‘The state of our union is . . . denial — at least when it comes to Islam.”
I’m not holding my breath waiting for President Obama, as denier-in-chief, to make that pronouncement when he addresses the nation this evening at one of Leviathan’s more notorious wastes of time, the State of the Union address. Indeed, Washington’s annual celebration of itself, high on pageantry and bereft of substance, is unlikely to dwell much on the “religion of peace,” notwithstanding its centrality — acknowledged or not — to much of U.S. policy. Such silence is fitting, as is its flip side: to brand as “Islamophobia” any deviation from the party line — a bipartisan party line if ever there was one. An adult discussion of Islam would bring down the house of cards on which our policy is based. Better to say nothing.
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Thankfully, the Jeruslam Post’s Barry Rubin won’t play along. He disrupted our sweet dreams last week with a pronouncement from al-Azhar University. Al-Azhar is the centuries-old seat of Sunni scholarship in Egypt, a status that vests its sharia scholars with unparalleled doctrinal influence over the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims.
It is conventional wisdom among the West’s Islamophilic opinion elites — and thus prototypically among Obama administration officials — that jihad, the Islamic injunction to struggle in Allah’s cause, has been distorted by sharia-obsessed Islamophobes into a summons to destroy the West. Jihad, this wisdom holds, is just an internal exercise in self-betterment — kind of like greening the planet and brushing after every meal. Jihad becomes confrontational and even violent only in self-defense, when Muslims are truly under siege.
Au contraire, says al-Azhar’s Imad Mustafa. To be sure, he agrees that the doctrine of “defensive jihad” calls for war against non-Muslims who “attack” Muslims. But defense, for purposes of this doctrine, is in the eye of the beholder — or, more accurately, in the eye of the mufti who decides what sorts of provocations constitute an “attack.” Implicitly, that leaves room for lots of pretty offensive jihad if the mufti construes the concept of “attack” broadly enough. What is bracing about Mustafa’s new fatwa, however, is that he’s not leaving anything to chance. He’s making what is implicit unmistakably explicit.
Besides the defensive variety, Mustafa expressly endorses “offensive jihad” as the license to attack non-Muslims living in non-Islamic countries. It is the consensus of sharia scholars, he instructs, that offensive jihad is “permissible” in three different situations: (a) “to secure Islam’s border”; (b) “to extend God’s religion to people in cases where the governments do not allow it”; and (c) “to remove every religion but Islam from the Arabian peninsula.”
The unapologetic aggression affirmed here is breathtaking. Ever wonder why Muslims demand a right of return to Israel for Palestinians but impose the death penalty on Palestinians who sell land to Jews? Why Muslims demand the right to build a grand mosque and Islamic community center on the lower Manhattan site of radical Islam’s 9/11 atrocity but think nothing of barring non-Muslims from Mecca and Medina pursuant to their scriptures? It is because Islam — not radical Islam, political Islam, or Islamism, but Islam itself — is threaded with an intolerance that would be undeniable to anyone not in denial.
This is not something al-Qaeda dreamed up. Mainstream Islamic scholarship is reflected by Mustafa’s first and third claims: a right to brutalize non-Muslims in order to ensure that an Islamic territory remains Islamic, and a right to purge non-Islamic influences from the Arabian Peninsula. The latter, in fact, explains not only Saudi Arabia’s official policy of apartheid in Islam’s major cities but al-Azhar’s prior green-lighting of attacks on American troops in Iraq.
What are the reasons for Pres. Obama & friends to be in denial about the true nature of Islam? Could it be that they know they have nothing in their arsenal to counter the power of Islam?
The religion of humanism is weak and hollow. Institutional Christianity has been neutered of it's potency and Jesus has been made safe so that Westerners are numb to the call to "take up your cross and follow me."
The only thing that can counter jihad is the full gospel of Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit, a praying church with a culture of 24x7 prayer, and movements like "Back to Jerusalem" (Asian Christians training to be missionaries and martyrs to Muslim countries).
There is an excellent episode of "Firing Line" titled "The Rising Tide of Islam" (available on Amazon). It was taped in 1979 and features WFB, Jr. and three guests (none of them Muslim) deeply knowledgeable about Islam.
One of the things discussed in that episode was the synergistic relationship of Islam and communism. One is a totalist ideology (encompassing every aspect of life) and the other totalitarian (socio-political-economic authoritarian). The oppression of the totalist serves to quell uprising against the authoritarian, so it's presence is tolerated when kept distant from centers of power.
Mr. McCarthy - Excellent column. You missed two things, though: The first is that no Jew can live in the PA controlled territories in Judea and Samaria (but lots of Moslems can and do live in Israel with rights equal to Jews); and the second is, of course, that Islam is not a religion. It is a political ideology pretending to be a religion.
