Andrew Bostom reviews Diana West's superb new book in The Washington Times.
...The author's witty, evocative phrasemaking — "hair-trigger moderate [Muslims]," "mash of civilizations," "far from realpolitik, this is dreampolitik," "in denial there is defeat" — elucidates an infantilized American (and Western) culture, further immobilized by the pervasive fanaticism of the new "secular religion" of multiculturalism, to the point where it appears incapable of identifying, let alone adequately defending against, the resurgence of jihadist Islam.Accurately portraying the central, uniquely Islamic institutions of jihad, and its corollary, dhimmitude, the author eschews the dominant, politically correct but ahistorical characterizations.
Jihad — as sanctioned by Islam's core texts, the Koran, hadith and sira, and actualized by the Muslim prophet Muhammad himself — is the eternal, aggressive quest for totalitarian Islamic hegemony, i.e., the imposition of Islamic law, over the entire world, including via terrorism and genocide. Dhimmitude is the permanent state of legal, social and psychological inferiority imposed, coercively or by threat of force (i.e., resumption of the jihad), upon the non-Muslim survivors vanquished by jihad war, and neither converted to Islam nor enslaved.
Julien Benda, in his 1928 classic "La Trahison de Clercs," decried with prophetic accuracy how the abandonment of objective truths abetted totalitarian ideologies, which led to the cataclysmic destruction of World War II. The author identifies the "Trahison de Clercs" of our time: The complete failure of Western intellectuals to acknowledge the heinous consequences of the living Islamic institutions of jihad war and dhimmitude.
Might Diana West's pellucid analyses help awaken Western elites to the existential threat they pose? One hopes these elites follow the admonition to rediscover and reclaim our shamefully derided Western cultural patrimony of "dead white males," including icons such as Britain's Winston Churchill and America's John Quincy Adams and Theodore Roosevelt, whose uncompromised wisdom on Islam is so desperately needed if our civilization is to survive.
TR, for example, wrote these words in 1916, presaging this book's advice: "The civilization of Europe, America, and Australia exists today at all only because of the victories of civilized man over the enemies of civilization... [including] those of Charles Martel in the 8th century [over Arab jihadists] and those of John Sobieski in the 17th century [over Ottoman Turkish jihadists]. During the thousand years that included the careers of the Frankish soldier [Martel] and the Polish king [Sobieski], the Christians of Asia and Africa proved unable to wage successful war with the Moslem conquerors; and in consequence Christianity practically vanished from the two continents; and today nobody can find in them any 'social values' whatever, in the sense in which we use the words, so far as the sphere of Mohammedan influence [is]... concerned."
Can the West engage in voluntary survival?
I call it multiculti-terrorism.
Multiculti-terror, if we allow it to continue the way we do now, will result in a mono-cult(-ure) with the sharia the law of the land.
An intriguing, short book to add as a footnote to Diane West's work is "The Last Crusader: the Untold Story of Christopher Columbus" by G. Grant. (Anti-p.c. and refreshing.)
I've been recommending Julian Benda's "The Treason of the Intellectuals" for years, and asking:
Why do those who oppose the historical "evils" of the West always fail to oppose the greater, more dangerous and current evils of the marching, militant, intolerant Islamic theocratic tyranny?
Could it be these great "speaking truth to power" types are simply terrified into craven silence by the latter?
The quotation from Theodore Roosevelt should be added to those of others - Wesley, John Quincy Adams, Tocqueville, Churchill -- who lived at a time when not Islam, but the ability of non-Muslims in the Western worlds to grasp the nature of, and speak forthrightly about, Islam, was quite different.
The quotation from Theodore Roosevelt should be added to those of others - Wesley, John Quincy Adams, Tocqueville, Churchill -- who lived at a time when not Islam, but the ability of non-Muslims in the Western worlds to grasp the nature of, and speak forthrightly about, Islam, was quite different.
Their is no depth of denial the western political class with not dive for to avoid being labeled anti Islamic.
