We are familiar with the practice of Islamic terrorists using human shields in their quest for world domination and a personal early trip to Paradise. The fact that they also make this early Paradise choice for many innocents who do not always share their zeal or urgency, does not seem to evoke strong protests in the Muslim world. Nothing at the very least that might compare to say the rumor some infidel theathened to flush the Quran down the toilet. Why? we ask. If Islam is the religion of love and tolerance, how is this consistent with it?

How can millions of more moderate Muslims detach themselves from the criminal savage acts committed in the name of Allah merely by shrugging and saying: "That's not us." For those who claim to be dedicated to the path of righteousness, it would seem that their responsibility should go further than that. I did a little primitive research and may have found some clues.

Apparently disagreement is accepted or tolerated within Islam, though discouraged somewhat. The ideal choice when faced with doubt or disagreement is always "surrender" to the will of Allah. Unfortunately this still means surrendering to someone's interpretation of it, and that is why there was a disagreement in the first place. There is also a potential caveat to all this. As long as one accepts Allah, apparently he or she can never be totally wrong. Those that may be on the true side are blessed twice, and those on the false side blessed once, even after you murder them in their mosque. The infidel apparently is never in the ball game and what is done to or about him is fair game. How convenient!

It would not appear to be all that difficult if understanding Islam would be limited to trying to understand the Quran and its potential interpretations. Unfortunately that is not it at all. Apparently, if mass murder or genocide is contemplated it is more likely to be because of Hadith and not the Quran.

Hadith is written down oral tradition. I had at initially thought that examining this tradition would be a challenge of sorts but not an impossibility. I was expected it to fall on the same charts as say Catholic oral tradition, or the Talmud. What I discovered was the absolute absurdity of both the volume and the nature of the subject. It is to say the very least mind-boggling, and not having a couple of lifetimes left I had to settle to a mere couple of facts placing them in perspective, without allowing myself the luxury of either identifying or commenting on any single one.

Muhammad al-Bukhari (810-870 C.E.) is traditionally considered the great scholar on the subject. Possessing a photographic memory he is said to have memorized 70,000 of these Hadiths verbatim, with commentaries. by the age of 10! Turning to serious study (?!) in his teens he learned 600,000 (SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND, .6 MILLION, I want to be clear on this) of these written oral traditions from over 1,000 sources. I didn't have the time to delve into his whole biography but apparently he or someone established there were 7,275 "tested" ones out of the lot. This chosen group is referred to as a whole as the "Jannah al-Firdhaus."

The existence of the Jannah al-Firdhaus would be expected to make things a bit more orderly, but that is not necessarily the case. Our friend al-Bukhari was born in Persia but happened to be Sunni. Unfortunately present day Iran is Shiite. The Shiites actually intensely dislike the great scholar, whom I assume they only think is going to be blessed only once. I therefore suspect they have their own list of "tested" Hadiths, and apparently the 72 virgins in Paradise must be one of them, as well as the bit about the plastic keys. In any case any Ayatollah may decide to revive or re-interpret or just plain invent a new Hadith to fit his particular agenda. What are the favorite Shiite Hadiths? Are there more or less than 7275 of these "tested" ones as well? And just what does "tested" mean? I am sure I could find out more, but frankly I just don't have time for all this nonsense, even though this nonsense may be killing innocent people all over the world.

Just from the above, one may conclude the following:

1. Islamic accounts are prone to great exaggerations, or many people are committed to contributing absolutely nothing to society spending their entire life trying to sort through what they really believe.

2. A lot of Muslims frankly don't know what most others believe except for Allah, the Quran and the Prophet. They either don't care, or don't have time because they are busy trying to make a living.

3. If an Imam were to authoritatively state that the great Western Satan would be smitten by a huge chicken neck that came down from the sky, we probably would have to run the computers round the clock to verify the source. Bluntly, any Islamic holy man can make up just about any nonsense he wants.

4. If you're a Moslem you can be dead wrong about something, but it still better than not being a Moslem. You'll be blessed eventually. If a copy of the Quran gets destroyed in a mosque of some alternate group or sect, or in the glove compartment of a schoolbus filled with little Moslems, I guess it is OK. There must be an Hadith covering that.

5. The ongoing secterian strifes, the threath to Israel's existence, and the survival of Western Civilization, all may hinge on some real or imaginary anactedote. In truth, we may all be "Hadithed" to death.

The whole thing would be ludicrous, if it were not potentially fatal to mankind.
"Uh! Uh! Not me! That's not us!" No wonder.

Meantime we wonder why a force committed to the extinction of Israel is refraining from hitting its major city with a rocket. Is it possibly because they don't want to be flattened prior to developing their own nuclear capabilities? And what has happened in Lebanon may be almost too simple. Hazbollah had representation and the militias but no claim to legitimacy to govern. Iran encouraged the violations expecting Israel to react, maybe overeact, but leaving Iran itself alone nonetheless. The Lebanese army does not exist. Hazbollah become the undeniable defenders of the nation. The so-called democratic government of Lebanon is already calling them just that.

If there is a cease-fire and Hazbollah takes over as the official Lebanese government. Iran doesn't have to worry about a 15-20 mile no man's land. Like Cuba, Lebanon under Hezbollah can be the base for much longer range and possibly nuclear weapons. Then Tel Aviv will really be in danger. And when the mushroom clouds are seen rising, I am sure there will be an Hadith to cover the disaster.