hope you’re right, because if you’re not, mankind is going to be starting all over again.”
“Have either of you ever seen pictures of the Earth taken from deep space?” asked the captain.
“Of course.”
“There’s one picture taken from so far away that the Earth just looks like a little dot in the midst of all the vast blackness of space. A tiny little jewel of life in an ocean of nothingness. When you look at that little speck of dust, it’s even harder to believe we have killed and maimed and tortured each other for thousands of years — probably hundreds of thousands of years — so that we could control some little part of that speck for a few fleeting moments.”
“It’s pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?” responded Pappy.
“I’ll say,” said Leona.
Pappy paused for a few moments and then ventured, “You would think we could stop that if the goal was just to control a fraction of the speck. But how do you stop it when you have fanatical Muslims who believe they should conquer the world in the name of Allah? In their minds they’re not doing it for themselves, they’re doing it for Allah.”
George sat back down and took a deep breath. “That’s an excellent question, Pappy. I’ve thought a lot about myself, because it’s kind of the essence of the problem we have to overcome — if mankind is ever going to break out of this routine of killing each other in the name of religion.”
“So have you come up with anything?” asked Leona.
“Well, I think I’ve come up with a better explanation of the problem.”
“At least that’s a start, Captain,” said Pappy. “We have to understand the problem before we can find a solution.”
“That’s true,” said George, “and to get at the root of the problem, you have to understand what motivates the other side. We may have different value systems, but we’re all human, and we have the same basic fears.”
“Fears?” asked Pappy.
“Yes, fears, because every negative emotion we experience is actually based on fear. In every example of emotions like hatred, greed, and envy, the real basis of those emotions is fear. Look at your typical radical Islamic terrorist for example. Why do you suppose he hates the West so much?”
“I don’t know… because we hinder the spread of Islam, or because modern communications have brought the influence of the West into Islamic countries? Or maybe because we seem to be there just for their oil?”
“It could be any of those, and the basis for the hatred would still be fear. Deep down, the terrorist fears change. He fears Western influence will change his way of life. It’s exactly the same kind of fear that drives the West to resist him. The West fears being overtaken by Islam. It’s a never-ending cycle, and it’s one we are always caught up in.”
Pappy and Leona both nodded.
“Just look in the newspaper any given day and you can see it over and over. When Muslims are demonstrating in the streets, for example, and calling for attacks on European countries because someone published a cartoon in a newspaper depicting Mohammed, you know these people have been totally overcome by the realm of fear.”
“So going back to my original question, how does this relate to radical Muslims believing they should take over the world in the name of Allah?” asked Pappy.
“Well first of all, I don’t think God has instructed anyone to conquer the world. All of those beliefs reflect man’s attempt to create God in man’s image, not the other way around. Radical Muslims — and let me emphasize I’m talking about radical Muslims, not your ordinary everyday Muslims — is that they have taken all of the wrong verses of the Qur’an and made them central to their religion. They have accepted all of the verses of the Qur’an that relate to fear — in other words, the verses that were corrupted by Mohammed’s worldly interpretations — and have rejected God’s verses — the verses relating to love and compassion.”
“So why do so many people follow these militant radical leaders?” asked Pappy.
“Because it’s easy,” responded George. “What the radical leaders are preaching makes sense to their followers in the context of the lives they’re living. It’s easy for people to believe in a God who is just like us — one with the same sense of justice. One who rewards the ‘righteous’ and punishes the ‘bad.’ But what these people ignore is that by accepting a God who is just like us, you have to accept a God who is flawed. One who is judgmental, quick to anger, vengeful, and full of hatred of anyone who is not just like him.”
“Not the kind of God I want to believe in,” said Leona.
“Me neither,” said George. “But because these radicals believe that God has laid down these laws and instructions, and because they believe in a judgmental and vengeful God, they live in fear that God will punish them if they fail to carry out his instructions.”
“So they have a fear-based religion instead of a love-based religion, is that it?” asked Pappy.
“Yes. If you remember, the Qur’an was written during a thirty-year war against an alliance of Arab tribes, so it’s full of stories designed to encourage the people to fight. The basic message is, ‘Do it my way or you will go to hell.’”
“You know, George, I think you’re right in your conclusion that the key to stopping radical Islam is to get the rest of the world’s Muslims involved in stopping them,” said Pappy. “But it just doesn’t seem to be happening. Look at Palestine. For years, Hamas sponsored the bombings of Jewish buses, restaurants, and nightclubs because of their fanatical belief that Israel must be destroyed. In response, the Jews counterattacked and imposed stricter and stricter limitations on the Palestinians. It was clear to any objective viewer that Hamas was driving the Palestinian people into total ruin. So what happened? Hamas won the elections in Palestine and became the majority party!”