A sobering piece on the future of the West from the Belfast Telegraph (thanks to Nicolei):
SEMSIYE ALLAK, a 35-year-old Turkish Kurd, was caught as she fled with her married lover, Hilal Acil, across the wilderness of south-east Turkey. Pregnant with Acil's child, she was held to have brought such shame upon her family that she must be punished.Sentence of death had been duly agreed at a family council meeting. Her family caught up with the pair outside the town of Mardin, near the Iraqi frontier, and attacked them with stones and knives.
Acil was killed quickly. Semsiye, rendered unconscious with a fractured skull, got to hospital. There, she took more than six months to die.
One day last June she was buried in a pauper's grave at Diyarbakira, a long way from her home, attended only by the cemetery workers and a couple of women campaigners seeking an end to the barbarity which had cost her her life.
There are two important facets to this tragic story which interlock.
The first is that Semsiye's family are Muslims. They were indulging in an "honour" killing, necessary to avenge the dishonour she had brought upon them by consorting with a married man. The second is that all this happened in Turkey, a candidate country knocking on the door in Brussels, seeking entry to the European Union.
Suddenly, in the wake of Madrid, what at first seems remote from northern Europe becomes very immediate.
There are now some two million Muslims living in the United Kingdom. Birmingham alone has 70 mosques. By no means all of them would countenance Sharia law, the Islamic code which prescribes stoning to death as the punishment for adultery.
But it has its devotees within the UK. Members declare open support for Osama bin Laden. Associates run secret week-end training camps round London and Birmingham. There youths practise the martial arts, learn first aid and are later sent abroad for military training. Some of the Twin Towers' hijackers trained in Britain.
The problem faced by European governments like our own is that, however peaceful all but a few of their Muslims may be, the philosophy of Islam is not to identify with the culture of the particular nation state within which its people have settled.
Northern Ireland, of all places, knows how high the price can be when the notion of nationhood is either denied or disputed.
It is from the nation that there flows the vital social cement which creates a community; and it is from the community that common ideals grow; from common citizenship derives the shared allegiance which can override ancient tribal loyalties.
Yes, we are getting near the knuckle here; for this is the crucial weak point of the Belfast Agreement. There has been no shared allegiance; and without it no government will survive for long.
Common allegiance is becoming a source of concern for the nation states of Europe for two reasons. One is that man has never before been so mobile. Whole communities are on the move. The second reason is that three refugees in every four are Muslims.
Ask a Muslim in Britain whether it is more important for him to be Muslim or to be British. Eight out of ten will choose their religion. This presages problems. Religions are not democratic. They have absolute rules.
These rules can conflict with the mix of rights and responsibilities which are the lot of a citizen in a democracy. The Sharia code is an extreme example. It is Muslim Turkey's mixed rights record that is slowing its bid to gain admission to the EU.
Christianity has come to terms with democracy by compromising on its absolute rules. They are not forcibly applied. People are free to choose. But Islam is still the sort of religion Christianity used to be: confident that it possesses a monopoly of truth and bent on extending allegiance to that truth worldwide, sometimes with limited scruple about the means.
In Britain, fundamentalist Muslims' preference for not integrating in the culture of their chosen state bodes ill for the future. It sets the scene for racial friction.
Dr Kalim Saddiqui, a political spokesman for British Muslims, advocates that Muslim employers actively discriminate in favour of their own people.
"A proselytising religion cannot stand still," he said. "It can either expand or contract. Islam hopes that one day the whole of humanity will be one Muslim community."
Many British Muslims will resent this militancy because they know it spells nothing but trouble in the long term.
They know also that the easy-going British, now mostly lying loosely to their Christian heritage, but inured to a culture based on justice, democracy, freedom and toleration, may be obliged eventually to confront another which embraces the burning of books, passes the death sentence on a man with unorthodox views and, in extremis, would permit young women to be stoned to death.
"A proselytising religion cannot stand still," he said. "It can either expand or contract. Islam hopes that one day the whole of humanity will be one Muslim community."
