Modi (Moderate): That was some operation last night, Mani.
Mani (Mainstream): I could not figure out what I was doing. It was all manual labor. We were just transferring crates from one warehouse to another. I should have left my AK home. I thought we were on a raid.
Modi: We were. It just so happens that three warehouses were involved on one side and two on the other. Hezbollah separated the material so that if the coalition bombed one site, they still had 66 percent left.
Mani: I do not understand why it was not guarded.
Modi: It was guarded. Hezbollah is not the only group that can infiltrate. Iran wants them to train us in guerilla warfare. I have an idea they just learned a lesson from us last night. How can you train the people who invented it?
Mani: That is another problem for me. I do not understand the Iran-Sunni connection. I thought they hated us as we hated them.
Modi: I keep telling you, Mani, our Most Beloved said that war is deception. What is more deceiving than arming an enemy? I know you have heard that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Mani: Yes, I am aware of that. I am still a little shaky on why we stole it if they were giving it to us anyway.
Modi: It is a matter of sovereignty. If Iran gave it, Iran wants us dependant on their largesse. We would become pawns. By stealing it, we show them that once the material is on our land, it is ours and thank you very much for delivering it. By the way, our people did turn over a bunch of Iranian technicians to the government.
Mani: So, Iran may not give us any more arms or equipment.
Modi: That is where you are wrong. Iran wants the Iraq war as muddied as possible so that they can find an opening to move in. They will do whatever it takes, no matter how bad it tastes, to muddy those waters.
Mani: They believe that Iraq will oblige them by allowing them to do that?
Modi: It is their error. However, they believe that by sending in Hezbollah—and they think Hezbollah cannot be defeated—they can simply plant their flag on Iraqi soil after that.
Mani: If Iran and Iraq fight each other, which one is fighting in the way of Allah?
Radi (Radical): Good morning, friends. Mani, I can hardly wait for Modi’s answer to your question.
Modi: Neither. To fight in the way of Allah, you must be defending yourself and Islam from an enemy or enemies wanting to destroy Believers BECAUSE THEY ARE BELIEVERS, and wanting to destroy ISLAM AS A RELIGION. If a Western power becomes peeved because we are blowing up its embassies, for example, and our reasons for such destruction are not in defense of Islam as a religion, anyone could readily argue that we are not fighting in the way of Allah.
Radi: The Americans are trying to destroy Islam as a religion!
Modi: Allah forgive you for your muddled thoughts. AMERICANS COULD CARE LESS ABOUT OUR RELIGION! They did not like attacks on their embassies and the attacks on their World Trade Center. That is common with Americans--they don't like being attacked.
Mani: But bin Laden attacked America for many reasons, including the fact that American troops were on Arabian soil. Our Most Beloved said on his deathbed that there should not be two religions in Arabia.
Modi: But he did not say that people from other faiths could not visit Arabia. THE AMERICANS PROTECTED ARABIA FROM ITS ENEMIES AND FROM OTHER STATES THAT WOULD ATTACK ARABIA AND SECURE ARABIA’S OIL AND ALSO SECURE THE KAABA. I would call that defending Islam, not attacking it. Almost any nation in the Middle East has the power to seize Arabia—if the Americans left. Most assuredly, the primary goal would be the power of oil, not to secure the Kaaba. Saudi oil would make any wannabe a bigger player in world politics. Bin Laden is wrong; he should stick to business. He is on shaky ground when he speaks of politics or religion.
Mani: How can he be on shaky ground when Zawahiri is coaching him?
Radi: Dr. Zawahiri is an expert scholar on our scriptures.
Modi: That good doctor is one of the Brotherhood nuts. He should get an award for over-acting. Dr. Z (Modi smiles) always reminds me of the lovable American character Yosemite Sam. Yosemite is always first to come to the rescue, verbose and loud, but he always missed one of the main points and came to the wrong conclusion. Nevertheless, he was very popular. One of the unfortunate aspects of our scriptures, like almost all other scriptures, is that you can lay out the most evil scenario and find verses to support it. You can actually get things backwards.
Mani: You said that more than once before; however, I still don’t understand that concept.
Modi: In the 7th century, whenever certain ayats (verses) were finally written down, words usually had one specific meaning. With the passage of time, however, almost all the meaning could be expanded or changed because the words now had alternative meanings. Sure, the scriptures have remained unchanged, but perhaps it was not exactly a good thing if they are now not as clear as they were when they were accepted as official ayats.
Radi: Our imams know the original meanings and are careful to lead us in the right direction
Modi: You know how I feel about some of the imams, Radi. Some of those guys do not know the scriptures and listen to people like Zawahiri—who has more than one axe to grind. If he is against a certain idea, he believes everyone else should be against it also.
Mani: When I listen to him, he makes sense.
Modi: Of course he does. He speaks with a backdrop of our ayats that can be interpreted to agree with what he says. Zawahiri knows that most Arabs feel guilty that they are not stricter in their religion. He is a snake-oil salesman.
Radi: I thought he was a doctor.
Mani: Radi, a snake-oil salesman is a smooth talker trained to convince people to take a certain action despite their better judgment. Usually, only rubes or dummies fall for that junk.
Radi: I guess snake-oil salesmen should all be killed.
Mani: Why? They are only making a living. Allah help the innocent or stupid dolt that spends his dinars for that swill.
Modi: Radi, if everyone with whom you disagreed were killed, there would be very few people left on earth.
Radi: Hey, that is a great idea. How do we go about it?
Modi: Forget it. Your are too eager. Let’s go get some breakfast.
Radi: I am for that.
Mani: Radi, what is that you tossed away?
Modi: (Reaches on the ground and reads the label) It’s a bottle of snake oil!
Mani: Radi, sometimes you really disappoint me
Radi: Oh, yeah? Well what are friends for?
HJS
Mani (Mainstream): I could not figure out what I was doing. It was all manual labor. We were just transferring crates from one warehouse to another. I should have left my AK home. I thought we were on a raid.
Modi: We were. It just so happens that three warehouses were involved on one side and two on the other. Hezbollah separated the material so that if the coalition bombed one site, they still had 66 percent left.
Mani: I do not understand why it was not guarded.
Modi: It was guarded. Hezbollah is not the only group that can infiltrate. Iran wants them to train us in guerilla warfare. I have an idea they just learned a lesson from us last night. How can you train the people who invented it?
Mani: That is another problem for me. I do not understand the Iran-Sunni connection. I thought they hated us as we hated them.
Modi: I keep telling you, Mani, our Most Beloved said that war is deception. What is more deceiving than arming an enemy? I know you have heard that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Mani: Yes, I am aware of that. I am still a little shaky on why we stole it if they were giving it to us anyway.
Modi: It is a matter of sovereignty. If Iran gave it, Iran wants us dependant on their largesse. We would become pawns. By stealing it, we show them that once the material is on our land, it is ours and thank you very much for delivering it. By the way, our people did turn over a bunch of Iranian technicians to the government.
Mani: So, Iran may not give us any more arms or equipment.
Modi: That is where you are wrong. Iran wants the Iraq war as muddied as possible so that they can find an opening to move in. They will do whatever it takes, no matter how bad it tastes, to muddy those waters.
Mani: They believe that Iraq will oblige them by allowing them to do that?
Modi: It is their error. However, they believe that by sending in Hezbollah—and they think Hezbollah cannot be defeated—they can simply plant their flag on Iraqi soil after that.
Mani: If Iran and Iraq fight each other, which one is fighting in the way of Allah?
Radi (Radical): Good morning, friends. Mani, I can hardly wait for Modi’s answer to your question.
Modi: Neither. To fight in the way of Allah, you must be defending yourself and Islam from an enemy or enemies wanting to destroy Believers BECAUSE THEY ARE BELIEVERS, and wanting to destroy ISLAM AS A RELIGION. If a Western power becomes peeved because we are blowing up its embassies, for example, and our reasons for such destruction are not in defense of Islam as a religion, anyone could readily argue that we are not fighting in the way of Allah.
Radi: The Americans are trying to destroy Islam as a religion!
Modi: Allah forgive you for your muddled thoughts. AMERICANS COULD CARE LESS ABOUT OUR RELIGION! They did not like attacks on their embassies and the attacks on their World Trade Center. That is common with Americans--they don't like being attacked.