Eerily similar to a particular Englishman in the House of Lords more than 80 years ago; we can see this coming, know it's coming, cry at the top of our lungs, "Look! there it is!"
And be promptly ridiculed, condemned and ignored. - Just as he was.
And so, once this Islam extremism is firmly grounded on our shores, will we take any pleasure in stating, "I told you so?"
I certainly won't. But it will occur all the same.
Yesterday I spent a hour or more going through a box of hard copy articles I've collected for a couple of decades related to terror orgs operations in the U.S. I was searching for copies I pulled off of a CAIR website here in Dallas in 2000 warning the Muslim community not to talk to the FBI without a lawyer present. Bill O'Reilly didn't even put up a challenge to the CAIR rep the other night when he claimed that it is not CAIR policy to advise non-cooperation with the FBI.
I can't really understand why BillO'Reilly refuses to do the homework - or to believe those who have - to know that CAIR is a front operation with a hidden agenda.
In digging through the box of acticles, I also ran across a 1997 article of Andrew McCarthy's called "Prosecuting the New York Sheik".
In it McCarthy wrote: "Terrorism in the United States undertaken by fundamentalist Muslims reveals that an active jihad [sacred war] organization, modeled after counterparts overseas, has become a dangerous domestic threat. To combat this threat successfully, Americans need to face it not just with strength and resolve, but also with a proper understanding of their constitutional liberties: that beliefs may be freely held or articulated does not mean they are beyond public scrutiny or that they can immunize criminal behavior undertaken in the name."
Mr Schwandt has hit it. Why is Islam bad, and what's the answer? It's bad because it's not about Jesus Christ, who died for us sinners (perfect love), rose again (perfect power), and is the one and only Way to God the Father.
And I like to say He's rather libertarian in politics: His Kingdom is like a big tree in which diverse birds shelter. Mohammed's kingdom is like Procrustes' bed. We can receive the resurrection of life while rejecting or ignoring Mohammed, but not without embracing Jesus, the President of presidents.
We keep seeing these exposures of nefarious Islam but nothing is being done about it. When are even conservatives going to have the courage to speak out in public forums without shame or equivocation instead of in obscure journals (sorry, NRO)? It is past time to confront the mainstream media about their timidity and slavish adherence to the tenets of political correctness. A first requirement for any speaker is to stand-up to the charges of racism and “Islamophobia” – the first weapon of scoundrels..
Not only must we expose and fight Islam at Al Azhar but – more importantly – right here in the US (and Europe, but they’ve practically surrendered already). Americans concerned about the growing clout and ever-escalating demands of Muslims in this country must make it the highest priority to get true immigration reform to exclude further Muslim immigration into this country except for very limited SECULAR Muslims: No more Imams to “guide the flock”; no more illiterate baby-machine brides from some backward home village; no more “pull migration” to flood our cities with illiterate and useless masses.
Also as important, is the exposure of the Muslim propaganda and lobbying apparatus in this country: High-contribution (i.e., bribery) Muslim business contributors to American politicians; Arab-funded front organizations such as “Muslim studies” programs in universities; ex-diplomat lobbyists; Arab/Muslim “civil rights” organizations; Mosques and “social” organizations; and leftist front organizations.
Enough is enough.
There are no "moderate" muslims. There are those more aggressive in the practice of their religion, but a "moderate" muslim, as defined by Islamophiles, would be considered a heretic by Islam and its imams and, therefore, must be killed.
This is the very point that Islamophiles and Islamo-apathetics don't get. This is not a religion. It is a political ideology masked by religion. From the beginning, it was carefully designed to accumulate power. Once a muslim, whether by birth, or conversion, always a muslim. Leaving Islam is a crime punishable by death under Sharia law.
There is no muslim extremism. There is only Islam. If you don't believe that, just ask any imam. Some muslims and their leaders believe violence against the non-Islamic world, particularly the West, is justifiable. Others believe any means are justifiable, including peaceful means, if they are viable,feasible and more likely to produce the desired result, which is domination of the world by Islam.
Have you read "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer? Great Book. Eisenhower carried a copy with him always. All muslims are true believers. They must be, or they can be killed by their fellow religionists. This dangerous political ideology, masquerading as a religion, has found the secret to perfect loyalty, or, as they may claim, perfect faith. Make it a crime punishable by death to blaspheme Muhammad, Allah, or any of the ideology's tenets and, also, make it a capital crime to leave the sect...pretty strong motivation for loyalty, particularly when the system has had fourteen centuries to be perfected. An Imam issues a fatwah to kill and, even if a majority won't act upon it, it only takes a few "faithful" to put fear in every muslim's and, now, every non-muslim's heart. The West dare not speak, much less act against Islamic forces among us. We've also bound ourselves firmly with political correctness. Muslims know this and they are using it to further their aim - a world of faithful muslims.
