ISIS is What Islam Is Getting Paid To Become

The Post-modern Manson
The Post-modern Manson

Image Credit: UK Daily Mail

The Somali and Algerian immigrants, the German and American converts, the black burkas and dyed beards, headed into the dying summer to kill Christians and Kurds, Turkmen and Shiites, to behead babies and crucify critics, don’t seem like monsters. Sultan Knish

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Something really great happened to me over the weekend. I dutifully attended church and heard Joel Osteen denounced as a Christian Heretic, by the Reverend, from the pulpit, during the sermon. “Sanctified selfishness is not Christianity” was the quote that stuck in my mind from that particular part of the homily. It’s a shame our congregation wouldn’t quite appreciate some guy standing up and saying “Awww Yeah!” This signified that the faith of my forbearers still had a few T-Cells left in its immune system. The preacher that calls evil what it is can truly lead his flock to salvation. To successfully upend the growing ISIS juggernaut, we need to do to them what Reverend Ron condignly did Reverend Slick-n-Happy from Houston.

Taking that curative one step further, we need to figure out what makes a tick like Osteen tick. That one is a task for Dr. Obvious. Joel Osteen profanes Christianity through the castration of its moral guidelines because it makes the man piles of money. His lovely wife Victoria explained to us that it was all about The Gospel of The Benjamins. To properly understand ISIS; realize that they’ve exploited a similar niche in The Islamic Religion. They’ve discovered the joys of profit through profanity. Both Osteen and ISIS use glamour to subvert the doctrines of their faith. Osteen is getting rich through fake Christianity and ISIS is what Islam is getting paid to become. If it pays well enough; the profane will become considered sacred. And right now, it’s not just in literal sense that Jihad Johnnie’s killin’ it!

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So count me among those who don’t believe Islam inherently leads people to chop off heads. Getting rich, getting famous and getting laid as often as a young man wants to will do the trick perfectly well. Jihad Johnnie is a perfect example. The guy worked long hours, for garbage money as taxi driver in Manchester. Then he discovered the magic of jihad, You Tube and the butcher’s knife. He’s now a rock star like Roger Daltrey once was. Once he was nobody; a nebbish, and an utterly alienated prole. Now Jihad Johnnie has grabbed the mic and made the world listen. Sartre famously stated. “To do is to Be!’ This will remain a sad and growing trend as long as the glamour attached is similar to that enjoyed by Jimmy Paige while Led Zeppelin was on tour. Jihad Johnnie is the Post-modern Manson – a celebrity murderer invested with a sick, atavistic glamour. Virginia Postrel describes the mystic power of glamour and how a group like ISIS can use it to cash in.

Most important, for Postrel, glamour is an illusion “known to be false but felt to be true” — a deceptive image of grace springing from an “emotionally authentic” longing, and capable of inspiring real-world effects, whether a ballet dancer’s leap or a jihadi terrorist’s bomb. New York Times

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So the glamour has to be attacked with The Sword of The Truth. When the wish-fulfilling illusion is stripped away, the befouling corruption is no longer hidden ‘neath the fair raiment of dreams. For every “glamorous” rock star beheading, there are 250 innocent villagers nailed to crosses lining some desolate desert roadway to ruins. For every coruscating and brilliant witticism from that affable Abu-Bakr al Baghdadi, there mass graves that even include beheaded babies. It’s based on the same ideology that thinks the Rotherham Rapes were dining on “Easy Meat.” The belief that ISIS will found a nation-state any more beneficent than say, Mordor is based upon false glamour. It is a delusional belief. Yet if delusion lets you go from broke and miserable cabbie to You Tube Stud-Beast, it’s as good as fine cocaine.

The only way to destroy this idealized perception that ISIS leverages to grow its ranks and influence is to show them for what they are. It’s when The Osteens are denounced from the pulpit on Sunday that we see them without the glitz and glamour. It’s only when the dead, beheaded babies are the international image of ISIS that their glamour will give way to justifiable loathing and condign rage. This is vital. Compared to ISIS, the Osteens are a benign tumor. Unlike The Osteens of Houston, ISIS cannot be dispelled with the “Off-Button” of your remote control. Their savage brutality is being rewarded with celebrity acclaim. ISIS is what Islam is being economically rewarded for becoming.

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