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What of those billboards, and this conference?
As for the billboards, only one thing will work. Not appeals to common sense, intelligence, morality, the truth. Not stuff like that. If the company that owns the billboard believes it will suffer, not necessarily through its billboard rental business, but in other ways, in other businesses it may own, it may begin to change its behavior. It would also help if at the same time it calculates that its losses will outweigh any "gain" from not offending Muslims and Arabs, including those with that oil wealth successive American governments have not done a thing to diminish. (Pleading as Bush did for lower prices merely causes them to believe that we believe that they hold all the cards, when of course if things were understood aright, it is we who hold them, beginning with the ability to make oil just as expensive, through taxation, as we wish, and thereby to diminish demand, and ending with their complete reliance on the Western world for medical care, education, advanced technology, weaponry, the defense of their assorted "royal" families, and so on.)
Make the owner aware that there will be consequences. Economic consequences, severe ones.
And as for the conference, the phrase "war on terror" is terrible, but the phrase "Islamist terrorism" also presents problems. For it reinforces the idea that it is only "violent Jihad," Jihad conducted through terrorism (which is seen by many Muslims not as "terrorism" at all, but as "qitaal" or combat), that matters.
Would it not be better, be more effective, to speak about "Jihad And Its Instruments"? And a mild-mannered clark-kentish title like that could hardly be turned away. One wants to force into what is sometimes called the public "debate" or "discussion" -- or that phrase favored by those earnest NPR talk-show hosts, the "conversation" or, still worse, the "national conversation" -- such words as "Hadith" and "Sira." One would thereby have a chance to make clear that the Qur'an is not the only thing to worry about, for the components of the Sunnah are just as influential, and possibly even more disturbing, than the Qur'an itself (which is disturbing enough). And one wants the word "dhimmi" to be used, repeatedly, by all those who discuss Islam, because the word itself raises the issue of Muslim treatment of non-Muslims under the Holy Law of Islam (the Shari'a) and that must not be lost sight of even for one moment.
The attempt must be made to force the right language, the language of the truth, rather than the language of lies and nonsense, to win the field. It can be done.
Meanwhile, the Arabs and Muslims work, constantly, full-time, without cease, to make sure that their phrases, their language, distorts reality. In some cases, they appear to have won, but that victory can be, and is being, undone. Take the phrase "Palestinian people," invented in the 1960s. The word "Palestinians" and the invention of the "Palestinian people" was a deliberate construct. It did not begin right away. It was not the term used, ever since there were Arabs in what Western Christendom called "Palestine." The local Arabs never used the phrase until after the defeat in the Six-Day War. And then, having jettisoned Shukairy a few years before, the Arabs collectively decided, with a little help from public-relations advisers in the West, to thoroughly redo their presentation. Yet this isn't a permanent victory; it can be reversed.
Take the word "Jihad" and the attempt -- by now almost abandoned because it invited ridicule and made non-Muslims much more wary -- to convince us that the main meaning of "Jihad" is this "inner spiritual struggle" we hear so much about, and see so little evidence of.
The next conference should not be about "Terrorism," “Islamist” or otherwise. Instead, it should be all about the "instruments of Jihad." And those instruments include, but are not limited to, terrorism. Subjects of talks should include, but not be limited to, these: “The Money Weapon, and How To Diminish It.” “Campaigns of Da'wa In The West, And How To Counter Them.” “Demographic Conquest by Muslims, and How To Halt, and Even Reverse It.”
Give the conference in New York.
Give a European version of the same conference in London, or Brussels, or Paris.
Don't stop.
