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The EU Idiot's Guide to Islamic Extremism
FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | August 15, 2006 | Julia Gorin

Posted on 08/15/2006 5:52:27 AM PDT by SJackson

Last week Muslim groups criticized President Bush for referring to a “war with Islamic fascists.” In an item titled "U.S. Muslims bristle at Bush term Islamic fascists," Reuters quoted CAIR executive director Nihad Awad as saying, “We believe this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counter-productive to associate Islam or Muslims with fascism.” Seconding the notion was a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, Edina Lekovic: “The problem with the phrase is it attaches the religion of Islam to tyranny and fascism, rather than isolating the threat to a specific group of individuals.”

Aside from the fact that Lekovic is lying (from the 2002 LAX shooter to last month's Seattle shooter to the North Carolina University mower to the D.C. snipers, the only “specific group” affiliation was Islam), we must aggressively ignore these kinds of suggestions. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in the same paralysis that Europeans are experiencing. Whenever Europeans get together to come up with ways to combat extremism and counter terrorism, not only do they find themselves being the ones prescribed with making all the adjustments--as opposed to the terror-prone Muslims--but they usually end up either with suggestions to scrap Holocaust Memorial Day, or with a very limited vocabulary.

Take, for example, a Christian Science Monitor article from April, titled “Fighting Terrorism, One Word at a Time”:

“Officials in Brussels have embarked on an unusual exercise, combing their dictionaries to excise words and phrases that could cause offense. When the review is complete and the rules laid down, you will not, for example, hear EU officials talk any more about ‘Islamic terrorism’…EU policymakers worry that it lumps all Muslims into the same category, and angers them.”

Friso Roscam-Abbing, an EU spokesman, said, “‘The politically more correct term will be ‘terrorism that abusively invokes Islam.’…[H]e rejects accusations that the EU is soft-soaping ‘Islamic radicals’--another phrase that is coming under the microscope.” Another EU official added, “‘You don’t want to use terminology which would aggravate the problem.’”

Of course, we could always just have our vocal chords surgically removed. Or perhaps Europeans could make more headway at these summits if they stopped inviting the terrorists?

Meanwhile, if “aggravating the problem,” or using language that “can breed resentful terrorists,” as the article also suggests, is a security concern, doesn’t that demonstrate that there’s some sense in “lumping all Muslims into the same category?”

Isn’t it a tacit admission of something to say that just using insulting language can make a Muslim snap into kill mode? If policies, protocols and language lexicons are changing based on “Let’s not anger them,” the implication is that those who aren’t terrorists are simply not terrorists yet. We are being told, in so many words, that Muslims as a group are at-risk, that the average Muslim has terroristic inclinations.

If terrorism indeed has a distinct appeal to the average Muslim, and yet the religion is not the cause, then what is? Genetics? Is it time to start talking about the terror gene--and asking the uncomfortable question: Do they choose it, or are they born that way?

And if Islam isn’t the cause of murderous proclivities, have we considered that at the very least it must be a symptom? Take, for example, Denver Safeway killer Michael Ford. When he could no longer take the unspecified jabs at his religion that his family claims he was getting from co-workers, he opened fire on them. Admittedly, it’s possible that here, it wasn’t the religion which drove him to kill, but insults to the religion.

The Reuters article “U.S. Muslims bristle at Bush term Islamic fascists” reports that many American Muslims who reject the term “say they have felt singled out for discrimination since the September 11 attacks.”

It’s time to pin down those feelings for what they are--displacement. Every other group trying to secure its place in Western society has instinctively personalized and internalized the crimes of its own--feeling a sense of embarrassment for far smaller-scale crimes than what Muslims and Arabs inflict on their host societies. Who can forget the Jews and the Italians out-praying each other in the hope that the Son of Sam killer wasn’t “one of ours”? When we learned his last name was Berkowitz, the Jews plotzed. Then we found out he was an Italian adopted by Jews, and the Jews breathed a sigh of relief (“He’s adopted! He’s adopted!”) while the Italians cringed.

The welcoming Statue of Liberty lets immigrants feel they have nothing to prove, but from the beginning, every arriving group has had the decency to not take it to heart. Until now. When you refuse to have natural feelings of collective shame, you project them out onto society as discrimination. Muslims outsource the guilt that they decline to feel, which then leads to appropriate suspicions of them. In contrast, when you hang your head in shame over what other members of your community do, the surrounding society in turn lessens your guilt. Picking up on the good will of a community that has those human feelings of shame, society does the work to disassociate that group from bearing collective responsibility. Suspicions lessen, and there emerges a functional relationship that becomes part of the social fabric.