It is very important for the West to cease its denial and recognize that Islam is a dangerous political ideology, rather than a religion. All muslims are potential instruments of the violent side of their faith. The Koran approves and even encourages violence against non-muslims and against slothful muslims. It uses many of the same principles that totalitarian ideologies have used. In fact, some muslims have studied totalitarian principles and tactics and some totalitarians have studied principles and tactics of Islam. These tactics and principles are tools used to control the masses. They're ideologically on the opposite pole from principles of democracy and individual liberty.
Islam is not and cannot ever be compatible with the Western tradition of liberty. This conflict has been going on since the early seventh century and will continue until Islam gives up, which is unlikely, or the West gives up, which, it seems, could happen one day. Fifty, seventy-five, a hundred years hence, perhaps our descendants will be ruled by Sharia. It's practically inevitable, unless, God willing, there is a great awakening in the West, or, a great unspoken second coming of true liberty.
And now we have Rep. Peter King, R-NY, abandoning the fight against terrorism to do Muslim outreach, to be schooled by Islamist apologists in the 'peaceful' nature of Islamic War.
This article is absolutely bigotted and prejudiced in addition to many of your comments. When certain remarks are drawn out of context in order to propogate a poorly masked racist agenda is quite pathetic. For those attempting to claim that biblical texts are free of violent references, please review all the Old Testament verses as well as countless New Testament verses discussing stoning for various offenses not least of which is blasphemy. Unfortunately, for the uninformed, or for the well informed but devious, it is a shame that these kinds of naseauting arguments are still taken seriously. If you don't think that Christianity has any violent tendencies, examine the history of the crusades and the abundance of religious justification that was given for them. Some people are simply blind.
Well at least we have NASA to reach out to people who wish to end our way of life.
Moderate Muslims are people that stand by while other Muslims do their dirty work.
I have not seen a large up-rising of moderate Muslims who wish to show their opposition to violence.
I hesitate to make a possibly flippant point BUT: There is always a
professor or scientist in science fiction movies (highly educated/well spoken/sarcastic) that makes the faulty point, if only if we would try to speak to the monster in calm factual terms, it would understand us and we would be real friends.
The professor is now the President.
Narrated Ibn 'Umar:Allah's Apostle said: "I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform all that, THEN THEY SAVE THEIR LIVES AND PROPERTY FROM ME except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah."
SteveK:
First-->Calling someone a bigot based on their pointing out the fact that the Koran undeniably exhorts believers to conquer and suppress nonbelievers proves nothing other than the fatuity of your argument.
Second-->You can find nothing in the New Testament that commands believers to slaughter and enslave nonbelievers. The fact that some medieval popes, in reaction to Muslim agression against Jerusalem, launched some crusades 800 years ago does not make moral or logical equivalence with 9/11, Fort Hood, Daniel Perl, and uncounted and untold atrocities commited by present-day followers of Mohammed.
McCarthy has it about right, and if you think modern Christianity teaches its followers to behave as you say, then you, sir, are the bigot.
It isn't an anamoly to realize how inept and lost Obama and the elites (even neocons) are about Islam. Haven't they ever thought of reading the koran or hadith?
Mohammed's goal was to kill every jew,(even those hiding behind trees) or the judgment day could not come. The chief pirate's admittance of being possessed by Satan at least twice proves the entire religion is bogus.
This article is pure ignorance and hatred. The vast majority of Muslims in the United States are peaceful, educated, and patriotic. The vast majority of Muslim Americans don't take the violent parts of their religious seriously. As for their holy book, the holy book of the Christians is equally if not more offensive and vicious towards unbelievers. And as for history goes, Christians have a much worse track record in how they treat other faiths.
Hey, Faraz, I defy you to find anything in Christ's teachings that are hateful, or deplorable. Does your religion teach you to "Love your enemies?" You know, I love Muslims, or, at least, I try to love people, all people. It isn't easy. I'm not Jesus Christ, but I do try to follow him. He would never sanction violence. He would never seek world domination by force, whether through clandestine, or open means. Islam has proven its choice of means - anything that will lead to world domination by Islam. You can fool some of the people...as they say. Don't try to fool me. I'm on to you and so are many Americans. Renounce violence, renounce Islam's aim to impose Sharia upon non-muslims, renounce any and all efforts to achieve this aim. I still won't believe you, but if you truly did this, it would be good for you and good for America.