Their is no point in trying to educate them .
Best possible scenario is they are taken by a mushroom cloud and we get to rebuild the country from scratch.
The quotation from Theodore Roosevelt should be added to those of others - Wesley, John Quincy Adams, Tocqueville, Churchill -- who lived at a time when not Islam, but the ability of non-Muslims in the Western worlds to grasp the nature of, and speak forthrightly about, Islam, was quite different.
Posted by: Hugh
Done and done!
Wonderful. The book one has to read. Thank you Robert.
Just picked this up. It is AWESOME (oops my baby boomer immaturity is showing). Books is painful because I see a lot of me in it.
Interestingly, infantilization of the Judeo-Christian civilization is discussed quite a bit in the last years. Just try to analyze our TV, magazine and newspaper advertisement. A lot of it is directed to the child/teenager psyche even for products that have no significant child/teenager consumer base. Similar childish lack of responsibility is observed in politics - both from politicians who enact regulations completely outside, and often opposite to their pre-election platforms (and therefore unauthorised by the voters); and from voters, who always completely fail in demanding any personal responsibility from elected officials. Elections in both - the West and formerly communist East are advertising campaigns for a period of "not-accountable-before-anybody" for the lected officials. More than that, non-elected administrators are delegated political power which simply should not be in their hands. Results are obvious for all of us. Sadly, it will probably take a large scale catastrophy for the democracy to be restored. The later this takes place, the more immoral, and outrigh brutal measures will be needed to restore the survivability of our civilization.
Greetings:
One of the prevailing cultural currents in the last generation of America's history is the loss of the ability to maintain almost any kind of standard of behavior, something that used to be considered a sign of a "grown-up."
In the world of academia, there are the falling standards of performance, grade creep with its corrollary of preference for subjective versus objective testing, and social promotion. In my area of residence, there has been a five-year court battle over a state high school exit exam that requires students to demonstrate the ability to do eighth-grad mathematics and tenth-grade English.
In the legal world, there are the concommittant "defining deviancy downward" programs. Where their used to be misdemeanors and felonies, there have arisen "minor felonies" and misdemeanors seem to have no more significance than traffic infractions. Drug infractions, other than "medical" marijuana, are now nothing more than opportunities for treatment.
Even the local evening news on television has degenerated from the staid performance of Walter Cronkite, et al., to a "poke and giggle" show with about seven minutes of news out of 30 minutes of airtime.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
Trahison "des clercs."
Oh hered we go again... the 'poverty' in the islamic world line on n.onsensical p.alestinian r.adio..
and the 'moderate' moslem they have on is saying that jihad OUR fault because the West 'humiliates' islam.
What a CROCK!!
We 'humiliate' islam by NOT submitting to this Satan called the KKKoran.
We 'humiliate' them because we are Mozart [the Western World] compared to Salieri [the moslem world].
THAT is also one reason they hit the World Trade Center. We have the highest towers. Oooohh... how humiliating... OUR towers of Commerce are HIGHER than ANY minaret could EVER be!!
Stick THAT in yer pipe and smoke it, mahomet.. er I meant Satan!
Not only should we take notice of what the likes of Winston Churchill, John Quincy Adams, John Wesley etc said or wrote, but we should also pay attention to these quotes from Ayatollah Khomeini, like this one made in 1942, long before political correctness addled our brains and corroded our collective spines in the West:
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 should 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 Prophet] 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.
And also this Ayatollah Khomeini quote from 1981:
The real Day of God is the day that Amir al mo’menin [Ali, Shi'ite Islam's first Imam] drew his sword and slaughtered all the khavarej [a group that rejected Ali's leadership] and killed them from the first to the last.
The Days of God are when Allah, the gracious, the almighty, causes an earthquake. It is when He slaps on the face. It is when he causes a hurricane. He whips this people to become humans.
If the Amir al mo’menin [the leaders of the believers, Ali] wanted to be tolerant, he would not have drawn his sword killing 700 people in one go.
