At Jihad Watch you are not going to see anything like the great quantities of Election Blah that is currently being slathered all over other websites. We are not going to endorse any candidate, and we have already pointed out how no candidate has demonstrated a full awareness of the jihad threat -- which is not to say that some aren't closer to that awareness than others are.
But the main reason why this site will not be given over to the general election obsession is because elections come and go, politicians come and go, and the jihad remains. Americans have grown accustomed to thinking in news cycles, and right now the jihad is far out of the news cycle: there has not been a large-scale terror attack in the U.S. for over seven years, things are looking up in Iraq, and since the mainstream media has given so little attention to the stealthy attempts to compel Americans, bit by bit, to accommodate Sharia, polls show that fewer Americans today believe that terrorism is a threat than at any time since before 9/11. When Russia attacked Georgia, the relief among the pundits and learned analysts was palpable: they could snap back to Cold War mode, and stop tying themselves into knots trying to explain how Islam is a Religion of Peace but we have to fight against Islamic terrorists. Islamic terrorism is yesterday's news -- file it all away and dust off the rapacious bear cartoons. As far as jihad goes, the strife is o'er, the battle done, the problem solved. And so now America is consumed with more important things.
This site, however, even if five people are reading it, is going to continue to bear witness to the fact that the monomaniacal attention on the election, and dismissal of the jihad, is short-sighted. The global jihad has been going on for 1400 years, and it will continue after November 4, 2008. Jihad violence is continuing today in many parts of the world, and the present calm in the West is tactical. I'm going to continue to try to raise awareness of these facts, because the more people who are aware, and alert, the more people will be able to resist.
This is not to say that we will not be posting any election-related material -- in fact, I am going to post some momentarily. But it will not become our primary focus, which will remain on even more important matters.
Thank you for doing this website. Until I started reading sites likes yours, I had no idea what the real message of Islam is.
Many years ago, while I was still in school, I met and became friendly with several foreign students from Muslim countries. They were quite normal by American standards: intelligent; reasonably friendly; serious people, who wanted a good education. While they tended to be socialist to various degrees, they weren't all that different from many Democrats. Just about all of them were reluctant to go home. Several of them even ended up staying in the U.S. after getting a degree.
I now realize that my friends were fleeing more than just bad governments or poor economic policies. Since my friends weren't particularly religious, I had no reason to assume that Islam wasn't any worse than say 17th century Western religion, which had wars between Protestants and Catholics over religion.
Thank you for continuing to focus on Jihad, which is fundamental to Islam, regardless of whether Muslims practice it or not. I still would have befriended my old Muslim friends, but now I no longer regard all Muslims with the same tolerance I did my old friends. I'm now aware that many Muslims are just waiting for the opportunity to impose Sharia on us.
Good stuff Robert. If it ever came to that, and of course we all hope it won't, I will be one of the five.
Very wise.
Me too on the five.
And thank you so much for all the brilliant work. It is necessary. It is also a pleasure.
Robert
I fully endorse your decision not to endorse either McCain or Obama, given that they are virtually indistinguishable on their stances on Islam. However, here is a suggestion:
Of all the senate races that will take place this year, I suggest picking all the races where there actually are differences between the candidates on Islam. Again, knowing that JW is a 501c(3) org, I don't want you to run afoul of the law re: activities that could threaten your tax exempt status, but simply pointing out candidates who do sound the right notes on Islam would be useful in the cases where such differences are noted. Also, note that these won't always be GOP by default: for instance, Debbie Schlussel, who is a card carrying Republican and one time GOP candidate, has proclaimed voting for (D) candidates when the (R) candidates happened to have links with Hizbullah. Such info would be very useful here as well on a national basis. (Also, while I'm not suggesting that you endorse anybody, if you ended up endorsing both (D) and (R) candidates, would you be running afoul of the law?)
And while you do this on the Senate (and hopefully, a few House races like Sue Myrick, Praveen Kumar), it would also be useful if you were to name names of candidates who should be pulled down this November, be they John Dingell or Darryl Issa, just to pick 2 examples from both parties. In other words, let's make sure that wherever we can, we reward the anti-Islamists running for office, and punish the Dhimmis, from either party. That would be well expended efforts.
