Halal or Halhell

I find it difficult enough to cope with the indigestion of conventional religion, and now I am forced to consume halhell.

By conventional religion I mean religion in its simplest form; believing that something is behind the creation of everything. No robes, not temples, no books, no theory and no purveyors of the gospel, just a simple not-in-your-face belief in my private vision of the creation.
 
Belief is a strong potion, whether it be in the existence of God or belief in the existence of anus probing aliens. It is the force drives some to the summits of goodness or to the deepest depths of evil.
 
For some, belief in God is unmodifiable; once they believe unbelieving is virtually impossible. And there is no greyscale, it is black or it is white. Theirs is the only way.
The more they believe the smaller the chances of abandoning that belief and the greater their desire to make everyone else believe. The desire to convert becomes proportional to the depth of their belief. So, the stronger their belief the more fanatic they become in their quest to convert or destroy.
 
So I grapple with the quandary of what is there to gain by one set of fanatics trying to convert diametrically opposed fanatics to their gospel. Especially when each side introduces violence and intimidation to the equation.
But then I comfort myself in the knowledge that religion is basically a testosterone induced power game that has absolutely nothing to do with God or creation. It is, and has always been since the dawn of time, just an elaborate ploy to recruit “believers” for the sole purpose of overcoming a collective inferiority complex.
And once the believers are safely in the fold, they are encouraged to go forth and find more believers who will eventually go forth and find more believers. And when their believer recruitment campaign is no longer effective because of changing attitudes, fashion or viewpoints, they introduce violence to the campaign.
 
But I am not convinced that either will work. Like debt, religious recruitment is not infinite.
To put it into a marketing perspective; the product has reached the end of its lifecycle, and no amount of force will convince people to buy it.
 
After Diocletian’s Great Persecution ended with Constantine’s Edict of Milan, the fall of Acre ended the Crusades and Isabella II ended the Spanish inquisition, religious regime change by force went out of fashion. That is until Islam saw a market opportunity to rejuvenate its product in the face of declining market share of its competition.
But they skipped the preliminaries and went straight to coercion. Halal to Halhell.
 
Problem is that they are still acting out of a collective inferiority complex; a subconscious lack of self-worth, that drives afflicted individuals or communities to overcompensate, resulting either in spectacular achievement or extreme asocial behavior. Islam falls into the latter.
 
Where do we go from here?
 
As much as Pope Urban II could not stop Islamic influence by force, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's followers will not stop western decadence. We abandoned established religion to become followers of the god of money, freedom and debauchery and no amount of violence will lead us to the path of Muhammad.
We just cannot accept a world of shahadah, salat, zakah, swam and hajj because it is not what we call “freedom”.
 
So (to quote Winston) “we shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”.
 
Problem is that the other side will do the same.