Mani: But bin Laden attacked America for many reasons, including the fact that American troops were on Arabian soil. Our Most Beloved said on his deathbed that there should not be two religions in Arabia.
Modi: But he did not say that people from other faiths could not visit Arabia. THE AMERICANS PROTECTED ARABIA FROM ITS ENEMIES AND FROM OTHER STATES THAT WOULD ATTACK ARABIA AND SECURE ARABIA’S OIL AND ALSO SECURE THE KAABA. I would call that defending Islam, not attacking it. Almost any nation in the Middle East has the power to seize Arabia—if the Americans left. Most assuredly, the primary goal would be the power of oil, not to secure the Kaaba. Saudi oil would make any wannabe a bigger player in world politics. Bin Laden is wrong; he should stick to business. He is on shaky ground when he speaks of politics or religion.
Mani: How can he be on shaky ground when Zawahiri is coaching him?
Radi: Dr. Zawahiri is an expert scholar on our scriptures.
Modi: That good doctor is one of the Brotherhood nuts. He should get an award for over-acting. Dr. Z (Modi smiles) always reminds me of the lovable American character Yosemite Sam. Yosemite is always first to come to the rescue, verbose and loud, but he always missed one of the main points and came to the wrong conclusion. Nevertheless, he was very popular. One of the unfortunate aspects of our scriptures, like almost all other scriptures, is that you can lay out the most evil scenario and find verses to support it. You can actually get things backwards.
Mani: You said that more than once before; however, I still don’t understand that concept.
Modi: In the 7th century, whenever certain ayats (verses) were finally written down, words usually had one specific meaning. With the passage of time, however, almost all the meaning could be expanded or changed because the words now had alternative meanings. Sure, the scriptures have remained unchanged, but perhaps it was not exactly a good thing if they are now not as clear as they were when they were accepted as official ayats.
Radi: Our imams know the original meanings and are careful to lead us in the right direction
Modi: You know how I feel about some of the imams, Radi. Some of those guys do not know the scriptures and listen to people like Zawahiri—who has more than one axe to grind. If he is against a certain idea, he believes everyone else should be against it also.
Mani: When I listen to him, he makes sense.
Modi: Of course he does. He speaks with a backdrop of our ayats that can be interpreted to agree with what he says. Zawahiri knows that most Arabs feel guilty that they are not stricter in their religion. He is a snake-oil salesman.
Radi: I thought he was a doctor.
Mani: Radi, a snake-oil salesman is a smooth talker trained to convince people to take a certain action despite their better judgment. Usually, only rubes or dummies fall for that junk.
Radi: I guess snake-oil salesmen should all be killed.
Mani: Why? They are only making a living. Allah help the innocent or stupid dolt that spends his dinars for that swill.
Modi: Radi, if everyone with whom you disagreed were killed, there would be very few people left on earth.
Radi: Hey, that is a great idea. How do we go about it?
Modi: Forget it. Your are too eager. Let’s go get some breakfast.
Radi: I am for that.
Mani: Radi, what is that you tossed away?
Modi: (Reaches on the ground and reads the label) It’s a bottle of snake oil!
Mani: Radi, sometimes you really disappoint me
Radi: Oh, yeah? Well what are friends for?
HJS
2 comments:
I wonder what Mani, Modi, & Radi think about one of their leaders, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
, being denied permission by NY City officials to visit the World Trade Center? I for one am glad NYC told this criminal to go stick it where the sun doesn't shine!
Modi (moderate) applauds the NYC officials because he knows UBL was wrong and that America is a decent country. Radi (radical), on the other hand, is ambivalent: he hates Shiites because they are not Sunnis, but the enemy of his enemy is his friend--and Radi sees America as a polytheist nation, rotten to the core. He believes Americans should be killed wherever they are found.
Mani (mainstream) has a problem he cannot seem to solve. He wants to be as strong in his religion as possible and he is strong in his religion, but he has conscience pangs when he sees others that seem to be stronger and more militant. He wishes he could be as strong, and does not realize that the militants have actually gone too far.
Mani does not know what to think because the moderates and radicals both make sense to him in different ways from their own philosophies. If left alone, Mani would always agree to let sleeping dogs lie. Whenever Radi is not around, Mani is more like a moderate.
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