Posted by Hugh at January 18, 2008 6:38 PM
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This issue is at the heart of the contra-Islam crusade. If indeed ClearChannel owns the billboard, as Matamoros suggests in a post to a previous article, they must have some regard to their commercial position. ClearChannel is a substantial enterprise with affiliations across a number of countries. Any such organization is vulnerable to political, legal or economic pressure not least from the deep pockets of the Islamic, particularly Arabic, world. We have seen the Law applied against the authors of “Alms for Jihad”, against Mark Steyn and against the editor of the Western Standard. We have seen vast infusions of cash into the Universities (chairs of Islamic studies) and into innumerable mosques and madrasses. We have seen Governments introducing legislation restricting freedom of expression and, however inadvertently, promoting Sharia law. The United Nations (a non sequitur if I ever saw one) gets in on the act with its ludicrous racism conferences (only Israel gets a mention) and portentous rights declarations. The response by the local ClearChannel manager is absolutely the best we can hope for. Sending a couple of hundred emails to the ClearChannel management will achieve precisely nothing.
The crusade will ultimately be fought in the streets of the suburbs and cities of the West. Not in the manner of the BNP or Storm Front but by citizens getting out and raising these issues with their friends, neighbours and colleagues. I have prepared a flyer to assist with this. I quote from one section
What Can You Do?
Inform yourself. Read what Muslims are saying. Become Active.
Defend Australian and Western values of fairness, equality, freedom
of speech and freedom of conscience. Write to your state and federal
MPs. Attend public meetings promoting Islam and ask difficult
questions. Read well researched western literature on Islam. A
suitable text is “The Truth about Muhammad” Robert Spencer
Regnery Publishing 2006.
We will ultimately have to leave the security of our Internet dialogues and confront Islam in our communities. This is an existential war for the future of Western civilisation. We have suffered many reverses. I don’t know how it will end but I intend to fight to the bitter end. If the ship is sinking them I am going down with it.
Posted by: metalstorm![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 18, 2008 8:17 PM
You are not alone Metalstorm. My father put it all on the line in WWII, and my son may someday be pulled into this fight; but I'll be going with him - come hell or high water.
Patrick Henry speaks for me and for millions of Americans who are ready to sacrifice for their God-given liberty:
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Posted by: Storm-Rider at January 18, 2008 9:09 PM
Ever see this commercial for the Bank of Scotland?
Earlier today, my spouse compared the online anti-jihad web to that commercial, pointing out the painfully obvious lack of progress our government has made since 9/11.
Progress takes time. . .at the expense of frustration.
"We will ultimately have to leave the security of our Internet dialogues and confront Islam in our communities"
Exactly. Share copies of Spencer's books, each complete with a conveniently enclosed bookmark which provides links to both these sites. Print up some flyers [pdf] for your grocers bulletin (courtesy of http://www.co-jet.org/">co-jet)
No Jihad
No Sharia
No Dhimmitude
at January 18, 2008 9:51 PM
"The attempt must be made to force the right language, the language of the truth, rather than the language of lies and nonsense, to win the field. It can be
done."
I agree with this statement. One choice of words that I think is politically motivated and obscures the truth is when the Ulema motivates some member of the umma to murder people while committing suicide. They call those schmucks "martyrs", our press calls them suicide bombers, but the most truthful term for them would be to call them suicide murderers.
The term bomber gives them some sort of cache as if they were a walking B29. They are suicides, and they are murderers, wether they use explosives or are like those turds that invaded some homes and slit the throats of women and children.
I always refer to suicide/murderers as such, and refuse to term them suicide bombers, as if the loss of them is more important then the loss of those they murdered.
Posted by: stickman at January 19, 2008 12:57 AM
Reiterating the last post, to point out the political nature of the terming of Mahomatan suicide murderers as suicide bombers. If we were consistent in such use of the terms we would have referred to the columbine murderers as suicide shooters instead of suicide murderers.
Posted by: stickman at January 19, 2008 1:01 AM
A conference on "Instruments of Jihad" is very urgently needed. My college-student niece was arguing with me that Islam was indeed a peaceful religion because a friend who was a gentle, polite Muslim told her so. That was apparently enough evidence to formulate a position.
Further discussion revealed she didn't know the meaning of; Sharia, Dhimmi, Abrogation, and Hadith. She wasn't aware that Muhammad participated in caravan raids, battle massacres, sexual deviancy, and advocated beating disobedient wives. She didn't know Muslims considered Muhammad's behavior the perfect example for mankind for all time. She had never actually READ the Qur'an.
