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DE PROFUNDIS

by Yashiko Sagamori

  


How many times have you heard that deep, deep down all people are essentially the same? This is no doubt the most universal misconception among humans of all cultures. It makes the Americans believe that, given an opportunity, every Muslim in the world would shave his beard, retire from jihad, move to the suburbs, and begin inviting his new, pleasantly diverse neighbors to backyard barbeque parties where he will be trading slightly off-color comradely jokes with his new friends, who would be watching him grilling thick, juicy pork chops delicately flavored with some exotic barbeque sauce; while his wife, clad in tight cut-offs and a T-shirt, her beautiful pitch-black hair freely flowing in the breeze, would serve the guests Budweiser and Zinfandel, slightly alarmed at the prolonged absence of her teenage daughter, who, unbeknownst to her, would be situated in the guest bedroom, trying to keep the dorky Jewish kid from across the street off third base, but not too far off, so he won't lose interest. The same misconception makes the Muslims believe that, given an opportunity, Americans would happily and with gusto kill all Muslims, mutilate their bodies, rape their wives, enslave their children, destroy their cities, desecrate their mosques, steal their possessions, and celebrate their victory by dancing in the streets distributing sweets among the passerby.

Everybody believes that deep down we are exactly the same. It would be utterly futile to try to convince a good Muslim that we would much rather not kill anyone; that if, despite all our efforts, it becomes necessary, the bodies are going to be disposed of as quickly and with as much respect to the dead as possible under the circumstances; that their wives look about as attractive to us as their camels; that their camels do not normally provoke sexual urges in us; that slavery is as much against our culture as it is a part of theirs; and that we would prefer not to touch their possessions without latex gloves. It would be equally impossible to convince a good American that Muslims do not dream of democracy; that separation of mosque from state is sacrilege to them; that the idea of equal rights for all is about as abhorrent to them as wife swapping; and that none of them would willingly give up their sacred duty to kill any woman in the family at the slightest suspicion of misconduct, because their concept of honor heavily relies on murder.

I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that deep down we are the same. The bad news is, it can only be seen in an autopsy, because our inherent commonality is purely anatomical and has nothing to do with culture, one way or the other.

Whichever side you happen to be on, compare, for instance, a mother whose child was killed in a suicide bombing, to the mother of the suicide bomber. The latter invites her friends and relatives to celebrate the crowning accomplishment of her son's life and proudly shares with them her deepest desire, which is to see her remaining 17 children die in a similar fashion, the sooner the better; she probably won't tell them that she has already multiplied $25,000 by 18 and was deeply impressed by the result, but each of her guests is planning to do the same calculations after the party. The former doesn't say anything at all, because the air she breathes has turned into an unbearably bitter, but, regrettably, very slow poison, and it will take her a painfully long time to realize that she has no choice but to learn to breath it, just as she used to breath the same sweet air her son was breathing until unrecognizable, charred bits of his flesh had to be scraped off the sidewalk.

Do you seriously believe these two women share the same dreams? Do you seriously believe these two women have anything in common beyond belonging to the same biological species?

Once demonstrated, the difference may seem obvious, but explanations are rarely being offered to us. Usually, we have to figure it out by ourselves. In a feeble attempt to understand new phenomena, a person usually tries to squeeze them into the framework of familiar ones, unless of course, that person is Albert Einstein. But what is your chance to run into an Einstein out there, if even ordinary Jews constitute less than one quarter of one percent of Earth's population? That's why, in attempting to find a method in the madness of Muslim terrorism, we look for something analogous in our own culture. Is there anything analogous to terrorism in our own culture, besides the late Timothy McVeigh? Of course, there is! Once in a blue moon, a disgruntled worker brings a shotgun to his workplace and starts pumping bullets into everyone in sight. He kills a few people, maims many more, and ends up either shooting himself, or getting shot by the police, or survives the ordeal to spend the rest of his life in jail. The similarities are so obvious, even if superficial, that we easily conclude that the Muslim world has gone postal. However, unwilling to sound politically incorrect, we say they resort to terrorism out of despair.

