And he thought of those he angered, because he was not a cruel man...

Normally it is my habit to publish a post and then move on to the next one without reflection or explanation as to why I felt the need to write a particular piece. Wednesdays post, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas...” drew a lot of email and I felt it was important that I address the number one question raised by those who responded to the article. That question was, “Why are you so angry?”

As I watch events unfolding in the Middle East I am increasingly saddened by the ever increasing Shiite dominance of the regions politics. From the Taliban in Afghanistan, the militant Shiite movement in Pakistan to the ruling aristocracy in Iran, Syria and down to the Hezbollah in Lebanon a major political machine is building.

Some Americans believe that only a handful of militant fundamentalists are creating a bad image for the rest of a peaceful Moslem peoples. Unfortunately this is not true. The Shiite movement is huge and getting larger everyday. What is disturbing to me is the methodology being employed to organize and strengthen this military machine. And make no mistake; we are watching the development of a major political and military entity.

When Hitler unified the divided political factions of Germany into the unified political and military machine that eventually entangled the world in a great war he went about the process employing a specific set of tactics. I won’t go into a long explanation of the grassroots organization he built or the way he educated the youth of Germany to embrace a philosophy of intolerance, hate and violence. As a current example of what he accomplished, (and how) I offer the Hezbollah organization.

What made me angry and finally brought my voice to life was the Holocaust conference held in Iran. When I watched the president of Iran, surrounded on stage by an assembly of the worst bigots currently known to mankind, shaking the hand of former Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke it made my stomach churn.

A man is known by the company of men he keeps. When I saw the evil with which Mr. Ahmadinejad was willing to lay down in the mud of the sty and wallow around with it was simply too much for me to remain silent about. Have we, the people of the world truly forgotten the horror of the Holocaust? Have we forgotten the Nazi organization that systematically exterminated and silenced the voices of six million Jewish HUMAN BEINGS?

Ellie Wiesel, author of “Night” wrote, ”Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.” He wrote these words about the Jewish population who believed in the impossibility of what was happening to them until the very moment they were loaded upon the trains and shipped off to the crematoriums.

How many of us today are standing silent and passive as sheep, watching as a great beast rises up in our midst to devour as many of us as possible? Martin Luther King, one of my personal heroes and inspirations said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

What is happening in the Moslem world matters. It matters to all of us because of the Shiite war machine being built and the Nazi tactics being employed to build it. When you employ tools of evil to build a thing you can not possibly build anything that is not evil. How can we sit idly by and watch the panorama of hatred and intolerance unfold before us and dismiss it as small and insignificant?

Shiite Moslems are converting huge numbers to their fundamentalist perspective and those who do not submit are being dragged from their homes and tortured to death. We sit in silence as moderate voices are stilled and radical voices scream in unbridled bloodlust.

To my fellow countrymen I say, do not raise your voice up to me and cry, “America has committed sins too! What of America’s sins of the past?” My foolish countrymen, it is purest folly to attempt justification of one entity's sins by comparing it to the sins of another.

Each of us stands before the almighty as an individual in the Day of Judgment. We do not stand before the almighty in comparison to one another and achieve righteousness based upon the deeds of each other. Therefore, it is important that you stop justifying the terrible iniquities of the Shiite war machine in the present moment with a list of America’s iniquities against the American Indian in the past.

I have witnessed an event that clearly defines the Shiite identity and I can not remain silent about it any longer. Iran’s Holocaust conference was an abomination and it was televised throughout the entire Moslem community. So far, not one single voice has been raised in either rejection or condemnation of its message. Millions of Moslem voices have remained quiet, either in silent agreement of what they saw or in fear of Shiite recriminations if they dissent. Both prospects are equally scary to me.

I will not allow my voice to be silenced by fear of offending the few. If my words sting your heart I offer my apologies. I truly do embrace all individuals whose daily lives are guided by love, tolerance and service of their fellow man regardless of color, nationality and faith.

It is just that silence is an option we can ill afford in the world today. By remaining silent we give credence to an evil developing in our midst. Will we continue to hide our heads in the sand as others have done before us in the past believing the lie, “Surely it can not happen to us! Not in this moment”?

I am done. This is the last I will speak of this as we enter the Christmas Season. I believe you all know what I will be celebrating and why.

I will be praying for peace on earth and goodwill towards all men. But I will also remain as watchful as a guard at the city gates.

I will sound the alarm when our city is in peril.

The times they are a changing...
Bob Dylan

“The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives”
Gandhi

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Martin Luther King

"Those who remain silent today will be those who remain buried in silence tomorrow."
(Paraphrase) Dirk Bauman