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September 30, 2004
A new barbarism
At the time of the murder of Nick Berg, I wrote a piece decrying the barbarity and the shear evil that that act revealed at the heart of the Fundamentalists of Islam. This week's murder of two more (and perhaps by this time three more) victims of this vile and totally evil philosophy simply bears out my revulsion in that piece. To my mind, even more alarming, is the fact that I have so far seen and heard only one Muslim voice raised against this barbaric and totally unforgivable act. That of a Dutch Somalian MP! And she describes herself as the Muslim equivalent of a "Lapsed Catholic".
This fiery lady was this week in London, under constant armed guard because she has several Fatwas against her and is regularly threatened by Muslim men in the streets. Her crime? To speak out against the treatment of women, to demand a rethink within Islam of the way women are "possessions" to be beaten, killed, or insulted by their "owners" - the menfolk to whom their religion assigns them in complete submission. What is notable is that none of the leaders of her religion are prepared to debate her thoughts with her, instead they simply condemn her or attempt to belittle her. It is evidently easier to issue a Fatwa than to come up with reasoned and rational arguments with which to challenge her charges.
This is really the problem at the heart of Islam: moderate voices are simply howled down, threatened with a fatwa, or denied access to any public platform. No wonder then that the extremists at both ends of the spectrum have all the attention! As the Lady MP said during her visit, it is stuck in the thinking of the 12th Century!
Equally worrying about all of this is the fact that the moderates give every appearance of tacitly approving of the barbaric actions of the kidnap gangs now operating so freely in Iraq. Publically they mumble that these actions are "unfortunate" - not unacceptable, and there is every evidence, some of it from "insider" sources, that privately they express support, satisfaction, and even approval of this killing of "infidels" for their faith. It is simply not good enough. It is equally unacceptable that Arab language newspapers on sale here in the UK are loaded with anti-Western and anti-Jewish venom. I find it laughable that the head of the Muslim Council can, on the one hand wave off the accusation of "Anti-Semitism" by saying that the Arabs are a Semite people - and then by refusing to denounce it, give tacit approval to the torrent of anti-Jewish garbage in the press his followers import! If any English language paper published this trash there would be a huge outcry - and prosecutions would be pressed with a deserved vigour. So why have this gutless bunch of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish Labour politicians left the Islamic extremist press to continue spreading their poison?
As the outspoken lady from the Netherlands puts it - it's all "Trevor Talk". This is a reference to Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial Equality, and his often evasive pronouncements. The lady makes the point that all the Politically Correct protagonists indulge in these verbal acrobatics, avoiding any criticism of "oppressed minority groups" while castigating their real victims - the Christian and Jewish communities. Double standards aren't in this one, but, and it's a big but, they need to consider very carefully what they are promoting - already there are large areas where Muslim fundamentalist gangs have declared that Sharia Law is to be followed - and this is the declared ambition of these evil men in this country and the rest of the world.
Mr Blair and his poodles had better start deciding now whether this is what they want for their children - a Britain under Sharia Law, or an integrated society working for the fair and just society that most of these people claim to have settled in Britain to enjoy. And the supposed leaders of "moderate" Islam should consider carefully their tacit support of the barbarians acting in the name of their faith in Iraq. You cannot have both societies in one place.
Your call, followers of Islam.
Posted by The Gray Monk at September 30, 2004 07:38 AM
Comments
'Publically they mumble that these actions are "unfortunate" - not unacceptable, and there is every evidence, some of it from "insider" sources, that privately they express support, satisfaction, and even approval of this killing of "infidels" for their faith.'
It's not just the "moderates" who do this, either. For decades Arafat has appeased European leaders and western journalists by condemning terrorism and violence in every "foreign" language public speech he gives, while encouraging it and riling up the Palestinians and Arabs with every Arabic language speech he gives.
If western journalists were competent enough to check into this in their reporting, most of us over here would have roughly the same opinion of us that the Bush administration finally (albeit belatedly) came to: Arafat's more part of the problem than part of the solution, and has to go before any lasting peace can be had.
Sadly, this reporting is largely not done so people don't realize this. And he's not the only one, either. Most Middle Eastern leaders, religious and secular, practice the same tactics.
Very frustrating.
Posted by: Russell Newquist at September 30, 2004 03:18 PM
It's more than very frustrating. The majority of the West has not yet come to the realization that it is in a fight to the death with radical Islam. It seemed for a moment after 9/11/2001 that the light had dawned, but, alas, it dawned only on some, mostly in the United States, and maybe not on enough even there. The November presidential election will tell us in what direction US foriegn policy will go in the next few years. The danger is that US leadership, the sine qua non of world security, will falter ... until the next 9/11.
And the next time will likely be far more terrible than the first.
Posted by: Nomennovum at October 1, 2004 09:45 PM