Islamic Ecumenicalism

A likely story:

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was kicking off an interfaith conference in Madrid on Wednesday — an effort to bring Muslims, Christians and Jews closer together amid a world that often puts the three faiths at odds. …

Abdullah has made reaching out to other faiths a hallmark of his rule since taking over the oil-rich kingdom following the death of his half brother in 2005. He met with Pope Benedict XVI late last year, the first meeting ever between a pope and a reigning Saudi king.

Ah.  So it's "the world" that forced Ayatollah Khomenie's Islamic crazies to sack the American embassy in Tehran thirty years ago?  It's "the world" that compelled Hezbollah to murder 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut twenty-six years ago?  It's "the world" that made Osama bin Laden carry out his escalating series of attacks throughout the '90s, culminating in 9/11?  It's "the world" that fuels Hamas' relentless war against Israel?  It's "the world" that is bulldozing the Iranian mullahgarchy toward nuclear weapons and fulfilling their oft-proclaimed goal of "wiping Israel off the map" and bringing "the Great Satan" it its knees?  Wow, if that's the case, why is anybody interested in "saving the planet"?

How is "the world" generating this?:

Or this?:

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. [My husband] Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. “This is just like what happened to my mother,” I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl’s skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

Kuntar is one of the Hezbo terrorists exchanged for the two dead IDF soldiers, whose remains were so mutilated as to make it impossible even to confirm their identities, much less the original cause of death.  And here is the Obamaesque hero's welcome Kuntar and his four comrades received back in Hezbostan (formerly Lebanon).  Still think Ehud Olmert has the nuts to attack Iran?

Is "the world" responsible for this?:

The Samir Kuntars, the Osama bin Ladens, the Mahmoud Ahmadinejads of tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, who will inherit the Global Islamic empire that their forefathers will have been handed by the self-whipped, dhimmized West without a further shot fired in self-defense.

Is "the world," some sort of geojihadi madness, like a lanced butt boil from Gaia herself, just astrally causing these atrocities, this bloodlust, this march towards Armageddon, with Islamic fundamentalists as much helpless "victims" as their, well, helpless victims?  Or might, must might it not be that the cause is not "the world," but - Is the coast clear? - {Islam itself}?

When King Abdullah actually plays host to one of these interfaith group hugs instead of staging it a couple of thousand miles away, perhaps I'll take mitigation of my extreme skepticism under potential advisement.