Bruce Thorton makes numerous important observations about the dhimmis in the Administration and some revealing behavior on the part of "moderate Muslims" in Private Papers (thanks to Andrew Bostom):
As stalwart as the Bush administration has been in the current conflict with Islamic jihadists, judging from the op-ed in last Saturday's New York Times by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend, it still entertains dangerous illusions about the enemy we are facing.Hadley and Townsend reprise the narrative the administration has used all along in making sense of our adversary. Those wishing to destroy us are enemies of freedom who espouse a totalitarian ideology akin to fascism and communism. As such, they are driven by a diseased passion for domination that will brook no dissent nor allow for ideals such as tolerance and human rights. And they gain traction from “conditions of despair and feelings of resentment where freedom is denied.” Thus America must promote democratic freedom and prosperity to remove those conditions, for “people everywhere prefer freedom to slavery and will embrace it whenever they can, because freedom is the wish of every human being.” Finally, since these terrorists are enemies of Islam as well, we must support those Muslims who “are speaking the truth about their proud religion and history, and seizing it back from those who would hijack it for evil ends.”
The key to this mistaken interpretation is the short shrift given to the power of spiritual needs — an omission surprising given how religious the media keeps telling us this administration is. That ignoring of spiritual reality is what makes the analogy with fascism and communism false. Both of those ideologies were anti-Christian: fascism was a species of debased Romantic neo-paganism, and communism was blatantly atheist. As such, both ran counter to the powerful Judeo-Christian forces that shaped European and Russian civilization, and so could not satisfy for long the spiritual yearnings of the people, yearnings denied their traditional expressions. Thus these ideologies were doomed because they denied not just political freedom, but the powerful human need for religious expression and spiritual experience.
The jihadist enemy, on the other hand, is operating on principles and values squarely in the tradition of Islam, and thus unlike fascism and communism is expressing a spiritual need and an orthodox religious mandate: to fulfill by force the will of Allah that all the world be subject to Islam and an Islamic state, the caliphate, ruled by sharia, Islamic religious law. Those conquered infidels who refuse to convert are reduced to dhimmi, subordinated and humiliated peoples whose restricted rights, diminished lives, and circumscribed behavior testify to the superiority of their Muslim overlords and their divine right to oppress the infidel and exploit him economically. This dynamic of jihad and dhimmitude has been extensively documented by Bat Ye'or and other scholars, and is apparent on every page of Islamic jurisprudence, theology, and history from the eighth century to today....
In fact, the obsession with the Palestinians is the smoking gun that reveals the jihadist sentiments of double-talking “moderates.” Consider how many British Muslims, supposedly opposed to homicide bombings, praised Hamas founder Sheikh Yassim, who engineered the murder of over 500 Israelis in furtherance of his organization's long-term goal to destroy Israel. After the Israeli Defense Forces killed him, a memorial service was held in London, an event attended by “moderates” like Muslim Council Secretary General Sir Iqbal Sacranie, who called Yassim a “renowned Islamic scholar,” an estimation shared by Inayat Bunglawla. Think about the implications: respected, Westernized “moderate” Muslims praise a terrorist murderer as an “Islamic scholar,” and we are supposed to believe that “fanatics” have “hijacked” and “distorted” Islam?...
Read it all.
Muslim “moderates” are true to spirit of Islam
Yes, and they're also invisible.
Did anyone else see O'Reilly tonight? He believes that islam has been "hijacked". I thought he was smarter than that. I noticed that Franklin Graham didn't respond to that tripe. When are they going to get it? Just read the qur'an before you talk about "hijacking".
Was it Hadley or Townsend who came up with the illuminating quote:
"["moderate Muslims"]...are speaking the truth about their proud religion and history, and are seizing it back from those who would hijack it for evil ends."?
