To the Editor:
Second Opinion: Martin and Democracy This Week. September 29, 2021.
Martin: It's "next week" and I accept your invitation to explain my failure to include every word of Dave's Manifesto in responding to it. You may recall that you rejected my original submission because of length, in large part because I had quoted Dave’s language verbatim. You felt that to do that was unnecessary and too long.
I shortened the column to condense the word count, but included a summary of Dave's comments, as the articles made no sense without them. So, I was very surprised to read your objection in last week's editorial that you couldn't comment because, "Without seeing the substance of "Dave's Manifesto" (9-22-2021) nothing I would write would make any sense to readers." Hmm. But, let’s move on. If Dave feels I did not do a fair job in summarizing his comments, I hope he will let me know. Obviously, I thought his issues important.
The one issue which I will address this week is the plethora of democracy-threatening events happening right here in America, for those who watch only Fox News. I am going to speak here of "Republicans" as if they were all Trumpians. I know they're not, but it keeps the word count down. The AZ Maricopa County Audit Report is in. Before it was released, in a rant that bewailed the "unjust subpoenas" issued to Mark Meadows, Steven Bannon and others by the House Committee on January 6, Trump also proclaimed a victory in AZ and praised the grifting Cyber Ninjas as "highly respected auditors.” Except the Audit Report found that Biden gained 99 votes, and Trump received 261 fewer votes than the official results.
Trump won in TX in November by 5 points, but this week he directed Governor Abbott to also conduct an audit, and it was ordered before the sun went down. How insecure do you have to be to do that? Wants to run up the score 10 months after the game is over. It's abnormal, to use a nice word. And Abbott is willing to spend TX tax dollars to do it.
If Trump has to completely destroy our elections process in all states in order to make himself feel like a "winner," why are intelligent Repos up for that? We the People have the vote and the Constitution, and Republicans appear to bent on destroying both.
To wit: McConnell has said that he may not allow a vote for SCOTUS if an opening becomes available after the midterms and the Republicans pick up Senate seats. He wants permanent control over all branches of government. He believes that no Democrat should have power, nor should anyone who disagrees with Republican ideals. That is not a “democracy.” It is the blueprint for a dictator.
And now, the Republicans have declared that they are willing to default on the national debt. This will be disastrous to our economy and will contribute to the dollar being replaced as the world currency. And we will have done it to ourselves. Well, some of us will have done it.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore

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To the Editor:
Why no mention of Islam in the media? I’m no Islamophile but I am interested in Islamology. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. There are (50) world countries that consider themselves Muslim Nations. That adds up to (2) billion people. There are (18) world countries that consider themselves Christian Nations. That adds up to 274 million people. (USA does not call itself a Christian nation.) Islam gains converts up to 2x the rate of all other religions combined and is expected to grow by 35% in the next 20 years. Last year, 20,000+ Americans converted to Islam.
Taking a cursory look at Islam’s holy texts (which includes the life of their prophet Mohammad), may offer some insight into the nature of Islam and perhaps the mind of Islamic extremists.
There are (3) Islamic holy texts. The Koran (revelation to Mohammad from Angel Gabriel), The Sira (the biography of Mohammad), and The Hadith (Mohammad’s sayings & habits). These three texts are a Trilogy. They are inextricably linked, they cannot be separated, they are unable to stand on their own. Anything that contradicts any of these texts cannot be seen as Islam.
Mohammad was born in Mecca, Arabia in 570 C.E. into the Quraysh, a merchant Tribe. [His father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was 6 years old.]Mohammad lived briefly with his Grandfather but when his Grandfather died, he then went to live with his Uncle, a Trader & Merchant.
In those Pre-Islamic days, Mecca was a conglomerate of Christians, Jews&Polytheistic Idolators (ancient Iranian religions). They lived together in relative prosperity, peace & harmony. It was not unusual for the indigenous people to mix religions. They adopted some Christian beliefs, some Jewish beliefs and kept their own native polytheistic beliefs. Mohammad came from a family such as that. Each family would favor certain gods & goddesses and build a shrine inside their home. [‘Allah’ was considered the highest god. ‘Allah’ means ‘the god’.] Mohammad’s family favored the Crescent Moon goddess, Alilah (Allah’s daughter), the (fertility) goddess Uzza and (destiny, prosperity) goddess Manat.
At age 25, Mohammad married a wealthy woman, 20 years his senior. [She proposed marriage to him.]When Mohammad was 40 years old, he began to have feverish dreams. He said that the Angel Gabriel would give him messages. These dreams are the basis of the entire Koran, about 600 pgs. It was originally compiled in chronological order, but later they were arranged from largest chapter to smallest chapter. The Koran of today’s books store, is not the Koran of Mohammad’s day, 610 C.E. The original was destroyed.
Mohammad’s Koran had (2) separate locals of his ‘revelations’ and each is very different in tone. The first was in Mecca, and the second was in Medina. [The Mecca Koran is poetic & spiritual. The Medina Koran is historical and political.] While in Mecca, Mohammad criticized & preached against the religion of the day, which was polytheistic and idolatrous. He spent 13 years preaching to anyone that would listen. During those difficult years, he gained 150 disciples (followers). Eventually people grew annoyed &angry with him and threatened his life. He was forced to flee to Medina. While in Medina, he stopped preaching his new religion. He instead became a Politician and a Warrior.
During the last (9) years of his life (Mohammad died at age 62) he was involved in 88 acts of violence, averaging violent skirmishes once every 6 weeks. At the end of his life, every single Arab (100,000) was ‘converted’ to Islam. When Mohammad preached his religion (in Mecca) he averaged 12 new converts a year. Whereas in Medina, where he picked up a sword, politics & jihad (the struggle), he gained 10,000 converts a year. In other words, Political Power was a thousand times more effective than Spiritual Religion.
If Mohammad would have stayed in Mecca, he would have had 265 converts at the end of his life due to ‘religion’. Instead, he moved to Medina as a Warrior Politician which gained him 99,735 converts. At the time of his death, Islam’s success was 0.3 due to religion, and 99.3% due to Political Power.
[More on Mohammad, Jihad, Submission & Sharia later.]
I will leave you with one question, are these statistics relevant to today’s Islam and what’s going on in Afghanistan? You decide.
Leslie G. Marshall
PIRU