SCA and Dr. Sanity have reads of the day

SCA looks at justice and finds that while just, it is often not a cause for joy. That God himself hushed the celebrating angels in the face of his own justice.

When God saw that the Israelites were celebrating and dancing, he rebukes them. Says God, “How dare you dance while my children are dying!” (an erudite reader, Ben David, notes in the comment section that it was the Angels who were rebuked, not the Israelites. If that is indeed the correct version, our point, we believe, is honed even further. As we said, “it is interesting that the angels, who, close to God- and thus more aware of His Dominion, needed the rebuke).

This is extraordinary. It was God Himself, after all, who meted out the Divine Justice. There could be no mistake as to the Divine Justice that was imposed. Nevertheless, God reminds- and chastises- the Israelites (and the Angels) that Justice, even Divine Justice, comes at a cost. Even when it it God that dispenses that Justice and decrees that life or liberty need be taken, Justice is dispensed somberly and without joy. Indeed, there is even sorrow.
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The Old Testament provides the lesson of winning a battle: Surround your enemy only on three sides- always allow him the opportunity to flee. In other words, even in battle, we are admonished to ‘Choose Life.’

We do not kill with joy. We do not place civilians, or schoolchildren or the sick an infirm in harms way. We do not engage an enemy, hiding behind children. We develop weapons that are ever more accurate. Others develop weapons that can be ever more widely dispersed.

They link to Dr. Sanity with good reason.

Traditionally — in Christianity, at least–a “martyr” was someone persecuted and killed by others for their religion’s sake. In the lives of many martyrs, their shining love for their religion was so inspiring that it might even convert those who were responsible for the martyr’s death.

But in Islam a “martyr” is a person who persecutes and kills others for their religion. Note the difference. By any rational definition, a person in this latter group is a monster. The indiscriminant slaughter of innocent lives inspires only the utmost revulsion in normal people. Converting to a religion that supports and encourages martyrs like that would be the height of insanity and self-delusion.

Read both, in their entirety.