Islamic Evolution, Cartoons

(originally published on 1/7/15, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France)

The murder of cartoonists for mocking Islam and the prophet Mohammed is a seeming tipping point in the Ummah, here from my own non-Islamic mountain top. It could just be the view through the filters of the media, of course, but either way...

The conversation stirred within the Muslim community by this act is one of the strongest signs of the Islamic evolution now underway that I have seen cross my desk so far.

Make no doubt about it, Islam is on the edge of the fastest macro-evolution in recorded religious history. Within 100 years, the Official World Ummah will be recognizing gay married Imams and campaigning for the protection of all non-Muslims worldwide. 

What??

Maybe not. But collective Islamic thought might only veer harder with every injustice committed in it's name. And at this point, with the internet in the hands of the oppressed, anything could happen. If we are all truly equally becoming Buddha, then Christ-like behavior could start emanating from Muslims in every nation soon enough, if we're not careful.

And once they turn the other cheek...we're doomed. Our own hypocrisy and failed civility will then be forever carved into the annals of history by none other than the meekest among us.

Change consumes us all.

Putin's Mandate

(originally published on 8/28/14) 
(re-upped on 3/19/15)

Putin is invading Ukraine, right now. The headlines come rolling in, panic starts to show. Pictures of tanks overriding borders flash across the feeds, and the markets fluctuate as gamblers hedge their bets. Which is the fittest player on the board of geo-Politik today, hmmmm.

The reorganization of the world is on some more, and evolution never knows when to quit. Minor species extinctions create great biological power voids, and we find ourselves neck deep in an age of great and terrible transition, eyes wide to the known unknown, and the vast possibilities of our situation.

And all the madness can be brought around to the fact that the example comes from the top. We, the big brother of the world, set the tone for the less powerful states about how business is done. Bush's unilateral invasion of Iraq is exactly Putin's mandate to so boldly invade and take Crimea, right on stage. And for the Islamic State's international claims of power. It's a war without borders, just like we asked for.

With our shocking and awful displays of contempt for international law, we have become the mandate for rebellion and global terrorism of all kinds around the world.


(edited 3/19/15)