In our prisons we have more of the same kind of people who are corrupt. If we do not kill them, each one of them that gets out, will become a murderer! They don’t become humans.
Why do you Mullahs only go after the ordinances of prayer and fasting? Why do you only read the Quranic verses of mercy and do not read the verses of killing?
Quran says; kill, imprison!
Why are you only clinging to the part that talks about mercy? Mercy is against God.
Mehrab [the prayer niche in a mosque, in front of which the imam stands to lead prayers] means the place of war, the place of fighting. Out of the mehrabs, wars should proceed, just as all the wars of Islam used to proceed out of the mehrabs.
The prophet has [had] sword to kill people.
Our [Holy] Imams were quite military men. All of them were warriors. They used to wield swords; they used to kill people. We need a Khalifa [caliph, leader] who would chop hands, cut throats, stone people. In the same way that the messenger of God used to chop hands, cut throats, and stone people. In the same way that he massacred the Jews of Bani Qurayza [a Jewish tribe of Medina, massacred by Muhammad] because they were a bunch of discontent[ed] people. If the Prophet used to order to burn a house or exterminate a tribe that was justice.
The lives of people must be secured through punishment. Because the protection of the masses lies beneath these very punitive executions. With just a few years of imprisonment things don’t get fixed. You must put aside these childish sentimentalisms. We believe that the accused essentially does not have to be tried. He or she must just be killed. Only their identity is to be established and then they should be killed.
And just as foreboding, his vision of how everyone on the planet should live:
Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.
But we have been so immersed in political correctness that it is viwewed as bigotry and racism to quote even the likes of Ayatollah Khomeini. This is straight from the horses' mouth, as is this quote from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number one in Al Qaeda:
We grin to the faces of some peoples, though our hearts curse them…. Protection is not accomplished with deeds but with the tongue…. [D]emonstrate friendship to the infidels with your tongues, while harbouring hostility towards them….The Prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, said, ‘War is deceit.’
And nothing exposed the Arab mindset more than the following:
"When the Al Qaeda leader did what he did [on 11/09/01], polls in the Arab region showed he had the support of 85% of the population" - Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, former dean of Islamic law, Qatar University, 22/07/04.
So, from the above, it is hardly a handful of extremists we are up against. It is the lions' share of a religion.
WashTimes: The author's witty, evocative phrasemaking — "hair-trigger moderate [Muslims]," "mash of civilizations," "far from realpolitik, this is dreampolitik," "in denial there is defeat" — elucidates an infantilized American (and Western) culture, further immobilized by the pervasive fanaticism of the new "secular religion" of multiculturalism, to the point where it appears incapable of identifying, let alone adequately defending against, the resurgence of jihadist Islam.
Multiculturalims’s new ‘secular religion’ is incapable of objectivity in assessing the confronting jihadi threats against our freedoms and civilization. The ‘infantalization’ of our Liberal-Far-Left intelligentia believing its ‘denials’ about the realpolitik threats, by substituting dreampolitik ideology, is as much a threat to our civilizational survival as jihad aggressions. Sharia does not distinguish between secularist infidels or non-moslem infidels, since for them all are to be dominated with the word of their ‘real-dreampolitik’ religious zealotry. How would the Left feel about losing its personal freedoms in the name of multicultural equality? Would they notice, or wait until it is too late. Off with their heads, “allah akbar!”… or forced into the social inequalities of dhimmi status… but then it’s too late, isn’t it?
