Infidel rogue states (U.S. and Israel) were recently successful in killing many of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. If Allah is omnipotent and benevolent, how was it possible for infidels to achieve this apparent military victory over a nation that follows the Koran and Hadiths?
Is the answer that those recently killed were martyrs to a larger cause and that their successors will build Iran into a stronger and more dominant nation?
Ayatollah ChatGPT isn’t tremendously helpful. Excerpts:
Iran’s interpretation of Islamic law is shaped by centuries of Shīʿī jurisprudence and legal reasoning (fiqh), not just direct literal verses from the Qurʾān or ḥadīth.
Islamic theology emphasizes that God’s wisdom (Hikmah) transcends human understanding. What may seem unjust or inexplicable from a human standpoint may be understood only in a larger spiritual context — especially one that includes the afterlife and final judgment, which humans do not see.
Related:
Flashback to 1979 New York Times, “Trusting Khomeini”:
Part of the confusion in America about Iran’s social revolution involves Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. More even than any third‐world leader, he has been depicted in a manner calculated to frighten.
The news media have defamed him in many ways, associating him with efforts to turn the clock back 1,300 years, with virulent anti‐Semitism, and with a new political disorder, “theocratic fascism,” about to be set loose on the world.
… there are hopeful signs, including the character and role of Ayatollah Khomeini.
To suppose that Ayatollah Khomeini is dissembling seems almost beyond belief. His political style is to express his real views defiantly and without apology, regardless of consequences. He has little incentive suddenly to become devious for the sake of American public opinion. Thus, the depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false.
In looking to the future, Ayatollah Khomeini has spoken of his hopes to show the world what a genuine Islamic government can do on behalf of its people. … Despite the turbulence, many nonreligious Iranians talk of this period as “Islam’s finest hour.” … Iran may yet provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country.
Apparently all of US’s forward airbases in the UAE & Iraq were destroyed. Iran was able to send out a formidable counterattack after its organized military was neutralized & the supreme leader was killed. They have an insurgent air force much like Iraq’s insurgent ground force, which just keeps going long after the head is cut off.
Is there a non-Iranian / non-bot link or other news source to support this? Hegseth said it was a lie. Kuwaiti Patriots (real accident or not real ally) shot down 3 F-15th, the crews are safe, thanks God. F-15s are not carrier – born planes, they need an airfield to take off. This seems to support that US airbases are OK.
One thing people must wonder about is why the Muslim countries care so much about Israel, a country about as big as New Jersey with a population of about the same. One reason is its existence is a rebuke to the Prophet and Islam because the Prophet prophesized that Islam would triumph over all other belief systems, but here you have the Jews who refused to accept the Prophet first taking land that had been under the control of the Caliphate and then humiliating one Muslim country after another that tries to fulfill prophecy. So the real problem with Israel is its existence calls into question whether Muhammed was a true prophet. Leaving aside the recent wave of Muslim immigration into Europe, history from a Muslim perspective has mostly been going in the wrong direction after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 (see VDH’s excellent “The End of Everything”) and the subsequent disappointment of the Turks in failing to repeat their success at Constantinople in Vienna in 1683. Thank you Jan Sobieski.
Important question: why is or Which GOD making us pay for all these wars?
> If Allah is omnipotent and benevolent, how was it possible for infidels to achieve this apparent military victory over a nation that follows the Koran and Hadiths?
If one is to understand the world with only the mind, i.e. analytically, there’s no concept of “other”, Dr. Greenspun. There’s only one set, of living beings, the universal set, and no subset. Killing civilians, or those who are not the enemy, or killing without abiding the laws of war creates problems in victorious nations as well. They manifest in culture like cynicism, PTSD in soldiers, etc. and ultimately the decline in the population following the “victorious” philosophy (in this case violent nationalism) due to internal conflicts. I don’t know enough about ME conflicts to criticize any specific country, but this quote from Leibowitz captures the sentiment I want to convey:
Leibowitz said that the State of Israel and Zionism had become more sacred than Jewish humanist values and described Israeli conduct in the occupied Palestinian territories as “Judeo-Nazi” in nature while warning of the dehumanizing effect of the occupation on the victims and the oppressors.[2] He was referred to as the “prophet of wrath” due to his frequent criticism of Zionism.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshayahu_Leibowitz
Overall, in my opinion, in sufficiently long-term, there’s no concept of victory.
@Fan, this is complete nonsense.
If all living same the same why hundreds of millions of people which posses dozen of single etno-religious states are fighting tiny enclave of people with Jewish heritage who run run democratic diverse multi-religious society?
The territories are not legally occupied, they are disputed, even though a minority of states accept this. There never was a separate state on them, and idea to create one started supported by the territory inhabitants only when their neighboring Arab countries lost them in the war of aggression against the tiny Jewish enclave.
Non-Jewish population on these disputed territories exploded while under Israeli control, this is as “humanizing” overdrive, not de-humanizing.