Many British Muslims will resent this militancy because they know it spells nothing but trouble in the long term.
They know also that the easy-going British, now mostly lying loosely to their Christian heritage, but inured to a culture based on justice, democracy, freedom and toleration, may be obliged eventually to confront another which embraces the burning of books, passes the death sentence on a man with unorthodox views and, in extremis, would permit young women to be stoned to death.
This is the crux of the matter. The unrelenting march toward the return of the Caliphate and dhimmitude and misery for the rest of us is the fruit that is born for inviting this totalitarian religion to live with us in "peace."
"Christianity has come to terms with democracy by compromising on its absolute rules."
Yes, yes, sad but true. Wishing to keep the positive aspects of morality found in christianity, but refusing the obligation of this faith, western culture has become a post-christian society. Hence, it's hard for the western mind to even comprehend what drives the followers of Islam. The results are temples of worship to Baal and Molach found in the places that Tyndale, Owens and Whitfield once preached repentance. How can the western culture battle a belief system when they themselves have none to offer? They cannot. Sure, it's possible to kill a terrorist or imprison him, but for every one captured twenty stand up to take his place. When a person enters a footrace, it's always best to have at least two working legs! All western culture has to offer is material comfortability with the liberty, freedom and opportunity to obtain more of the same. This then is equated with satisfaction and happiness. Yet, when a follower of any belief system considers this as mere vanity, then the battlefield has shifted.
Quote from the article above:Ask a Muslim in Britain whether it is more important for him to be Muslim or to be British. Eight out of ten will choose their religion. This presages problems. Religions are not democratic. They have absolute rules.
This is the very reason why muslims should not be allowed to serve in the military of any Western nation. If you look at the incidents of possible espionnage, shootings, etc. related to the Iraq war - the majority of these candidates are muslims - be they converts (reverted) or from birth.
A muslim will stand up for Islam but not for the country in which he resides unless it is a Islamic one.
Has there been any muslim/islamic organization - in the West or otherwise - which has actually truly apologized for THOSE who attacked the US 9/11 and MAdrid 3/11? the best I have ever heard is that "we are sorry that people were killed" or "we are sorry that it happened this way this time". The "evil doers" are never criticized!
Democracy and freedom are foreign concepts to Islam.
jihan
The writer betrays the very reason why secular countries will lose to jihadists, without ever realizing it. The Islamofascists come to conquer, not to join, and all Western countries that roll over are merely useful idiots to them.
Only a secular (read: "Free to think") nation, where reason cannot be suppressed by government-compelled beliefs, can win.
Only in a secular nation can there be rational opposition to irrational systems such as Islam.
Only a secular nation is an arena where competition in the realm of ideas is possible.
Only a secular nation is capable of a rational document which protects the freedom of each individual to think and act, provided he does so without violating the rights of his fellows.
Only a secular nation protects your right to believe anything you wish, yet prevents the guy next door who hates everything you are from forcing you to believe differently.
Religion is not the source of ethics--philosophy, a secular discipline is--but religion has incorporated ethics into its structure, and is thus the only exposure most people have to this very important branch of philosophy.
For all of you who do not want a secular nation, be careful what you wish for.
Christians still are confident that Christ is the Way, the Truth, & the Life. But they also know that belief cannot be compelled, to do so is an outrage against God's gift to all of freedom. This truth was always available in Christianity even if it took a while for people to truly understand it. Contrast this with Islam, whose holy book states, about unbelievers, "Kill them wherever you find them".
I disagree with the person who writes it is only a secular state that can save us. I think that the ONLY thing that can defeat Islam is a reinvigorated Christianity.
I DONT AGREE THAT ISLAM WANTS WAR BECAUSE ISLAM FORBIDS KILLING PEOPLE
Kamil,
What then would you propose to do about the many Muslims who read the Qur'an, particularly Suras 9:5 and 9:29, and conclude that killing people is exactly what their religion wants them to do?