Moral objectivism is lost in this foggy notion of dreampolitiks by the Left. By working hard to fit its equibalanced ideals of cultural relativism it is forced to sacrifice something, since the parts don’t fit. So they sacrificed our individual moral responsibilities, first by infantalizing fantasies for public consumption, which the consumers regrettably eagerly lap up. This has the deleterious effect of dilluting the populace’s ability of critical reason, which has the further downside of making the electorate lap up trivia in their vote selections. This was the devil’s bargain the Left made with objective truths, that our freedoms of individual choice, what makes us reasonable men and women, had been dilluted into driveling trivia, so no reasonable choices are possible, except at some low infantile Leftist dreampolitik level. Choice is erased in favor of fitting multiculturalism together, and individual choice is the casualty of this new secularist religion; same as freedom of choice had been eliminated for the Musulman since the early caliphs. (To forge together an unthinking obedient fighting force for their god, they took moral choice out of the Musulman’s responsibility and placed everything on their responsibility to strict obedience to allah, so nothing remains except fear of punishment in this life and the next. –those clever devils!) Of course, the islamists are licking their lips in anticipation of this booty, we appearing so ready to sacrifice ourselves, thinking that the Liberal Left represents what our western freedoms and culture is all about. But they’re wrong. They don’t represent us, nor what our civilization was built upon. Though they tried to dillute us to trivial public consumption, we are now more cautiously watching what our politicians and intelligentsia had allowed pass through our gates. Pages such as these, both in print and electronic media, are calling the alarm, that the devil’s bargain struck by the Left with sharia jihadis is unacceptable to our sensibilities, as reasoning men and women, because our personal freedoms are at risk. Moral relativism does not mesh well with moral objectivism, and our objective here is to expose the realpolitik of losing our freedoms to infantile denials of the dangers our society face. (Spencer covers this well elsewhere in ‘Islamic Jihad and Leftist Dreams’, as does Fitzgerald in ‘Work to Educate the Infidels’).
There is traction here, such as CAIR is beginning to fear Justice. ‘Political correctness’ is becoming a PC joke. Fat and happy Americans may be junk-food-fat, but they are not happy about what is going on. Politicians should begin distancing themselves from this PC silliness multiculturalism and begin to look out for their own skins at the polls. This new secular religion is losing adherents, but islamists haven’t yet caught on. The more they push their agenda with their quiet sharia jihad, the more they expose themselves. Their cells may be “sleepless in Seattle” but, John Doe lawsuits be damned, we are reporting them. The Liberal Left was a leisure enterprise for the good times (which really ended with the 1990s) but in the face of this growing jihadic aggression, we are not longer happy being duped. And if this is a newly developing trend, it should continue to the Left’s chagrin as they lose social and academic traction. It is not too late for the Left to change its tune, but to do so would mean they have to make a new bargain with the American public, and Europeans, that our egalitarian way of life, where each individual is equally free before the law, is once again an individual moral responsibility and not the socio-totalitarian responsibility of some sociological-mass-entity of government, or society, or sharia. We are free because we do not deny our personal responsibility in exchange for an infantalized social welfare state cuddling us from cradle to grave. Rather, we who are free take our responsibility from our own moral fiber, and not from the governments, nor some ambitious theocracy of world domination. Will the jihadists understand this, that they misunderstood their target for conquest? If not, then this is our chance. Let them think we are a populace defined by the whimpy Left, and then when they had pushed enough, start rounding them up. We’re even hearing this from secularist co-religionists like Derbyshire, in his review of Spencer’s “Religion of Peace?”:
“If what he has told us is true—and so far as the present state if Islam is concerned, I think it is—then the West should proscribe Islam, and the sooner the better. We should not allow Muslims into our countries, other than for necessary diplomatic or scholarly purposes.”
That already says a lot. Are moderates listening?
(Moslems) never invent anything, never learn anything. Mosques are plenty, churches are plenty, graveyards are plenty, but morals and whiskey are scarce.
--- Mark Twain observing Islam in Valley of Lebanon
Six years after the islamic savages attacked us in NYC and Washington, we're just now very slowly beginning to see the tide of muslim appeasement and islamic apologia, the almost timid and intimidated approach taken toward islam and muslims after 9-11, beginning to abate and even change direction. It is subtle and quiet, but consistent. How could this have taken so long? Why are there still so many deniers, apologists, appeasers, and useful idiots for islam, our own government and president among them? Every day I ponder in stunned disbelief the arrogance of hostile muslims in the West, and the servile fools who aid and abet them.
If 9-11 wasn't enough to inspire all Americans to learn the truth about muslims and islam, what will it take? I have never had any use for islam because its intrinsic evil was evident to me many years ago. I still cannot believe that instead of collectively damning this vile religion and the death and destruction it manifests, many Americans have bent over backwards to grovel at the feet of arrogant, hostile, predatory muslims while they tell us that we are to blame for being attacked, that we are obligated to accept every perverse, hostile islamic tenet in the name of religious freedom, that we must change our society and culture so they will feel "equal".
Every time I hear one of these incongruous, alien invaders denigrating America, our laws, and our foreign policy, demanding that muslims receive special treatment so they can practice their disgusting religion, I experience anger and indignation unlike I have ever felt. It is so intense it scares me.
I have been justifiably enraged at the presence of muslims and islam in America since 9-11. My rage has not abated, it has intensified. I passionately loathe islam and while I cannot loathe people I don't know, suffice it to say that I trust no muslim and consider all of them potential terrorists. Islam should have been proscribed in the West long ago; it's not too late.
To Susanp...I am the only one in my family and neighborhood who began studying the koran post 9/11, as well as increasing my Spanish abilities...the things I have learned from both are shocking. According to what I have learned, it is perfectly okay for Muslims to be abusive, first-degree murderers-in-waiting. Mexicans also treat each other and other Hispanics terribly, with many insults about someones' mother...and that does not begin to describe their disdain for Americans. They do not refer to us as "Americanos"..oh no..it's Gringo, Gavacho, Guero, those insulting and race-based names.
My older brother (43 yrs.) is in a "Kickball League"!!! Can you believe it? 40 year old men playing a 2nd grade game. In jest, I bough him a matching sweatsuit, headband, etc.(see "Dodgeball Movie"). While he and his friends are nice and succesfull, none of them know what death and suffering are, and have very poor memories of world history. America is in big, big trouble, as so many citizens have become infected with either the ghetto mentality, the victim mentality, or are just bd people born to hurt others...with exception to our brave cops, firemen, vets and pilots.
American life has become so easy, many people have never gone a whole day without water or food, or even been in a fistfight, and have no idea how to survive or deal with bullies...
to Susanp: -continued- I would strongly suggest you begin firearm and edged weapons training...slowly and methodically. Prepare yourself to face not one bearded muslim, but one bearded muslim and four or five of his friends. Or a screaming muslim woman with several of her friends. You will need a large capacity magazine, I promise.
Most of the people who post here are extremely bright and well-read...especially Mr. Spencer, Hugh Fitzgerald, Allafalunco, profitsbeard, KAOSKTRL, Allahu snackbar...the list goes on. Read their postings very carefully...the comments are Dennis Miller-esque and sometimes very humourous in their sarcasm...however...I would strongly advise them and yourself to first arm yourself before joining the fray...you never know who can hack your i.p. address or subvert your internet provider, etc. We are up against the Viet Cong, and you had better be smarter than their smartest guy. This includes me, as well.
Ms.West is onto something, however uncomplimentary it may be to us Americans. But, as our survival may well be on the line, it is best to dispense with civilities and get down to the nitty-gritty, which this lady has done superbly.
There is a grossly erroneous (and very dangerous) belief among American foreign policy-makers that performing favors for Muslims is somehow going to mollify Islamic practices used against them. I might add as well that this is a worldwide delusion (India for example shares our malady as well, with resulting and severe losses of life and property at the hands of jihadists).
Defending Kosovar and Bosnian Muslims, for instance, gets the US government nowhere in turning back the jihad war waged by the Islamosphere against America. Yet the US military continues to act as though this policy of defending Muslims in the Balkans will turn back the jihad tide against America (and of course it won't and neither will US efforts in Baghdad in securing a democratic government there).
The US State Department needs to be clued in. Desperately.
Somebody get Bush, Rummy or some of their peers to read this book ASAP!!!