@perplexed
Take a deep breath, and read the poetry of the modern prophets, “see” Eyeless in Gaza:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/1764382/eyeless-in-gaza
> The testimony we collected and the horrors we saw…life in America seemed totally
unimportant and forgettable…I would leave Gaza now that I was [there], falling in love with everyone I met and didn’t meet.
He loves everybody, even the terrorists hiding in the wings. He loves the Gaza hottie walking down the street, tells his SO and gets called a “dick.” What the h-e-double-hocky-sticks are we doing on this blog, giving our work away to make Phil richer? Sprinkle a couple of “Gaza”s here and there, commit acts of verbal “post hoc ergo propter hoc”, scope the lil cuties, whisper about peace and love, and we could be published poets/poetesses/xhpoets. I found special insight into how Greta reaches the conclusion, “It is all related.”
> If all living same the same why hundreds of millions of people which posses dozen of single etno-religious states are fighting tiny enclave of people with Jewish heritage who run run democratic diverse multi-religious society?
They are fighting because they don’t accept that all living beings need to live harmoniously. People form groups and by definition there’s a complement of that group and then they start fighting with each other over what’s right. Depending on the aggressiveness of the groups this turns violent.
> The territories […]
Like I said, I don’t know enough to speak about ME countries. I was just quoting someone with whom I shared my view, not specific to any country, but the fact that oppression of any people affect both the oppressed and the oppressor.
@ 2nd average joe (if such exists, since average does not have to be a member of population over which it is counted):
Atrocities of October 11, not regrettable collateral damage, but man – inflicted on personal level, are already forgotten? If Hamas and groups like it had their way, then all of Israel and then or in parallel all of the World not conforming to their dogma, of whom they are also the victims, would suffer similar fate. They were much more grotesque (even though a dead is a dead), would you have a LLM to write poetry for it?
Your time would be spent better protesting Hamas and ideology that it represents. All victims of Gaza are on Hamas consciousness, if such exists. Save children of Gaza from Hamas, protest against it. Do not falsely accuse those who are doing something about it the only way they can, clearing death traps and hunting for mass murderers hiding among civilians, with their forced, real or brainwashed approval.
@Fan In principle, I do not disagree with your last response. But brandishing this principal in this real situation is counterproductive to what it stands for. The quicker such intolerant militant political entities as Hamas and Iranian islamist government are part of history, the sooner real life will closer resemble harmony among all the people.
@perplexed:
> But brandishing this principal in this real situation is counterproductive to what it stands for.
That’s complete nonsense. You’re assuming that I need to be either pro or against Hamas. I maintain neutrality. The principle is neutral.
PF: You’re like Wikipedia. You’re neutral on the question of whether it is virtuous to wage jihad against the Jews of Israel and establish a Jew-free river-to-the-sea Islamic theocracy. If memory serves, you’re an immigrant from India. Would you also be neutral on the question of whether the noble Pakistanis should send an army down to conquer India and establish a Hindu-free Islamic theocracy in what was previously India (either killing all of the Hindus or expelling them to Canada, which seems to have an unlimited appetite for migrants from India)? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India there were strong opinions on both sides regarding the merits of Islamic rule (very few who were neutral, as you say that you are).
PG: If I am not read on something, I don’t make opinions on it. That’s what I mean by neutrality. I am not saying that you or perplexed are wrong for your opinions.
Regarding your question: If what you say happens, it wouldn’t happen in the simplistic way you explain it. There would be enough room for a neutral opinion in it which wouldn’t be outrageous.
I hope you are following the moderation policy of your blog:
> Comments that attack another person’s motivation, intelligence, or character are bad because they degrade the quality of the discussion and discourage thoughtful comments by others. For some reason, human beings often are confident that they can discern the hidden motivation for another person doing or saying something. Trained psychiatrists and psychologists, however, do very poorly at this task, so what hope is there for a lay person?
> Why didn’t Allah protect the Islamic Republic of Iran from attack by infidels?
In the Bible Belt, it was a tradition for football coaches to pray for their teams to win. Only God knows why He usually sided with the Fighting Trojans, 8-2. As for Jews, we have the concept of the chosen people:
> For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
–Deuteronomy 7:6 KJV
> Iran may yet provide us with a desperately‐needed model of humane governance for a third‐world country.
And pigs may take wing. “Dewey Wins”, with much worse supporting evidence.
Oh, and the Christians:
“Onward Christian soldiers, Marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus, Going on before.”
I wonder if it isn’t remnants of polytheism, where “My god can beat up your god, nyah, nyah.”
Violence is of the Devil and his foolish followers, keeping in mind that I am only a part time angel.
@Neo Hippy, regarding Deuteronomy 7:6 , chosen meas to observe all 613 commandments and be judged based on it, on individual and communal level. You are welcome to join, start observing, although real rabbis will first advise against it and to stick with first 7 commandments.
Since coveting not covered, even socialists can apply.
Allah has protected them for centuries. However, a society led by backward-looking leaders cannot expect that protection to last. Eventually, Allah will give up on them and send them to hell.