Posted on 09/14/2001 8:00:14 AM PDT by vrwc54
THAT the assault on New York's highest buildings and the American military headquarters appears to have been organised by Osama bin Laden and carried out exclusively by Muslims has large implications for the way Muslim populations living in all Western countries will be seen in the future.Knowing a bit of background helps to explain what brought us to this situation. Bin Laden's men are not just Muslims but also Islamists. Islam (a religion) is not the problem, but Islamism (a totalitarian ideology) is. Islamism is not so much a distortion of Islam, but a radically new interpretation. It politicises the religion, turning it into a blueprint for establishing a coerced utopia. In many ways, its programme resembles those of fascism and Marxism/Leninism.
This week's events mark not the outbreak of a new problem but the heightening of a two-decade-long pattern of Islamist violence. That violence is a truly global phenomenon, affecting such varied countries as Algeria, Pakistan, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Philippines. Islamists constitute a small but significant minority of Muslims, perhaps 10 to 15 per cent of the population. Many of them are peaceable in appearance, but they all must be considered potential killers.
Here is some guidance, starting with steps to take to protect the rights of the Muslim minority:
Maintain the utmost respect for individual Muslims, mosques and other institutions. A time of crisis does not change the assumption that each of us is innocent until proved guilty.
Do not make any prejudicial statements against Muslims, a great majority of whom are innocent of Islamism or illegal behaviour.
Provide extra protection against acts of vandalism or hooliganism against Muslim property and individuals.
The press, politicians and other opinion leaders should speak out on these points.
So much for the easy steps. The harder ones concern the investigation of past crimes and their prevention in the future. The painful fact is that Muslims alone are susceptible to the lure of Islamist extremism. While safeguarding the civil rights and religious freedoms of Muslims, then, steps must be taken to diminish their unique susceptibility to this totalitarian ideology. Here are some recommendations:
Crack down hard on the Islamic institutions that funnel Muslim youth into jihad (sacred war) activities. This is a particularly British problem. For about a decade, these youths have signed on for such acceptable foreign activities as studying at Islamic seminaries or working for Islamic charities, which have then served as recruiting devices for jihad against non-Muslims in such places as Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir. These men clearly serve as potential cadres for attacks within Britain, perhaps elsewhere.
Worry about Islamist "sleepers". These individuals go quietly about their business until one day they are called into action. Ali A Mohamed, a naturalised US citizen born in Egypt, reached the rank of sergeant in the US army; earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to scouting out the American embassy in Nairobi as a bombing target on behalf of bin Laden, as well as assorted other tasks.
Combat the broader climate of hatred and extremism among Muslim populations resident in the West that has repeatedly lead to terrorism. Rashid Baz, the Lebanese-born delivery driver who randomly killed a Hasidic Jewish boy on the Brooklyn Bridge in March 1994, one report found, "lived in a milieu that cultivated terrorism" and "encouraged him to perpetrate violence".
Listen to the advice of anti-Islamist Muslims, the people first threatened by Islamism, who know it from closest proximity, and who can help penetrate its clandestine hierarchies.
Close internet sites that promote violence, raise money for this purpose and recruit new members. The American government took a first step in this direction last week by closing down InfoCom, a Dallas-based host for many Islamist organisations.
Guard vigilantly against the possibility of visitors and immigrants with Islamist records entering the country. No Western government has dared do this because it smacks of bias (the British ban on Louis Farrakhan was a temporary exception). But each Islamist who enters is an enemy on the home front.
Beef up aircraft profiling - the practice of looking at passengers' ethnic and religious characteristics. This has been controversial in the US, where lobbies have impeded law enforcement officials from using their common sense to keep an especially watchful eye for Islamists because, allegedly, this "unfairly singles out" minorities. The consequences of not profiling became painfully obvious on Tuesday, when between 12 and 24 Islamists hijacked four separate flights.
Isolate noisy and prominent Islamist organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Human Rights Council. These are in fact fringe organisations and they should be avoided by politicians, the media, corporations and all the rest of mainstream society.
Reconsider past mistakes. Universities, media outlets, churches and government bureaus have some hard soul-searching to do; their experts on Islam and Muslims have an influential group of apologists (one recent example is the BBC with its week-long BBC programming on Islam). They have counselled against every one of the steps outlined here. These specialists bear some responsibility for the unpreparedness that led to this week's disaster. They and their institutions must review past mistakes and begin with a fresh, realistic approach.
The goal in formulating policy toward domestic Muslim populations must be two-fold: to combine fairness toward their moderate majority with a very tough stance toward the Islamists. This balance requires sensitivity but not political correctness - a match that can be achieved if done honestly and intelligently.
The author is director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, columnist for the Jerusalem Post and author of Conspiracy (Free Press)
If this were done, which I fully support, I assume it wouldn't be that difficult for Middle Eastern terrorists to radically disguise their appearance.
I didn't have a picture to post... :(
Unless you are Palestinian Muslim, then we call for your obliteration!
And please, spare me the photos of those FEW dancing in the street, they in no way represent the views of the Palestinian people as a whole.
Not to mention the fact that the pictures were of them rallying to support their Jenin brotheren, not to rejoice over our tragedy as Israel and the zionist posters on this board would want everyone to believe.
Palestinian's supported suicide attacks against USA in Nov. 2000 poll and
PA seizes tapes of demonstrators waiving photos of Bin Laden
If you were willing to die for your cause, you would be willing to undergo plastic surgery. Add a little hair dye...
Why don't you practice what you preach and stop calling all one FR "swine".
Not Right!
Why don't you take your disapproval and voice it towards those who are rabid in their calling for genocide against the Palestinian people?
You may believe that, but the reality is the a great number, maybe a minority, but still great numbers danced in the streets. Since even the PA admits this, you are just a liar.
You are the swine of FR, and you know it. Since you don't like it, leave.
Whine, whine, whine...Since this article and no one on this thread is guilty of Judge Objet's reprimand, why are you spreading YOUR hatred towards FR posters on this thread?
Comming from you, I will embrace this as the compliment it is..
http://www.pakistanlink.com/religion.html
Hope the Secret Service frisked him good.
Because you say so? Well, that makes me feel a whole lot better.
Not to mention the fact that the pictures were of them rallying to support their Jenin brotheren, not to rejoice over our tragedy as Israel and the zionist posters on this board would want everyone to believe.
Right. And the Holocaust never happened.
We are now shifting from peacetime rules to wartime rules, and the battlefield is HERE. So please spare me everyone your bleatings about the poor arab moslems' civil liberties, this is WAR.
Many of them are not even citizens, but have merely snuck into our free and open society, and bear us only hatred. The fine and loyal arab moslems Americans must now help to ROOT THEM OUT.
Am I being unfair? I don't think so: this is now WAR on "Battlefield USA". We must fight to win.
Let me point out to any who have missed these facts:
/1/ Before the first WTC bombing, mosques and "cultural centers" in NYC were used as safehouses, agent meeting places, and dead drops. This is a fact, look it up. Prior to this state of war, our FBI was hamstrung by the ACLU and CAIR etc and were unable to properly monitor these nests of vipers in NYC, and we saw the (thank God it did not fully succeed) results. Now we are moving to WARTIME rules of engagement, and mosques and "cultural centers" must not be permitted to give unquestioned sanctuary to terrorists and their support agents. Good loyal patriotic arab moslem Americans can and must root them out swiftly. If they fail to do this, their loyalties must be suspected. Too bad, it's WAR.
/2/ After the 9-11 outrage, some, not many, arab moslem ILLEGAL ALIENS have been seen celebrating, several have been arrested by the FBI. Some were across the Hudson with video cameras on tripods, ready to record the evil deeds, then cheering when the buildings were struck. There was obviously advance notice among SOME arab moslems inside of the USA, none of them with advance knowledge tipped off the attack to the authorities. Tuesday Somalis and others celebrated the attacks loudly at Seattle ethnic restourants.
It is now time for all good loyal patriotic arab moslem Americans to do their duty, and report their suspicions or knowledge to the FBI, so that they may begin investigating possible terrorists or terrorist support agents ASAP. If they fail to do this DUTY, then shame on them, and do not expect to win sympathy with crocodile tears later on.
AND CHOOSE WHICH SIDE YOU WILL BE ON!
They, the musli shills, are incapable of shame. They, like those that flew the planes into the WTC, believe that they are serving a greater truth which transcends what we call shame. They trot out the 'innocent' as a shield for the slime that hides behind them. They speak the words that those, that have never seen the face of their evil, want to believe. The word 'innocents' evokes images of puppies, kittens, and soft fuzzy things. The facade of the killers.
Listen to their words....oppression, innocents, occupiers...the words of the leftists, the sympathizers of the 'liberation movements' that act as though they have license to kill indiscriminately in the name of their cause.
They will always be a 'worthy' cause in their eyes that justifies this barbaric behavior. The word 'shame' will never be in their vocabularies.
So what? A roving camera could have picked out similar scenes throughout Europe, from Russia, to China, to Yugoslavia to Iraq, to Afghanistan and every other country we've lobbed a bomb or cruise missile at.
We need to not blame the religion for the gross misinterpretations of a few evil men. As a friend of mine put it: we didn't blame the Lutherans for Hitler, we didn't blame the Buddhists for Tojo, we didn't blame the Christians for McVeigh, we shouldn't blame the Muslims for Bin Laden.
This is his history, he was given immunity from procecution for his testimony against those involved in the embassy bombings, he was somehow involved in buying a personal jet for Ben Ladin, he is up to his neck in terrorism, yet they let him move right in here among us a mile from my house.
The vile corruption of both parties in their joint conspiracy to import the votes of the enemies of our nation, their total disregard and disdain for America and it's former culture, holding it's worth as nothing, is a traitorous scandal that they should not be allowed now to hide under pious phoney, pull of the shelf and dust off when needed, patriotism.
When the congress sang "God bless America" their tongues should have fallen instantly out of their mouths. We should not allow them to, in future, satisfy us with half measure immigration policies that holds our culture, sovereignty and borders in contempt. We have been brow beaten into believing that every culture, any culture, is better than ours, or on a par with ours. We have certainly seen first hand that this is not true. We should never again allow them to make patriotism a bad word and an emotion to be ashamed of.
I'm so glad to hear this. Maybe you will leave FR forever and we will no longer have to listen to your rabid hatred towards Jews and other supporters of the only democracy in the Middle East. But I know you haven't given up on the murderous scum-b@g Arabs you love so much. Hopefully, you will join them in getting their just rewards.
Please tell me what other country was celebrating the attack on civilians other than the PA and Iraq?
Put up or shut up.
You are the one generalizing about Freepers. Follow your own teachings.
If I am wrong, then these Muslims should stand up when Jews are threatened and protest, not just when the threat is against them. As an example, the local leader of the ADL has denounced indescriminate violence against Muslims. I don't like the ADL and I'm not fond of this particular individual. Was it the "right" thing to do? Frankly, I'm not sure.
"Islam (a religion) is not the problem, but Islamism (a totalitarian ideology) is."
A distinction without a difference. Here's what the Koran says:
[9.29] Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day...until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
Fight and slay the pagans [i.e. infidels] wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war.
—The Koran, Sura 9:5
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