Howard Bloom
A Worst Case Documentation of Islam as Evil
In today's world, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in my view represent a variation of Islam that must be wiped from the face of the Earth; Iran represents a variation that must be challenged with great intelligence and moral stead-fastness, while everyone else — Indonesia and India come to mind — tries to bury those aspects of Islam that are as toxic as the Catholic Inquisition or the Jewish genocide against the Palestinians or the evangelical embrace of Apocalypse Now at any cost, while going through the motions of being “holy” because it helps calm masses who have nothing, whose hope comes from the soothing words of religion — any religion. Howard's book is not for the simple-minded, however educated they might be. It is nothing less than the strongest possible alarm over what Islam — if Saudi Arabia and Qatar triumph over Iran and subvert everyone else — represent. It also calls for reform — a reform that can only be led by Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, India, and others (India has the second largest Muslim population on the planet, most people don't know that) — but that call for reform is both buried and irrelevant. Only Muslims can choose how Islam is to be represented going forward. This is, because of their demographic trend, one of the most important questions of our time. My concern, from a Western point of view, is that our neoconservatives, led by Dick Cheney, are aligned with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, much as our Apocalyptic evangelicals are aligned with Zionists in Israel — both want a World War that kills five billion “useless eaters.” Only engaged informed citizens with strong moral and intellectual foundations can challenge these apocalyptic, sucicidal, genocidal, “visions.”
Howard has produced a magnificent work with 1840 endnotes (but no index, which is a pity, because this is a huge work). It easily earns four stars and slides into five because this is a world-changing “provocation” — I do not agree with the churlish one-star review — not because it is wrong, but because this book cannot be ignored. Be very afraid, because this book is a deep probe of Dick Cheney's Satanic mind, and precisely what the neocons and Zionists want Donald Trump to believe but with Iran as the “bogey-man” rather than our “dear ally” Saudi Arabia.
Howard's book is helpful in understanding the truly sick minds in Saudi Arabia and Qatar who have — for the time being — both unlimited funding and unlimited tolerance from an inattentive USA, Europe, and Muslim world. They believe this stuff. I disagree with Howard on Iran — in my experience, Iran is the adult in the Middle East while Israel is schizophrenic, torn between zealots and realists. Egypt and Jordan are caught in the middle while Syria is the only Christian-led nation in the Middle East, we should be cherishing that regime, not subverting it.
I have given Howard's book four instead of three stars in part to off-set the one-star review, in part because I understand his genius and his intent and see great value in his cataloguing of a “worst case” interpretation of Islam, and in part because by producing this work he will, I hope, inspire serious Arabists and Muslim scholars to finally produce a balanced appraisal that can be embraced by all Muslim countries who wish to avoid being attacked by criminally insane fascists such as the USA has been producing.
Howard, a self-professed Zionist, has proffered the most detailed screed I have ever seen that — if true and if embraced by all Muslims — is absolutely the justification that Dick Cheney, the neo-cons, and the Zionist faction in Israel need to declare a global genocide campaign against all Muslims, including those in Indonesia, India, and Malaysia as well as North Africa. In that context, Iran will be a bonus, and Saudi Arabia, the exporter of Wahhabism and the funder of terrorism everywhere including Syia, “collateral damage.” I believe Howard when he tells me he is *not* advocating genocide but rather seeking to encourage a Muslim reformation such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Asra Normani, and many others are advocating (including, I might add, enlightened younger members of the Saudi Royal Family sickened by their heritage).
I received this book as a gift from the author. I have known Howard for over fifteen years and very favorably reviewed past books of his, including Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, a six-star endeavor, in my top ten percent. This book reads like a fully-funded CIA and/or Mossad psychological operation intended to help the neo-cons manipulate Donald Trump into selecting criminally insane people to run the Departments of State and Defense from 2017 onward. The best possible interpretation is that Howard set out to throw a moral and intellectual bomb in which case he has certainly succeeded brilliantly.
There are four aspects to this challenge that are not holistically addressed by Howard's book, which is unusual because Howard is the epitome of holistic thinkers.
First, what is Islam and what do most Muslims believe? On this I would go with Bhutto's Reconciliation as the best reference.
Second, should we distinguish between states managed by dictators and pedophiles who use a perversion of Islam to wage war for self-aggrandizement and personal profit, much as Saudi Arabia has done with massive payments not just to Hillary Clinton but to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and many others?
Third, are we in the West willfully blind, stupid, and corrupt in fostering radical Islam to our own ends, beginning with Charlie Wilson's war in Afghanistan and most recently with the CIA funding and training Chechen and Uighur “freedom fighters” in Syria after first helping destroy Libya, a pillar of stability, and running a rat line of weapons from Libya to Syria?
Fourth, to what extent should we in the West hold our corrupt political leaders accountable for supporting Israel's constant Balkanization of the Middle East, their genocide against the Palestinians, and the predatory mix of US taxpayer subsidies of wasteful military purchases by Arabs and Pakistan as well as US energy and water theft (e.g. the drilling in the Golan Heights by Dick Cheney et al)?
In my experience, Muslims are decent people who want what the rest of us “deplorables” in the USA want — job security, dignity, and hope for the future. As an intelligence professional, one of the few committed to actually telling the truth, I find the concentration of wealth among the 1%, and the persistent impoverishment of the 99% by the 1% — including their dictator pals — to be the “root cause” of instability. Not the Muhammad Code.
Catholicism, Protestantism (especially the radical evangelicals), and Judiasm are all host to elements that make them into war-mongering religions — as can be the Muslim faith, particularly when funded by perverts. The 7th Day Adventists, Amish, Buddhists, Menonites, Methodists, Quakers — all tame by comparison.
Other books related to Islam that I have reviewed — I especially recommend the first 6 Star and the first 5 Star — include:
6 Stars
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West
The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam
5 Stars
Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam
Winning the Long War: Retaking the Offensive against Radical Islam
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
4 Stars
Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think
To see the many other books I have reviewed on Islam, visit phibetaiota.net and search for Review Islam.
I want to close with one links to a book Edgar Morin, one of my heroes. Religion is a helpful “glue” for societies, but how one uses religion to educate and guide — and the degree to which a religion is an ethical foundation as opposed to an ideological perversion, really does matter.
One God, Many Prophets, One Humanity
Robert Steele
INTELLIGENCE FOR EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainability
