Posted on 05/11/2015 4:26:31 AM PDT by SJackson
The Failed Tactic of Flattering Islam Wont Go Away
Posted By Bruce Thornton On May 11, 2015 @ 12:37 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 16 Comments
[1]Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
The recent attack in Texas against a draw Mohammed event ended up with two dead jihadis and widespread criticism of event organizer Pamela Geller for inciting or provoking the assault on our First Amendment right to free speech. The hypocrisies and ignorance behind such criticism have been amply documented [2], including by some on the left [3]. But theres another argument against actions and events like Gellers that needs dismantling. This is the received wisdom that we should avoid criticizing Islamic doctrine or Mohammed because it will alienate moderate Muslims who otherwise would help us against the so-called extremist jihadists.
Geraldo Rivera on Fox News invoked this rationale in his hysterical attack on Geller for spewing her hatred and making us all look like the intolerant jerks they are saying we are in the Middle East and elsewhere. In other words, most Muslims dislike the jihadis, who have hijacked and distorted their faith, and want to support our efforts against them. But they are put off by our insults of Mohammed and our intolerance of the wonderful religion of peace, all of which serve to recruit new jihadists. Even Bill OReilly and Laura Ingraham skirted this notion, advising against making any image of Mohammed, and thus in effect ratifying the legitimacy of the sharia law against any representation of Mohammed, good or bad.
Consistent with this notion that flattery and respect can change Muslim behavior, many in the foreign policy establishment, including conservatives, have for decades counseled flattering outreach to Muslims as a tactic in winning the hearts and minds of the supposed large majority of Muslims angry at the jihadists distortions of their faith. Even before 9/11, Bill Clintons Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, called Islam a faith that honors consultation, cherishes peace, and has as one of its fundamental principles the inherent equality of all who embrace it. Even after 9/11 confirmed Islams traditional theologized violence and intolerance, George Bush claimed in his first address after 9/11 that Islams teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. In 2005, administration officials encouraged this tactic of false flattery as a way to support the courageous Muslims who are speaking the truth about their proud religion and history, and seizing it back from those who would hijack it for evil ends.
Of course Obama, who has serially groveled before Muslims and praised Islam, has continued this sorry practice. After his administration blamed the Benghazi murders on an obscure Internet video, he lectured that the future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam. The 2 gunmen in Garland Texas obviously agreed. His quondam Secretary of State and now presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is on record extolling Islams deepest yearning of allto live in peace. How is that going in Nigeria, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan? Worse of all, training materials used by our military and security services have excised any mention of jihad, which Western infidels have redefined as a quest to find ones faith in an external fight for justice, as the New York Times put it in 2008. So Obama identifies the 13 slaughtered at Fort Hood to the traditional jihadist cry of Allahu Akbar as victims of workplace violence. Never mind the Koranic command to slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambushexactly what various jihadi outfits are doing today across the Middle East, and tried to do in Garland Texas.
Two decades of such flattery and admiration have failed to prevent nearly 26,000 violent jihadist attacks since 9/11, for they are based on Western bad ideas rather than on an accurate understanding of Islamic doctrine and the Muslim mentality. Behind our delusions is the peculiarly arrogant assumption that traditionalist Muslimsby which I mean those who take seriously the doctrines and precepts of their faith has practiced for 14 centuriesdo not have their own motives and aims, but can only react to our bad behavior. Besotted by our own materialist superstitions and failure to take religion seriously, we reduce jihadist behavior to material and psychological causes: wounded self-esteem, resentment of colonial and imperial crimes, disrespect of Islam, or the lack of jobs, political freedom, or even sexual access to women.
Thus despite consistent polling data [4] showing widespread Muslim support of illiberal sharia law and its draconian penalties like death for blasphemy, we wont accept that millions of Muslims actually believe what the Koran, Hadith, and 14 centuries of jurisprudence teach about the superiority of Islam and their right to use violence in order to bring the whole world under the sway of the superior social, economic, and political order that sharia represents. In the guise of respecting Muslims, then, we patronize them as little more than children who can only act out violently in the face of injustice instead of using their words. Having reduced our own faith to holidays and comforting slogans, we simply cant believe that Islam endorses violence and cruelty in the name of Allah, or that otherwise loving and kind people, as bin Laden was said to have been by all who knew him, can at the same time slaughter and brutalize innocents in pursuit of spiritual aims. No, either they are crazy or evil, or they are traumatized by our bad behavior.