The "discrimination" that the indignant Muslims and Arabs among us are feeling--despite our running to protect mosques and yelling “They’re not all like that!” every time they help prove that they are--is their own unfelt guilt. The resulting caution, which is perceived as "discrimination" and which would have subsided by now, will only grow.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: crushislam; gorin; islam; islamicfascists; islamisadeathcult; islamisevil; jihad; jihadists; juliagorin; muslim; muslims; trop; wot

1 posted on 08/15/2006 5:52:28 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: SJackson
Reuters quoted CAIR executive director Nihad Awad as saying, “We believe this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counter-productive to associate Islam or Muslims with fascism.”

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Qur'an should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth"

--Omar Ahmed, Chairman of the Board of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), San Ramon Valley Herald, July 1998
2 posted on 08/15/2006 5:55:59 AM PDT by Vision (God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline 2Timothy1)
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To: SJackson

There are some differences between Islamic extremism and fascism. But there are also a lot of similarities.

I'm open to use of another term, but so far, no one has suggested one that captures the cruelty and barbaric nature of these killers. "Fascist" seems to be about the best term I've heard to date that describes these guys.


3 posted on 08/15/2006 5:56:45 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.

also Keywords 2006israelwar or WOT [War on Terror]

----------------------------

4 posted on 08/15/2006 6:02:58 AM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn't do!)
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To: SJackson
On May 8, 1953, John Foster Dulles said that America's European allies were "shattered, 'old people' who want to spend their remaining days in peace and repose." [Betty Glad and Kenneth Kitts, "Sidestepping the Hawks: Eisenhower, the Solarium Study, and the Hungarian Crisis of 1956" in The Art of Political Leadership: Essays in Honor of Fred Greenstein, ed. Larry Berman (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2005), 187.]

Which about sums it up. McVey

5 posted on 08/15/2006 6:03:31 AM PDT by mcvey (Fight on. Do not give up. Ally with those you must. Defeat those you can. And fight on whatever.)
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To: Brilliant

I inclined to go along with the suggestion of referring to them as Jihadists.


6 posted on 08/15/2006 6:10:12 AM PDT by Brooklyn Kid (What's it to ya? ) ((....west of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar.................))
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‘The politically more correct term will be ‘terrorism that abusively invokes Islam.’

Or, the short form:

Perverted Islamic Terrorism.

7 posted on 08/15/2006 6:16:58 AM PDT by D-fendr
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To: SJackson

anytime islam takes on christianity it gets whupped.


8 posted on 08/15/2006 6:39:52 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand ("These formidable people....will die for Liberty")
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To: SJackson
........we must aggressively ignore these kinds of suggestions. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in the same paralysis that Europeans are experiencing..........

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There! I feel much better.

9 posted on 08/15/2006 6:43:04 AM PDT by DoctorMichael (A wall first. A wall now.)
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To: SJackson
SEE MY POST FROM EARLIER THIS MORNING:

Saudis: Don't Call Muslims 'Fascists' (THE HEIGHT OF HYPOCRISY FROM PURVEYORS OF HATE-FILLED RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS IN THE WEST)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1683927/posts

10 posted on 08/15/2006 6:44:12 AM PDT by seasoned traditionalist (ALL MUSLIMS ARE NOT TERRORISTS, BUT ALL TERRORISTS WHO WANT TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY, ARE MUSLIMS)
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To: SJackson
It seems to me that the muslims should be required to provide us with an acceptible word for this brand of terrorism.

This would help clarify for us and for the muslims, where they truly stand on the issue.

What I mean is, if they chose an arabic word meaning something like "martyrs", then they would openly express their support for the barbarians. If they chose something like an arabic word for "sinners", then we can use the word confidently and insist that all muslims use the same word as a demonstration of their rejection of this brand of terrorism.

11 posted on 08/15/2006 6:44:44 AM PDT by Schnucki
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To: SJackson

CAIR - Council of Angry Islamic Radicals


12 posted on 08/15/2006 6:58:58 AM PDT by oldleft
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To: SJackson

It's extremism, murder and fascism and it's supported by the ideology of death and destruction.
The name fits.


13 posted on 08/15/2006 7:01:59 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (American Left, Islamic Fascism, Mainstream Media = ideology of nihilism, despair, nothingness.)
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To: SJackson; Dad yer funny

.. .. just pingin' myself

. . . I'd like to make it a bit more readable , without changing any words or wording

... this is such an important discussion!

** regarding the muzzies , I have very strong feelings in support of our surveillance over their communities

anyone recall , "...doth protest too much , methinks..."

muzzies have upset The Apple Cart on so many occasions that , if I were to be in charge , I wouldn't let them anywhere near The Apple Cart

... I'd decide if they got a damn apple OR NOT!!!


14 posted on 08/15/2006 7:44:54 AM PDT by Dad yer funny (BinScentie Pox , BinLadin , 2 tall enemies)
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To: SJackson
Another EU official added, “‘You don’t want to use terminology which would aggravate the problem.’”

Amazing, but then as the euro's seem to always need fascism and despots -- they've hit the jackpot after centuries of false starts.

15 posted on 08/16/2006 6:28:31 AM PDT by banjo joe (Work the angles. Show all work.)
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