Then, on a pleasant Friday evening, a respected mullah in his early thirties says good-buy to his wife and children, leaves his parish and his comfortable home, comes to Jerusalem, and boards a crowded bus carrying people returning home after prayers at the Kotel. He positions himself in the center of the bus, where the crowd is the densest, and blows himself up killing scores of people, most of them children, some of them babies, all of them Jews. His widow proudly informs the press that martyrdom has always been the dream of her late husband, and she is happy to know that he is now in heaven.

Leaving aside for a moment the obvious absence of any despair in the motive for that particular act of mass murder, let me ask my female readers a few questions related to this incident. Would you marry someone who was openly and explicitly suicidal? Would you want to give birth to his children? Would you trust him to raise them, knowing that he would do everything in his power to turn them into suicidal, homicidal maniacs just like himself? Would you feel comfortable lying down next to him, knowing that he openly prefers 72 imaginary virgins to your warm, loving self, even though the only way for him to fulfill his absurdly childish masturbatory fantasy is to die a violent death? Probably, not. Do you still think then that deep down you are the essentially the same as your Arab sister, that the two of you share the same dreams, want the same future for your children? Would you want to send your children to school where they would be systematically taught suicidal hatred to other people?

By the way, we keep hearing complaints about the brainwashing that Arab children receive in Arab-occupied Israeli territories. Let me assure you that although it may be a tad more intense there, it's definitely not that different from Muslim education anywhere in the world, including even this blessed country, because murderous hatred to everything that does not belong to the rotten world of Islam, even if not listed among its five pillars, nevertheless constitutes its basis and essence. You thought Islam was "just another religion?" It is, in exactly the same way as Nazism is just another political philosophy.

The case of the abovementioned mullah is not an exception. In their suicidal hatred of Jews, Muslims willingly and enthusiastically leave behind everything that makes a normal person's life worthwhile despite all its hurdles: families, friends, jobs, commitments. One of the mass murders of the ongoing intifada was committed by a British lawyer of Arab origin. Mohammad Atta, the leader of the 9/11 highjackers, came from the family of an affluent Cairo attorney. Despair? You must be kidding! It's hatred of Jews that, as mandated by the abomination that passes among them for religion, overwhelms their love of life. Golda Meir was a thousand times right when she said that Arabs hate Jews more than they love their children. That should have been a gross exaggeration, a tasteless metaphor; unfortunately, it is a precise diagnosis.

By an ominous coincidence, the only (at least, so far) American involved in the March massacre in Madrid happens to be both a lawyer and a recent convert to Islam. If asked about despair in his motives, he would probably say he acted out of compassion to Muslim suffering. Some lawyers and most Muslims have something in common: when they make a statement, its veracity concerns them far less, if at all, than the question of whether they can get away with it. We won't let this legal eagle get away with it this time. The mass murder in Madrid did not alleviate any suffering; it created suffering instead. Besides, if Muslim suffering is so great, it can only be alleviated by murder, shouldn't we consider putting them out of their misery rather than senselessly sacrificing innocent and, usually, perfectly enjoyable lives?

No, disgruntled workers gone postal have nothing in common with Muslim terrorists. If you are seeking analogy to terrorism in our life, you should look at school shootings, which are invariably done by white middle class kids from comfortable homes. Those young murderers have nothing to despair about, but their suffering is nevertheless perfectly real. They are suffering terribly from unbearable, burning hatred, which is a symptom of sociopathy in its most extreme, most murderous form.

Have you ever thought that killing Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris before they shot up their schoolmates at Columbine High would have been a huge mitzvah, even though from the legal standpoint it would've been regarded as a crime?

Do you believe that deep, deep down you are no different from those two kids?

Can you possibly suggest a more extreme, more murderous form of sociopathy than mainstream Islam?

Yashiko Sagamori is a New York-based Information Technology consultant. To read other articles by the author, go to http://www.middleeastfacts.com/yashiko/

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