Posted on 07/13/2005 1:05:18 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Concerning the "paralysis of modern Muslims" in the face of Muslim extremist terror, which fellow TCSer Arnold Kling wrote on recently, I would suggest that a big reason for Muslim silence is, simply, terror.
Steven Schwartz in a recent TCS article points to a type of spiritual renewal and reinforcement of traditional Muslim principles sans the "bloody stain" cast upon them by the Islamic terrorists. But the state of fear in which many Muslims find themselves is a formidable barrier to such a transformation.
Americans and Britons have mainly shown anger and contempt for the Islamofascist terrorists. The Spanish? Well, their government proved a bit wobbly, but a lot of individual Spaniards were not intimidated and were indignant at their new government's swift knuckle-under to the murderous fanatics. The sad reality is that Muslims, who are bearing the brunt of the terror, are also the ones most disposed -- by a shared religious/cultural experience -- to be terrorized.
While it is true that fewer Muslims now openly cheer for the terrorists, many may still do so secretly, and many more appear to condone them with silence -- a silence born of fear.
It may have taken the Western public a while to really believe the blood vengeance of Islamic radicals against "infidels" and "apostates" (we couldn't quite bring ourselves to believe all that stuff about the fatwa that sent Salman Rushdie into hiding, for instance), but the Muslim faithful have known it all along.
They have reason to believe the threats of the terrorists are not idle. They have been exposed constantly in their communities and often in their schools to the blood-drenched rhetoric of jihadists. Having been too familiar with incidents like, say, the humiliation and harassment of those women who do not wear the veil, they have an uneasy sense that the sliding scale from mere humiliation of a teenage girl to histrionic decapitation of a young Iraqi policeman slides upward very quickly.
We are not talking, after all, about an Amish congregation "shunning" someone who has drifted from the faith, or a "good Catholic" girl being harassed at the dinner table for dating a protestant. We are talking death and destruction.
Many Muslim clerics are vociferous aiders and abettors of the terrorists. But many more, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, are compliantly silent lest they be killed. Just last Saturday, in Afghanistan's Paktia province, a cleric who had been supportive of the new Afghan government, was murdered in his home along with his wife by Taliban terrorists.
Recently I wrote about the power of hatred -- hatred of the West, hatred of the "crusaders," hatred of democracy or progress -- which spurs Osama bin Ladin and various others like his gangster ganymede Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That hatred holds real power because of the atmosphere of many Muslim communities -- an atmosphere of isolation from the world in which a subtle and not-so-subtle coercion to conformity is an everyday reality.
Monday's Wall Street Journal carried a report on how "political Islam" is preaching intolerance in France. Its message in the burgeoning Franco Muslim ghettoes:
"People who are different are held in contempt. Mingling with mainstream society is frowned upon. Society should be founded on one religion: Islam."
Imagine yourself as a decent, law-abiding Muslim citizen of Iraq. Do you dare speak out against the bombings or tip off the police or the American troops to the whereabouts of terrorists? Many have, bravely. But it seems that many more have "thought twice" and chosen not to risk death to themselves or their family.
And while Muslim clerics of any stature have been among the most mealy-mouthed or silent, they know that they are in a position very like front-line officers vis-à-vis snipers.
It is easy for us to call for greater courage on the part of moderate Muslims, but if we have not lived in the fear-drenched atmosphere in which many Muslims find themselves, we cannot understand how they may see their silence as a proper and even logical element of simple survival.
As Iranian expatriate and Islamic terrorism expert Amir Teheri wrote recently, these "ordinary" Muslims, whether devout, moderate or "nominal." are dealing with fanatics who "cannot be talked into reason through anger management or round-table discussions."
While moderate Muslims might like to simply be left alone to live their lives and interact with other humans, the fanatic, notes Teheri, wants "to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make around the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it is his divine duty to kill you."
Char
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Three or 4 anyway...
BTTT
No, I am not exaggerating. Click the pic, go to "last," and read backwards.
If you are not informed about this stuff, you will be made sick. If you are informed, you will be made mad, all over again.
There is some evidence that Islam is, from the beginning and in its essence, a religion of bullies, or of people who suck up to bullies, a type that will be familiar to most of us.
In the early days, one group of North Africans were converted to Islam because they were stupified and filled with admiration by the violence of the Muslim bullies who killed their friends.
Bin Ladin appealed to a similar idea when he said that when Muslims see a weak horse and a strong horse, they admire a strong horse.