Also, given the dismal choices for President, I also suggest suggesting that those who absolutely refuse to vote for either McCain or Obama pull their levers for the Loyalist party: that way, those who do want to send a message rather than merely vote for the lesser of the 2 evils don't have to abstain or do other meaningless acts with their vote.
http://www.loyalistparty.com/
Just my $0.02
Infidel Pride,
After scanning the Loyalist Party website, I have to say they look pretty good. I take it Vito Vacarro is their horse in the November race?
"When Russia attacked Georgia, the relief among the pundits and learned analysts was palpable: they could snap back to Cold War mode, and stop tying themselves into knots trying to explain how Islam is a Religion of Peace but we have to fight against Islamic terrorists."
I noticed that right away, too. Thanks for stating this sad phenomenon so clearly.
Someone (our next president) needs to convince the paranoid Putin that Islam is a far greater existential threat to Russian culture and identity than any Western influence could ever be. Islam, via the classic doctrine of jahiliya, intends to supplant Russian identity with Arab identity, exterminate all competing centers of power in society, and to completely expunge Russian history from the memory of its people. That realization might be the beginning of turning Russia back from its current plunge into isolation and totalitarian despotism.
We in the West could start by admitting we fought on the wrong side in the Balkans and thereby helped create the monstrosity of Kosovo--a new base for the Grand Jihad against humanity, which threatens not only Russia, but all of Europe and Western civilization, including the USA. Next, we could withdraw our support of Turkey's entering into the EU--another Islamic dagger pointed at civilization. Finally, we need to admit we made a huge mistake in fueling the Taliban against Russian forces in Afghanistan.
Somehow, we need to recruit Russia as a partner in the anti-Jihad. Otherwise, we will not be able to effectively quarantine the Islamic world, something that desperately needs to be done. If we don't turn Russia around, we will not be able to keep lethal technology, including both offensive mass destruction weaponry and defensive missilery, away from the Mohammedan apocalyptos.
Abscedere
I couldn't make out whether Vito is just a NY candidate for some office in NY, or the national party candidate for president. I sure hope it's the latter.
And I'd put Witness on the ticket - with him if he is, and on top if he isn't. ;-)
While it is certainly true that the global jihad will continue no matter who gets elected, it should not be imagined that those who cherish their rights do not have a dog in this fight. As this correspondent noted in June, the upcoming "Durban II" conference in Geneva and the installment of Barack Obama and a lopsidedly Democratic Congress could create a "perfect storm" of conditions for repression of the Counterjihad through "hate speech" legislation. See
http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/dine-and-obama-perfect-storm.html
for relevant quotes from Obama and UN Special Rapporteur "on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance" Doudou Diène.
?At Jihad Watch you are not going to see anything like the great quantities of Election Blah that is currently being slathered all over other websites."
THANK YOU. I am so sick of this election already. (Or rather, I've been sick of it since last year!)
And yeah, the jihad will still be there. Some things never change.
Mr Spencer,
Although you say that you are not endorsing a candidate, you have in fact chosen to behave as an auxiliary arm of the McCain campaign. It's all well and good to attack Obama's "evil dictators" policy, as McCain has. But in my opinion, you've been uncharacteristically soft-spoken in criticizing McCain's pathetic energy policy, which will benefit only U.S. oil companies and Sa'udi madrassas.
Instead of bringing to the US more Muslim Terrorists from Iraq under some immigration program, let's bring in the Christians from Iraq who are waiting to be massacred as soon the US gets out of Iraq. The Christians in Iraq who are pro American have been very helpful to the American troops in Iraq. All sides, Sunni, Shiia and Kurds are waiting for the US to get out of Iraq. They will massacre the Christians like they did in 1930s, 1940s and 1970s. Christians in Iraq are like the sheep waiting to be slaughtered.
It is very ironic that Obama picked Biden as his running mate. Bidon credits himself with the Clinton-Kosovo war in 1998-99. During the Kosovo war the US troops were fighting side by side with Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda troops who were brought in from all over Middle East and Africa to fight a Jihad war against the Christians of Kosovo - we were paying, feeding, supporting and supplying Al Qaeda with weapons and ammunitions. The Kosovo war pissed off the helpless Russians then and contributed to the return of the Evil Empire of Russia. Russia recently punished the Americans and the West by devastating the Republic of Georgia as a revenge for the Kosovo War - Thanks to Senator Biden's contribution to history - Russia will only get stronger, angrier and more evil instead of the friendly path Russia was heading towards.