Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Political Left Empowers Islamic Jihad

So why do they do it? FEAR and IGNORANCE…

By de Andréa

Politeness is not saying certain things lest there be violence; civility is being able to say those certain things without fear of violence.





A recent series of polls indicate that European public opinion is substantially concerned by the increasing aggressiveness that their substantial Middle Eastern immigrant populations have exhibiting. To quote Soeren Kern, Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Strategic Studies Group... “The findings – which come as Europeans are waking up to the consequences of decades of mass immigration from Muslim countries – point to a growing disconnect between European voters and their political masters regarding multicultural policies that enable and encourage Muslim immigrants to remain segregated rather than become integrated and assimilated into their host nations culture.” While this may enable and/or address an obvious sociological problem, it doesn’t address the fact that Muslims will not assimilate regardless. It is a large part of their ideology not to assimilate into your culture but to force you to assimilate into theirs.

The notion of why would anyone want to come to America unless they want to become an American and be a part of our culture, might apply to everyone and anyone, but it doesn’t apply to a Muslim. Then why do Muslims come to Western cultures? Because… they are programmed from birth to transform you into ‘their Eastern culture, that’s why! For Islam to move into modernity, it would have to completely change the fundamentals of its ideology, and folks that just isn’t going to happen. The misconception that Muslims don’t like their countries or their cultures and that is why they come to yours is fundamentally ignorant and deceptive. They come to the West to advance the Islamic agenda of supremacy and world dominance. And we ignorantly empower them.





The survey results mirror the findings of dozens of other recent polls. Taken together, they provide ample empirical evidence that skepticism about Muslim immigration is not limited to a “right-wing” political fringe, as proponents of multiculturalism often assert. Mainstream voters across the entire political spectrum are now expressing concerns about the role of Islam in Europe and America.



The ignorant disconnect constitutes one of the most concerning developments in Western culture over the last decade. Between an elite that controls much of the discussion in the public sphere (journalists, academics, talking heads, mainstream politicians) and those who ‘fear’ being called Islamophobes and racists more than they fear the future of Islam in the West, and a population of people who, whenever they voice concern about the behavior of their Muslim neighbors, are ignorantly told not to be Islamophobic racists. One of the blatant ironies of that is the ignorance of the statement…Islam is not a race!

Honor-shame and Islamism:


In an honor culture such as I remember in Asia, it is legitimate, expected, even required to shed blood for the sake of honor, to save face, to redeem the dishonored face. Public criticism is an assault on the very “face” of the person criticized. Thus, people in such cultures are careful to be “polite”; but a genuinely free press is impossible, no matter what the laws proclaim.





Modernity, however, is based on a free public discussion, on civility rather than politeness, but the benefits of this public self-criticism – sharp learning curves, advances in science and technology, economic development, democracy – all make that pain worthwhile.




But such a system represents a crucible of humiliation for alpha males, especially those who believe that the social order depends on the honor of the ruling elite, like the anti-Dreyfusards around 1900, ready to sacrifice an innocent man for the honor of Army and Church.




This is particularly true for an Islamic religious culture. In Dar al Islam, a Muslim’s contradiction/criticism of Islam is punishable by death. Modernity has been a Nakba (psychological catastrophe) for Islam, and Islam in all its variegated currents has yet to successfully negotiate these demands of modernity, more importantly it never will.




The voices of contemporary and fundamental Islam reject vehemently the kind of self-criticism modernity requires. Criticism constitutes an unbearable assault on manhood and the basic ideology of Muslims.




Secularism demands more maturity, it requires that religions be civil, and that they not use force to impose their beliefs on others. Religious communities have to give up their need to be visibly superior as a sign of being right/true. This involves high levels of both self-confidence and tolerance for public contradiction.




For Islam this is an impossible challenge. For in Islam’s formative period, it dominated Dhimmah laws. Infidels were “protected” from violence and death at the hands of Muslims as long as they accepted a position of slavery and a visible humiliation, an inferior status. And among the key demands made on dhimmahs, was that they not challenge, criticize, or in any way “insult” Islam or Muslims.




Contemporary manifestations of so-called Islamic revival tend to handle the infidel poorly. The peril to contemporary Christians and Jews in Muslim majority nations is mirrored in the behavior of Muslims in the expanding European enclaves, those zones urbaines sensibles, or Sharia zones, where the state no longer governs.




Thus, Islam’s – Muslim – relationship with the (kaffaar, infidel,), is the great problem to resolve in this coming generation, and at the very core of that problem lies the impossible task of Muslims to tolerate criticism from outsiders. If it continues to be ignored as is has been, and not resolved at any cost, as it ultimately must be, it will result in the loss of Western culture completely.




We in the modern (and post-modern) West, who first forged these remarkable rules of self-restraint and created so rich, so variegated, so tolerant a culture, have a right to ‘demand’ that Islam adopt these rules, certainly those who live in and benefit from the civil polities we have created. Indeed, if we treasure these values of tolerance, and freedom, and generosity towards the “other,” we owe it to ourselves and to the Muslims in our midst, to make this demand. Anything else, including the fantasy that this is not a problem, is cultural suicide.




And yet, so far, we are doing very badly, mostly because we ignorantly avoid dealing with the problem. The “thin skin” of Muslims is proverbial, and much public, diplomatic, and even academic discourse tacitly acknowledges and placates that cultural reality. When Western positive-sum principles (we do everything we can to “get to yes,” win-win) meets Arab zero-sum principles (they can only win, if we lose), ‘we’… most often lose (Oslo “Peace” Process).




In the last decade this has gotten much worse. The behavior of the self-identified “progressive” “left” – traditionally the bastion of stinging public criticism of abuse of power, misogyny, and belligerence – has been overwhelmingly placatory towards touchy Muslims.

Repeatedly, as in the case of Pope Benedict, they step in to prevent anyone (fellow infidels), whom they smear as Islamophobes, from saying something that might bruise Muslims feelings. Indeed, they seem more worried about “us” provoking Muslim violence than about exploring the sources of Muslim violence. And often they attack those defending democratic principles with a shrill and contemptuous tone that they would never dream of using with Muslims.




THE BOTTOM LINE: This brings us full circle, back to the “disconnect of ignorance.” Our journalists, politicians, and academic talking heads are subject to a different kind of Islamophobia: an inordinate fear of criticizing Islam. And as a result they betray their own constituencies, culture, God, and country. Those of us committed to the rules of civil polities cannot defend a modern, tolerant, liberal political culture with such fearful ignorant people dominating the public sphere.

As in Western Europe where Middle Eastern culture is close to dominating the landscape, America is not far behind. While America still has a chance to save what is left of its freedom and Christian heritage without the shedding of blood in the streets, Europe has passed its point of no return if it wants to save its culture without civil war.

We might want to take a long look at fear and the ignorant misguided benevolence of Europe before it’s too late, as ‘if’ --- it is the future of America… because it is.

de Andréa

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