The Terrorists and The Devil

There has been a lot of talk and print lately involving terrorists, politics, etc.

It seems to me that if the devil appeared on the earth tomorrow, his agenda would be along the lines of the terrorists: destruction of Jews and Christians by any means possible. After all, if you are the archenemy of God, you'd seek to destroy any and all of God's people. Now, if a giant winged demon by the name of Lucifer did appear on the earth, I personally would have no qualms about trying to destroy him in any way possible. But I am left wondering how many people would debate about the Devil's "civil rights" and not "judging" him and how we should be "tolerant" of diversity and how we should not impose ourselves on him. I can see the headlines already:

"Can Lucifer Aid Mideast Peace?" "U.N. Defends Diversity of Demon" "PETA Demands Protection for New SuperSpecies" ad nauseum.

Or would the world even recognize the Devil if they saw him? Has evil become so undistinguishable in our world of abortion, mass destruction, nuclear missles, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, propogation of homosexual acts, etc. that we have trouble telling when evil rears its horned head?

Let me make this simple. The Devil seeks destruction, suffering, pain, loss and death. The Islamic extremists, a.k.a. "terrorists," seek the destruction of Israel and many nations of the West, the suffering of anyone they deem their enemy, and the loss and death of millions of people. If a person came up to you with a knife, a gun and a grenade and said, "I want you extinct and I will stab you with my knife and if you try to run I will shoot you and if I think you even could survive outside of my reach I will use my grenade to kill us both because killing you means more to me than living," what would you do? What would you say?

Would you try to negotiate for your life? Would you give up your children, your home, your freedom to try to bargain to live? It would be completely pointless to give up anything and everything to someone who desires your death more than his own life. It is similar to a Jewish man in 1940 trying to bargain for his life from Hitler. Bargaining with Hitler didn't help anyone either - it simply delayed the inevitable and cost many more lives in the process.

I argue that, as unpleasant and pessimistic as it sounds, you simply cannot bargain with terrorists, not in money, not in supplies, not in land, not in time, not for lives. Terrorists insist that the rules of the game are kill or be killed. I am tired of hearing about pleas and desires for peace with people who seek only death. The only peace that will come is when such people are no longer able to pursue their agenda of death. Until the murderous destruction of the extremists is completely and permanently extinguished, there will not be peace for there is no peace with the Devil. As Spencer Tracy said in Inherit the Wind, "Fanatacism and ignorance is forever busy and needs feeding," and terrorism will never stop unless the terrorists are snuffed out.

*As a Catholic I am always in understanding with the Church that conversion be the first goal, but seeing as how Bibles are, well, shall we say, scarce to be found in terrorist nations, and terrorists breed their hate from childhood and forbid Christian influence within their circles, barring a miracle, which, by all means everyone can keep praying for, I believe the conversion of terrorists to be an unrealistic pursuit in our times.