This dubious pop-psychological assumption is usually accompanied by a catalogue of the historical crimes against Muslims perpetrated by the West, from the Crusades to the wars against the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. These depredations, so the story goes, also fuel anger and resentment, and help to incentivize otherwise peaceful Muslims into turning jihadist. But this narrative is belied by the facts of history. For what history tells us is that the record of Muslim conquest, occupation, colonizing, slaving, raiding, and killing of Christians far surpasses the alleged crimes of the West against Islam. We recently marked the centenary of the Ottoman genocide against the Christian Armenians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans, a crime being duplicated today by ISIS in northern Iraq. Recently our historically challenged president whined about the Crusades and the Inquisition, with nary a word about the centuries of Muslim invasion, occupation, colonization, and brutal suppression in Christian Spain, Sicily, the Balkans, and Greece.
Or what about the 1066 pogrom in Granada, the alleged paradise of pan-confessional humanism, as an ignorant Wall Street Journal editorial claimed a few years back. Those tolerant, humanist Muslims slaughtered 5000 Jews, equaling the toll of dead during the whole existence of the Inquisition. But can anyone name one Muslim religious leader in the Middle East who has publicly and consistently apologized in Obama fashion for these 14 centuries of slaughter? Who has justified our defensive wars in the region as an understandable reaction to that history? Who has chastised Muslims for destroying and desecrating churches, and blamed them for inviting violent reactions? Muslim Turkey wont even own up to its copiously documented slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians. If anyone has a historical grievance that justifies payback, it is Christians and Jews.
Finally, if Western insults and crimes against Muslims are really the reason jihadists want to kill us, why do they let Russia off the hook? No Christian power has killed more Muslims or occupied more Muslim lands than has Russia, from the siege of Izmail in 1790, when 40,000 Muslim men, women, and children were slaughtered, to the invasion of Afghanistan, which killed a million, to the brutal wars against Muslim Chechnyans, which killed at least 100,000. Or how about the 10 million Muslim Uighurs oppressed by China and forbidden to fully practice their faith? Is Russia or China the Great Satan? Are they the constant targets of jihadist attack and thundering denunciations by the mullahs of Iran? Are moderate Muslims alienated by their behavior and rushing to join the jihad against them?
The obvious answer is no, for the simple reason that Russia and China are contemptuous of such juvenile psychological blackmail, pursue their national interests without regard for criticism by the Muslim community, and respond with brutal force to violent attacks. Meanwhile the U.S. has rescued millions of Muslims in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan from brutal dictators, ethnic cleansing, and psychotic autocrats, yet is deemed Islamophobic because we exercise our Constitutional rights in our own country. Worse yet, we grovel and apologize and demonize those like Pamela Geller who practice their right to free expression at a private function, and we vainly believe despite all evidence that if we just act nice to Muslims and join them in demonizing their critics, theyll ignore their spiritual beliefs, the traditions of their faith, and the model of Mohammed and his credo to fight all men until they say there is no god but Allah.
To paraphrase Cicero and Orwell, there are some things so stupid that only rich, arrogant Westerners will believe them. If we let this president continue to predicate his dealings with Iran on this same delusional belief in the power of flattering engagement and mutual respect, we will soon find out the high cost of this stupidity.
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuh..........
They want to kill you.
They want to KILL YOU ALL!
It’s NOT hard to understand. It’s just hard to wrap your head around. FAILURE, on the other hand, gets you the DEATH PENALTY.
Lock and load, boys and girls.
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
From Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat. Islam is not a religion, nor is it a cult. In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life. Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components.
The religious component is a beard for all of the other components. Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious privileges. When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious privileges, some of the other components tend to creep in as well.
Here's how it works: As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens.
This is the case in: United States -- Muslim 0.6%Australia -- Muslim 1.5% Canada -- Muslim 1.9% China -- Muslim 1.8% Italy -- Muslim 1.5% Norway -- Muslim 1.8%
At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is happening in: Denmark -- Muslim 2% Germany -- Muslim 3.7% United Kingdom -- Muslim 2.7% Spain -- Muslim 4% Thailand -- Muslim 4.6%
From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply. This is occurring in: France -- Muslim 8% Philippines -- 5% Sweden -- Muslim 5% Switzerland -- Muslim 4.3% The Netherlands -- Muslim 5.5% Trinidad & Tobago -- Muslim 5.8%
At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world.