Yet, she was sufficiently confident to argue that Islam meant "Peace". Are we doomed, or what?
Posted by: Xero G at January 19, 2008 1:07 AM
Public opinion won't change until bodies are stacked up like cord wood from a Jihadist attack.
Other than that most people just want to believe 'everyone is just like us'. The alternative is just too terrifying to imagine for most. They can't conceive of a religion that thrives on violence and oppression and has a divine mandate to spread its brutal ways through out the world.
The only thing we can is be ready to help inform others when they are ready to listen.
Posted by: waltc at January 19, 2008 3:08 AM
MetalStorm
Not in the manner of the BNP - What do you mean by this?
The BNP are the only party in the UK who are - and have been for at least 30 years - warning about the evil of Islam. Its leader Nick Griffin faced trial - TWICE - from the dhimmi government for speaking the truth about the Islamic death cult. And you say "not in the manner of the BNP"?
Those who are prepared to stand up and be counted and face loss of liberty are precisely those who we should be supporting, and not those who protest without risk.
The BNP are Britain's fastest growing political party and have the #1 visited political website in the UK - despite the unfair smears, lies and bad publicity from the marxist media and our corrupt politicians.
When it comes to fighting Islam in the UK, I will stand firmly and squarely with Nick Griffin and the BNP and not alongside those misinformed people who knock the only realistic hope the British people have in combatting the jihadists.
And I will be proud to stand with them and I urge every Brit to check out what the BNP are saying and doing and make up their own minds.
Posted by: Lionheart at January 19, 2008 6:18 AM
"Take the word 'Jihad' and the attempt -- by now almost abandoned because it invited ridicule and made non-Muslims much more wary -- to convince us that the main meaning of "Jihad" is this "inner spiritual struggle" we hear so much about, and see so little evidence of."
Mmm, I didn't know that Muslims, and for that matter non-Muslims, need to show evidence of their inner spiritual struggle. I think that's kind of personal, don't you?
It seems to me that we have come to a point in our society where we must always justify our most deep, personal and spiritual thoughts to strangers.
http://13martyrs.blogspot.com/
Posted by: 13 Martyrs at January 19, 2008 9:24 AM
"I always refer to suicide/murderers as such, and refuse to term them suicide bombers, as if the loss of them is more important then the loss of those they murdered."
Stickman,
I like that phrase, "suicide/murderers". I'll use it, myself, if you have no objection.
Posted by: Abscedere at January 19, 2008 11:37 AM
A point of order, Mr. Chairman.
There has been recent news in the blogosphere about blogger Lionheart who may be arrested some day soon for hate crime violations in the U.K regarding anti-jihadist statements on his blog. I conducted an interview with him just this week. His interview is at my blog.
http://www.usorthemonline.com/wordpress/?p=103#comments
The very purpose of this interview was to make clear exactly what blogger Lionheart's position was regarding the BNP.
Blogger Lionheart makes it quite clear that he does NOT support the traditional BNP and rejects the beliefs of Nick Griffin. He does support the efforts of modernizers within the BNP to reject the traditionalist views.
We seem to have an unintentional duplicity of ID's in the blogosphere and some may believe that the above Lionheart and the blogger Lionheart in the news are the same. They are not.
I am assured by blogger Lionheart that the post above is not his. He may come here to JW to clarify that himself, but until then, please be advised of the confusing identities.
Blogger Lionheart's disclaimer on this can be found here:
http://lionheartuk.blogspot.com/
Posted by: USorThem at January 19, 2008 2:48 PM
A billboard of Nick Berg, kneeling before his terrorist captors, and the words:
__________________________________________________
THE GLOBAL JIHAD- it touches us all.
LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT IT.
.........BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.
__________________________________________________
And then the date and place of the venue below.
Posted by: profitsbeard at January 20, 2008 12:18 AM
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