Biden’s vacuous mind drawing villainy into Afghanistan and America’s backyard

OPINION:

One of the things I learned long ago is the principle of the vacuum. As it is in physics, so it is with human nature. Nothing will always be filled with something. Just like a vortex in the Pacific, a black hole in the cosmos, or the Hoover in your living room, so it is in the public square and public policy. A vacuum simply can’t be resisted. Nothingness cannot sustain itself. Rest assured, a void will be filled. In the absence of goodness, cruelty thrives. Where there is no love, there will be hatred. Those without humility are inevitably arrogant. Take away charity, and selfishness prevails. Without a vision, the people perish, and on and on it goes.     

This is what is happening in Afghanistan right now as we speak. Joe Biden’s vacuous mind is sucking villainy in to fill the void. Without virtue (and our president and his party have none), vice always prevails.  

Dinesh D’Souza, once wrote that the best explanation for the present world crisis of Muslim rage directed toward the West is not the commonly accepted Leftist argument of clashing religions, i.e., of Islam vs. Christianity. Mr. D’Souza contends that Islam’s anger is not directed toward true Christianity but instead toward radical secularism and the moral vacuity that faithful Muslims see therein.  

Here is a bit of his argument:

“It is time to revisit some common assumptions. Many Americans consider Islamic fundamentalists and Christians as essentially kindred spirits… Or as Jim Wallis, [of Evangelicals for Biden fame], put it in his book God and Politics, ’There is a close parallel between Islam’s holy war against and the West’s holy war against Islamic terrorism….’ The best solution, says Mr. Wallis, is for America to stand up for the principles of secularism and oppose both Muslim and Christian fundamentalism.”  

Mr. D’Souza continues - “Not only is this diagnosis of the problem wrong, but the solutions proposed are actually fueling Muslim rage and making future terrorist attacks against us more likely. The reason is that, from the point of view of Islamic radicals, America is not hated because it is Christian. Rather, America is hated because it is secular… By promoting [radical] secularism, we are corroborating the charge of radical Muslims that we are the enemies of their religion, and this also alienates traditional Muslims and pushes them into the radical camp.” 

Mr. D’Souza goes further - “Islamic radicals … make their case against the West not on the grounds that [our] cultures are Christian, but on the grounds that [we] have abandoned Christianity.” Over 50 years ago, the radical theoretician Sayyid Qutb made this point when he said that “religious convictions are no more than a matter of antiquarian interest in America.” Other Muslim radicals have echoed the same thing. For example, the influential Pakistani scholar, Khurshid Ahmad, has argued, “Had Western culture been based on Christianity, on morality, on faith, the language and modus operandi of the contact and conflict would have been different. But that is not the case. The choice is between the divine principle and the secular and materialistic culture.”  

Mr. D’Souza concludes: “Thus, the popular notion that the war against terrorism is a battle of two opposed forms of religious fundamentalism is false. This is not why the Islamic radicals are fighting against America. From the [Taliban] perspective, the war is between the Muslim-led forces of monotheism and morality vs. the American-led forces of atheism and immorality. Secularism, not Christianity, is responsible for producing a blowback of Muslim rage.”

Now you may disagree with some assumptions implicit in Mr. D’Souza’s argument of Islamic tolerance (For example, he seems to sidestep the Muslim hermeneutic of the doctrine of abrogation and doctrine of deception). But don’t get distracted by this and miss the forest for the trees.  

Instead, think for a moment of the principle of the vacuum – that unavoidable law that you know and experience on a day-by-day basis – that rule of replacement that says nothingness always draws something into its void. Think about how history has shown time and again that the absence of good always leads to the manifestation of evil. Think about Mr. D’Souza’s basic premise that Muslim animus and Islamic hatred are being drawn irresistibly into your own backyard by that vacuum between Joe Biden’s ears and that emptiness in his soul. Then ask yourself this - Does the moral vacuity of liberal government give you more comfort than the fullness and clarity of those self-evident truths endowed to us by God – You know, “the thing?”

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Daycare: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery) and, most recently, “Grow Up: Life Isn’t Safe, But It’s Good.”