The difference in the concept of martyrdom is also striking. A Christian martyr is someone who suffers and dies for the sake of God. A Muslim martyr is a man who dies in the process of killing as many people as possible, preferably women and children. It was noticeable that when a lot of young Pakistanis went to Afghanistan to be martyred, they were mocked and scorned because they died without managing to kill anyone in the process.
Yet another indication in support of this analysis is Muslim treatment of women and slaves. They are natural-born slavers, who take pleasure in tormenting the weak and helpless. Muslims don't have a monopoly on the abuse of women, but it seems to be built into their whole system of religion and culture.
In short, Islam is a religion made to order for those with a propensity to be cowardly bullies.
It simply means that their fear rules them, not their faith. But then it is fairly obvious that it takes a coward to blow up a bus full of children. This article just says that they are all cowards, there is nobody with the moral foundation in Islam to stand up for what is right.
It means that there is no moderate muslims, just tyrants and cowards.
Then replant the field with a different crop.
Then they are between a rock and a hard spot, because the war will come to them no matter how hard they try to stay away from it.
To be a muslim fence-sitter, in the hopes of staying out of the fray, is useless when Islam itself is the target.
Mr. Blair has stated that only 1% of British muslims are extreme. So 99% are terrified of 1%? Hardly.
This is pure unadulterated Irish BS. People know what is right and what is wrong. The Muslims in this country obviously have some cultural problem where this is concerned.
If there is any fear factor, it's because this religion silences their women from speaking out. There is no excuse for their men.
On the other hand regardless of our ethnicity we are Americans first and our heritage second. It sounds like Iraqi Muslims who were born in England have a greater allegiance to their religion than they do to their British citizenship.
I am unimpressed with the lame excuses this group of American citizens give to their fellow Americans. It did not take long in contrast, for Americans of Lebanese heritage to go into the streets to show their support for the Lebanese in their country.
I suggest asking your Muslim friends, neighbors and co-workers next time you see them, just what they have done or propose to do to help fight the war on terror. If they say nothing, then ask them WHY?
"In short, Islam is a religion made to order for those with a propensity to be cowardly bullies."
And like bullies, they continue to succeed because of the BYSTANDERS who do nothing (read liberals/MSM)
Bullies only change when you put up a fight, shame them, or call them on it. They are fueled by those who like to watch or are too afraid to say anything. Go America GO!
"I suggest asking your Muslim friends, neighbors and co-workers next time you see them, just what they have done or propose to do to help fight the war on terror. If they say nothing, then ask them WHY?"
Asking your co-workers could probably get you fired in many states.
"I suggest asking your Muslim friends, neighbors and co-workers next time you see them, just what they have done or propose to do to help fight the war on terror. If they say nothing, then ask them WHY?"
Asking your co-workers could probably get you fired in many states.
It's kind of like asking other FReepers why they don't fight against illegal aliens. That question got many people banned.
""non-violent muslims"??? Is that like a pro-abortion Catholic? How many of these could there be?"
Probably most of them, but the violent element is SO violent that they are pretty much lost in all calculations. If they stand up to the enemy within, they and worse yet, their families, may suffer horrible retribution.
In a situation like this, the only way I see to fix a broken society is militarization and BRUTAL suppression of all fanatic elements, sort of like what saddam did. The problem, of course, is when you have a saddam-strength government, you have a saddam-style brutal regime.
I often think the US is just biding its time until something really bad gets through the net and happens here and they use that as public justification for a far more pervasive campaign against muslim fanatics everywhere they matter to us.
Trouble is, this is more excuse-making. Muslims aren't silent because they hate us and want us dead, they're just silent because they're too cowardly and and weak to oppose the fanatics. That's _so_ reassuring.
"I suggest asking your Muslim friends, neighbors and co-workers next time you see them, just what they have done or propose to do to help fight the war on terror. If they say nothing, then ask them WHY?"
You're right don't ask them anything...
I think it's fair to say that the angry rhetoric among ordinarily peaceful people on this site is buiding against AMericans of the Muslim faith who are sitting back, saying and doing nothing when innocent people are being killed. Frankly too, we're all getting tired of the anti-Isreal mind set.
I don't know who said that, "A race has arrived when it can produce a few theives and scoundrols without the entire race taking the blame."
In this regard, the Muslims in this country have a long way to go to show other Americans that you are, as a race, law abiding and loyal to this country.
Unless there are some changes, I think you will see a growing number of Americans insisting on racial profiling.
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