When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris, we are already seeing car-burnings. Any non-Muslim action offends Islam and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam, with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim sections in: Guyana -- Muslim 10% India -- Muslim 13.4% Israel -- Muslim 16% Kenya -- Muslim 10% Russia -- Muslim 15%
After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in: Ethiopia -- Muslim 32.8% At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in: Bosnia -- Muslim 40% Chad -- Muslim 53.1% Lebanon -- Muslim 59.7%
From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution of non- believers of all other religions (including non- conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels, such as in: Albania -- Muslim 70% Malaysia -- Muslim 60.4% Qatar -- Muslim 77.5% Sudan -- Muslim 70%
After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in: Bangladesh -- Muslim 83% Egypt -- Muslim 90% Gaza -- Muslim 98.7% Indonesia -- Muslim 86.1% Iran -- Muslim 98% Iraq -- Muslim 97% Jordan -- Muslim 92% Morocco -- Muslim 98.7% Pakistan -- Muslim 97% Palestine -- Muslim 99% Syria -- Muslim 90% Tajikistan -- Muslim 90% Turkey -- Muslim 99.8% United Arab Emirates --
Muslim 96% 100% will usher in the peace of 'Dar-al-Salaam' -- the Islamic House of Peace. Here there's supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrassas are the only schools, and the Koran is the only Word, such as in: Afghanistan -- Muslim 100% Saudi Arabia -- Muslim 100% Somalia -- Muslim 100% Yemen -- Muslim 100% Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, as in these 100% states the most radical Muslims intimidate and spew hatred, and satisfy their blood lust by killing less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons.
Can a good Muslim be a good American?
Theologically - no . . . Because his allegiance is to Allah.
Religiously no Because no other religion is accepted by Allah except Islam (Koran, 2:256).
Scripturally - no Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Koran.
Geographically no Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
Socially - no Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews..
Politically - no Because he must submit to the mullahs (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and destruction of America, the great Satan.
Domestically - no Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Koran 4:34)
Intellectually - no Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
Philosophically - no Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Koran do not allow freedom of religion and expression..
Spiritually - no
Because when we declare 'one nation under God,' the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as Heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in the Koran's 99 excellent names.
Muslims hand out intolerance, tyranny, bloodbaths, and genocide.
Yet, it is WE who are at fault?
Geraldo Rivera on Fox News invoked this rationale in his hysterical attack on Geller for spewing her hatred and making us all look like the intolerant jerks they are saying we are in the Middle East and elsewhere.
“They” meaning the intolerant jerks who infest the Middle East and elsewhere.
When will my grandchildren get to see Islamophobic cartoons on You Tube? Heard on Galei Israel the other day the old Latma TV news team and their favorite foil, Taweel Fadicha, Palestinian Minister of Uncontrollable Rage. Now that and several other Latma regulars would make a great Islamophobic animated cartoon. Pamela? Caroline? Get together and do this thang.
Interesting question.
I think the relative lack of power of Russia and China over the heart of Islam (S. Arabia) may have something to do with that, and....the fact that Russia and China are not pursuing cultural dominance--especially with the rotten, depraved, sexually perverted culture of the West.
I believe the KEY reason Islamists hate the West so much is not our obescience (though that's a sign of our weakness) but our depraved popular culture. The USA is perceived over-seas--(largely due to Hollywood) especially in the Middle East and Eastern Europe/Russia, as a filthy haven of pornography, adultery and sodomy.
Isn't it interesting that the wave of terrorism against Western targets (not just Israel)starting in the '70s, corresponds perfectly--with a lag--to the so-called sexual revolution in the states.
In '06 I spoke with a Russian girl in her early 20s in Germany. She was just as conscientious and normal appearing as can be--and appalled to the point of anger at how the USA (and she blamed ALL of us, not just liberals) accepted homosexuality. A very common view I've found out since.
The non-Western world (egged on by Putin and other leaders) sees the USA as a cesspool. (More)Bitter fruit of the '60s generation.
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