Is the conquest of North Africa and destruction of all non-Muslim peoples (Berbers, et al) and ancient Christian and pagan communities a part of that "proud history"? Or the conquest and subjugation of Spain? Or the Imperialistic Islamic attempt to sweep through Europe and turn it into a vassal kingdom?
Or maybe it was the the Eastern jihad they meant, with its massacre of Buddhists, Hindus and everyone else considered an "infidel" in the way of the Mohammedan juggernaut- killing and "converting" their way through Afghanistan, India, Malaysia, and all the way to the southern Phillipines?
Is that what makes them so proud of their religion? ("Paradise under the shadow of swords"?)
I'm sure the Nazis (and the mostly-agreeable German populace) were pleased as punch and proud as pestilential peacocks in 1942, Hitler's Year of Triumph, after the Third Reich's army and air force had won virtually every battle (except the Battle of Britain) in their blitzkreig plunge across Europe, over to North Africa, and deep into Russia.
But a hard-learned sense human decency now keeps their descendants from reveling in it. As the current Japanese are no longer proud of the Rape of Nanking or the bestial Battan Death March.
But Islam is still unrepentant for its global theo-tyrannical crimes, its absolutist arrogance, its jihadist genocides, and its millenium of callous obiteration of cultures, their cities, their temples, their churches, and their untold artistic and scientific treasures.
And the Bush administration's mouthpiece flunkies are still congratulating them, in a show of world-historical Pop Ignorance, for this shameful scorched-earth Islamic past?
And this "proud" creed of Intolerance made God?
All-ah bunch of idiots.
Islam and double speak is classic warfare.
If you look at vietnam while the north vietnamese were torturing our soldiers the Leftist, working with the communists and hollywood painted communism as the ultimate mecca.
Never mind that after we left over 2 million south vietnamese were slaughtered.
Now here we are again but the stakes are a LOT higher.
Now its who gets to wipe out 4 million americans first..
and Still hollywood and the leftists are bending over hoping for some loving from their new Muslim masters. By claiming that Islam is the religion of peace and all is well..
Dont mind that middle eastern man inserting a key into a russian made nuke..
Idiots...
Did anyone else see O'Reilly tonight? He believes that islam has been "hijacked". I thought he was smarter than that. I noticed that Franklin Graham didn't respond to that tripe. When are they going to get it? Just read the qur'an before you talk about "hijacking".
Posted by: Carolyn2 at July 28, 2005 09:50 PM
I saw it Carolyn, and I sent him an email. I asked him to please do me a favor and stop chanting the hackneyed, erroneous mantra that "Islam has been hijacked." I mentioned a few of Islam's most poignant traditions, and implored him to stop "spinning" Islam. Maybe that will get his attention. He has softened his stance on Islam, don't you think?
It's almost impossible to tell if the pundits are clueless or apologists. But considering O'Reilly's ego, I don't think he would risk being embarrassed by making strong assertions he knows are false. I was very disappointed in him; he usually knows what he's talking about. He hardly let Franklin Graham say anything and Franklin Graham has publically said that Islam is evil; I heard him say it!
That Op/Ed was a disgrace. It was signed by Hadley and Townsend; who wrote its commencement-speech banalities, and that sentence about the Muslims "speaking the truth about their proud religion and history, and seizing it back from those who would hijack it for evil ends" simply breathtakingly idiotic. Perhaps the ghostwriter was himself a "good Muslim" of the Lt. Aboul-Enein kind (a "Health Services" naval officer, who grew up in Mississippi, and while he knows almost nothing about Islam, was born into it and has been entrusted, it seems, withthe task of explaining this "proud religion and its history" to people in the Pentagon, and has even written a study rich in misstatement and apologetics, put out by the Army War College, and circulated, apparently, among assorted officers and men -- a disgrace, in every sense, that the Pentagon allows such outrages to occur, even may have comissioned them. There is no end to the bland assurance with which people at the top -- some of them unable to take the time to read or study at all, on their own, and helplessly dependent on those 1-2 page summaries prepared by officious and anxious-to-please junior aides. It is a nightmare. And the piece signed by Hadley and Townsend that appeared on the Op/Ed page of The New Duranty Times a few days ago, and the one that appeared yesterday, equally appalling, essentially calling for a new "strategic partnership" with our old "friend" Saudi Arabia, one that would work with and through the new ambassador, Prince Turki, by Flynt Leverett, described as "former senior director for Middle Eastern affairs at the National Security Council," gives one pause, as one considers these examples, and that of course of that complete simpleton Scheur (a/k/a "Anonymous") whose blend of old-fashioned Zionist conspiracy ideas, and his complete miscomprehension of Islam, made him exactly the wrong man for the job of heading the "Bin Laden desk" at the C.I.A. He should have been fired, or possibly assigned to tracking the narcotics trade in Bolivia, but should have been kept well away from anything to do with Islam, which he not only does not understand, but because of his other exhibited mental pathologies, is unlikely to bring himself to understand, either Islam's tenets or its malevolent and violent history.
Double speak is a Muslim standard operating procedure. They deceive non-muslims like they are talking to naive children.
Muzammil Siddiqui in action:
Well-known and respected religious scholar, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqui, seemed to capture the mood and spirit of the multi-faith assembly of the evening with an edifying remark:
"The beauty of America is not in its highways, wealth, supermarkets but in the diversity of its people of different colors, faiths and backgrounds who live in harmony. Let's keep it that way by rejecting those who preach intolerance and hatred."
But on another occasion:
"Since we love all people, we hate their disobedience of Allah, the Most High. So, even when people deny the existence of Allah we do not hate them personally; however, we hate their disbelief and disobedience of Allah, Exalted be He. This case is very similar to that of a doctor and a patient. The doctor does not hate the patient or the sick person himself or herself, rather he or she hates the disease and tries every possible means to cure the disease and help the patient to recover."
Note that "curing the disease and helping the patient to recover" translates to demolishing non-muslim cultures and making everyone submit to Islam.
Double speak is a Muslim standard operating procedure. They deceive non-muslims like they are talking to naive children.
Muzammil Siddiqui in action:
Well-known and respected religious scholar, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqui, seemed to capture the mood and spirit of the multi-faith assembly of the evening with an edifying remark:
"The beauty of America is not in its highways, wealth, supermarkets but in the diversity of its people of different colors, faiths and backgrounds who live in harmony. Let's keep it that way by rejecting those who preach intolerance and hatred."
But on another occasion:
"Since we love all people, we hate their disobedience of Allah, the Most High. So, even when people deny the existence of Allah we do not hate them personally; however, we hate their disbelief and disobedience of Allah, Exalted be He. This case is very similar to that of a doctor and a patient. The doctor does not hate the patient or the sick person himself or herself, rather he or she hates the disease and tries every possible means to cure the disease and help the patient to recover."
Note that "curing the disease and helping the patient to recover" translates to demolishing non-muslim cultures and making everyone submit to Islam.
Susanp, I hear that 50% of FNC is owned by a Saudi prince, that could explain why the change in O'Reilly.
All of you concerned about Jihad ideology and jihad conquest should download this and post it to everyone you know:
Here is a statement from the Ayatollah Khomeini. Do you think that this statement, from a leading Shi’a theologian, misstates Islamic theology, and is simply one man’s view, or do you think that it correctly expresses a view that can be easily derived from a reading of Qur’an and the hadith contained, for example, in the “sahih” collections of Bukhari and Muslim?
“Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled and incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of [other] countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world.
But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world….Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them [the non-Muslims], put them to the sword and scatter [their armies[. Does this mean sitting back until [non-Muslims] overcome us? Islam says: Kill in the service of Allah those who may want to kill you! Does this mean that we sould surrender to the enemy? Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Koranic] verses and Hadiths [sayings of the Porphet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”